The struggle in terms of the strange

Skip to content

Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

49 Comments

  1. Scott
    August 17, 2013 @ 1:15 am

    I wouldn't exactly say it's something I'm hoping for as much — I'm not a huge fan (though not a particularly passionate detractor either) — but will Garth Ennis be showing up in any way, shape or form?

    Reply

  2. reservoirdogs
    August 17, 2013 @ 4:09 am

    -Todd McFarlane V Neil Gaiman
    -1996: The Year The Comics Died
    -The internet and the culture it spawned
    -Joss Whedon
    -Frank Miller
    -Kathmandu and that one time Grant met Jesus
    -Dan Didio and the end of Batman Inc

    Reply

  3. reservoirdogs
    August 17, 2013 @ 4:10 am

    Oh, and Twilight of the Superheroes.

    Reply

  4. David Anderson
    August 17, 2013 @ 6:24 am

    Does Moore get away with using Fu Manchu in LoEG?

    Also, Kim Newman's Anno Dracula.

    Reply

  5. timber-munki
    August 17, 2013 @ 6:28 am

    Comics-wise Paul Grist's work, particularly Jack Staff and Morlan the Mystic. Will be interesting to see your take on James Robinson's Starman as part of the war. Gillen & Mckelvie's work – Phonogram, Suburban Glamour & (Along with Mike Norton) Young Avengers. Also Steve Gerber, just because he's Steve ****ing Gerber.

    Outside of comics, China Mieville, Situationist International, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast (And possibly the BBC adaptation) Peter Pan, Hawkwind, Mary Poppins & the Olympics opening ceremony.

    In Politics/broader social fabric sense the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 & new age travellers with connections through PWEI via the Prodigy.

    Anyhoo, I'll leave it there before I just descend into a list of British popular culture & social history of the past 50 years.

    Reply

  6. Kit
    August 17, 2013 @ 6:35 am

    John Smith as a forgotten casualty of the War?

    Only one more chapter after that before we get to things anyone has ever heard of!

    Hey, I have two issues of Near Myths! [sadface because I only have two issues of Near Myths…]

    Reply

  7. Marionette
    August 17, 2013 @ 6:55 am

    Pat Mills' retelling of Carrie as a suburban British school story.

    The lost episodes of Halo Jones.

    J.K.Rowling and the Tammy paradigm.

    Reply

  8. Eric Gimlin
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:14 am

    Just a few thoughts for early days of the War, some from my own memories.

    Why are there no Americans on the star writer list? I'm not talking about for the purpose of Last War; but particularly back in the 80's, there weren't really any non-British star writers even if you wanted to include them. Frank Miller is probably the closest we had back then, and even there his star was fading by the time Morrison broke out in the US with Animal Man and Doom Patrol.

    There wasn't nearly the level of comic book news available in the 80's as there is now. Yes, there were Fanzines in general and Comic Buyer's Guide in particular, but Wizard was years away and the internet even further. So a lot of news was word of mouth, and frequently just plain wrong. I don't recall hearing the details of why Alan Moore left DC for years after it happened, and for a fairly long time we weren't even sure he had. I even remember a rumor going around that this "Grant Morrison" we had never heard of was a pen name for somebody, probably Alan Moore, since it didn't make sense to us that DC would give the high profile Arkham Asylum hardcover to somebody so new.

    The very idea of a star writer was rather new back in the 80's in general, for that matter. I remember when I got my first copy of the Overstreet Price Guide back then that Alan Moore was the ONLY writer credited in the comments on issues for why they were broken out in price. (If there were any others I didn't see them, and I poured over that book obsessively learning about comics I had never heard of.)

    Reply

  9. Kit
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:34 am

    I don't recall hearing the details of why Alan Moore left DC for years after it happened, and for a fairly long time we weren't even sure he had.

    This is ridiculous, he gave a THREE-PART, thousands-of-words (, and hugely entertaining) interview to TCJ which included pages and pages about his leaving DC.

    (Sienkiewicz painting of Moore on the first, Pogo blow-up and green bg on the second… maybe an Aline issue/cover on the third?)

    The very idea of a star writer was rather new back in the 80's in general, for that matter

    Gerber, Englehart, McGregor and I guess Wolfman to some degree were all "star writers" in superhero comics in the '70s.

    Reply

  10. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:38 am

    This is, I think, mostly revealing about the weird art/mainstream split in the American comics industry that The Comics Journal (and really the Fantagraphics scene as a whole) embodies. Gerber, Englehart, and the like were certainly acclaimed, but that didn't translate into the phenomenon Eric is talking about of Moore-penned issues getting weird spikes in prices (which was going on well into the 90s – I remember the release of Gaiman's Midnight Days collection being notable in a large part because it made his Hellblazer issue affordable for the first time).

