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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.

33 Comments

  1. T. Hartwell
    June 21, 2014 @ 12:42 am

    43,564. Any less would be frankly disappointing.

    Reply

  2. Burk Diggler
    June 21, 2014 @ 12:52 am

    34,000 assuming you keep up your pace and speed up a little towards the end!

    Reply

  3. Anton B
    June 21, 2014 @ 1:09 am

    47,978. I'm counting on random precision to generate reward.

    As to comics. I was a total DC guy but since the New 52 I've dropped all their titles. I did enjoy the early Wonder Woman issues and Dial H but not enough to, in the former, continue reading and the latter was cancelled so there ya go. Marvel bore me mostly these days but I'm often tempted to rediscover their titles when they do a hop-on-here issue. Anything by Moore or Morrison still gets my attention but I rarely visit my LCS, since Kindle started a Comixology app I mostly digital download. So after 40 years of comic collecting I'm down to pulling a few random Indies. Stray Bullets, Fables in trade and now (thanks to your recommendation) The Wicked and the Divine.

    Reply

  4. elvwood
    June 21, 2014 @ 1:37 am

    45,740. Because zero is as random a digit to put at the end as any.

    Pretty much the only comics I read for the first time these days are the ones I find in collected form in the Sheffield library service, and generally the ones that they happen to have physically present in my local branch (soon to be abandoned by the council, grrr). I enjoyed most of Runaways and Locke & Key (even though the latter was a bit gory for my taste), didn't get on with any of the Marvel Ultimate stuff nor the grimdark DCU stuff. Liked Fables but have only seen the first couple. Mostly they just pass the time. I also reread old ones from my surviving collection.

    I can't get into digital comics at all; although I have the X-Men and Avengers DVDs they put out a number of years ago and will dip into then when I feel the urge, it always feels like hard work.

    Reply

  5. Daru
    June 21, 2014 @ 2:21 am

    I used to read tons in the late 80's and 90's Alan Moore.(big follower of Swamp Thing), Hellblazer, Dark Horse, Vertigo, Plastic Forks, Yummy Fur, Moebius and whatever grabbed me. I did read a lot of marvel when I was younger but moved away from superhero types and into whatever was less mainstream, I liked hunting (and still do) odd stuff. I am still a massive lover of Moebius and Kent Williams – got The Fountain graphic to read – and do randomly pick up the odd graphic novel I have not read, such as From Hell recently.

    Comics are a big part of my artistic psyche, I go to them often for inspiration as well as thrills and I would say that they were fundamental in helping me make the leap from being a visual artist to being a storyteller.

    Reply

  6. Daibhid C
    June 21, 2014 @ 2:29 am

    As I've mentioned before, I'm mostly a DC guy and Marvel UK collected editions (except Wolverine and Deadpool, because I don't care about them).

    A while back I ruthlessly stopped getting all the titles I was buying out of habit rather than because I'm actually enjoying reading them, especially when I realised that relentless unlikeability of everyone in Teen Titans was actively chipping away at my residual fondness for the characters.

    Because my pull list is extremely casual (my local comic shop just keeps all the DC books for me – plus X-Factor because Peter David – and says if there's anything I don't want, just put it aside), some of these titles started creeping back in because I forgot I wasn't reading them, or wanted to give them another chance. Very few have crept back in more than once.

    This included Wonder Woman (which I didn't think was exactly bad, I just wasn't getting what it was about), which I recently started picking it up again on Phil's recommendation. And I'm afraid I still don't get it, but I'm sure it's very good and at least she isn't snapping Max Lord's neck.

    I'm particularly enjoying Justice League Dark, Batman: Weekly Thing I've Forgotten The Title Of, Flash (always one of my two favourite characters along with Blue Beetle, although having said that, I grew up with Wally and Ted) and Earth-2 (the first comic I've seen to make a very pointed "anti-fridging") Justice League United looks interesting, although I've only seen the zero issue so far.

    As the final comment indicates, I haven't got any comics in the last month or so, because of a problem with the ordering service. It's entirely possible that all these books have turned horrible, and I don't know.

