Wow, you've got to love the internet. The day that I add new material to my Poison Elves web site after a 10 month absence, someone notices and sends e-mail letting me know that they noticed. That's pretty incredible when you think about it, really (even if he did have a web browser that was smart enough to let him know that it had changed). This past weekend, to celebrate the fact that Drew finished the Sanctuary storyline, I re-read the whole shebang from start to finish with the goal of updating my poorly neglected page and evaluating the story as a whole. If you read the "news" section pertaining to these changes, you'll know that I was disappointed. However, the reason that I bothered to re-read them at all was that I liked the last few issues quite a bit and have high hopes for the new direction of the series.
Anyway, this guy that mailed me today was a bit surprised that I had disliked the Sanctuary story arc so much, and since I claimed on the page that I'd give an explanation of my reasons, I figured I'd do so now (even though I really ought to be starting work on a paper that's due in about 10 days :). This is meant to be an open letter to Drew, but I'm also posting it on the web because I get e-mail from people all the time who agree or disagree with my occasional rants about a particular issue. I've enjoyed making lots of e-mail pen-pals from the web page and am always glad to have someone say they like the page or found out about the comic due to it, so I want to make it clear what I've liked and not liked about Sanctuary (rather than carrying on several independent conversations). Besides, it'll probably be too long to end up unedited in Deathreats, and criticism has never done too well in that forum anyway. :) If you have commentary or opinions that you want to fire back at me, please feel free---I'm always open to other opinions.
OK, so first of all, I want to step back a bit from what I wrote in the news section about updating the Amrahly'nn pages to include the entire Sanctuary story arc. It was definitely a case of overstating a point to make an effect. If you've ever met Drew in person, you'll realize that he uses the same device a ton in his Starting Notes and responses to Deathreats writers. And then every once in awhile you get this teddy bear introduction like the one in #39, and it doesn't seem to fit. Unless you've met him in person and realize what a genuinely good guy he really is. We've all got our facades (though I guess I could have them backwards for him :).
Anyway: Sanctuary was not godawful *per se*. However, it wasn't as good as it should've been by any means either. As I was reading through all 39 issues this weekend, I did some quick math and realized how much I'd spent on it. Then I thought about whether or not I would plop down that much money in one fell swoop ($150+), had I known what I was getting and the answer is an easy "no." Except that I actually can think of one reason that I might, and that would be to support an artist that I've enjoyed and would like to see continue to work in comics (if I'm not being clear, Drew is such an artist). But will I buy Sanctuary in TPB form if it's reprinted? Not on your life. Not unless it's dirt cheap (And this is from the guy who's stupid enough to buy Martin Wagner's comics in four printings to "support" him... :)
So you could easily argue, "well if you didn't like it, why did you keep buying it?" and I'll admit that I asked myself this same question at several points during the story's run. Part of the answer is definitely that the two main occasions when I was asking this question, Drew's Starting Note assured me that "things were about change soon, fast," giving me hope to hold out for one more issue, to see things one step further. The change in issue 25 didn't seem all that dramatic to me. Sure, lots of old characters showed up and made appearances, but that wasn't why I was reading the comic (more on this later). I don't read it for the in-jokes and the next appearance of the Purple Marauder, but for the story. So now we're on the brink of "the next big change" (with issue 40) and I have to admit that it sounds promising. I'm hoping for the best.
But it wasn't merely Drew's baiting me on with promises of change. It was also re-reading the Mulehide issues and realizing how good the series could be, and being constantly optimistic that things would improve to the point where I thoroughly enjoyed the comic again. It was the hope that the comic that I'd spent so much time compiling a concordance for and getting it all hyperlinked reasonably would be fun and worthwhile to me again. My fingers are still tightly crossed.
OK, so perhaps I should start diving in and giving some real criticism here, rather than talking around the problem. So let's start with the obvious (and in many ways least important) criticism: Most of the time, the editing on Poison Elves really stinks. I realize that Drew's admitted that his spelling's not the best, and that Sirius isn't such a big-time operation that they have lots of money to spend on an editor. But, given the groundswell of popular support that there has been on the internet, it seems like there must be some way to catch some of the errors before they make it to print. Most of the people who have e-mailed me about the comic have been extremely articulate and would be elated to proofread the comic or script before it hits the stands. Granted, bad editing isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's really amazing how much a mis-spelled word can mess with the flow of a comic and your impression of its quality. OK, so maybe that was a cheap shot. And maybe it was unfair since spelling was a problem in my beloved Mulehide issues as well. But with the move to the larger company came expectations of a more polished creation, and that hasn't really been the case.
