Introduction: "Cerebus Syndrome"

The general concept of the "Cerebus Syndrome" is that an artist starts a strip as a light, funny, fairly shallow strip that is focused on humor. At some point, the author decides that he or she would like the strip to take a more dramatic turn, and the strip starts to incorporate more serious elements and drama, increasing the depth of the characters and of the plot. However, while this is going on, the strip does not abandon humor altogether. A strip which has undergone a successful Cerebus Syndrome incorporates both humorous and dramatic elements. "Cerebus Syndrome" is this transition from shallow humor to a greater level of complexity.

Formal Cerebus Syndrome is rarely found outside of comic strips. The reason why "Cerebus Syndrome" is rarely found outside of comics is because it by definition requires the author to initially intend the work to be light and funny. If the author plans the depth from the beginning, this is not actually "Cerebus Syndrome." For a work to develop like this and to be published that way, it needs to be serialized somehow.

Hardly any Cerebus Syndromes are completely successful. Parts or, more rarely, the entire project can fail. When it does, it often produces some truly horrific train wrecks. What are the most important things for an author to watch when he or she attempts to transition their comic? What should a strip do to come out of this Cerebus Syndrome better than it was before? This is what I will attempt to examine herein.

A quick note before we delve deeper into the subject.

Or, if you'd like to skip directly to more engaging matters,

Why do Cerebus Syndromes happen?