    Reply

  7. Chris
    June 21, 2014 @ 2:45 am

    62,626.

    Reply

  8. Chris
    June 21, 2014 @ 2:46 am

    My captcha guessed 9719, which is so wrong.

    Reply

  9. Frezno
    June 21, 2014 @ 2:51 am

    I have no idea what a pull list is but the other night I finally finished reading Sandman. What a lovely set of comic books those were. I eagerly await them being covered in the War… which gives me an excuse to actually read through the war, considering I know nothing about Moore beyond Watchmen and V For Vendetta, and not a thing about Morrison.

    Reply

  10. BerserkRL
    June 21, 2014 @ 4:21 am

    Sandman was heavily influenced by the Moore and Veitch runs on Swamp Thing. Indeed, one of the main characters in Sandman is supposed to be the same character as one of the main characters in Swamp Thing, though he's suffered a slight species alteration between the two books. Gaiman was also set to take over Swamp Thing after Veitch's departure, but backed out after an incident that Phil will doubtless cover (but the brief version is that DC censored Veitch's final story arc after first telling him to go ahead with it).

    Reply

  11. Marionette
    June 21, 2014 @ 5:17 am

    I used to read mostly DC, but in the last couple of years I've dropped just about all my DC and picked up a bunch of Marvels. It's a combination of DC killing off titles I was enjoying to replace them with a micromanaged retread of 90's Marvel, only with extra misery and spite, while Marvel are introducing more female and minority led titles without cheesecake covers.

    The new Ms. Marvel is a delight, and deserves support, not just because it has a female Indian lead, but because it's a great big ball of fun.

    More indie reading includes Ghost, Sex Criminals (which is hella fun), and Princess Ugg.

    I'm guessing 50,001. Because someone had to.

    Reply

  12. Pôl Jackson
    June 21, 2014 @ 6:32 am

    I read anything Bendis writes – Powers got me back into comics, and I've been a huge fan ever since. (Plus, he's local-ish.) In fact, his indie titles – Powers, Scarlet, Brilliant, The United States of Murder – are the only things I still buy month-to-month. Everything else, I wait for my library to get the trade paperback.

    Reply

  13. timber-munki
    June 21, 2014 @ 6:54 am

    I'll have a shot in the dark at 48,211 words.

    As to my pull list, in terms of floppies I'm currently reading Wonder Woman, the only mainstream DC book at the moment for reason obvious to anyone reading DC comics for the past 3 years, and that's ging to stop when the current creative team are done with the book (although I'll give Infinity Man And The Forever People a couple of issues to see how it goes), Uber, Astro City, Massive, Southern Bastard, The Wicked + The Divine, The Punisher, Moon Knight & Saga. I mostly trade wait, currently reading alot of Image books that way – Manhattan Projects, The Walking Dead, 5 Ghosts, East Of West, Chew, Morning Glories, Fatale, Prophet, Elephantmen, Zero, '68, Peter Panzerfaust, Pigs, Black Science, Sex Criminals & Lazurus, also a few Marvel books, Hawkeye, Daredevil and X-Factor as well as The Unwritten from Vertigo.

    Reply

  14. encyclops
    June 21, 2014 @ 8:13 am

    I'll say 38,765.

    I haven't had a pull list for years, and only have one again now because of Sandman (though it's erratic enough that it's not worth bothering — I'll just go in and pick it up the traditional way). The only other thing on it is Optic Nerve, which is also pretty erratic.

    The last couple times I've gone in to pick up anything, I've also grabbed a smattering of other stuff to try it. I liked the issue of She-Hulk I read. I've been trying to get into the Azzarello Wonder Woman but found it pretty disappointing. I gave it three trades and it wasn't working for me, so I dropped it.

    Back when I had an active pull list before, many years ago, I had a gig reviewing Hellblazer and 100 Bullets, so they were the mainstays. The rest of it rotated a bit. I was into Neotopia for a while, and Love and Rockets.