Other examples of poor editing: in issue 33, pages 6-11 seem to have gotten scrambled into the wrong order. It's not all that noticeable until you hit page 10 and realize that it didn't follow at all from page 9. My guess is that the intended order was 6, 9, 7, 8, 10, but I'm still not sure. In issue 28, pages 42-44 contain some repeated text in a way that is pretty clearly accidental and makes a so-so monologue seem a bit silly. Getting even nit-pickier, some of the text portions in the Sirius run were just plain badly formatted: there was that one issue whose text portions looked like they'd been printed on a badly-aligned dot matrix printer, where the words were split horizontally in half. And another issue where text pages and comic pages would be interleaved---a fine technique, artistically---except that the text was broken mid-sentence from one page to the one that continued it three pages later. A little bit jarring to say the least.
OK, like I say, cheap shots, and certainly not ones that destroy the comic for me, but definitely things that seem like they could be fixed easily. By having *anyone* read through the comic before it hits the press, for example. I mean, wouldn't *you* take this job for a nickel a page?
To explain why I didn't like Sanctuary so much, I think I need to explain why I liked the Mulehide issues. In the Mulehide issues, I was presented with a vast world full of unexplored territory. With a new spin on a well-worn mythology. With history, culture, races (and racism), magic, and creatures that were clearly creative and exciting and inventive. And on top of this, there were elven and human characters that were interesting and lively and distinct. In the Mulehide Issues, I was exposed to a demonic possession, a first and best and unrequited love, a psychopath who dressed up in peoples' bodies, hallucinatory drug withdrawals, the most over-the-top "superhero" ever, surreal dream sequences, a clever doppelganger and a naive paladin, lovesick siamese twins, the genie that everyone deserves to get, a wizards' duel to rival "the Sword in the Stone's", monsters, mythology, and a creator with a seemingly limitless imagination. Drew cited the Sandman as an inspiration, and the influence of Cerebus seemed very present as well.
By way of contrast, here's what I got from Sanctuary: a thieves' and assassins' guild (this, at least, was a cool idea), a deep relationship, a vice squad with a vendetta, intra-guild jealousy and rivalries, an inter-guild war, a serial killer, a "friends-thrust- against-each-other-through-a-misunderstanding" plot device, and Lusiphur as a woman. The guy who mailed me today said that he didn't understand why I was so bitter---that the two phases of the comic (Mulehide and Sirius) seemed pretty similar to him. I dunno, is it just me? They seem completely different to me. I guess I would summarize it as: the Mulehide issues were like putting into print and pictures the kinds of stories I would imagine when playing dungeons and dragons as a kid -- full of mystery and intrigue and magic and monsters and characters that I wouldn't have dreamed of myself. Whereas Sanctuary seemed to be a long, bad episode of Miami Vice.
I think Drew's intentions were great: tell a longer, more involved, more complex story. Go beyond the 1-2 issue quick, sharp tales. But frankly, I don't believe he had the chops to pull it off (yet). I remember when the guy in Deathreats complained that the pace was bad, that not much seemed to be happening, and Drew responded with, "how can you say that?" and listed several key plot points. But my reaction was still, "yeah, seems like not much of interest is happening..."
