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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.

14 Comments

  1. David Anderson
    May 3, 2014 @ 3:25 am

    I hadn't realised before that two of the new X-men aren't on the main cover of X-men 94. Unsurprisingly one is the one that's going to die in the next issue; the other…

    Reply

  2. jane
    May 3, 2014 @ 3:56 am

    Always nice to see Doreen Valiente quoted! But some commentary on this fact would have been deeply appreciated. Surely the Charge wasn't altogether commonplace back in the 70s?

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  3. Daibhid C
    May 3, 2014 @ 5:36 am

    The other's Canadian. Clearly he's never going to be that important a character.

    Reply

  4. BerserkRL
    May 3, 2014 @ 7:12 am

    in media res should be in medias res.

    Pedantically,

    RTL

    Reply

  5. Eric Gimlin
    May 3, 2014 @ 7:35 am

    "unsurprising given that Tennant would have a long career based on his ability to sense popular trends."

    OK, that line got a big laugh out of me. See also footnotes to Appendix 1.

    Reply

  6. Elizabeth Sandifer
    May 3, 2014 @ 8:58 am

    Do you know, I actually somehow missed the lift when I wrote that section? Will go revise to include Claremont's source.

    Reply

  7. jane
    May 3, 2014 @ 6:28 pm

    Mmm, much better!

    So, Captain Britain's origin includes a particularly British invocation to the Goddess, and She eventually arranged for Alan Moore to come in and give Albion its due?

    Reply

  8. Anton B
    May 3, 2014 @ 11:50 pm

    I'm afraid that as far as Captain Britain is concerned I can never get beyond the fact that wrapping yourself in the union flag has imperialist and far right connotations in the UK that perhaps it doesn't in the US. For historical reasons on this side of the pond we tend to view outward demonstrations of British and English (not Scots, Irish or Welsh though) patriotism rather suspiciously. Could this fundamental attitude difference in our separate cultures be the reason why Marvel style nationalistic based super heroes never quite translate to British comics. As Alan Moore understood, our Science-Heroes in the UK tend toward the quirky rather than the muscle bound. Hence Sherlock, Doctor Who, V etc. See also Morrison's Knight and Squire riff in Batman and Robin. Could anyone confirm, I wonder, if this has ever been addressed within the Captain Britain comics themselves?

    Reply

  9. elvwood
    May 4, 2014 @ 2:31 am

    This post rather perfectly captures the first phase of my American comic reading. I read MWoM, Spider-Man and The Avengers (when I could – I couldn't afford all of them all the time) from the beginning. However, I quickly discovered I preferrred the actual, coloured American comics. Everywhere we went I would seek out all the newsagents I could and scan them for US comics. I got quite skilled at quickly checking if they had anything, so as not to annoy my parents too much, and if they had a stash I would ask for the time to carefully go through them looking for gems. Some comics I can still picture the places I found them (such as my first Master of Kung Fu; the first ever Guardians of the Galaxy story is also associated with a song I heard at the time I first read it). I developed set routes for the cities I knew best – Coventry and Southampton – to make sure I didn't miss any of the newsagents with possible finds.

    I had completely stopped getting the Marvel UK reprint comics by 1976, but decided to give Captain Britain a go. I lasted less time than Chris Claremont.

    Reply

  10. Shane Cubis
    May 4, 2014 @ 5:42 pm

    "And these problems can hardly be called a surprise – of course a series with a hook of 'Britain’s very own superhero' is going to be lackluster when it’s produced by a bunch of Americans with a minimal-at-best connection with Britain."

    And yet here we are every week, reading an American's take on beloved British cultural properties… 😉

    Reply

  11. Elizabeth Sandifer
    May 4, 2014 @ 6:01 pm

    You know, it's a fair point. 🙂

    Reply

  12. Jon Gad
    May 6, 2014 @ 3:16 pm

    You've the line about Claremont leaving for creative differences twice in back to back paragraphs. One of them is redundant, surely?

    Reply

  13. Whittso
    May 7, 2014 @ 11:46 pm

    I know this was true, but I don't think it is still the case really. The 90s seemed to shift the Union Jack from tacit to being just a bit crass. Very much after the period being covered but still. Also Paul Cornells recent run did some good work on what a palatable idealised set of British values might be.

    Reply

  14. Anton B
    May 8, 2014 @ 4:38 am

    Hmm. Yes I take your 90s point. Ginger Spice at the Brits dressed in a Union flag mini dress made out of a towel being an interesting manifestation not only of pop culture re-appropriation but of the best kind of dumb-ass zeitgeist antenna at work. However, living in Brighton and having to witness the last couple of St. George's Days marred by the spectacle of the bone-headed English Defence League and their misplaced 'patriotic' flag waving as aggression tactics I would argue that it is still very much the case that overt English or British nationalism plays differently from the equivalent pride in the flag demonstrated in the USA.

    Reply

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