    Reply

  15. Eric Gimlin
    June 21, 2014 @ 8:27 am

    30,000 I'm guessing you're a bit closer to done than some people think, that's still a fair ways to go.

    I read too many books to list them all. I will note that since the new 52 started, my DC list has been dropping while my Marvel list has been inching up. I've bought anything Moore, Morrison, and Gaiman do sight unseen for literally decades at this point, and Ellis is an easy sell for me even if I don't have everything. Gillen has been added to the "at least seriously consider this" list on the basis of your including him as a major player in the war, although The Wicked + The Divine is the first book where that actually mattered. Just from the first issue of that I'm thinking I need to go dig up some of his other stuff.

    I allow myself ONE "I will buy every issue of this book, good or bad, for obsessive completionist reasons" title, everything else I try and to drop when I get bored rather than going on inertia. Sadly, DC cancelled Legion of Super Heroes, which was the title; but I'm sure it will be back sooner rather than later. They've tried this trick before.

    It's not out yet, but I want to mention Q2: The Return Of Quantum and Woody as something I'm looking forward to insanely eagerly. Christopher Priest is a particular favorite writer of mine, and this is the first book he's written in years.

    Reply

  16. Chris Gonzalez
    June 21, 2014 @ 8:47 am

    So, I've been reading this blog since I started my own classic Who journey in July of last year. My goal, which I finished with twenty-four hours to spare, was to watch every classic episode and the McGann film before the 50th Anniversary (having seen the new series multiple times already), and this blog was a very wonderful companion during my adventures through time and space. With all of that in mind, I want to say thank you for all of the blood, sweat, and tears you've put into this site.

    That said, word count is probably going to be around 46,000 words. Or at least that much.

    Also, I grabbed "The Wicked + The Divine" today based on your recommendation while I was visiting my local comic book emporium for Free RPG day (grabbed the Pathfinder beginner box, if you were wondering; basically my first time with an actual RPG, so it'll be interesting). I finally got around to picking up the second issue of Sandman: Overture, and I grabbed the first issue of the current Serenity run by Zack Whedon. I'm too far behind on my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9/Angel & Faith collection to pick up anything from Season 10, and I'm too much of a completionist to start an ongoing series from DC or Marvel in the middle. My limited barista income doesn't work well with my "gotta read 'em all" approach to comics.

    Reply

  17. Matthew Celestis
    June 21, 2014 @ 9:50 am

    Batman 66. That's all these days.

    Reply

  18. reservoirdogs
    June 21, 2014 @ 10:35 am

    1) 1,000,000 Words
    2) Afterlife with Archie, Batman (until Zero Year is done lest something pull me back in… again), Loki: Agent of Asgard, Moon Knight (till Warren is done), Ms Marvel, Original Sin, Rat Queens, Shutter, Silver Surfer, Trees, and The Wicked & The Divine.

    Reply

  19. Theonlyspiral
    June 21, 2014 @ 11:10 am

    I'm reading Iron Man (Purely out of momentum. Glad Kieron is moving on to other things), New Avengers, Avengers, Earth 2 (Purely out of momentum), Hawkeye, Sex Criminals, Fables, New Ultimates, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel, Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly, Uncanny Xmen, Silver Surfer, New Xmen, Hulk (Purely out of Momentum), Satellite Sam, Daredevil…and I think that's it?

    I'll be dropping Hulk, Earth 2, and Moon Knight (after Ellis leaves) most likely. I don't enjoy Pretty Deadly as much as any of the others, but it's got it's hooks into me.

    Reply

  20. Theonlyspiral
    June 21, 2014 @ 11:11 am

    Oh, and Wicked and Divine, which is infuriatingly good. I'm not a huge fan of Gillen's work, but this is a book I already love.

    Reply

  21. James Ashelford
    June 21, 2014 @ 12:33 pm

    39,374.

    As to pull list, I flit about like a magpie but the current core of things is Ultimate Spider-Man, Batman Eternal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Batwoman (though I might drop it soon) and All-New X-Factor plus I've been getting into Painkiller Jane recently since reading The Price Of Freedom limited series.

