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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.

7 Comments

  1. Daibhid C
    February 25, 2015 @ 1:07 pm

    I'm also losing track of who everyone in Gotham Academy is. Although in my case it's at least partly because I find it impossible to concentrate on the story while ties and skirts continue to be portals to the Dimension of Plaid — I realise this must be a stylistic choice, because it wouldn't be difficult to pattern them properly, or just make them plain, but I can't imagine why.

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  2. Sean Dillon
    February 25, 2015 @ 2:26 pm

    For some reason Spider-Gwen has been leaving me cold. Like I like and respect the premise (and find the fact that Peter turned into the Lizard to be brilliant, especially when looking at Spider-Man through a psychochronographic lens (which is also the only way one can redemptively read the movie version of Death of Gwen Stacy)), but the issues themselves just don't do it for me. Then again, I have Wicked and the Divine in my life and I just love every page of the new issue, so I don't know why Spider-Gwen isn't. I think it's ether me or my disdain for Post One More Day Marvel trying to get people not to like MJ.

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  3. C.
    February 26, 2015 @ 5:31 am

    in re: WicDiv 8. Absolutely agree this is a "for the fans" filler issue; on a pop album, this would be the one-minute jokey skit between tracks. But since the end of the 1st arc, the storyline really started drifting—the gods and Laura just seem to be farting around at times, as if the scripts haven't come in yet. Still love it to death, but I wonder what someone who started on iss. 6 would make of it

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  4. FrF
    February 26, 2015 @ 5:59 am

    [Comics I've been reading pt. 6]: Sex #20 — If this series was just about one painfully emotionally distant man trying to find intimacy, it would be an excellent book. Unfortunately, a lot of other plotlines interfere with what I perceive to be its core. Fortunately, this issue leaves out the less desirable aspects (gang wars!) and focuses on, as Joe Casey, who's very fond of the vernacular, would probably would put it, "relationship stuff". The teaser of #20 goes as follows: "The big date. One step closer. Will Simon get lucky?" Those who follow "Sex" and know the unhurried pace at which Casey goes forward won't see it as a spoiler if I mention that Simon doesn't "get lucky" — of course not! (Casey's dialogue style is also quite unique. His characters are always interrupting each other and there's a steady stream of hints to vast, hitherto unexplored intrigue.) Piotr Kowalsky's art is, as ever, very, very nice. The final chasing scenes are a particular highlight!

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  5. Tom
    February 26, 2015 @ 6:54 am

    Sex is such a strange comic – the pacing has gone well beyond foreplay and into tantric by now. There have been several times I'm sure something surprising and dramatic is about to happen, and it doesn't, with Casey instead patiently elaborating on why things that have already happened were important, mostly to do with the psychosexual development of Simon's employees. The overall drama at this point seems to be about whether Simon's journey climaxes in sex (progression) or violence (regression) – this is what the gang wars are about, engineering a situation where the story risks resolving into a superhero one (bad) rather than a human one (good), though perhaps it'll surprise me and do both.

    Also – have you (has anyone?) worked out what the system behind the dialogue highlights is? Is there even one?

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  6. FrF
    February 26, 2015 @ 1:28 pm

    You're making me reconsider the gang war parts, Tom! Until now I've seen The Old Man et al mainly as nuisance. I got that they represent the destructive, nightmarish sides of sexuality but then these are well-trodden paths in (popular) fiction. I guess one could say that, for example, the Alpha Brothers are distinctive as they're so very over-top-the-top grotesque. Those fiends are basically wading through blood while having sex with each other while talking like they were in a boardroom meeting.

    The highlighting scheme is another mysterious aspect of this series…I also like the lettering. I think that, for example, Moebius and Stan Lee's Silver Surfer collaboration used the same fonts.

    Recently The Comics Journal had an appreciation of "Sex":

    http://www.tcj.com/reviews/sex-book-one-and-two

    It's strange that I thought that the review was somewhat condescending although I, too, have qualms with the series! Joe Casey himself mentioned the TCJ piece in "Dirty Talk", his author's column of "Sex". (Casey uses the column for some interesting, deliberately informal ruminations on a multitude of subjects.)

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  7. FrF
    February 26, 2015 @ 1:32 pm

    Sorry, here's the right URL for those who are interested:

    http://www.tcj.com/reviews/sex-books-one-and-two

    Reply

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