In this corner we have Dave Sim, embittered and perpetually cranky Cerebus creator who nevertheless “has an unshakeable grasp on reality.” And in this corner, we have Fantagraphics and Comics Journal publisher Gary Groth, who faces Sim’s wrath when the latter attempts to get a snippet of a Jeff Smith interview from the former. Witness a battle so big that it could not possibly be contained in one post!
Will it be continued? Oh yes, it will be.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:52 am
Wow. Just wow. I’ve never really followed a lot of the Gary Groth controversies (with th exception of the recent Groth v Ellison decisions), but his remarks to Dave Sim seem spot on.
To quote the bard, “That boy ain’t right.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:56 am
A couple of weeks ago a woman in an SUV barreled through a clearly posted crosswalk and almost took out me, my wife and my two small children. Then she gave me the finger.
I think that woman was Dave Sim.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Why do I have Pink Floyd songs running through my head as I read this?
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I hear Syd Barrett also had an unshakeable grasp on reality.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:10 pm
At least when he flipped out he just spent the rest of his days biking around Cambridge.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Why does Dave Sim seem oddly like the John Byrne of the indie scene, albeit more capable of eliciting empathy?
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I think Sim, as vicious, paranoid and loathsome as he comes across, is more clearly broken inside. Besides, he has a great artist rattling around in there, tangled up with all that bile.
Byrne just seems like a garden-variety douche bag, whose biggest claim to fame is a number of very fun, solid runs on other, more creative people’s superhero comics. At least Sim’s repellent attitudes are about fundamental questions of human nature, whereas Byrne seems to save his venom for people who call Superman “Supes”.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Byrne is fundamentally mediocre, while Sim is exceptional – the exception to any rule you want to come up with. He’s clearly not mentally well, but he’s also possibly the greatest genius the medium’s ever had.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Andrew Hickey, going to Blog@ to post the lines cut by Gary Groth from his Comic Journal interview.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:45 am
Byrne can actually draw, I don’t know what to call the “art” in Cerebus. And Byrne doesn’t use another person to draw all his backgrounds. Groth is right, Sim needs medical attention. I hope he gets it. As Bono always says “One brain can’t change the world, we need everybody’s brains, even the ones that don’t work so well.” Nuff said!