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David Victor Sim (born 17 May 1956) is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, best known for his comic book ''Cerebus'', his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creator's rights, and his controversial political, philosophical and religious beliefs. Sim dropped out of high school to pursue a career in comics, and rose to prominence after he began ''Cerebus'' in December 1977. Initially, ''Cerebus'' was a parody of ''Conan the Barbarian'' and other sword and sorcery comics, but after two years Sim came to conceive of the series as a self-complete work, which would run for 300 issues and be subdivided into "novels". By the time the 6000-page work was completed in March 2004, Sim had delved into politics, theology, metaphysics, and a controversial examination of feminism and gender issues, while becoming progressively more sophisticated and experimental in his storytelling and artwork. Sim worked on ''Cerebus Archives'' after completing ''Cerebus'', and produced the comic books ''Glamourpuss'', which examines the history of photorealistic comics, and ''Judenhass'', about the Holocaust. Sim co-founded the small press publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim with his wife-to-be, Deni Loubert, in 1977; most of the titles it published moved to Loubert's Renegade Press after their divorce in the mid-1980s. The publishing company was later co-owned by Sim's creative partner, Gerhard, who dissolved their partnership and sold his stake in the company to Sim in 2007. Sim is a pioneer and advocate of self-publishing as an ideal, and was one of the key figures in the creation of the Creator's Bill of Rights in 1988. His relationship with his readers, colleagues and friends has often been strained, sometimes by the content of his work, and often by his expressed opinions and personal interactions. Most prominently, some have labeled Sim a misogynist, though he denies the charge and has refused to maintain contact with anyone who will not sign a form letter denying that he is a misogynist. This has resulted in a break with many of his former friends. His idiosyncratic religious conversion in 1996 has coloured his work and writing since, including the later ''Cerebus'' novels. He has criticized the use of copyright to restrict creators, and has made arrangements for his body of work to fall into the public domain following his death. ==Early life== David Victor Sim was born 17 May 1956 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to Ken and Mary Sim, the second of two children with older sister Sheila. The family moved to Kitchener, Ontario with his family when he was two. His father (a native of Glasgow, Scotland) was a factory supervisor at Budd Automotive, and did work as a labour negotiator. He became interested in comic books when he was eight. His interest rarely waned, but he found himself the only collector at his school when he reached adolescence. Early on he was attracted to DC comics, particularly those drawn by Curt Swan, Jim Mooney and Kurt Schaffenberger. In adolescence, he came to like flashier artists such as Barry Windsor-Smith, Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson. Wrightson's ''Badtime Stories'' (1971) inspired him to devote himself to drawing. Sim also found inspiration in ''Mad'' magazine, particularly Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood's "Superduperman" parody, as well as underground cartoonist Jack Jackson's ''Conan'' parody. At seventeen, rather than repeat Grade 11, Sim dropped out of high school. His excuse to his parents was there was nothing more he could learn from school that would further his career as a cartoonist. He wrote and drew comics throughout his adolescence, and began submitting work to fanzines. His first published work was some articles in the comics fanzine ''Rocket's Blast Comicollector''. He had submitted artwork as well, and although it was rejected, Sim struck up a relationship with editor Gabe Quintanilla, who encouraged him to continue submitting material to fanzines. Sim convinced Now & Then Books owner Harry Kremer to allow him to produce a newsletter called ''Now & Then Times''. The first issue arrived in the summer of 1972. He produced another issue in 1973, but had begun devoting his time to John Balge's ''Comic Art News and Reviews'', another Canadian comics fanzine. For ''CANAR'' he did interviews with subjects such as Barry Windsor-Smith. Sim also worked on "Oktoberfest Comics", a one-shot that featured his "Beavers" characters and was published by Harry Kremer. During this time, he continued to hone his drawing craft by copying the artists he most admired in his comic book collection. He became friends with artist Gene Day in 1974, with whom he had corresponded since 1973. Sim was inspired by the older Day's perseverance, keeping at drawing comics despite the small financial reward. He came to believe that Day's volume of output would be a key to success, and adopted Day's work ethic. The two worked together on a proposed character called "The Partisan" which they hoped would run in Jim Waley's ''Orb Magazine''. Inspired by Charles Schulz's ''Peanuts'' and ''Outhouses of the North'', a small book of cartoons published by Highway Bookshop in Northern Ontario, Sim spent 1975 and 1976 developing a comic strip called ''The Beavers''. Highway Bookshop published the book in 1976, for which Sim received $125. A second book failed to materialize when the publisher shut down. He decided that publishers were unreliable, and that the solution would be syndication. He pitched ''The Beavers'' to the ''Kitchener-Waterloo Record''. With Day inking the strips, a year's worth was produced in three days. He had work published by Charlton and Warren In 1976, Sim took the only job he ever held outside of the comics field as an employee at Now & Then Books, of which he has said, "It was the only place in Kitchener that I ever felt truly comfortable before or since". Sim came to believe at this point that his lack of success was to due the interference of editors and publishers. Sim also created various other comics, including a newspaper comic strip called ''The Beavers'' which was published in the ''Kitchener-Waterloo Record'', and wrote or drew stories published in anthologies such as ''Phantacea''〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url=http://home.istar.ca/~jmcp/phhome1.htm )〕 and ''Star *Reach''. ''The Beavers'' also saw print in ''Star *Reach's'' sister funny animals comic ''Quack!''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dave Sim」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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