Slashdot Mirror
Ask Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis has agreed to be our next victim for a Slashdot Interview. Probably best known
as the creator of the awesome comic Transmetropolitan. If there is a required reading list for Slashdot, Transmet has to be at the top. His recently released Mek series was the first comic I've ever read to actually mention the EFF. His Global Frequency book makes for great reading as well- #7 is out next week. Warren's work contains great dialog, observations on humanity, and is quite frankly just great SciFi. Besides comics,
you can read his blog at
Die Puny Humans and his weekly graphic novel evangelism column BRAINPOWERED.
Standard Slashdot Interview Rules apply: Post questions here. We'll select from the highly moderated ones, and Warren will answer in a few days.
I always thought it was more like... :)
1. JRR Tolkien
2. Bruce Sterling
3. Kilgore Trout...
Where can I get Spider Jarusalem sunglasses?!?
Hello,
;)). However, most of I have written by you is in trade paperbacks of old collections.
:)
I'm a huge Portuguese fan of yours, and I've bought many books without any other references other than having your name, up untill now without disappointments. To me you're on a place I reserve for great comic book writers. You're up there, right besides Gaiman, Moore, Morrison, etc... Your take on X-Counter was awesome (a pity nobody really stood up properly on your shoulders). It elevated the way the X-Books were going, and proved that it was worth investing in good writers (just look at the current portfolio with the exception of Austen
Enough flattery. If i can have the choice, I much rather buy the tradepaperback to get a "full" storyline without the stress of waiting for the next month. It's also a much better way to appreciate story, drawing and inking.
SO, do you feel that the grwing trend from fans of prefering trade paperbacks (and Marvel seems to be grabbing a hold on that market too) is beneficial for you? If not, why?
Anyone who's continued obscurity baffles and confuses you? Writers or artists.
How about the same question for success? No need for diplomacy, what gets said on Slashdot stays on Slashdot
Even though Planetary is a "Secret history of the Wildstorm Universe", you bring lots of elements from the history of Marvel and DC. Has the direction of Planetary change since your initial proposal?
Je ne parle pas francais.
If there is a required reading list for Slashdot, Transmet has to be at the top. /., what would be your pick for best series/book/compilation of your work to read for the first time? (Is it really 'Transmet'?)
Since I'll obviously have to read your works to continue reading
Also, do you feel that good artwork is as essential to a comic as a good story?
Don't use the Troll mod just because you disagree with me.
You're very cool. Thanks.
Mattman
Anyhow, I have generated a list that I use to get people into comics. The 5 or so graphic novels that I actually use to start people changes between people, but the rest of the list tends to remain the same. I have my list.
But someone approaches you. They've just read Kavalier and Klay or maybe they've read about Maus or read Gaiman's successful book in transition from Stephen King. Or even better, they see you reading Alias on the train and wonder what a comic book is doing saying, "Fuck." Where do YOU, Warren Ellis, point them to?
And don't say Watchmen, cause that's (fantastic) genre crud.
So, I hate to ask this, but Planetary has been coming out at a very slow crawl, and some of us are waiting desperately for the next issue. When is it likely to come out? And is the slow pace just because you have so many projects going at once?
How can I procure anti-cancer drugs that will allow me to smoke as much as Spider Jarusalem?!?
Are they any good? What would you recommend?
Red Hat or Debian?
Don't read this!
where do your ideas come from? What's a smart guy like you doing on a low-brow site like this? /sig deleted to protect the guilty/
For a second I thought that read "Brain Powerd". I've never been so glad to see an "e" in my life.
Mr. Ellis, your books entertain to no end. One of the aspects of Transmet that I enjoy a great deal is your poking at the idea of transhumanism. "Uploading", the gene-fad victims, the reanimated cryo folks, all are human, but a humanity that is to one degree or less, removed from the humanity the rest of us experience.
Where do you think our species is going in regards to current "transhumanist" ideas? Do you really think someday we'll be uploading our conciousness to a digital point of view, or swapping out yesterday's cheetah spots for tiger stripes as the mood strikes us?
Thanks for your time.
