The Other 1% are Werewolves, I guess

There are essentially three threads running through this book.  Thread number one is the fight between Cirin and Cerebus.  Thread number two is about a comic book artist selling out.  Thread number three is a philosophic/stream of consciousness piece on the nature of creativity and gender.

The author assures us that all the threads form a tapestry that has, in fact, been present through the Cerebus story line all along.

Most of the time I find it kind of distracting when artists talk about their underlying beliefs and their process.  It muddles things for me.  I start trying to figure out "if that's what they meant to say" versus "what I originally saw when I read it".  Annoying.  The interpretation I get is what I get.  When someone starts telling me what to get or suggesting what I should get then it distorts things for me.  I find this to be true even when I "don't get it'.

So yeah, don't tell me what to think about your work.  It's your work - let it stand on it's own merit.

But I don't know that I'd ever seen this level of "here's what I'm about" coming from an author.  It actually helped me understand the storyline better.  Well, okay, not the story line - more like the ideas behind the story line... power, feminism, satire, selling out... etc.

The fact that the author says that 99% of women are psychic vampires that exist only to suck the creativity out of men doesn't really bother me.  I don't agree with him but it's his opinion and I can see how it has shaped his work - in fact knowing this helps me to understand his work (which again, for me is kind of a rarity).

So as to not let the 99% vampire remark stand without a logical refutation, I think most people (men and women alike) are terrified of being creative.  Surely there are many people (men and women) who have had their artistic impulses/output broken by significant others.  Surely there are just as many who have had their artistic lives ruined because they tried to be what society wants them to be.  Surely there are many, many more who never got a chance to find their artistic impulse because their life was one of destitute poverty.

I think the book (and all the Cerebus books, for that matter) is worth reading.  It's a rich world full of stuff that makes you think... and that's what art is for, right?