Gaze not into the abyss lest you accidentally write a book

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.

14 Comments

  1. Sean Case
    August 14, 2015 @ 12:46 am

    Depth of palette, not palate, shirley?

    Reply

  2. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 14, 2015 @ 1:04 am

    Yeah, editing comes later. 😛

    Reply

  3. C.
    August 14, 2015 @ 5:07 am

    Moore's script is the utter opposite of that "how to write a comics script to make an artist's life easier" thing that was popular on Tumblr a few days ago. though you get the sense he's writing in part to make Gibbons crack up.

    Reply

  4. Spoilers Below
    August 14, 2015 @ 5:11 am

    Indeed, arguably even Alan Moore, the one writer who can definitively and unambiguously be said to be capable of writing something as good as Watchmen only ever did so the once.

    I'm curious what your answer is for this one. I'd guess From Hell, but watch it be something totally out of left field like his somewhat under appreciated WildCATS run…

    Reply

  5. Spoilers Below
    August 14, 2015 @ 5:15 am

    I recall reading that after a while, Gibbon's wife would go through the scripts with differently colored highlighters to mark the bits that were actual panel descriptions, so he'd know what to draw, but that might be apocryphal…

    Reply

  6. Ice
    August 14, 2015 @ 5:46 am

    I may be misunderstanding, but I thought he was referring to Watchmen itself.

    Reply

  7. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 14, 2015 @ 7:52 am

    I believe it was Gibbons himself who did that; and yes, the script pages reprinted in Absolute Watchmen are highlighted that way.

    Moore's scripts are easily parodied, but I've always appreciated the way in which they give guidance not just on what to draw, but on why to draw it.

    Reply

  8. Elizabeth Sandifer
    August 14, 2015 @ 7:53 am

    Ice has the intended meaning. Note, of course, the "arguably." I'd personally say From Hell is superior to Watchmen, as are Snakes and Ladders and The Birth Caul.

    Reply

  9. Daru
    August 15, 2015 @ 1:44 am

    "I've always appreciated the way in which they give guidance not just on what to draw, but on why to draw it"

    Exactly why I really love Moore's scripts, it's a great approach that leaves a lot of room for the artist (speaking as one). Whatever problems he may have had with editors and comic book companies, I feel (I may be wrong) that Moore has a lot of respects for artists.

    Beautiful artworks and colouring above by Cooke and Stewart on The New Frontier.

    Reply

  10. Daru
    August 15, 2015 @ 1:48 am

    I never had any inclination to read Before Watchmen at all, but I received the Ozymandius issue as a gift – which felt a bit like getting an odd jumper that you'd never wear. I did read it though and was utterly underwhelmed, and it added zero for me to Watchmen.

    But the Minutemen above looks pretty lush and I may look at it sometime.

    Reply

  11. jet_and_joe
    August 16, 2015 @ 4:40 am

    I would just like to bring up the very interesting article Who Whitewashes the Watchmen? by William Leung for an alternative take on Darwyn Cooke's contributions to Before Watchmen. I haven't read any of Before Watchmen so can't actually comment on the quality of the actual stories, but I did find this to be an interesting article, and haven't seen it mentioned by anyone else here:

    http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/05/who-whitewashes-the-watchmen-part-1/

    http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/05/who-whitewashes-the-watchmen-part-2/

    Reply

  12. Daru
    August 16, 2015 @ 6:04 am

    Oh and love the moment of seeing the section of the interview with Kieron Gillen and how it ties into essay titles so far. Look forwards to the upcoming titles and how they fit in (if it works like that). Excited about what is said about stories and storytellers.

    "The point is to change the world." – this is how I feel about stories.

    Reply

  13. Ice
    August 16, 2015 @ 9:54 am

    I've only had a chance to read a bit of part one, but this looks like a really interesting essay. Thanks for the link!

    Reply

  14. jet_and_joe
    August 16, 2015 @ 7:03 pm

    Make sure you read through the comments as well as they also make for some interesting reading, with both support for and against the main arguments in the article

    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