...I just started rereading Transmetropolitan last night. (I want to be Spider Jerusalem when I grow up--of course, I'll have to drop about eighty pounds, laser off all my body hair, get several tattoos...on second thought, forget it.)
Anyway, my question is this: I just finished "Year of the Bastard" and I'm reading through "The New Scum", and I was struck by how many parallels there are between the election in the books and our current situation in the US--particularly the gradual loss of civil liberties, the peevish, grudge-holding President, and so on.
Did you have any kind of feeling that the country was heading in this direction at the time you were writing Transmetropolitan? Or is this just a case of art (sadly) imitating life?
...Ellis' almost-daily mailing list.
Wanna subscribe? Send a blank email to:
badsignal-subscribe@lists.flirble.org
thelocust[dot]org
Warren used to run a regular forum. This was the Warren Ellis Forum . A lot of questions have been previously very hashed over there. It was a reasonably high content forum but still had some of the usual drivel. The forum basically lasted the life of Transmetropolitan and was some sort of feedback for that effort. People could do searches of that for some more background on some of the issues. The forum was used by Warren for a fair bit of research into "floppies" vs trade paper backs and superheros vs other comic heros by asking people what they thought and bought.
I was just wondering, was former Senator Longmarch supposed to look like Mao, or was his name and my thinking he looked like Mao just a coincidence?
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
I don't even know what to ask.. i'm sure i'll think of something in about two weeks and be annoyed i didn't ask it. I was going through a friend's bookshelf and found his Transmetropolitan collected-paperback-things one night.. by 3 AM i'd read the entire series all the way through except the one that hasn't been released in book form yet, and i proceeded to spend the next two or three days almost half expecting to turn a corner to find the transmetropolitan universe real and sitting there in front of me, because Transmet's world seems every bit as painfully believable as the real one..
I guess the one question i can think of is this: after reading Transmetropolitan, it seemed painfully obvious that Matt Groening's Futurama is heavily, heavily inspired by Transmetropolitan. Do you think this is likely the case? Do you have any thoughts on that? Do you feel ripped off? ^_^
Also: is "Transmetropolitan" an intentional pun on "Transhumanism", or am i just reading that in?
I have grown up on comics since the late 70's. I have seen some good writers come and go, but through out the 90's their have been some truly great writers on par with the Golden Age of comics. Thanks to a more liberal sense of media, comics have thankfully grown out of the American Comics Approval Code (the most loathe-some piece of legislation ever written in my mind).
My question is this, through out your own career, have you received the respect as a writer you have earned? Or do you tell people at cocktail parties that you write "serials"?
More or less, I am asking, do you think comics are finally getting the respect as literature they deserve, Gaiman's awards aside.
TANSTAAFL
Did anybody else think of the anime when they read "BRAINPOWERED"?
Hey warren do you think the lack of letters page in vertigo titles has affected the comic experience? I always felt more invloved when i was able to read a page of your and other readers thoughts at the end of the comic.
Will the rest of Transmetropolitan be collected as paperbacks? I put off buying the individual issues waiting for the collections, but they seem to be a little slow in coming.
Your design to a real part online: Big Blue Saw
What to you think of the crowd like Jeremy Rifkin and Fukuyama and their worries of the imminent approach of a post-human dystopia? Do you think we would shed the core aspects of humanity if technology allowed? I doubt it's even possible to become post-human. I believe we might augment, but could never replace our core humanity? What do you think?
which will likely be followed by MORE wars against Islam in Syria and Iran, followed by a possible NUCLEAR war with North Korea, and you people have the gall to be discussing comic books???? My *god*, people, GET SOME PRIORITIES!
We have! We like death, all of us, and frankly there isn't enough of it in the real world. Only in comic books do you really get to blow shit up on the scale we crave.
1. Do you read slashdot? ...
2. How Frequently?
3. What do you think you'll be doing in five years; more of the same Mek/Books/SciFi comics, or
Best
-=fshalor
It does!!!!
Who are y oo ?
