Warren Ellis

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This article is about the comic book author. For the violinist and composer, see Warren Ellis (musician).
Warren Ellis
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Warren Ellis

Warren Girade Ellis (born February 16, 1968) is a British author of comic books and graphic novels, well known for his acerbic personality and sociocultural commentaries, both through his online presence and his writing. He is a resident of Southend-on-Sea, England.

Contents

[edit] Career

Ellis' writing career started in the British independent magazine Deadline with a 6 page short story in 1990. Other early works include a Judge Dredd short and a Doctor Who one-pager. His first ongoing work, Lazarus Churchyard appeared in Blast!, a short lived British magazine.

By 1994 Ellis began working for Marvel Comics, where he took over the series Hellstorm with #12, which he wrote until its cancellation with #21. He also did some work on the Marvel 2099 imprint, most notably in a storyline where a futuristic Doctor Doom took over the United States. His most notable early Marvel work is a run on Excalibur, a superhero series set in Britain. He also wrote a four-issue arc of Thor called "Worldengine", in which he dramatically revamped both the character and book.

Ellis then started working for DC Comics, Caliber Comics, and Image Comics' Wildstorm studio, where he wrote the Gen¹³ spin-off DV8 and took over Stormwatch, a previously action-oriented team book, which he gave a more idea- and character-driven flavor. He wrote issues #37-50 with artist Tom Raney, and the 11 issues of volume two with artist Bryan Hitch. He and Hitch followed that with the Stormwatch spinoff The Authority, a cinematic super-action series for which Ellis coined the term "widescreen comics."

In 1997 Ellis started Transmetropolitan, a creator-owned series about an acerbic "gonzo" journalist in a dystopian future America, co-created with artist Darick Robertson and published by DC's Helix imprint. When Helix was discontinued the following year, Transmetropolitan was shifted to the Vertigo imprint, and remained one of the most successful non-superhero comics DC was then publishing [1]. Transmetropolitan ran for 60 issues (plus a few specials), ending in 2002. It remains Ellis' largest work to date.

1999 saw the launch of Planetary, another Wildstorm series by Ellis and John Cassaday, and Ellis' short run on the DC/Vertigo series Hellblazer. He left that series when DC announced, following the Columbine High School massacre, that it would not publish "Shoot", a Hellblazer story about school shootings, although the story had been written and illustrated prior to the Columbine massacre. Planetary has been notoriously plagued with delays, but is scheduled to conclude in 2007 with issue #27.

Ellis also returned to Marvel Comics, as part of the company's "Revolution" event, to head the "Counter-X" line of titles. This project was intended to revitalize the X-Men spinoff books Generation X, X-Man, and X-Force, but it was not successful, and Ellis stayed away from mainstream superhero comics for a time.

Transmetropolitan - one of Ellis' best-known series
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Transmetropolitan - one of Ellis' best-known series

In 2003 Ellis started Global Frequency, a 12-issue limited series for Wildstorm, and continued to produce work for various publishers, including DC, Avatar Comics, AiT/Planet Lar, Cliffhanger and Homage Comics.

In 2004 Ellis came back to mainstream superhero comics. He took over Ultimate Fantastic Four and Iron Man for Marvel under a temporary exclusive work for hire contract.

Toward the end of 2004, Ellis released the "Apparat Singles Group", which he described as "An imaginary line of comics singles. Four imaginary first issues of imaginary series from an imaginary line of comics, even." The Apparat titles were published by Avatar but carried only the Apparat logo on the cover.

As of 2006, he continues to work on several projects for different publishers, including Fell (for Image), Desolation Jones (for DC/Wildstorm), Jack Cross (for DC), Blackgas (for Avatar Comics), Nextwave (for Marvel) and the Ultimate Galactus trilogy (for Marvel). It was recently announced that Ellis will also be taking over the Thunderbolts monthly title, which deals with the aftermath of the Marvel Civil War crossover.[2]

Currently, Writer Warren Ellis and Illustrator Salvador Larroca, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Marvel's New Universe, are creating a new series that re-imagines the New Universe, under the title newuniversal. The first issue is to be released December 6, 2006. [3]

Ellis also wrote an episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled "Dark Heart".

