AND FURTHERMORE: my 1st approach to Gary Sullivan's Elsewhere was skip around to singular panels. whereat odd even ghastly phrases meet odd even ghastly images. these panels work as meditative pinpoints. there's something downright blithering about these little packages. as Shanna Compton points out in her comment below (my 1st rumination), Gary works 1st of all as a poet. and the comic can be read straight thru. I skipped about at 1st just with the usual excitement to see what's what. reading the comic as a poem one distils more narrative line than one would expect. not story but logical attachment between panel and panel. a reason to follow. Elsewhere is not a one of but it has the author's hand, so to speak. I like the idea of handmade and one of books, tho I haven't gone far in that direction myself. I'm tired of poetry qua poetry. I keep forgetting to quote Tim Peterson, but here's a good context for doing so: I first became a language when I realized I didn't trust poetry. I began with that distrust, still have it. my crankiness (see further below) stems from the distrust. that the delicate thing gets involved in something else. which is not to say I rule out humour, political passion, ideas or what not. but that the delicate thing survives. a consideration of form is imperative. which is one of those boxy declarations I hate to see, yet sometimes you've got to put the terms out there. so Elsewhere is an encouraging whiff of something different. different in the sense that its derivations (we all derive) do not define the work, only suggest the starting point. as opposed to NY or Language poets who sound like NY or Language poets, brand name followers.