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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.

9 Comments

  1. taiey
    November 13, 2015 @ 5:18 am

    “Figure 906: It is not difficult to make Alan Moore look eccentric”

    🙂

    Reply

  2. Eric Gimlin
    November 13, 2015 @ 5:33 am

    “Fawcett Comics being sued out of existence just so they could acquire Captain Marvel”

    I have to disagree with this particular description. I think it would be more accurate to say “Sued Captain Marvel out of existence to get rid of the competition that was outselling them”; still not particularly nice business practices.

    But, as far as particulars go, they didn’t actually sue Fawcett out of existence. The publishing company itself continued on, and even got back into comics with the various Dennis the Menace titles a few years later, continuing through the 70’s. Meanwhile, DC didn’t acquire anything as a result of the lawsuit. DC only licensed the Captain Marvel and other characters from Fawcett 20 years after the lawsuit; and didn’t actually buy them outright until the early 90’s. I have no doubt they got a good deal, as nobody could publish Captain Marvel without DC’s permission, so Fawcett had nobody else to sell to… but I don’t think anybody at DC thought of getting the character until decades after the lawsuit.

    With all that said, DC has still more than earned its nasty reputation about the deals it gave creators. And the one creator from the first several decades who did get a good deal was Bob Kane… who turned around and shafted his squad of ghost writers and artists.

    Reply

  3. Kit
    November 13, 2015 @ 3:19 pm

    inclined to read pages of nuanced clarification in The Comics Journal

    Ever get the feeling you’ve been subtweeted?

    Reply

  4. Pedro Bouça
    November 16, 2015 @ 10:27 am

    Although it’s undeniable that DC has shady business practices, do note that they don’t make 92% of the money on Watchmen. Distribution and printing costs have to be taken into account. DC makes probably makes 20% of it on profit, if that much.

    In France, where pretty much every comic is creator owned (total ou partially) and work for hire isn’t a recognized practice, creators take similar percentages (8 to 12%) and the publisher’s cut is about double that.

    Reply

  5. Daru
    November 18, 2015 @ 1:02 am

    “It’s that DC saw the business of making comics as entirely that – a business, conducted dispassionately and with little attention other than the financials. This is what becomes rapidly apparent in statements like Len Wein’s description of Alan Moore as having been “part of the original process” of Watchmen”

    That is really saddening. Wonder how Moore and Watchmen would have turned out if they had both been French?

    Reply

    • Pedro Bouça
      November 23, 2015 @ 10:32 am

      Had Moore be french, most assuredly Watchmen wouldn’t exist, since both the french public and publishers are singularly uninterested in superhero comics.

      He probably would be a bit like french comics author François Bourgeon. Hugely sucessful but forever feuding against his publishers and taking his creator-owned comic series elsewhere. Some of his series are in their fourth different publishing house nowadays.

      Also, he probably would still be an artist as well as a writer. The french are far more receptive to different comic art styilings and comic creators that are much better writers than artists (like Lewis Trondheim) can still be sucessful and respected. Moore would be like Matt Wagner, writing for other comic artists but still drawing his own stuff.

      Reply

  6. Jenora Feuer
    March 4, 2017 @ 1:05 am

    “It’s that DC saw the business of making comics as entirely that – a business, conducted dispassionately and with little attention other than the financials. This is what becomes rapidly apparent in statements like Len Wein’s description of Alan Moore as having been “part of the original process” of Watchmen,”

    Re-reading some of this… I’m suddenly thinking that you could paint DC/Moore here using similar brushes as McCartney/Lennon, the business-like ‘do what people want’ approach versus the more artistic ‘do something meaningful’ approach, and the gradual building of tension as two sides with disparate worldviews get more and more annoyed with each other for ‘not getting it’.

    Reply

  7. Matheus de Arruda
    August 4, 2022 @ 1:04 pm

    Just this year I discovered this fantastic project and I’ve been loving reading it as an academic of the subject of comics, but I’m getting a 404 Error for the chapter before this one. Is there a back-up?

    Reply

  8. Matheus de Arruda
    August 4, 2022 @ 1:06 pm

    Or rather, post before this one rather than chapter (“part seventeen”).

    Reply

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