The Jingoistic Dilemna
Christopher Bird, cold and lonely in Canada. .

It's tough being a comics fan in Canada.

Never mind the cold. Never mind the near-universal lack of decent conventions. Never mind that despite the fact that tons of comic books are printed in Quebec, that they still get shipped down to distribution centers in the United States and then back up to the shops here, thus doubling the cost for no worthwhile reason. Never mind that said doubled cost is even higher because of the lousy Canada-America exchange rate. (Lousy for us, anyway.)

No, the worst thing about being a comics fan in Canada is the lack of Comics Gods up in the frozen north.

There are a lot of talented younger guys. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Greg Hyland, the demonically cynical creator of Lethargic Lad. There's also several other decent indie comics creators in the woodwork - the fellows who do "Xeno's Arrow", the people who do "Galaxion" - all turning out decent stuff regularly. As for major-league Big Super Hero Comic Creators Who Have Made A Name For Themselves, we've got a few of those too: Stuart Immonen and Stephen Platt are the biggest names I can think of offhand.

But still - when it comes to legends, the Big Names, we're lacking. Immonen and Platt are okay in terms of fame, but do they really compare to George Perez or Jim Lee? Not really (and even in artistic merit, the Canucks are running a slight deficit here). I've heard people try to claim John Byrne and Todd McFarlane, but let's be honest - they're Americans now, they haven't lived in-country for decades, and besides, anybody who buys baseballs for millions of bucks a pop is lacking fundamental Canadian-ness. (If McFarlane was still essentially a Canuck, he would have bought those baseballs under the table so he wouldn't have to pay the sales taxes on them.)

And it's all the more glaring when you consider Canada's position as a nation - tied down right between America and England. Sure, Holland or Sweden might not be producing a lot of comics legends either, but they aren't nearly as heavily intertwined as we are with the Queen and the former colony. Canadians watch lots of American TV, and British TV, and read American magazines and British books and play American games and drink stronger beer than either of them. We can't side with either against the other in those occasional cultural wars some people of each nation partake in, because we like both of you, even if you are both a bit strange. And also because we don't want you noticing how many donut shops we have.

Consider the names America has pumped out. The innovators like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams ... I could go on listing names for ages. Meanwhile, across the water, you've got practically every great writer of the past fifteen years: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis.

And this is the most galling point to make of them all: Canada does have *one* Big Name. We've got one guy who can stand with all of these guys, in terms of both artistic vision and personal fame - or, in this case, infamy.

Dave Sim.

And that is precisely why this is so galling to admit that Dave Sim is Canada's biggest contribution to comics culture. Yes, CEREBUS ranks with the best comic achievements of all time - the only actual epic work that the medium has really produced (with the possible exception of "Akira", and even that pales in comparison to the scope of CEREBUS). Yes, it's wonderfully realized, and yes, it's brilliantly written, and yes, the art is personal and eclectic and wonderful.

However, all of this at best only just makes up for the crap Dave Sim puts in every issue *after* the story. His misogynistic ranting essays have became deservedly mocked throughout fandom. Yes, perhaps Dave Sim's well-known personal problems with women through his life can help one understand this view, but it certainly can't be forgiven. And it's all the weirder when you consider how superb his characterizations of women in CEREBUS are - Jaka and Astoria and Cirin and all the other female characters in CEREBUS rank among some of the finest female characters ever written in comics.

In the end, Dave Sim, out of all the great comics legends, is perhaps the most quixotic - the most schizophrenic - the most confusing and dually split.

And in that instant, I realize he is truly Canadian.

Christopher Bird, February 2000.

Christopher Bird enjoys driving his enemies before him and hearing the lamentations of their women, but he's always very polite about doing that.

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