Pope of the People.

“‘Even them, everyone,’ the pope answered, according to Vatican Radio. ‘We all have the duty to do good,’ he said. ‘Just do good and we’ll find a meeting point,’ the pope said in a hypothetical conversation in which someone told a priest: ‘But I don’t believe. I’m an atheist.'”

Stunning more than a few minds around the world — and breaking strongly from his predecessor — the recently inaugurated Pope Francis tells the faithful that atheists are saved as well, provided they do good works. (Agnostics too, I hope.)

I must say, I’ve been very impressed with Pope Francis so far. From ignoring pomp and circumstance and rejecting material comforts enjoyed by Pope Benedict XVI, to breaking with precedent to bless a guide dog, to washing the feet of a female Muslim prisoner on Maundy Thursday, to castigating “the cult of money” and emphasizing the need to address poverty, Pope Francis has — thus far — seemed closer in spirit to the Nuns on the Bus than the US Conference of Bishops, and a welcome throwback to the more progressive days of Rerum Novarum and Vatican 2.

Simply put, Cerebus and “God’s Rottweiler,” he’s not. Let’s hope it continues.

Beware the Melting Aardvark.

Via LMG, two bizarrer-than-most comic book creators get in the blog game: Dave Sim and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Crazed and Lost >

Two links of note courtesy of other fine blogs: LinkMachineGo points the way to online scans of Dave Sim’s Cerebus notebooks, and Fresh Hell discovers Lost reconceived as an Infocom game. I only caught the first episode, but perhaps the mystery creature is a lurking grue…?

Sim and Simulacra.

Two choice links courtesy of Tomb of Horrors: The Infocom Hitchhiker’s Guide game gets a 20th anniversary makeover, and a site emerges to preserve the correspondence between Dave Sim and Neil Gaiman.

Not your Father’s Funny Animals.

With Bone going the way of Cerebus this month, Salon paws over the legacy of the two comic series.

Earth-Pig Dead.

“One of the most ambitious literary projects of the last 25 years came to an end this March and you probably don’t even know its name: Cerebus. It’s a comic-book series about a talking aardvark, whose creator seems to have slowly gone insane somewhere over the course of its 6,000 pages. But it is also something of a masterpiece.” By way of LinkMachineGo (and something I missed when it was published last month), the Village Voice says goodbye to Cerebus. I read the last issue a few weeks ago and thought the series ended, as expected given Sim‘s preoccupations lately, with a colossal thud. Still, when Cerebus was good, it was really, really good. Congrats on 300.

300.

Via LinkMachineGo, Cerebus‘s Dave Sim and Gerhard talk more about the Earth-Pig’s end.

Hail and Farewell.

This link’s gone a bit stale in my bookmarks over the past two weeks, but still…Via LinkMachineGo and Neilalien, Dave Sim says farewell to the Earth-Pig Born.

Earth Pig Born…and Dying.

Via LinkMachineGo, a more sympathetic than most overview of Dave Sim’s Cerebus from start to finish. I’m glad somebody can tell me what the hell’s going on…I’ve been lost since Mothers and Daughters. I did read the last five or so issues in the store the other day and got a lot less out of ’em than Deeley here did. Still, it’s hard to believe issue #300 is finally right around the corner.

Fables and Reflections.

The Village Voice checks in with Neil Gaiman. “I remember once ranting [about the state of the comics industry] to Dave Sim, who did Cerebus, and he said, ‘So what are you doing about it?'” Well, Dave, to Gaiman‘s credit, at least he didn’t go flat-out bonkers.