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Ask Warren Ellis

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the disable-the-bowel-disrupters dept.

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.

5 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Unknown Stars? by alwayslurking · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

  2. re: Transhuman Fun by Zonk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. What a coincidence... by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...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?

  4. On the subject of writing "Fuck" in comic books... by 16977 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Warren, I used to read comic books, like most kids, before I was a teenager. But after I got older, I looked back and realized that it was embarrassingly juvenile. Most comics were basically male power fantasies with gratuitous violence and pretentious dialogue (e.g., "although that regrettable ontogenetic experience may have dissuaded you from answering, Logan..."). And that still hasn't changed. You have "adult" comics which add gratuitous sex and profanity to the gratuitous violence; webcomics and 'zines that replace the pretentious dialogue with pretentious avant-garde layout; and "socially conscious" comics that are essentially the same male power fantasies with politically incorrect villains.

    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.

  5. what pop culture? by agilliland · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?