So you just got your computer and you want to find some people that like you also enjoy the same topic. You finally find a club / message board / email list that discusses what you want to discuss. The problem is, they aren’t talking about anything you want to talk about or the thread is so long it’d take you years to catch up on it.

Catching up with any discussion on a message board can be a lot of work, you wade though post after thread after thread hoping to find an interesting post. Just a bit of discussion that you can join in on and feel a part of. Many people decide just to lurk on message boards, maybe ‘cause they never find anything to talk about. But you became a part of the message board to discuss something that you find interesting with other people who also find that same subject interesting.

The first time I went to the USEnet boards for Marvel Comic’s X-MEN titles I felt a bit out of place. Sure, I had been reading Marvel comics and X-MEN since I was a wee lass, but there was so many different threads. I didn’t know where to start, a couple threads were just starting off and I could get into them. Others on the other hand had hundreds of posts, which seem as convoluted as the plot of the X-MEN comic itself.

But I stopped reading X-MEN so I stopped going to the X-MEN boards. I was still into CEREBUS, but couldn’t find a USEnet board for CEREBUS alone. I searched the web high and low looking for a CEREBUS mailing list of some kind. I found an old email list, that had cobwebs in the corners from lack of use. Then I found a Yahoo! Club for CEREBUS, but the rate of posts there was one every other month. Finally I found a discussion board for CEREBUS at EGroups.

The board was still relatively small, so I only had to wade though a few hundred posts to catch up on what everyone was talking about. I didn’t feel as out of place as I had at the X-MEN board, but it was still some work to catch up to the current discussion. Then EGroups was brought out by Yahoo! and the CEREBUS Yahoo!Group was born.

So I’ve been at the CEREBUS group for a while and the majority of the posts there I read and often reply to, because I find them interesting. What if you just starting reading CEREBUS though? You heard somewhere that CEREBUS is a great comic to read so you pick up some issues. You really enjoyed those few issues so you head over to the message board hoping to talk about these issues. However, everyone else is talking about anything else but those issues.

You’re a newbie to the list, so you don’t feel to comfortable posting. Either you’re afraid the old timers will laugh at what you have to say or you don’t want to talk about something that has been talk about before. So you keep quiet and hope someone starts a thread on something you can discuss.

I had that feeling when I first joined the CEREBUS group. I didn’t want to start a thread on something that has already been talked about to death. Now having been in the group for a few years, I don’t want to post about old issues because it has been so long since I’ve read them. I don’t want to start talking about an issue only to be corrected because I remember it wrong.

So when the chance came up to read the entire CEREBUS story I jumped at the chance. The idea was kicked around of rereading CEREBUS with the intention of looking for those little tidbits that often pass one by on the first reading. Everyone will read three issues a week then go to the message board to discuss those issues. I do not have the time to sit down and reread the series in a couple weeks, but I do have time to read a three issues a week.

But what does this rereading of CEREBUS have to do with you, the nervous lurker to the board that doesn’t want to post because you haven’t read those issues yet? This is your chance. Yes it is. Really.

When a team starts doing really well, I mean really well, like the 1998 Denver Broncos who were on a winning streak a mile long and were heading towards the Super Bowl, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. They’re almost to the Super Bowl, you know they are going to get there and you just know that they are going to win big. And you want to be a part of that big win.

This is your chance to jump on the CEREBUS bandwagon. To be there for the big finish in March of 2004 and watch Dave and Gerhard win big. Well, at least watch them finish the series and host the party to end all parties (the "Finally It’s Over Party"). Right now you might lurk because you’re a newbie who feels uncomfortable discussing issues you haven’t read yet or you’re a old fart who feels uncomfortable discussing issues you can barely remember.

You have no more excuses. Starting the week of August 7, the CEREBUS Yahoo!Group will be reading three issues a week. Entitled the CEREBUS Parashah, we will start at issue #1 and finish when we catch up to Dave in June of 2003.

All fans of CEREBUS, new and old alike, are welcome to join our small but ever growing group to read with us and discuss the issues. Here are your spoiler warnings for we will be discussing future CEREBUS events, but we look forward to everyone joining us. For we would like to see new CEREBUS fans give us a fresh perspective on the story and for old CEREBUS fans to discover those old issues again.


From the Cerebus Fangirl Site found on the web at: http://www.cerebusfangirl.com contents maybe printed for later reading if you so desire, just don't copy it and say it's yours though.