    Another way to put this is that it was perfectly possible to follow American comics closely and never read a page of TCJ, which catered (and caters) to a particular niche within the industry.

    Reply

  11. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:41 am

    Absolutely. I've not decided how much detail – it might just be Preacher and a summary of his broader work. If I do two Ennis stories, it'll be Preacher and… Adventures of the Rifle Brigade, actually. Ooh, but his Dan Dare stuff is tempting too.

    So yes, a good amount, but not as one of the Main Figures who have most of their work covered. (That list is currently Moore, Morrison, Ellis, and Gaiman. I don't think I'll add a fifth, but if I do it'll be Kieron Gillen.)

    Reply

  12. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:41 am

    Yours is a list of things I am definitely covering.

    Reply

  13. Jordan Murphy
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:41 am

    I hope and assume you'll cover Jamie Delano's under-appreciated Hellblazer run. I'd also like Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl and Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Phonograph.
    Basically guys named Jamie (oh, and Jaime too if you include any Americans).

    Reply

  14. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:44 am

    Gillen has a good shot at some in-depth coverage, but I've not decided on exactly how much yet. Mieville will probably crop up somewhere. Situationist International and the Olympics are guaranteed. Peter Pan as well. The Travellers are likely via Hellblazer. Ooh, which is another place Ennis fans will be happy, to refer up-thread a bit.

    Reply

  15. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:49 am

    The Delano Hellblazer run is a given – I think it's the high point of a series that was largely a steady decline. I'll probably cover all of Hellblazer at some point. There's a point after Watchmen where Moore is going to have to drop out of the narrative again for a bit while I deal with the setup of Vertigo, which is of course a period where he'll loom over everything without actually contributing.

    Tank Girl is interesting – I can't imagine how I'd skip it, but I don't know where it'll go yet. (My rough outline for the project currently leaves off with "Fuck, Watchmen's up next." Figuring out how to order the vast number of topics that get ensnared in Watchmen's orbit is… well, I can only imagine what Moore felt like plotting out Watchmen, really.)

    Gillen is going to do well for himself in the latter days of the War.

    Reply

  16. James V
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:49 am

    James Robinson set to show up at any point? His Starman run is kind of what made me notice "British comics writers" as a thing.

    Reply

  17. Eric Gimlin
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:53 am

    One thing back then was just how off-putting the TCJ attitude could be. Some of this is probably unfair, given that I never read it back then; but it had a rep as a book that hated anything from the big two. And I picked that vibe up from a comic store worker who was big on getting me trying new books even beyond the big two.

    Phil gets the point I was trying to make about a star writer; Gerber in particular is a favorite and I have an immense fondness for McGregor's Killraven. But I think saying there was a shift from "acclaimed" to "star" (not sure those are the best words, but it's s start) writers around then is correct. (Stan Lee is perhaps a counterexample, but he was always a bit of a special case.)

    Reply

  18. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:55 am

    Robinson is one I'm certainly happy to deal with, but haven't found an obvious place to do so, though this is to a great extent because I've not seriously thought about it. He's marvelous, and broadly relevant, but I have to find a place to hook him into a discussion of something else, since he's not a major character in the War itself, so to speak.

    But given that I've got Russian structuralism in as a topic related to Starblazer and Blake as a topic related to Near Myths, this does not seem like a hard lift, so to speak.

    Reply

  19. matt bracher
    August 17, 2013 @ 9:44 am

    I'll admit that I haven't read much of Robinson — and Starman isn't on the list — but what I have read didn't inspire me to look further. What I read always seemed to have a lack of closure.

    With The Golden Age I didn't give him enough of a chance. It was gorgeous, but the editing of where and how large the word balloons and captions were turned me off completely. The look was spoiled.

    But I adore Leave It To Chance. Even there, though, there's the sense of dangling plot threads or narrative logic that wasn't thought all the way through.

    [And Chance's lack of an ending isn't an issue, I just recall a sense of dissatisfaction with the structure of the stories as a whole. I'll gladly buy more if and when he and Smith are able to make that happen.]

    Reply

  20. Darren K.
    August 17, 2013 @ 9:55 am

    I'm particularly interested in your take on Moore's tendency to not actually create anything of his own, mostly, instead recreate others' work: Swamp Thing, Marvelman, Watchmen, LoEG – all are reimaginings; Tome Strong, Superior, 1963 are pastiche. From Hell is historical. There are tons more, of course. The only two of his major, populist works that spring to mind are V for Vendetta and Promethia, and Promethia could be argued into being version of Wonder Woman. I'm sure there are others that are all him and his collaborators, of course there are, but among his biggest, most important works, he is recrafting older material. I'm just interested in where you are going to take your examination of him in this regard, and Morrison's counter position where he is far more willing to both actually create from scratch (as much as one can create from scratch) and play somewhat nicely in the work for hire sandbox, certainly far more than Moore is willing to do.

