Dante I Didn't Tell You...
Cerebus: Women
Issues 163-174
October 1992-September 1993
247 pages
Mothers &
Daughters: Flight is a book working its
way through a thought to some conclusion. Mothers
& Daughters: Women possesses the same feeling. While in his
introduction Dave Sim states “Structurally, each of the four books in the series say the same thing, but they say it in very different ways,” a different
emphasis (even though maybe part of the same larger argument exerted in Mothers & Daughters) on creator’s
rights emerged with this volume.
A sequence of four images of parody in Women formed the axis around which the Book 8 coalesced. Parody lurked consistently in Cerebus from the beginning, but in Women it becomes a force exerting
influence for the existence of the world.
In these four scenes beginning on page 224, a particularly
tense situation involving Cerebus, Astoria, Cirin, and the ascension (a chance
for mortals to talk to the god/goddess or even to achieve a sort of apotheosis).
The Roach, under the guise of Swoon, lord of the dreams and
imagination and a caricature of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman begins shaking and
shifting. On the following page chains, claws, ammunition belts, spikes, and
giant shoulder pads emerge amidst very unpoetic onomatopoeia. The following two
pages are each entirely filled character names, all followed with the trademark
TM and beginning with “Total Sellthough RoachTM.”
The commentary on Image, Valiant, Vertigo, Marvel, DC, and
other highly promoted and ExtremeTM characters and comics companies has the
subtlety and humor of watching someone else get hit in the crotch. The TM
symbol tags these characters. The unleashing of these large muscled power-chord
characters hold the threat of collapsing the world on which Vanaheim and Iest
rest. Some creations from the
imagination could destroy a whole world unless the Swoon Roach is able to
contain them in his robes.
What the hell is going on here?
Something with creator rights, and maybe even creator
responsibility.
When working on his Divine
Comedy (three poems describing a Inferno,
Purgatorio, and Paradiso), the 14th century Florentine poet Dante Alighieri worried on the role of the artist with regards to a reader’s
understanding. Dante in particular was
worried about someone reading his poem and misunderstanding the ideas and could
wander astray. In Canto V of the Inferno Dante-pilgrim learns how a book
of Arthurian romances pushed Paolo and Francesca into Hell:
character’s travels to salvation through
hell, purgatory, and heaven in the works
Trembling kissed my lips.
That author and his book played the part
of Gallehault. We read no more that day.
-Mary Jo
Bang’s translation
So, is the reader responsible for not having honed the
necessary reading skills to understand the author’s intent?
Or, is the poet responsible for not making the ideas clear
enough for the readers to understand?
While Cerebus: Book 8
doesn’t address these same questions, it does work with a question closely
related to the ones puzzled over by Dante. Should creators maintain the rights
and control over their creations? The answer provided for a creator’s
responsibility to a reader’s understanding influences the answer to the rights
of control.
Letting control of a creation escape the artist’s mastery
carries a dark destructive stigma on these pages of Women. Management of a creative property by an organization that
focuses on profit and mass appeal damns one as surely as reading Arthurian
romances lead the Italian lovers to their hellish situation. This loss of
control carries with it the concerns that originality and creativity and
potential of the character will erode the original idea into a shallow parody
of its original potential. Greater ethical concerns arise as well if creators
hold a responsibility for the effect of their creations. Setting the work loose
to wander like Frankenstein’s monster carries with it deadly consequences.
How much control should a creator retain over her or his
character creations?
Are corporations better stewards of creative properties and
better able to expand and explore the full range and potential of the
character, or is the single creator better able to realize their story lines
with their greater resources and financial advantages than a single creator
ever could?
Is a creator still responsible for what becomes of a
character after others hold the legal rights?
What is the relation between a creation and the creator’s
need for money?
Who knows?
Swoon Roach knows.
With the meditation of the Swoon Roach and the slowly stated
“must contain them all. c a l m,” Cerebus: Women, posits that creations
fare better with creators than corporations. Swoon Roach subsumes the creations bursting
forth into his chest, literally keeping them close to his heart, and maintains
peace.
While not directly answering the question with which Dante struggled,
Cerebus: Women hints that, for better
and worse, the actions and ideas occurring in the pages of Cerebus emerged from Dave Sim, not editors, distributors, or secret
cabals of all-powerful fanboys.
The creator cares for and stays with his creation. And, love
or hate what the creator does, there is some nobility and admiration, calmness, truth and love that occurs in such a choice.
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