If you ever allow any of your creator owned works to get spun-off into movies, please don't let ANYONE rename/rebrand/whore-out it into "catchy" acronym laden tripe: like what is going on with Alan Moore's magnum opus, the League of Extrordinary Gentlemen = LXG 2003 (wtf?). I would hate to see Transmetropolitan called Trans Freedom New York.
I went to battle MC Escher but drew a blank
The overall perception of comics is of an industry that just hasn't grown up, and comic book enthusiasts are seen as adults who can't let go of their childhood. This is especially true in the case of hentai and furry porn, where adult themes are combined with "childish" cartoon artwork. But although I have seen writing that does fit this description, I have also seen examples of competent, mature writing, and I know that comic books can be as effective a form of art as any other.
I want to know what you, having worked in the mainstream comics industry, have to say about this. If you know of comics out there that are truly great -- not amateur, pretentious, or immature -- I would like to know what they are. I gave up on comics years ago, but I have hopes that one will come along that will change my mind.
I enjoy the Transmetropolitan comics immensely. In my mind, I can't help but think that Spider Jerusalem bares a strong resemblance to Hunter S. Thompson. Is any of this intentional on the author's part?
You took a year off early in your comic career after Lazarus Churchyard. What exactly were you doing over that year?
You acted as a creative consultant for Rage's Hostile Waters game, and it showed: the story line is a cut above anything I've played for some time and the cut-scene narratives beautifully eloquent.
How satisfying did you find the experience? (Did you get a say in the voice cast?) Would you do it again?
If you could try another media to work with, which would it be?
"What human invention gives with one hand it takes with the other: hell lies implicit in a gift of Eden."
1. Why did you end the Transmet comics the way you did? It's been great fun while it lasted, but having such an open-ended last issue makes me think that there is a possibility of another run, which, quite frankly, I would not want to see. (Most classics ended and never were resurrected.)
2. I consider Global Frequency to be one of the sexiest comic books out there right now. I'm no expert, but as a fan, I must admit that I have re-read each issue several times, and always liked it. I was wondering: is there a central story that would tie all the episodes together or not? If so, when will we find out more?
My question is, I've noticed at least two fairly obscure pop culture references in the artwork. The first is that the Diner in #32 (The Walk) is modeled after Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" painting. The other, and my favorite, is that in #33 (Dancing in the Here and Now) there's a frame in which a man seems to be impersonating Tom Waits in a photo of him that I have only ever seen on the cover of his book of sheet music.
The Hopper image seems fairly accessible, but I was really suprised to see the Tom Waits one. It was only by force of sheer coincidence that I ever noticed it.
My question, then, is twofold. First of all, is it you who is responsible for these, or is it Darick Robertson, the artist? Second, do you think you could maybe point out some others that I missed?
Once again, thanks for your work.
-- Nerds on toast in the new millenium
And while I have always enjoyed Transmet I do miss the even darker strain that was evident in Hellstorm. Any plans to do something more along the lines of Hellstorm again? Something more dark and occult in the lack of a better description. (but of course this time maybe something of your own without the restraints of suffered doing Hellstorm.)
how much for the ape?
...
I read somewhere that Spider was modeled after Hunter S. Thompson. This makes sense to me, but was it your intention? Besides the similarities in their characters, the only overt connection I have found is that in #13 (Year of the Bastard) one of the books on Spider's desk is a book by Hunter S. Thompson. So, what is it? Same person, or coincidence? And, if Spider is modeled on Thompson, do you know how he feels about this?
-- Nerds on toast in the new millenium
Mr. Ellis,
Roughly about a year ago, I heard that two more Trans titles (TransOceanic & TransContinental) were in the works. One would be about Yelena, taking up Spider's job in the City. The other would be a pre-TransMet storyline, filling in all the details about:
~ The War of the Verbals,
~ The night of the phone calls in Prague,
~ First introduction to the Beast, etc, etc.
So is there any Truth to these rumors?
Patrick Stewart, being a vocal Transmet fan, has expressed interest in starring in a Transmet movie or TV (mini?) series. I think you too have expressed interest in this kind of venture. Basically, my questions are:
:) ).