    Reply

  21. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 9:56 am

    Yes. This will be a huge topic.

    Reply

  22. Nyq Only
    August 17, 2013 @ 10:46 am

    Crisis and Deadline – and that great experiment to have edgy British comics sold as mass market magazines in newsagents.
    Pat Mills.

    Reply

  23. Kevin Jordan
    August 17, 2013 @ 11:23 am

    I'd be interested in your thoughts on the post-Moore Swamp Thing – particularly the Rick Veitch issues, and how DC backed down on the last part of his original storyline…

    Reply

  24. Ben
    August 17, 2013 @ 12:54 pm

    Philip, I'm curious as to what you'll say about Peter Milligan. He's certainly turned in his share of for-the-money dross, but I've long maintained that when he's on there's no one more interesting in the medium. Of course from the POV of your project the key fact may be that he's profoundly influenced by Moore, he's a personal friend of Morrison's.

    Reply

  25. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 17, 2013 @ 1:25 pm

    I'll probably start from Shade the Changing Man as part of that initial wave of Vertigo stuff, and figure out what other stuff to pull in from there. But yes, he's definitely going to get a sizable focus.

    Reply

  26. Eric Gimlin
    August 17, 2013 @ 4:10 pm

    Even V for Vendetta was consciously inspired by Night Raven. Halo Jones might qualify as an original major work, though.

    Reply

  27. Kit
    August 17, 2013 @ 5:25 pm

    This is, I think, mostly revealing about the weird art/mainstream split in the American comics industry that The Comics Journal (and really the Fantagraphics scene as a whole) embodies. Gerber, Englehart, and the like were certainly acclaimed, but that didn't translate into the phenomenon Eric is talking about of Moore-penned issues getting weird spikes in prices

    Spikes in prices isn't something that would occur to me, and I don't know that I ought to have inferred it from his citing Frank Miller as the only example – he did a lot of covers to help goose orders in the 80s, but the decade isn't really heavy on him dropping in to do a single guest issue of something, like Moore on Vigilante (okay, that was two).

    And I wouldn't count him as a star writer in any instance – he's far more (and faaaaar moreso than Moore or Morrison) a cartoonist who sometimes liked to collaborate (and "star" aside, only did two great comics as a writer-not-artist); the distinction stopped me from including the likes of Byrne or Simonson in my list.

    But if you're not applying Overstreet's after-the-facts as the sole distinctor, I think those names very much count as "star writers" in the market context of the time – it's all before my birth and out of my taste, but their runs are historically associated with them specifically, they were the creative drivers of the books – unusually for Marvel – and lettercolumn samples indicate an audience association with them as the core creator whose work is being followed.

    [Eric's suggestion of "acclaimed" is harder to square with the even-smaller comics press of the 1970s – by whom, if not the buying audience? And those dudes all got given more and more personally-driven work to do on the strength of their successes…]

    (which was going on well into the 90s – I remember the release of Gaiman's Midnight Days collection being notable in a large part because it made his Hellblazer issue affordable for the first time).

    My #27 still has a A$2 sticker from a second-hand bookshop above a porn store. What a thrill. (The price, not the proximity.)

    Another way to put this is that it was perfectly possible to follow American comics closely and never read a page of TCJ, which catered (and caters) to a particular niche within the industry.

    Niche is a pointless digression* – I believe the audience focus has changed notably under different eras and different editors over the last 37 years, but almost always the very widest topical remit of any North American comics publication, as opposed to the micromaniacal niche interest of the cited Wizard —

    — but the fact is that Moore's leaving of DC was thoroughly reported and extensively discussed in the magazine, so the information was very much available. To not read a page in this instance is the lapse of the reader, not of the magazine or its editors of the time.

    *watch me now

    EG: given that I never read it back then

    😀

    Reply

  28. Matthew Pickens
    August 17, 2013 @ 5:39 pm

    (Delurking.) I'd like to see your take on Morrison vs the Wachowskis. My recollection is that Morrison himself promoted the idea that The Matrix was plagiarized from The Invisibles, which seemed odd in light of his claims that he was trying to magically change the culture through that work. So was The Matrix plagiarized, an example of the material change effected by Morrison's alchemy, both, or neither?

