CEREBUS THE AARDVARK 93
who is depicted in a style reminiscent of Groucho Marx in the fi lm Duck Soup. Another
of Sim’s recurring characters, the Cockroach, would often take on recognized superhero
personae, such as the Moon Roach (Marvel’s Moon Knight), Swoon (Vertigo Com-
ics’ Sandman), Wolverroach (Marvel’s Wolverine) and others. Other celebrities and
historical fi gures in Cerebus include F. Stop Kennedy (F. Scott Fitzgerald), the Th ree
Stooges as acolytes for Cerebus’s church late in the series, and Paul “Coff ee” Annan, a
character whose name refers both to Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the
United Nations, and Paul Coff ey, retired hall of fame National Hockey League player.
All 300 issues of Cerebus the Aardvark were published in comic book form, although
some issues were double issues. Cerebus played an important role in establishing the
direct market form of comic book distribution, where comics were distributed directly
to specialty shops instead of obtained for resale by comic shops after being purchased
new from newsstands and magazine racks. Cerebus, as an independent, black-and-white
comic book, was unsuited to mass-market newsstand distribution, but was of interest
to readers who were fans of mainstream comics. Sim republished the early issues of
Cerebus in collected form, fi rst with new and bonus content in the slim Swords of Cere-
bus volumes, and later in thick, squarebound trade paperbacks aff ectionately referred to
as phonebooks, some of which extend to several hundred compiled pages. Since 2004,
the full run of Cerebus has been compiled into 16 phonebook volumes.
Th e participation of collaborator artist Gerhard signifi ed an important artistic devel-
opment for the series. Prior to Gerhard’s artistic participation, Sim’s art often featured
characters contrasted against blank or otherwise rudimentary backgrounds. Gerhard’s
art added a lush, illustrative quality to Sim’s stories, infl uencing Sim artistically and
noticeably improving the series’ artistic reputation. Sim recognized Gerhard’s artis-
tic input by sharing both the legal rights to Cerebus the Aardvark and ownership of
Aardvark-Vanaheim. Sim has since bought back Gerhard’s half of these rights, and has
publicly stated that after his death, he intends to release Cerebus the Aardvark into the
public domain.
Cerebus has at times seen controversy. Th roughout the fi rst half of the series, Sim
positions Cerebus against the Cirinists, a fascist group of women focused on the vir-
tues of matriarchy. At the beginning of his “Mothers & Daughters” storyline, it was
implied that Cerebus and the Cirinists would come to some extended, dramatic con-
fl ict. Instead, Sim took the book in an unusual and experimental direction, including
an extended period, collected in the volume Reads, in which the Cerebus comic book
switched to a primarily text format. Many of the readers who had become fans of the
series during its peak in circulation lost interest in the book, as they were unable to con-
nect the semi-autobiographical content to the preceding comics’ fantasy narrative. After
“Mothers & Daughters,” Sim focused more heavily on themes of religion and the role
of women in society. By the publication of Cerebus #265 in 2001, Sim was involved in
several controversies regarding his opinions about women, centering around his rejec-
tion of feminism. Some readers thought then, and continue to think, that Sim espouses
misogyny. However, rightly or wrongly, Sim is careful to reject such accusations. Sim
