Jaka's Story (Cerebus, Volume 5)

Two stories play out simultaneously. The first is written in chunks of prose with single illustrations, similar to a children's book. But the text is not childish at all --- it's Oscar Wilde's fanciful description of Jaka's life. Dave Sim put a lot of effort into recreating Wilde's style, which is admirable but difficult to wade through. The illustrations are beautiful, but the text is so overwritten, you can skip to every fifth sentence and still get the meaning. (There are at least two pages devoted to holding a doorknob and preparing to open it. Reading those pages will put you to sleep fast.)

The other story is presented in the standard comic book style, with cartoons and word balloons. Dave Sim's right-hand man, Gerhard, drew the backgrounds. He's a brilliant illustrator who combines the accuracy of a photograph with the simple effect of an animation cel. Some of the exteriors of buildings, mountain roads, and front porches are better than Sim's cartoon people. This part of the story moves along slowly but deliberately, letting you get to know the characters and their daily routine. Then, about halfway in, something happens that changes the pace and tone. I won't spoil it for you, but the second part refers to the first, putting it under a microscope. The tone shifts from the dull ache of ordinary life to real danger. It's an impressive bit of storytelling, flipping the mood upside down without losing the plot.

It's not easy to recommend this graphic novel to non-comic-book readers, simply because Dave Sim has hobbled his good ideas by setting the story in a fake post-Medieval world with a talking aardvark as the main character. Cerebus will distract non-comic-book readers. On the one hand, you have a story about real people and their relationships. On the other hand, there's an aardvark in love with Jaka and no one acts like that's weird or out of place. If you treat it like a joke, that undermines the seriousness of the story. Sim tries to have it both ways, but it doesn't work.

Comic book readers, on the other hand, will see Jaka's Story as a step up from the traditional superhero and fantasy stuff. Yes, it has a talking aardvark, but at least there are no supervillains of evil wizards. If you're going to get into Cerebus and you want to start with the early books, try Jaka's Story. Then go back and read High Society and the Church & State volumes.

...isn't it?

And yet so many words can be applied to it. Let me see... Emotionally rich? Sounds like potting soil... Touching? Not quite... Genius? Too weak...

For "just a comic book," this is an absolutely breathtaking piece of literature. To call it a treasure would be like calling winter in Antarctica "a little chilly." This is a book absolutely overflowing with all the things that make a book really worth reading: fascinating characters, lyrical prose, a setting as detailed as any reasonably possible (and interesting to boot: it's several miles above ground level). Best of all, it's a *comic book.* There are some things you just can't say with words. You need an entire page filled with frame after frame of a shadowed shape just barely recognizable as a prison door before you can get the full effect of a broken voice choking out a lullaby from its roach-infested depths.

On a more technical note, the literary references to Oscar Wilde are enjoyable and, as far as a dedicated fan of Wilde's work can tell, accurate. Pud Withers alone is a reason to read the book: a character worthy of a place among Literature's most introspective and developed characters. His constantly rephrased fantasy conversations are a fascinating study of how innocent desires evolve into violent lust.

As for Cerebus, his most important role in the book is playing a game of toss-the-ball-into-the-waste-bucket. The rest of the time he spends pretending to be asleep or gone completely "fetching paint for Oscar." This neither makes the book better nor worse. Cerebus's absence has no effect on the quality, but his presence would not have effected it either. Though he is the main character of the series, this IS Jaka's Story.