1) What is the status of a Transmet movie or TV series? Have any studios shown interest in this kind of project?
2) What kind of role would you play if such a project was green-lit? Which story arc from your comics do you think would be best suited for the big screen, or would you develop an entirely new arc?
3) Are you friends with Patrick Stewart? I honestly can't picture him either reading Transmet or portraying Spider in a movie. That being said, I would love to see how Patrick Stewart would interpret Spider Jerusalem.
I hope you continued success. To me, people like you and Garth Ennis represent the new breed of comic writers who are and will continue to expand the art just as effectively as writers such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore (who also continue to do their own thing, and are far from retirement
Cheers,
-Mani
Ever since getting turned on to Transmet I have loved every piece of work by Warren Ellis I can get my hands on. I am about to begin reading the graphic novels of The Authority which I grabbed last night not to mention trying to read as many of the Transmet back issues I can get.
I loved Mek. I loved it so much I bought to copies one I could read and read again and another to put in my "crazed comic collector" collection. However reading Mek I keep getting a feeling I was reading something like Johnny Mnemonic from William Gibson. Who, what or how is your work influenced?
Just for general information, Reload, another book by Ellis, is due on shelves next week as well.
Did Transmet come out of your writing Doom 2099 where Doom, fed up with America's corrupt influence, takes over the country and tries to fix it? (For example: the Smiler always seemed to be reminiscent of Herod, while the behind the scenes Captain America getting all coked out in the Red House reminded me of the Beast). Or is the corruption of politics just a subject matter you're particularly fascinated with?
There was a lot of controversy on your run of DC's Hellblazer, which seemed to start with the (understandably) cancelled Columbine-like issue. What can you tell us on what's happened (without naming names) and how does it affect your relationship with DC to this day?
Second question, if I may. We often hear about which book/character that a comicbook writer would love to work on. What character or book from the big 2 wouldn't you touch with a 10 foot pole?
It's better to burn out than to fade away
Where do you see the quality of journalism going in our world in the next hundred years? Are we on an unstoppable downward spiral to the point where real journalists have to go underground like Spider on the Feed, or do you think there's a point coming where the public suddenly wakes up to the (lack of) quality of the pap they're getting fed every night on TV?
Where do you get your "real news" from -- are there certain small magazines and papers you read regularly or do you have to just puzzle out the real story from reading between the lines in the articles the big guys print?
And in the current events category, what's your take on the whole SARS flap?
-- Old Man Kensey
If there is a required reading list for Slashdot, Transmet has to be at the top.
If you tried to read all of the material that people think should be on the slashdot required reading list, there would be no time to bathe or have sex. Well I guess that explains a few things..
Why are the best comics, an American medium, written by Brits?
Although much of the conversation centers on the sci-fi work of Transmetropolitan, I've got a few observations on other projects. 1) Do you believe that the market for graphic novels and comics is charging a fair price? To get the complete Transmetropolitan, for example, would require an investment of well over $75 dollars on my part, and I find myself unable to get into it because I know I'll never be able to afford to find out how the story ends. 2) About Planetary: Many of the Planetary stories have introduced characters that fit a particular archetype of recent (20th century) literature. Unlike Moore's Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen, many of the "knock-off" characters, such as Doc Brass, and John Stone (Doc Savage and James Bond, respectively) Have you encountered any trouble with copyright holders for including these homages? Have you been able to get away with it because Planetary, as a comic, slips under the notice of the copyright holders? 3) Will we see other works in the same fourth-wave dystopia as Transmetropolitan in the future, even if it doesn't involve the same characters? 4) What exactly WAS Anna Hark doing at Science City Zero in 1950? -- Funksaw.
Warren, you are always talking how you immerse yourself in pop culture, using it to feed your ever growing imagination. This has always troubled me because I can only take so much American Idol and Britney Spears before my brain begins turning into coal and everything ends up looking hazy violet. I'd like to hear what you mean by pop culture. What sources do you most commonly draw from now? There is practically nothing mainstream worth the effort anymore, so where else do you turn?
