Of course, you know that Warren Ellis is the comic book/graphic novel writer who first gained tremendous U.S. acclaim by redefining the useless Image/Wildstorm market flooder, STORMWATCH. He subsequently transformed that into THE AUTHORITY, and introduced superhero comics to the 21st Century. He's still injecting life into the Wildstorm line via PLANETARY, a title that performs archeology on fantastic sub-genres like comics, pulps, and sci-fi.
His best-selling and award-winning graphic novels include the TRANSMETROPOLITAN books, SWITCHBLADE HONEY, and ORBITER, a 2003 original hard cover graphic novel. Part NASA love letter, Orbiter (drawn by Colleen Doran) was also an opportunity to create an original graphic novel that could be read by people who don't usually consume comic books.
Warren continues to entice audiences with comic books like SCARS, GLOBAL FREQUENCY, MEK, RED, RELOAD, and TOKYO STORM WARNING. In addition to comics, Warren writes journalism, prose fiction, videogames, and screenplays (including adapting an SF novel for animation), and occasionally finds time to create websites.
On Monday, Dec. 29, through his Bad Signal mailing list, Warren offered "comics website types" who've been bugging him for interviews (that would be me) a limited time opportunity to ask four questions. As it is a rare chance to gab with him (if only David Lapham would do the same), Mr. Charlie made me hop to it like a good yard boy.3>
During the summer, you mentioned in a few Bad Signals that many creators feel the market (fans, retailers, publishers) didn't support original work. All I see are the same celebrities pimping the same trademarks. Doesn't look like people want to produce original work. What are the hard choices that creators are going to have to make if they want to change things or is it their responsibility to change things in the direct market?
WE: I think if you asked them, they'd tell you they have no responsibility to anything but telling the kind of stories they want to tell. The story of the past few years is that much of the current generation of commercial writers want to write company-owned superhero comics, and that that's what the majority of the remaining direct-market comics stores want to sell. You can't force people to produce what they don't want to do. This is what they want, as the saying goes.
You work hard to promote your work and other people's work. If you could sell lots of books like a best selling prose author on name alone would you disappear and stop doing things like Signal? Why or why not?
WE: Well, I kind of do sell my work on my name alone, as I'm really not riding on famous corporate assets. And I haven't disappeared yet.
In one of his recent [Permanent Damage] columns, Steven Grant wondered where the serious comics critics were. Do you think that comic books/graphic novels need critics who seriously examine the form? Why or why not?
WE: I've kind of vacillated on this over the years. I don't read my own reviews, and, if pushed, I'd probably have to admit that that's partly because most reviews are written by people who mistake a passionate hobby with a working knowledge of the form. Serious comics critics would need to be serious students of the form, with a full understanding of its machinery and its history. Serious criticism is not a hobby. You are not entitled to your opinion if it's uninformed and tossed off just for the glee of seeing your name in print or on screen.
The comics press seems to be of two types, ass-kissing or petty. You've spoken to them, but you've avoided THE COMICS JOURNAL because you've said that you have nothing to say that its readers want to hear. Who do you think that audience is and why wouldn't those readers want to hear what you have to say?
WE: I don't think readers of the Journal need to hear another commercial writer talking about creator-ownership and alternate means of distribution and all that other stuff because it's not new to them; it's the same conversation people have been having in and through the Journal since the mid-Eighties. And, as a writer who does genre work, nothing else I say is going to be of more than anthropological interest to the Journal's audience. I think it's important that the Journal's pages remain open to creators who would not otherwise be able to express their voice. There are people more deserving of their ink.
THANK YOU, MR. ELLIS. If you want to learn more about Warren Ellis, you can visit his website, www.warrenellis.com which is currently on hiatus, but it still has links to sites that are pertinent to his work. For instance, Warren maintains a weblog (or blog) at www.diepunyhumans.com. If you are mature, you may join his "Bad Signals" mailing list; you can get info about that at his site. Amazon.com has an extensive collection of Warren Ellis' graphic novels, and his editor at Wildstorm, Scott Dunbier, suggests that struggling comic book writers read Ellis' work. Warren also has a column at www.artbomb.net entitled "Brainpowered." Be on the lookout for upcoming series including DESOLATION JONES, JACK CROSS, OCEAN (a mini-series), and a graphic novel entitled STEALTH TRIBES, all from DC Comics.