OK, so I'm clearly not into plots involving cops and robbers and gangs (though actually I am -- Stray Bullets, Sin City, and Goldfish being three favorites) and maybe I just miss my fairies. Maybe it's *my* problem. But you know, it's more than just not being into the plot. The characters really got weaker in Sanctuary as well. In the Mulehide issues, almost every issue introduced new characters that were interesting and diverse. When Drew did that great issue 18 that told what everyone was doing and where they were, it was like "Wow! Look at what a world he's built!" In fact, there may even be a letter from me in issue 19 or 20 saying this (I can't remember whether it got published or not). I was seriously impressed at that point. Now let's see what new characters I would include in that list from Sanctuary if I were to have Drew write a similar issue (not worrying about those that are dead). Cassandra, certainly. I didn't like her as much as most people did (more on that later), but still, she was pretty decent. Vido would definitely be in there, like him or not. None of the Blood Guard, that's for sure. The Blood Guard was like this list of names that, other than Daniels and Jace, you could never really connect with any faces. Until they were hunted down one by one by Lusiphur in his anguish. Then it was like, "Bob shoots crossbows---BANG!; Joe objectifies women--BANG!; Frank was the serial killer, surprise!---BANG!" This is characterization? Sure we'd seen the *names* before, but I wouldn't say that anybody (Daniels included) took on a life of his own. We're told that Daniels was a family man and Vido's close friend, but only after he was killed. How about building up some of this warm fuzziness so that we could feel it too? How about showing us Bob's crossbow skills, Joe's womanizing? Did anybody remember that "Frank" even existed when it was revealed that he was the killer? (I didn't, and I'm the one who was reading all the issues in a single day compiling the concordance...). Can anyone even remember his real name? (I can't, and I typed it in the day before yesterday). Ahem... Mr. Moto would be in the list. Scuzz and Scum? (Who? Oh yeah, the street guys who smelled bad. Great characterization, huh?) Nah... Talon and Morachi? Can you tell which is which? (OK, Morachi is the slightly-more-open-to-Lusiphur one and Talon is the slightly-more-against-Lusiphur one). Any of Sanctuary's thieves and assassins? No way.
To me, Sanctuary was basically just one long parade of supporting characters played by actors who couldn't bring any life to the roles. It's like Drew tried to create complexity of plot by having a large number of characters. And to his credit, you do see some of the same names pop up throughout the series, but not in any way that make them anything more than a recurring name.
Even worse, though (to me) was the use (abuse!) of some of the characters that were introduced in Mulehide. Friedrich and Balinarch made two appearances, neither of which served any real purpose other than to reinforce in our minds that Balinarch is the one that always says "Hrar!" I wouldn't even call them comic relief, though I guess the fact that they thought they were being hunted down when it was really Luse and Jace was a *bit* wry. OK... barely.
I have to say that as much as I like the Purple Marauder, he appeared way too frequently in Sanctuary, without really adding any value. His appearance used to be completely unexpected, catching you by surprise and adding a new bit of info to his character (the phallic sword interpretation; the fact that spitting is his secret weapon). But lately, it's gotten to the point (for me) of figuring "well, a few more issues have gone by. No doubt it's time for him to show up and yell some loud predictable things again." The character has become a self-parody. No value added when he appears anymore. Too bad, he was great for awhile there.
In contrast, let me say that Drew's continued to do a great job with Parintachin. We always seem to learn a bit more about him (and more importantly, a bit more about Lusiphur) whenever he's on-stage. More about that later, though-- I'm saving the positive feedback for last (if you can hold out that long).
To my mind, Widowmaker was completely misused in Sanctuary. He's supposed to be this incredibly tough foe --- huge, inconquerable. Luse barely got away last time, and only by drawing on some incredibly deep power. In Sanctuary, he shows up for a bit, represents a bit of a threat in a mindless fight scene, gets put to sleep and sent off to the basement. Thanks for the cameo, E'jja---I sure hope you brought sales up. I feel similarly about Hyena and Tenth. They sortof pop into the comic, try to stir things up a bit, don't seem nearly as powerful or interesting as they used to, and then disappear again. Weird.
To some extent, this seems like damage control to me. The story was going awry, it was getting out of hand, (does anyone know if?) sales were dropping. Must do something to spice it up! Throw in some old characters that're familiar, that'll get the fans cheering! That'll make people smile in recognition. Well yeah, only if you do something interesting with them. I'll admit, I perked up when they came on-stage, but then they just...sortof...sat there. So yeah, the characters, both old and new, just didn't deliver for me in this storyline.
