Garth Inniscent was a writer. He wrote the comic read Rabbi, of which Cerebus was a fan. Inniscent gave an interview to The Reads Journal where he stated that the Cirinists knew Cerebus was reading Rabbi and they wanted him to use the read to influence Cerebus.[1]
Dave Sim on Garth Inniscent[]
- Q4: Why did Garth Inniscent want Cerebus to have a nervous breakdown? Because Cerebus was religious and Inniscent was anti-religious?
- Dave: That would certainly be a big part of it. Those who are opposed to religion tend never to consider the fact that they might be opposed to religion because they’re (for want of a more accurate term) evil.
- Q4: Or because he viewed him as power mad, and possibly a worse threat than the Cirinists? (i279/LD p278)
- Dave: That would be a big part of it as well. Of course, underlying both of those motivations, I wouldn’t rule out plain old green-eyed jealousy. Cerebus had close to absolute power, absolute wealth and an undying devotion to Inniscent’s Rabbi character. For a writer that can be a maddening truth to have to contemplate: your creation is that big a part of the despot’s internal life (and it would be hard to think of anything or anyone closer to Cerebus at that point in his life than the fictional Rabbi character) and yet it doesn’t translate into any “goodies” for you as the writer of that character. Note Inniscent’s observation that Cerebus doesn’t even bother to invite him to dinner to pick his brain. The subtext is leverage. Dinner would be for starters, but after that presumably he would be entitled to an ambassadorship or at least a mansion of his own with liveried servants, etc. etc. It’s only a small step sideways from there to pervert your own talents in order to indirectly exert the power you aren’t being allowed to benefit from. Hell hath no fury like a writer scorned.
- The analogy is imperfect but I think Woodward and Bernstein present a comparable example. Two marginalized second string reporters at the Washington Post who used Nixon’s hubris against him and basically brought about his resignation. And, of course, power has accrued to them over the last thirty years as a result. If you bring down a President, you inherit a certain amount of the President’s cachet whether you deserve to or not.[2]