Mr. Ellis, In recent years, there has been a minor trend of comics which feature updated or slightly reworked versions of the heroes and villains from old pulp novels and radio dramas. Many of these characters were created in and for the consumption of a society than was sexist, racially biased (if not outright racist), and generally more spiteful and discriminatory than modern society. Many of these characters' stories were filled with ethnic and racial stereotypes that have been (in most cases) culled from their representations in contemporary comics; however ignorance and hate remain a part of their past. In talking about this issue with some friends, it was pointed out to me that characters like Tarzan and Fu Manchu are archetypes (the wild man and the evil genius) which are present in many cultures ? that may be so, but the fact remains that those specific characters are also stereotypes (the great White hunter and the Yellow Peril). Considering that you have featured a Tarzan-like character in Planetary, and a Fu Manchu-like character in both Planetary and the Authority, how do you draw the line between using an archetype and using a stereotype? Is it even necessary to use those specific characters, when the archetype can be used to create a new character that is not tied to the close-mindedness of the past - or do you believe that reworking the character to remove those ties exonerates the character from its past? Do you plan to address this issue in Planetary or any other comic where you use pulp characters, and do you believe it is something other creators should consider?
I've been reading your columns and I'm pleased to see that there are those working in the comics industry who actually think about what they're creating and refuse to lend a helping hand to reversing the story-telling progress that was made in the 80s and 90s.
;) had anything to do with the decline of the book. Yes, the book then side-tracked too often toward that topic and yes, the original setup gave depth to the story without having to be a "gay superhero" thing.
However, I have to disagree with you on The Authority. I don't think the sexuality of Superman and Batman... er, Apollo and Midnighter
But, do you think they could have been overtly gay and still managed to be "just another couple of members of the team"? To put that another way, if there had been a wealth of plot and character development available (as there was when you were writing it), can't you imagine simply dropping the answer to the question and moving on to other stories? Is it an inescapable trap or just an obvious one?
Ok, three question marks is too many in a Slashdot interview, even when they're really all the same question. So thank you again for great story telling, and good luck!
"But Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills, you're from two different worlds."
...
"Oh, I've wasted my life."
We love your stuff, and I figure they'll be plenty of questions about them in general.
1) But whose work (outside of comics) are you interested/intrigued by? What's the last book or cd that you had to run out and buy?
2) And since your work is always seemngly so current, what do you use for your news? Anything you turn to first thing in the morning that you read first, or an assortment of things equally?
and alright, I can't help it...a straight comic question:
3) I really enjoyed your run in the Authority, when i picked it up in trade. I'm wondering what do you think about the direction that the Authority has taken and how much involvement you have if any with it? I never ventured further than one storyline and a few scattered issues after you left-- it just seemed to take a more juvenile power-mad posture instead of the fun?-but morally centered powered up version I felt your stories had...
1. Is this the place to post questions to Warren Ellis? I have never been to Slashdot before. It will be exciting to see if I am visible in a few seconds!! Wow. This is big. 2. Warren, how much money do you make? 3. Can you give me some of it?
and these aren't joke questions. They're serious.
1.0 How do I become you?
2.0 If I become you, do I have to use Windows?
After reating through a great deal of Transmetropolitain, I cannot help but note that (And I've read many visions of the future) it is by far the most realistic portrayal of the future of our civilization I have yet to come across, and yet ot obviously has satirical and comedic undertones. My question is, when you originally envisioned this society of the future, were you thinking more along the lines of parodying our own society, or extrapolating on its development?
By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
Mr. Ellis-
This sounds a little silly, but it's a debate I've had with some friends. We all noticed that what Spider looked like on the mountain, and what you look like, were similar.
Did you ever feel like Spider was just a characature(sp?) of yourself. I always liked to think that the loss of hair was somehow symbolic of him losing what little inhabition he had left.
I guess the question is, do you see Spider as a reflection of your own personality and your own frustrations? Is he just what you would be without any accountability or responsibility? Just how close are you to that character?
Thanks
I was always a little disappointed by the ending of "Transmetropolitan." As much as I like the thought of Spider making it out of the city and living happily in his garden, it just didn't seem to fit the tone of the series.