Let's talk about Cassy. From the letters Drew got, everyone loved her. I agree that her death was sad and regretful and even choked me up a bit---I hate unexpected goodbyes (and it seemed to me, that her death was out of character, but I'll ignore that for now). But frankly, I was glad to see Lusiphur out of that relationship. I'm happy for my friends when they're in love, but I don't like to sit around and watch them talk with their significant others, and have deep "I understand you and accept you as you are" types of conversations, and hang around talking about nothing important on their beds. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they do all of those things, but I'm generally more glad that I'm not around to watch it. This is how I felt about Cassy and Luse's relationship. Sure it's great that they're in love and probing beyond his surface gruffness, but do I have to watch? She was pretty wicked with a sword, though, huh? OK, enough. Let's respect the recently departed.
One other trend that I hated in the Sanctuary storyline was the little social commentary/moral lessons that were worked seamlessly (yeah, right!) into the plot. Issue 17: Drew understands art and the role of the artist in society, in a thinly veiled allegory told from Lusiphur's point of view; Issue 28: Drew understands professional strippers, and their thought processes, and how badly men treat them; Issue 29: Drew understands serial killers, and how they're badly messed up and say weird things and how they get caught up in these internal morality plays; Issue 36: Drew understands how women get mistreated by men, and how society expects them to play this role that men take for granted. OK, don't get me wrong. These are all important issues and good things to know about and think about. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Drew has good insight on how certain sections of society tick that's lacking in the minds of lots of mainstream Americans. However, this insight is not why I read Poison Elves, it's why I read socially provocative papers like the Stranger and Ms. magazine. My preference would be to keep the editorializing in the Starting Note and the fantasy in the comic. I still haven't made it through that serial killer's monologue without my eyes glazing over; I eventually end up scanning desperately for the next time Lusiphur interrupts him, in hopes that he'll cut him off. And he never does quite quickly enough.
And how the hell did Lusiphur know that he was the serial killer in the first place? Or the (wrong!) number of prostitutes he killed? Or who he was? Or where he was? Or that there even was a serial killer in the first place? And furthermore, why did he care? You're going to tell me that he'd shoot innocent people in a bar for no good reason (now that was pretty messed up as well) and then listen to this guy ramble on for an hour or two about how screwed up he was? Please: just put us all out of his misery Luse: a bullet to the temple, quick!
Again, I'd have to chalk that one up to damage control: "Must do something to resolve this plotline! Aha: here's one way to kill two birds with one stone!" Still, it's too bad that it had to be so shabby. Re-read issues 27-29 in succession and tell me that Luse's apprehension and interaction with the serial killer isn't a plot twist so far-fetched it's gasping for air.
Want some more gaping holes? What happened to Morachi's wife who was alluded to be (1) far away, and (2) visiting soon? Foreshadowing is great, but not when it never actually leads to anything. For that matter, why set up an elaborate plot around magicians secretly meeting to try and lure Luse to go to an address---and then not have him not go? For that matter, how did Cassy get caught in a trap so similar to the one meant for Lusiphur? Yet obviously different than the one meant for Lusiphur, given that Tenth and Hyena are still discussing it after his death. Maybe I missed something obvious there, but it apparently wasn't obvious enough for me. And what was with Hyena's hair changing color all the time? I have to say, though: I'm not interested in knowing the answers to these questions. Don't feel like you have to write a "Morachi's wife comes to find that Sanctuary's in ruins and that the address travelled back in time into Cassy's hands" story to tie it all up. Put me back with Luse and Jace and Cercie in the mountains anyday...
OK, so let's see. I didn't like the editing, plot, characters, relationship, moral lessons, plot holes. Seems pretty bleak, huh? Well, not completely. Let me tell you some of the things that I really liked in Sanctuary:
The Art -- I still really like Drew's artwork, even though I'd be embarrassed to show most of his women to any of my female friends. I do wish that it was more varied though -- less head shots and more interesting surroundings. I guess this is part of telling a city-based, conversationally-oriented story. I guess I just feel that his artwork doesn't get to breathe as much when it's just showing who's saying what to whom.
The Covers -- though occasionally dull (another shot of another elf, yawn), these are generally really good and nicely colored. Drew's always had great coloring skills, and many of the covers are nice portraits. Drew, if you've made it this far, the occasional pictures on the back cover are greatly appreciated as well (or pinups in the back pages). Oh, and since I'm talking to you directly now, thanks for returning to a non-computer-generated lettering (and most recently your own? Or someone whose lettering looks like yours? It feels much better now).