Ellis has managed a series of online forums and media to promote his written works and his creative ideals. These forums are sharply moderated by Ellis and his assistants, to suit the particular purpose each one was created for. They include the Warren Ellis Forum, DiePunyHumans.com, the Bad Signal mailing list, WarrenEllis.com, Warren-Ellis.livejournal.com and The-Engine.net. He is popularly known as "Stalin," "The Love Swami," or "Internet Jesus" on these forums.

Ellis' first novel, Crooked Little Vein, will be published in the summer of 2007 by HarperCollins. He is also developing a television series for AMC called Dead Channel, for which he will be the sole writer.

It has recently been announced that he is writing an animated direct to DVD feature film, Castlevania, which will be based on the popular series of video games, also titled Castlevania.[4]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Marvel Comics

[edit] Wildstorm

Planetary: All Over the World
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Planetary: All Over the World

[edit] DC Comics and Vertigo

[edit] Image Comics

[edit] AiT/Planet Lar

  • Switchblade Honey (2003). A sci-fi 72-page graphic novel with artist Brandon McKinney.
  • Come in Alone (non-comics). Collection of the on-line weekly column that Ellis published in 1999-2000 in the website Comic Book Resources.
  • Available Light (non-comics). Collection of short writings and digital photography by Ellis.

[edit] Avatar Press

  • Atmospherics (2002)
  • Bad World (2001). 3-issue miniseries with artist Jacen Burrows.
  • Blackgas (2006-)
  • Dark Blue (2000). With artist Jacen Burrows. Originally published in 6 chapters in the Threshold anthology, later collected in TPB.
  • Bad Signal: From the Desk of Warren Ellis, a collection of essays from Ellis' mailing list of the same name
  • Scars (2003). 6-issue miniseries with artist Jacen Burrows.
  • Strange Kiss #1-3 (1999), Stranger Kisses #1-3 (2001), Strange Killings #1-3 (2002), Strange Killings: Body Orchard #1-6 (2002-2003), Strange Killings: Strong Medicine #1-3 (2003) & Strange Killings: Necromancer #1-6 (2004). A series of four 3-issue and two 6-issue miniseries with artist Mike Wolfer, all featuring the same lead character, William Gravel.
  • Wolfskin (2006-). Sword & fantasy mini-series with artist Juan Jose RyP.

[edit] Apparat

  • Angel Stomp Future
  • Frank Ironwine
  • Quit City
  • Simon Spector

[edit] Others

  • Lazarus Churchyard (later reprinted by Image Comics)
  • Calibrations, later reprinted as Atmospherics (Caliber Comics)
  • Sugarvirus
  • edison hate future (webcomic)
  • Cold Winter (video game)
  • Hostile Waters (PC game)
  • Crooked Little Vein (prose novel)
  • Dead Channel (TV series)
  • At the zoo, short story about transhumanism published in Nature #408, november 16, 2000.

[edit] Trivia

He was born about seventeen months before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969; he reports that the televised broadcast of the event is his earliest coherent memory.

According to a comment made in the first issue of Fell, he has more trade paperbacks in print than anyone else in the American comic industry.

He was a student at The South East Essex Sixth Form College, commonly known as SEEVIC. He contributed comic work to the college magazine, Spike, along with Richard Easter, who also later followed a career in writing.

He favours a totalitarian approach in the monitoring of his online forums.

He makes a lengthy cameo appearance in Powers volume 1 issue #7, in which much of his dialogue consists of actual quotations from Ellis' writings.

[edit] Interviews

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:



Preceded by:
Chris Cooper		 Excalibur writer
1994–1996		 Succeeded by:
Ben Raab
Preceded by:
Roy Thomas		 Thor writer
1995–1996		 Succeeded by:
William Messner-Loebs
Preceded by:
Larry Hama		 Wolverine writer
1997		 Succeeded by:
Chris Claremont
Preceded by:
Jay Faerber		 Generation X writer
2000
(with Brian Wood)		 Succeeded by:
Brian Wood
Preceded by:
Mark Ricketts		 Iron Man writer
2005–2006		 Succeeded by:
Daniel & Charles Knauf
Preceded by:
Garth Ennis		 Hellblazer writer
2000		 Succeeded by:
Darko Macan
Preceded by:
Fabian Nicieza		 Thunderbolts writer
2007–		 Succeeded by:
Current
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