A friend of mine (a journalistic bastard in his own right) introduced me to Transmet, and had his own theory about the end of the series---Spider discovers, in a wave of revelation, that the city itself is a cultural reservation, and he escapes to the outside (presumably even worse than the city).
My question is this: Why end the series with such a hand-of-God maneuver? Spider's in remission, he's happy in the garden, everyone lives happily ever after? It was definitely a payoff, but not the one that I (and many other readers) had been expecting or waiting for---it seemed a little incongruous with the rest of the series.
Have you considered writing out Planetary as a novel? The ideas are solid, the conspiracy vibe is HOT, and your research is extraordinary. If Neil Gaiman can put together Neverwhere, surely there's a publishing house drooling to take your world to print.
How much of you is Spider Jerusalem? What do you two have in common?
I've always been curious why you and Garth Ennis, among others, spend so much time with stories set in the U.S.?
If the main reason is simply that you sell more of the stuff that way (and I'm not trying to be offensive), what are some of the other reasons?
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
While reading transmet I kept getting this sinking feeling that all of the more out-there happenings and inventions of its futuristic world were really just refelctions (sometimes to more extreme level) of modern life. As I go about my existence since I've read the story and incredibly f'd up things happen around me, I find myself sometimes thinking that the "future" seeming world of transmet isn't the future at all, it's just the way life is among human beings.
Why did you set transmet in the future, and is a direct reflection/expose on modern life?
"Other bands play, but Manowar KILLS"
This is really a question for Darick Robertson but he's not here.
Why are Yelena and Channon drawn differently in the final issue? They're lean in all of the previous issues and kinda puffy in the final issue.
What's your opinion on the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (anti-censorhip organisation of comics writers & of people working in this field) ?
Furthermore, do you think that clear and direct political content can be present and "efficient" (i.e. thought provoking) in *mainstream* comics ?
- Box Offic Poison by Alex Robinson
- Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore
- Bone by Jeff Smith
- The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Godnick
You should be able to find more information on any of these books by googling for it.
Like any form of literature, art, or media in general comic books cannot all be placed neatly into one genre or artform. As with any other form of media an enthusiast has to work hard and do some research to find what they are looking for. I guess that is what you are doing by asking that question, which is deffinately a good one. Hopefully one or two of my suggestions help. I would be interested to see what other comic book enthusiasts would add to my short list of possibilities.
Hi Warren, I am wondering what's your take on digital comics? Are you reading any? Do you think that sequential art can work in a digital environment? Why does it seem like traditional comic publishers lack the drive to experiment with this new medium? * I know this question seems obvious, but I want to get a pro's perspective on it. Is there a future for digital comics? What would compel you to read or even create one? Sorry for the million and one questions, but it seems like their is a lack of serious dialogue when discussing the pros, cons, and future of digital comics. Thanks much, Pab
from a formal standpoint -- that is, state of the industry aside -- what do you find liberating or enabling (or frustrating or restrictive) about working in comics rather than, say, prose or film or whatever? are there stories you've wanted to tell that comics wouldn't let you?
In Transmet you never really question the power of the press.
The people of the city are overwhelmingly shown as self-absorbed, Epicurean, sadistic fucks, barely able to hold a whole idea in their head at once, much less aspire to things like altruism or civic duty. When they're not actually the johns fucking little kids, they're lost in their own worlds of drugs, body manipulation, sex, or often all three at once.
So it seems anachronistic that a president still holds press conferences, that a journalist can be universally loved, and that a column feed can stop a riot.
Transmet drew details from current events, but not the big picture. In a year where one news corp. runs attack ads against another for not being pro-administration enough, and Helen Thomas is sent to the back of the bus for not being a simpering twit, the most famous journalist today is... Geraldo. What makes you think a competent muckraker will have any kind of influence at all, starting, let's say, negative ten years from now?
Mr. Ellis, why should anyone continue to purchase your work when you are unable to produce it in a timely fashion? Planetary and MoS being your two most glaring failures.