    I don't know if you were around for any of the Invisibles-centered discussion centers, especially the big mailing list and the Barbelith message boards. If you were, it would be great to see your impression of those.

    Also, I very much look forward to seeing what you do with Arkham Asylum.

    Reply

  29. Jordan Murphy
    August 17, 2013 @ 6:30 pm

    I agree about the Delano Hellblazer. I continued to read the book for years, and often enjoyed it, but those first 50 issues are the best (including of course both Gaiman and Morrison's contributions).
    I threw the Jaime bit in there as a joke, but I really think some American context would be great. Moore, Morrison, Gaiman etc. were miles ahead of anything else at the big two at the time (well, aside from Miller, but that's a different can of worms really). But that doesn't mean there wasn't amazing work being done by Americans like The Hernandez Brothers, Matt Wagner, Mike Baron, Paul Chadwick, Dave Sim (Canadian, but close enough), and others. They just weren't doing it for Marvel or DC.

    Reply

  30. TG
    August 17, 2013 @ 6:32 pm

    So, obviously 2000 AD is coming soon, and I'm really looking forward to that, having been introduced to it, and British comics in general, through the Eagle Comics reprints in the US in the early '80s. I wonder, then, if Judge Dredd will get a mention? I don't know of either Moore or Morrison ever writing Dredd (though obviously my knowledge is incomplete), but it seems that the character is quite the flagship of UK comics. I'd love to know if and how he ties into the War.

    And even if there's no Dredd, I still hope to get some deep background on 2000 AD the publication. I've always been fascinated by it, but don't know a whole lot about it.

    Otherwise, I'm game for whatever you throw in. Just looking forward to reading it again.

    Reply

  31. BerserkRL
    August 17, 2013 @ 7:43 pm

    I've been following comics for the last 40 years and I've never knowingly laid eyes on an issue of TCJ.

    Reply

  32. BerserkRL
    August 17, 2013 @ 8:06 pm

    The original Fu Manchu books are a puzzle. They're so easy to read against the grain that it makes me wonder what the grain really is. Fu Manchu's diabolical oriental plot seems to be mainly protecting Asia from western imperialism; and he often (not always) treats his adversaries with honour. And while the books are filled with racist invective against the heathen Chinee, nearly all the invective comes from Nayland Smith (the Sherlock Holmes character and nominal hero); and although the narrator (Dr. Petrie, the Watson character) never explicitly dissents from it, he never endorses it either — and he expresses sympathy for Asian characters where N.S. expresses only contempt. It would be painfully easy to make a movie that followed the books very closely while at the same time making Fu Manchu the hero.

    Reply

  33. timber-munki
    August 17, 2013 @ 11:25 pm

    A few more guesses:

    -Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood cycle.
    -Abnett, Lanning & Erskine's Knights of Pendragon series for Marvel UK. (also the rest of Overkill)
    -Bryan Talbot's recent work – Alice In Sunderland & the Grandville series.

    Reply

  34. wumbo
    August 18, 2013 @ 2:26 am

    I'm always eager to learn more about Moore & magic. Do you think Moore's tendency to recreate others' work is something like a process of drawing out threads of an idea – universal functions and god-patterns? Recurring themes in culture – Thoth, Hermes, Odin, Coyote, Nyarlathotep and so on. I'm also curious what the next big thing in occultism is after chaos magic. I've heard bits and pieces about Luciferian magic, Wicca, Paganism, and I've seen connections drawn between neuroscience and magical practice.

    The other big thing is Moore's relationship with sex. I've just read Promethea and Moore's Neonomicon and some of it just didn't sit right with me – the sex addict FBI agent from the Neonomicon and issue #10 of Promethea in particular.

    Reply

  35. Daibhid C
    August 18, 2013 @ 4:59 am

    I'm reminded that I once wrote a huge screed on the basis that if someone had a moral objection (as opposed to a creative one) to Before Watchmen, they must also feel that Moore shouldn't have reinvented Swamp Thing without specific permission from Len Wein.

    Just before posting it to my LJ, I checked who the DC editor who hired Moore on Swamp Thing was. Oops…

    Reply

  36. Ross
    August 18, 2013 @ 6:07 am

    That… Actually sounds awesome. Way awesomer than the interpretation of Fu Manchu I've been running with where it's the other half of "It's so racist that–" jokes (Such as "Those political ads with the chinese professor in the future telling a class of laughing chinese students how the US stopped being a superpower is so racist I'm amazed they didn't get Christopher Lee in yellowface to play the professor," or "The Trade Alliance in Star Wars are so racist that Darth Tyrannus said 'Isn't that a bit over the top?'")