    Oh, and Empowered and Young Avengers whenever they're about.

    Reply

  22. Pen Name Pending
    June 21, 2014 @ 1:44 pm

    I just borrow from the library and I've read the first three volumes of Sandman and the first four of Season 8 of Buffy. That one I'm at least continuing. I think I have trouble really getting into them, though.

    Reply

  23. BerserkRL
    June 21, 2014 @ 4:28 pm

    I saw how much shorter a lot of chapters in the Wonder Woman book were compared to the ones he sent out to his kickstarter groupies, so I know Phil can be a cruel and vicious self-editor. So I'm going against the grain and picking 23,000.

    Reply

  24. What Happened To Robbie?
    June 22, 2014 @ 1:27 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  25. What Happened To Robbie?
    June 22, 2014 @ 1:31 am

    Like others here I source mostly from my local library. Only got into comics/graphic novels fairly recently, mostly because of Phil writing about them, so I'm playing catch up with lots of classics and generally feel like a kid in a sweetshop knowing how much is out there waiting for me.

    At the moment I have out Tapping the Vein (my first Barker); Winterworld; Phonogram – Rue Britannia (first Gillen); Black Orchid & Signal to Noise (first Gaiman); Xtnct because Paul Cornell; and the first 3 trades of Sweet Tooth (Jeff Lemire) because a random guy at a party recommended them to me.

    As for word count I'm going to say 52, 738 with no real rationale to back my guess.

    Reply

  26. ferret
    June 22, 2014 @ 1:55 am

    26,789 – I can't afford a pull list, instead I buy graphic novels (or the larger collected editions, whatever you want to call them) when I hear good things about them. So looking forward to "Immortal Iron Fist: The Complete Collection" Volume 2 next time I'm near a decent bookstore, and finishing off the final Pat Mills volume of Charley's War

    Reply

  27. brownstudy
    June 22, 2014 @ 6:56 am

    I'm trying to pay off some long term debt, so I don't have a long pull list. Pretty much anything with Moore's name on it, including any of the other properties, like the recent Tom Strong issues, just because I think they're fun to read. Astro City, still, mainly in memory of how fresh it felt to me when it started.

    I also keep my eye peeled for Richard Sala and Evan Dorkin books, whenever they come out. And even after his death, there's still Harvey Pekar stuff trickling out.

    Reply

  28. Chicanery
    June 22, 2014 @ 9:55 am

    Oh, okay, this might take a while:
    IMAGE:
    East of West,
    Saga,
    The Wicked + The Divine,
    Sex Criminals (trade waiting),
    Zero.

    BOOM! Studios
    Adventure Time,
    Adventure Time mini series and various one shots,
    Regular Show,
    Bee and Puppycat.

    Archie Comics
    Afterlife With Archie (trade waiting).

    Dynamite
    Red Sonja.

    DC/Vertigo
    Hellblazer reprints,
    American Vampire (in trade).

    Marvel
    Captain Marvel,
    Superior Foes of Spider-Man,
    Thor: God of Thunder,
    Ms. Marvel,
    Moon Knight (dropping once Ellis leaves),
    All-New Doop,
    All-New X-Factor,
    Iron Patriot,
    She-Hulk,
    Secret Avengers,
    Wolverine and the X-Men.

    Reply

  29. Chicanery
    June 22, 2014 @ 10:10 am

    And Hawkeye, if it ever comes out again.

    Reply

  30. William Silvia
    June 22, 2014 @ 10:12 pm

    My pull list is pretty much Star Wars: Legacy now that Dawn of the Jedi is over.

    Reply

  31. Tom
    June 23, 2014 @ 6:48 am

    I read digitally, and tend to use the Marvel app and the Image store with its lovely files: I am a creature of the 00s internet and trust files in a way I don't clouds. Stuff from other publishers I'm likelier to trade-wait. I also buy most Marvel or Image first issues, and then often take a while to get to them, so there are a lot of series I'm fairly sure I'll get regularly (like Silver Surfer and Trees) but don't honestly know yet.