Sure, you can crank out that silly shit through Avatar who permit you to basically purge your system of all your references to human bodily functions and genital pictures. But, what's the point of all that gore and perversity when your best stuff just isn't getting finished?
Since you've completed Transmet, you've slipped. You're no longer working on time, and you're missing deadlines. Do you even care about the medium that puts food on your table? Do you expect us to just lap up your steaming piles of shit like happy little fanboys and girls, please that there's any Ellis stuff to be had?
Manga is becoming more and more popular lately. Finite series in trade paperback form are selling very well outside the traditional comics market, most notably at bookstores. How much of this did you see coming, and do you feel it justifies your, er, contraversial statements on the Western comics industry in the past?
(reply to the poster, not a question for Mr. Ellis)
Two issues of GF were the first comic books I'd bought for years (not counting a beat-up second-hand copy of Gaiman's Death: The Time of Your Life). I picked up #2 (the military cyborg) and #3 (the alien memetic virus) after reading extensive good words about the series on the internet. To be honest, I was disappointed. The physical and visual quality of the books was very good - excellent printing quality and I quite liked the art in both cases - but I found the story lines and writing in general very... unsatisfying. In both cases interesting ideas were presented but I found they were treated in a superficial way. I'm not sure if it was the simple brevity of the stories or the fact that so much was offered conceptually and then wrapped up so neatly in one issue. In fact I suspect that proper treatments of both stories could have easily filled one of those fat manga books I hear they have in Japan, or at least a few more issues of GF...
Being a sexy comic book doesn't equal being a satisfying read. Am I missing something here or am I just not used to comic-book-length stories?
Freedom: "I won't!"
Mr. Ellis, I am a huge brazilian fan of your work, even though the most of it has not yet been published here. At this moment, Transmet is launched monthly here, and Planetary and The Authority have been (momentaneously, I hope) cancelled.
One of the things I like most in your work is the not-so-much-USA-centric view of the world. Sometimes, Transmet seems to express a clear discontent with the way America treats the world. When dealing with themes as journalism and the relationship between media and politics, Spider sometimes seems to me to incarnate a sort of what Mr. G. W. Bush could call "Democrat America + Old Europe versus Republican America". Supposing my perception is true, have you ever suffered any kind of censorship working with DC in regard to the political opinions that came out of Spider mouth?
Have you received negative feedback of the american readers because of such opinions?
Would you write such stories in a different way today, in the era of "humanitary bombing" and the "shoot first, ask later" american wars?
Do you think is there space in the american comics industry for any political dissent at this moment?
Am I totally wrong about this perception?
Thank you for your time,
Marcus Vinicius
MBB - The greatest brazilian comics message board
http://marvelvc.com/forum
Between you and Garth Ennis, are there any possible Pogues / Shane MacGowan references that haven't been made in comics? If so, are there any that you really want to use? Once you're through with MacGowan, who's next?
I know much of the previous comics you worked on were of characters owned by Marvel or DC or whoever, and I was wondering what runs through your mind when you see the directions that later writers take the characters in.
I know a number of people who are interested in graphic story-telling. Unfortunately, not many people are as equally gifted artists as they are writers (or vice-versa). As graphic novels are a medium that require both these skills, what would you advise would-be collaborators do to find each other?
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So, what about SARS? What will life be like during and after the great SARS pandemic of 2003/2004?
Questions for Warren Ellis -- Do you consider your work to be optimistic or pessimistic? Which works in particular? Would you name any specific work as the most depressing or most hopeful work you have done? Do you think of yourself as a hopeful person, or as a glass-half-empty, and it's-full-of-poison-anyway kind of guy?
you might also be intereseted in Meridian, and Route 666 from CrossGen. Serialized stories that stray far from the comic book norm, without being heavy handed or preachy.
Besides yourself, who's your favorite cam girl?
No one mentioned one of your darkest and most interesting (and for readers still unfinished) works - Ministry of Space. It seems like this three issue project has been plagued by problems and remains relatively unknown or at least undiscussed by most of your readers and supporters. Can you comment on the creative process, frustrations, and hopefully rewards associated with this alternate history Britain first on the moon tale?