    Reply

  37. Darren K.
    August 18, 2013 @ 7:09 am

    What about Alan Grant? The best British writer that never went Vertigo and instead just wrote the hell out of Batman, probably earning himself a nice living but getting forgotten when talking about the British Invasion, despite perhaps being amongst the most read.

    Reply

  38. Eric Gimlin
    August 18, 2013 @ 8:53 am

    I mentioned Frank Miller as somebody we were (briefly) interested in as a writer, based on Year One, Elektra: Assassin, and Born Again. But after than he disappeared for a few years to writer Robocop 2 and by the time he came back there were lots of other writers to follow. I don't think he would have been a good example, other than he's who I actually remember discussing at the comic shop multiple times in that context.

    While I have original owner books from as far back as 1978 (when I was 7), I didn't discover a comic shop until 1985. So my reference to Moore as the "first star writer" was, as I said, based on the fact he was the only writer viewed as worth noting in Overstreet back then. Citing Overstreet as a reference makes me feel vaguely dirty now, but back then it was a vital reference source even if you didn't care about prices.

    Like I think I said, I didn't read TCJ back then, and I didn't know anybody who did. I presume stores would order it for box customers, but I don't recall seeing it on the shelf. (I still live in the Seattle area, I wonder if part of the antipathy for TCJ was Gary Groth personally annoying some of the shop owners…) I can't read something I don't know about. I will admit that gap in my knowledge seems odd for back then. I know I was aware of the magazine by the early 90's, but that's several years into the war.

    I cited Wizard not because I have any liking for the book- and I didn't back then, either- but because it was the first comic news magazine that seemed to get any widespread distribution. I know I never saw CBG or TCJ outside a comic shop or very large bookstore; but Wizard made it out to all sorts of shops.

    Reply

  39. HarlequiNQB
    August 18, 2013 @ 9:52 am

    I'm pretty sure neither wrote Dredd directly, but I think Moore wrote some of the Walter the robot spinoff stories, so there's a tangential link there. Halo Jones and Zenith are bound to appear though, and I wonder how deep Phil is going to get into the legal arguments about the latter.

    Reply

  40. TG
    August 18, 2013 @ 7:02 pm

    Yes, Halo Jones. I also bought most all of the Titan Books reprints in the mid-late '80s and HJ was my absolute favorite. Can't wait for Sandifer's take on that, and D.R. & Quinch, natch.

    Reply

  41. Kit
    August 18, 2013 @ 7:24 pm

    Morrison has written at least two (soundly terrible) Dredd arcs, including the Millar collab during the Summer Offensive. I assume their mentor/apprentice -> conquering collaborators -> embittered rivals narrative will be a significant strand of The War.

    Reply

  42. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 18, 2013 @ 8:13 pm

    Millar isn't going to be one who gets every single work covered, but he'll get a solid number of entries focused on him.

    Reply

  43. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 18, 2013 @ 8:14 pm

    I'm not sure how easy it'll be to get back to Talbot. Well, I suppose a lot will depend on how I handle things like Sandman – with enough level of detail, a Talbot digression would be easily justified, but I don't know how arc-by-arc focused I'll be on some things. Though if anything's going to get multiple chapters, Sandman's a contender, which bodes well for Talbot.

    Reply

  44. BerserkRL
    August 19, 2013 @ 5:30 am

    Plus there's the obvious V for Vendetta / Anarky connection.

    Reply

  45. BerserkRL
    August 19, 2013 @ 5:31 am

    Well, Lost Girls will clear all your worries up … 8^/

    Reply

  46. BerserkRL
    August 19, 2013 @ 5:34 am

    Well, you can rewrite your screed to make it about Moore's barely disguised use of the Charlton characters in Watchmen.

    Reply

  47. BerserkRL
    August 19, 2013 @ 5:38 am

    Ah, Frank Miller, goddamn — what the hell happened to him? I mean, the things that bug me about him now were always there in the earlier work, but they seemed less problematic because they were offset by things like multiple conflicting but sympathetic perspectives. But somewhere along the way he threw out his capacity for nuance.

    Reply

  48. BerserkRL
    August 19, 2013 @ 6:34 am

    will Garth Ennis be showing up in any way, shape or form?

    I think it would be cool if he turned up, not in a way or a form, but in a shape.

    Reply

  49. BerserkRL
    August 19, 2013 @ 4:38 pm

    A rather different way to redeem the Fu Manchu stories was the comic book Master of Kung Fu, which kept FM a villain but made his son a hero.

    I've always had a hard time convincing non-comics readers that two of the best comics of the 70s and 80s were named Swamp Thing and Master of Kung Fu.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from Eruditorum Press

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading