Cerebus the Aardvark

Cerebus, also called Cerebus the Aardvark, is a comic book series created by the Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim. It ran from December 1977 until March 2004 and reached 300 issues and about 6,000 pages. The title character is an anthropomorphic aardvark who takes on many roles over the years, among them barbarian, prime minister and pope. The series began as a parody of sword and sorcery comics, chiefly the Marvel version of Conan the Barbarian, and grew into a far more serious and ambitious work that took in politics, religion and gender. It is noted for formal experiment and for the quality of its artwork, especially after the background artist Gerhard joined with issue 65. From the High Society storyline onward it was organised into ten self-contained novels, collected in sixteen books nicknamed the phonebooks. Sim announced early that the series would end with the death of its title character.