    Marvel: Loki, Mighty Avengers, She-Hulk, Ms Marvel, and I get suck(er)ed into most events too, so Original Sin. Moon Knight until Ellis leaves, too. Hawkeye in trades (at least theoretically, it's been so long since I've read it I feel a bit distanced now).

    Image: The Wicked + The Divine, Sex Criminals, Pretty Deadly, Sex, Great Pacific (in theory – I'm still playing catch-up on the cheap issues on the Image site). Then Saga and Prophet in trade – Saga I might switch back to singles because while I like having a physical copy, Vaughan is the best cliffhanger writer in US comics and it feels self-denying to miss that. Possibles: Black Science, Manifest Destiny, all the ones I haven't actually read yet.

    Other stuff: Ryan North's Midas Flesh mini, Bandette maybe once I've played catch up, Lumberjanes I'm on the fence with.

    Oh, and also – though I'm a couple months behind as each issue is so enormous – Weekly Shonen Jump on the iPad newstanbd. 200+ pages every week of manga for a dollar: astonishing value, and reminds me of reading 2000AD way back when: even if the story doesn't engage the energy and verve of the art is an enormous pleasure.

    Reply

  32. Kit
    June 23, 2014 @ 8:15 pm

    Whatever Evan Dorkin’s doing, which these days translates into The Eltingville Club two-parter finale, whenever a new Beasts Of Burden (animals investigate supernatural mysteries, painted by Jill Thompson) comes out, and hopefully another House Of Fun one day.

    If the collection of the married Buddy & Lisa stories from Hate Annual with a new, previously unpublished chapter doesn’t signal the end of the Annual, then Hate by Peter Bagge. 21 years that’s been on my standing order, now, it’d be sad to say goodbye.

    Next longest-standing is Treehouse Of Horror, from Bongo, at 19 years. I can’t remember any contributors in any issue since Krusty’s Ergot, and should just remember to drop it (especially now it’s self-cover). But it just pops up once a year and surprises me, and -who knows – maybe it’ll be good again one day?

    Whatever Brandon Graham’s doing, which translates into Multiple Warheads and Prophet at the moment. But the self-cover switch on Warheads #2 means I’ll probably switch to trade on the next series, and I’m probably going to drop off of Prophet when it moves to miniseries – more than anything, because only buying one monthly comic* makes it feel overwhelming when it comes out so damn often! Also, I spent a couple of thousand dollars on buying comics and posting them home in two months in the US (and two afternoons at the Beguiling in Canada) last year, and have read about 0.8% of those so far. I should free up some time.

    *Copra, by Michel Fiffe, also comes out monthly, but not being carried by Diamond means that it can’t be on my standing order at a comic shop in Australia, and having to order them one by one off Fiffe’s partner’s Etsy store feels like they’re being eked out, rather than flying at me regularly.

    Love & Rockets. I’ve given up on the “B-movie” GNs by Beto (based on format – if they were pulp paperbacks, like the early Altergott cover designs aimed to resemble, I’d be all over them still) but the mix of his content in the annual works, and Xaime is remarkably at a career peak, three decades in.

    Acme Novelty Library. The last four or five have piled up waiting for their second read, though – a victim of the hardcover format feeling like a major commitment, rather than a revisiting. This has also been 21 years on my list, though I’m pretty sure #1 came out later than I got into Hate.

    Optic Nerve. 18 or 19 years on this one too, depending on when that one Xeric-funded #7 from the original run came out. The new format on the last two issues has been a huge revitalisation, and makes one feel personally rewarded for choosing to buy a comic-book-format comic.

    Lots more regular purchases and authors avidly followed, but I can’t think of anything else that’s from a direct market comic shop per se. Could be a future Waffling if you run dry…

    Reply

  33. Pramod Sagar
    June 24, 2014 @ 3:13 am

    Too cool!
    I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme?
    Excellent work!

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    Reply

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