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

Born February 16, 1968 (1968-02-16) (age 40)
Essex, England
Occupation writer
Nationality British
Genres science fiction, superhero
Literary movement Extropianism, Transhumanism
Notable work(s) Transmetropolitan
Planetary
The Authority
Nextwave
Global Frequency
Notable award(s) Eagle Award
Official website

Warren Ellis (born February 16, 1968) is a British author of comics, novels, and television, well known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and his writing, which covers extropian and transhumanist themes (most notably nanotechnology, cryonics, uploading, and human enhancement). He is a resident of Southend-on-Sea, England.

Contents

[edit] Career

Ellis was born in Essex in February 1968, 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.[1] 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. Prior to his career as a writer he had "done most of the shitty jobs you can imagine; ran a bookstore, ran a pub, worked in bankruptcy, worked in a record shop, lifted compost bags for a living".[2]

Ellis' writing career started in the British independent magazine Deadline with a six 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: Prince of Lies 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 [3]. 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.[4] [5] Planetary has been notoriously plagued with delays, but is scheduled to conclude in 2008 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
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.

In 2006 Ellis worked on Jack Cross (for DC), which was not well received and subsequently cancelled. For Marvel, he worked on Nextwave, a 12-issue limited series. He also worked on the Ultimate Galactus trilogy. Ellis also took over the Thunderbolts monthly title, which deals with the aftermath of the Marvel Civil War crossover.[6]

In honor of the 20th anniversary of Marvel's New Universe in 2006, Ellis and illustrator Salvador Larroca created a new series that re-imagines the New Universe, under the title newuniversal. The first issue was released on December 6, 2006.[7]

Ellis continues to work on several projects for different publishers, including Fell (for Image), Desolation Jones (for DC/Wildstorm) and Blackgas (for Avatar Comics). 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 Bad Signal mailing list, warrenellis.com, and Whitechapel. He is popularly known as "Stalin," "The Love Swami," or "Internet Jesus" on these forums.[8]

Ellis' first prose novel, Crooked Little Vein, was published in the summer of 2007 by William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins), with a second novel, Listener, to follow. 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: Dracula's Curse, which will be based on the similarly titled video game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.[9] [10]

Ellis has described himself as "a notorious pain in the arse for getting involved in book design".[11] 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.

Ellis is currently writing a column for the Suicide Girls website that appears every Sunday, entitled "The Sunday Hangover."[12]

Ellis is also writing a Second Life column for Reuters titled Second Life Sketches [13] In Second Life he is known under the name Integral Danton.

On July 29 2007 Ellis announced two new projects for Avatar Press; FreakAngels, a free long-form webcomic illustrated by Paul Duffield, and Ignition City, an ongoing monthly series.[14] He also has two other current series with Avatar: Anna Mercury[15] [16] and No Hero.[17]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Marvel Comics

[edit] Wildstorm

Cover for the Planetary: All Over the World And Other Stories trade paperback. Art by John Cassaday.
Cover for the Planetary: All Over the World And Other Stories trade paperback. Art by John Cassaday.

[edit] DC Comics and Vertigo

[edit] Image Comics

[edit] AiT/Planet Lar

  • Switchblade Honey (2003). A 72-page sci-fi 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

  • Strange Kiss (a series of four 3-issue and two 6-issue miniseries with artist Mike Wolfer, all featuring the same lead character, William Gravel):
    • 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)
    • Gravel (co-written with Mike Wolfer and art by Raulo Caceres, 2008-)

[edit] Apparat

[edit] Others

[edit] Appearances in others' work

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] Awards

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
  • 2007:
    • Eagle Awards: [24] [25]
      • Favourite Comics Writer
      • Favourite New Comicbook (for Nextwave)
      • Favourite Comics Story published during 2006 (for Nextwave)
      • Favourite Comics Villain (for Dirk Anger)
      • Roll of Honour

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.scifidimensions.com/May03/orbiter.htm Orbiter
  2. ^ www.reallyscary.com - 10 Questions w/Warren Ellis
  3. ^ Top 300 Comics For September
  4. ^ Holmes, Thomas Alan (2005) "Warren Ellis’ 'Shoot' and Media Passivity." International Journal of Comic Art. 7 (2). 370-374
  5. ^ "Shoot" online
  6. ^ CONFIRMED: ELLIS & DEODATO ON THUNDERBOLTS, Newsarama
  7. ^ CCI, DAY 4: ELLIS TALKS "NEWUNIVERSAL"
  8. ^ Simmons, Tony. "Comic book writer's debut novel opens a new vein in U.S. culture.", News Herald, 2007-08-12. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. 
  9. ^ CASTLEVANIA
  10. ^ Castlevania: Dracula's Curse production blog
  11. ^ Introduction to 'Strange Kiss Cover Notes', Strange Kiss Scriptbook (Avatar Press, May 2000)
  12. ^ Warren Ellis To Join Suicide Girls As A Columnist (news article). Suicide Girls. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  13. ^ SECOND LIFE SKETCHES: ELLIS SECOND LIFE COLUMN FOR REUTERS
  14. ^ a b c Warren Ellis Addresses His "Children" at Comic-Con, July 29, 2007
  15. ^ Who is "Anna Mercury?" Warren Ellis Gives Hints, Comic Book Resources, February 14, 2008
  16. ^ Warren Ellis on Anna Mercury, Newsarama, February 18, 2008
  17. ^ Leveling the Playing Field: Ellis talks "No Hero", Comic Book Resources, May 23, 2008
  18. ^ The dark star, August 26, 2004, The Guardian
  19. ^ Colleen Doran talks Stealth Tribes, July 22, 2005, Newsarama
  20. ^ Colleen Doran announcing the arrival of the script, April 2, 2007
  21. ^ FreakAngels
  22. ^ Warren Ellis to write weekly SL column for Reuters, December 22, 2006, Reuters
  23. ^ Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse
  24. ^ The Eagle Awards - Results
  25. ^ Comic Book Resources - CBR News: 2007 Eagle Awards Results

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
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[edit] Official

[edit] Unofficial

[edit] Fora

[edit] Interviews


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
2007–2008		 Succeeded by
Christos Gage
Preceded by
Joss Whedon		 Astonishing X-Men writer
2008–		 Succeeded by
'''''