The Cockroach

Few characters capture the gloriously absurdist spirit of Dave Sim's Cerebus universe quite like The Cockroach, who scuttled onto the Bronze Age scene in Swords of Cerebus #3 in 1981. A creation of Aardvark-Vanaheim's singular independent comics revolution, this character shares pages with some of Sim's most beloved figures — Cerebus himself, Red Sophia, and the incomparable Elrod among them — which is fine company indeed. Across a publishing span stretching all the way to 2013, The Cockroach turns up in Cerebus Bi-Weekly and Low Society, woven into the rich, sprawling tapestry that made Sim's self-published epic one of the most ambitious works in the medium's history. For collectors and fans of indie comics at their most inventive, even a handful of appearances from this character is a worthy find.