Three Days with Mr. Moto -- this is still one of the few comics that has ever made me laugh out loud in spite of myself. Not a chuckle, but a full-on couldn't-stop-myself giggle. One thing that this issue had that seems to be missing from lots of others is a variation in pace: some pages stood alone, some flowed from one to the next. The whole issue was funny, had good characters, and was just perfect.
Sex and Violence -- I guess people either loved or hated this. I thought it was a great experiment and turned out really well. I wish more issues had taken different approaches to storytelling like this one did. Terrific and imaginative drawings (I'm talking about the violence here, not the sex :)
Most any meeting with Parintachin -- I worried on re-reading these in one day, that I'd feel that Parintachin was overused; that he'd pop up too often, as I felt the Purple Marauder did. In fact, I don't think that was the case. Well, actually, I wouldn't mind if he showed up a bit less often, but my point is that his appearances always lent something to the story. They delve into Lusiphur's character, his motivations, his fears, everything that makes him who he is. That said, it would be important not to overdo it. Self-analysis is good, but if you do it all the time, you never actually live your life. One thing about Parintachin that I'm wary of, though, is that he seems to be losing his edge a bit. He (and his environment) used to be much more surreal and out of control. Now he seems quite stable compared to Luse. I wouldn't mind seeing the tables turned again a bit. Anyway, Parintachin composed most of the good issues in Sanctuary.
Luse's inquisition of the Eye of the Lins member with Basil's help (last part of issue 16. This was done superbly. Nice page layouts. Nice panel choices. Nice pacing. And a concluding page that just ended with all the fury and action that you could imagine in a one-panel page. Best of all: the cover was the only time we ever saw what the Eye of the Lins guy was seeing. And anticipating it, only to find that Drew never draws it explicitly, was just beautiful. This reminds me of the Mulehide print that Drew sold years and years ago of Luse goosing the barmaid and a brawl ensuing. It was just a random scene that Drew explained would be part of a future story (I think he did, or did I make that up?). And then when issue 18 came out, it was like you were hearing the joke whose punchline you'd been told years before, but never quite got. It's this kind of planning and structuring and patient visual storytelling that I've been missing. Basil was a great instance of it, though.
Issues 38-39. I have to say that the last two issues have made me much more optimistic about the future of this series than the rest of the storyline. 38 was yet another great Parintachin-Lusiphur interaction. 39 did about as good a job as you could hope for at sealing up the mess that was Sanctuary, putting a bow on it, and moving on. I hope that the title "The Way Things Were" refers to a return in the type of story and pacing and characters and plot that the Mulehide issues had delivered. And I sincerely can't believe that Luse didn't meet up with Lirilith (I mean, I *can* believe it, and I realize that he's not ready for another relationship right now in any sense, but still... isn't she the Jaka of Poison Elves for you?). Oh, BTW: Bill's unexplained appearance in the first page and the subsequent explanation were another example of that Basil-barmaid delayed gratification thing. Clever. Nifty. Fun. Yay!
OK, so I've done a lot of whining. You'll have to forgive me, it's been building up for 39 issues now. To be fair, the last time I saw Drew was when issue 1 had come out and he said, "be sure to let me know what you think of the series!" I guess I've finally gotten around to doing that. I'm sure that I'll get plenty of email from fans pointing out how I'm wrong and being too harsh and expecting too much and asking me if I thought I could do any better (feel free to send it, though I will probably still disagree). Could I do better? Probably not. But I know Drew can, and that's why I was so disappointed in Sanctuary. And why I've got such high hopes for issues 40 and on. Come on Drew, don't let us down!
OK, enough of this. If you've made it this far, I'll buy you a drink the next time you come to Seattle (invitation to anyone, not just Drew).
Actually, I've got one more thought: I have to wonder what Poison Elves would look like if it were to come out bimonthly (or say once every six weeks) rather than monthly. If Drew has great reasons for needing to do it monthly (financial or contractural), so be it. I'll hope that he can put together stories as short and sharp and shocked as he did in his bimonthly days. But I have to wonder whether that extra 2-4 weeks of time would allow him to put his ideas and art and scripts and stories together so perfectly that it would make the wait be worth it. And the stories better. And the sales increase. Something to think about (and if you agree, to suggest to him--especially if you're his boss :).
