I must commend you. You wrote a good letter, had well-based opinions, and offered it up to the masses despite possible ridicule and flaming. And while I don't agree with some of your views, I respect them and know where you're coming from. But there are many things I do agree with.

(Warning: i don't have half my back issues and haven't reread them in a long while. My memory is shoddy, so if there's any mistakes, and there will be, shake your head and call me senile.)

I have to admit, I came into PE late in the Sanctuary line (this past feb.) and NEVER felt the agony of the entire 3 and some-odd years. Would I have lasted that time for Sanctuary, I can't say.(I barely lasted through Sandman's drawn-out death!) I can say I'm glad I wasn't put to such a test.

Mulehide were the first I read and I loved them. All of them. The spelling is god-awful, half the covers were done by some artist I don't know and don't really like (#20, what's with the vines? Huh? That has to be the most useless cover I've ever seen.!). But there was so much potential! You could watch Drew's talent growing right before your eyes. His art was developing and blooming. Then came Sirius. He made a big change from his indie days in just a couple issues. Now, I kinda suspect sirius put him in a bit of a choke collar and like many who get a new job, you change a little to please the new boss (even if you don't mean to.) who is giving you steady paychecks and a nice contract to frame. We all do. not to mention he hd less time to work.

As to editing, Rogue, Rouge, whatever. After awhile I didn't even notice it. Most of the time I don't notice the editing errors or the misspelling because my spelling sucks. But it isn't very professional and I agree that someone focused on that would hit the equivalent of a comicbook speed bump.

All in all, I liked Sanctuary. The idea of the guild intrigued me, the love found and lost was good for us sentimentalists who wanted to see a little of Luse's softer side, Par was great through the whole thing and #8 is the top issue on my list with Mr. Moto next in line. The panel covers were great with the background pics and windows showing bits of the story within. Drew grew a lot more and became more defined and distinctive in his art. He's getting back into his detailed art.

He fleshed out Tenth and Hyena a little more and gave an air of upcoming mystery and darkness pertaining to the wizards. In mulehide he did show magic, but it seemed unbalanced and you really didn't know how mages ranked, their capabilities, or much of anything about elves for that matter. Granted, I think he should define them more, but have confidence he will and it adds to my enthusiam to find out what I can.

I liked Morachi and Talon. From Luse and Jace's point of view, they wouldn't know much about the twins so why define them too much? Talon was the quiet one. Why would you really know anything about him anyway unless he went out of character?

I like Fleece. He was a human amongst elves showing that all the 'bad ones' weren't going to only be elves. It would have annoyed me a lot if the assasins were only elves. I like Serendeh. He shows not all wizards are bad. I guess. :) I also liked the scenes with the E'jja.

The fight scene between Jace and Luse was incredible and I loved when they were torturing Luse (I guess i'm a little sick that way. I like the idea of people getting caught and tortured in stories.) That was when the story really began to pick up for me again (even though I read it over the span of a few short weeks). To get to the meat of my negative opinion of Sanctuary, Sanctuary wasn't a story arc. It was a story suspension bridge. I agree that the serial killer issue sucked. It reminded me of why I hate old mysteries. You can't guess the killer because you never really met them. For all intensive purposes, almost any other character as the killer would have been more interesting than an undefined member of the bloodguard.(spook, dendrin, scuz or scum, fried or bal, I was hoping it was Vido, not that i paid too much attention to it, anyway. In fact, i'd forgotten about it until that issue addressed it).

Another one of the things I didn't like were what I called his 'repeat' issues. Okay, there was the awesome early issue where luse climbs up in the guy's bedroom and kills him before his wife even notices. I liked that one. We learned what being in the Guild was like. So what was the point of showing Luse dressed in masquerade as a woman to kill again? We already knew what he did when he went out on hits. We can assume his hits are much of the same. Bob the crossbow champ goes into a bar, makes fun of the dead assassin elf with his friends, and finds himself staring down the barrel of Luse's gun. I liked that issue a lot. It was revenge I understood and I understood why luse shot all the cops in the bar. The fat guy who likes strippers is in a bar (hey, I told you I haven't seen my back issues in a long time, but I remember the story) watching his favorite hoochie mama, and finds himself staring down the barrel of Luse's gun. WHY? WHY? It was like hitting the rewind button. I think the only thing I got out of that issue was that the stripper had a nice bra. Friedrich and Bal? They should've stayed in the Pen, cuz they didn't make any difference whatsoever to me. I don't really like them and I wanted to see Jace decapitate the both of 'em with his broadsword the next time they showed up. (it was funny they mistook themselves for jace and Luse)

The PM. He was funny the first time with Cassie and I didn't mind him then, but I must say the last story bit with him was too much info and annoyed me. He really shouldn't have even shown up. it took away lot of his craziness and good-natured mystery.

Also, while I had a good laugh at Luse becoming a woman, why did it have to happen THEN? It would have been fine by itself later, and probably would have been given more attention by me. I put my issue down and walked away for awhile when Drew interrupted the end of Sanctuary to have that bar scene of 'Lucy' kicking that pig's ass. Sanctuary's end was where it was happening for me and instead I got Luse as a woman, the PM trying to get some, and two guys that I wanted struck dead by the golden boy. Why not focus on Sanctuary? Sanctuary (the guild itself) seemed to have gotten the short-end of the stick when compared to its potential.

A major gripe I have is Jace. Jace had his own part of the storyline, first time he was on his own and we could have learned so much about him while hearing about Luse, too. What more did we learn about him? He can now put he was a cop for awhile on his resume. He was acidentally thought the cause of Cassie's death. He went back to being 'bad' with Luse again. But we still don't know much of anything about him. Nothing about his past. Nothing beyond what he did as a cop. Did he hang out at the bar with the rest of them? I don't remember. He just seemed a glum, bored cop.

Art. Alright, this is the only thing I have to complain about Drew's art. What happened after the first 5 or so issues? Serendeh had dark hair. I loved how cassie first looked, more distinct. More of a 'midsummer night's nightmare' kind of art. More delicate. I liked it, but I realize it's gone for good. And only mourn its passing for a short moment.

Wishes that won't come true:

I wish we could have seen Talon go on a hit.

I wish the end of Sanctuary could have been an entire issue with the huge fight we waited so long for drawn as only Drew can do it.

I wish we could have been thrown at least a small bone about Jace's past.

I wish Luse would pull Basil out of his bag again someday.

I probably cheesed a few people off with my own mini-rant, but hey, it's what I've thought for a while and now that Sancts over, there's so much more we'll see that I'm really looking forward to. I don't think it'll be only Luse kills this, Luse kills that. Mulehide didn't have that problem (yeah, I know it was only 20 isues long, but hey! that's 2 years and that's plenty of time to prepare for another story bridge.)