July 31, 2007
Comic-Con: A chat with Warren Ellis
For those who still come to Comic-Con for the comics, Warren Ellis was as big a star as any Hollywood actor or actress at this year's show, at least in part because he last appeared at the show 10 years ago.
In that time, Ellis has become one of comics' most consistently entertaining and inventive voices. He rose through the ranks at Marvel working on various X-Men related books before his sci-fi maxi-series "Transmetropolitan" caught on and became the only series in DC's Helix line to survive its demise and move over to Vertigo. He followed up with canny ventures into the "widescreen" superhero epic with "The Authority," the pulpy origins of comics in "Planetary," and the joy and horror of space exploration in "Orbiter," thrilling readers with a mad mix of ideas, stories and characters that were irresistibly clever and vulgar at the same time.
Now, he divides his comics time between a number of comics publishers, such as Marvel, where he is set to take over "Astonishing X-Men" from Joss Whedon, and DC/Wildstorm, home to "Desolation Jones." On the indie side, "Fell" with artist Ben Templesmith has been a hit at Image Comics and Ellis has carved out a nice niche for his work at Avatar Press, where since 1999 he has published horror and sci-fi titles such as "Strange Kiss" and the Apparat line of singles.
Credit Avatar with finally getting Ellis back to San Diego to promote the launch of three new projects: the historical graphic novel "Crecy," the sci-fi series "Doktor Sleepless" and the political superhero miniseries "Black Summer."
Also, Ellis' first novel, "Crooked Little Vein," was just published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, and has been getting solid reviews and attention from the likes of Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times.
Ellis spent much of his time at the show signing at the Avatar and HarperCollins booths, as well as appearing on a couple of panels — one of which was a two-hour Saturday night spotlight on his work — and doing press from a hotel room well-stocked with cigarettes and Red Bull, where he answered some questions Saturday afternoon about his work, the comics industry and returning to San Diego.
"It's a completely different show," Ellis says of the convention. "There are three times the number of people than were here the last time I attended, the hall is three times bigger and I had a brief walk across the convention floor yesterday and I couldn't see any comic stands at all," he says. "The only comics presence I've seen is the Avatar Press booth that I"m signing at."
Ellis says he works with Avatar because they give him complete creative
control, from the rights to getting as involved as he likes in the
production process and final look of the books. "They basically do the
job right," he says. "If I want to write what I want to write, then
there are certain companies that it's absolutely pointless to take them
to."
Of his new Avatar books, "Black Summer" has already gotten the most attention for a scene in which a superhero executes the president of the United States for prosecuting an illegal war. "I've already turned up on Fox News as an aider and abettor of terrorists," Ellis says. "An unnamed apparently ex-FBI man claimed that if there was an attempt on the president's life, I'm the first person that should be arrested."
"Doktor Sleepless" is perhaps the most conventional of the new Avatar books, mixing sci-fi, politics and culture in a way Ellis' fans have come to expect. "Crecy," about the historical battle between England and France in 1346, is a compelling departure that evokes, in its own way, the same thrill of ancient battle as "300."
That kind of notoriety and the intense online following Ellis has earned has, so far, not turned into much work in film or TV, he says. "As a comics writer, as you know, you can't get arrested in Hollywood." He does have a few such projects in the work: writing an animated film adaptation of the "Castlevania" videogame and a TV series for AMC called "Dead Channel."
Reviews for "Crooked Little Vein" have so far been mostly positive, but
there were some surprises he found in working with a major prose
fiction publisher. "I think possibly, it was my own preconceptions," he
says. "I assumed that I would be able to be a lot more hands off with
a novel publisher, then I found myself having to get quite heavily
involved in things like cover design, which came out great."
The comicbook market has been a tough on creator owned properties in recent years, as the big two have increased their grip on the direct market. In late 2003, Ellis said he expected his kind of work to be crowded out of the market and that he would turn to other media. That has not turned out to be the case.
"I think we might have just been waiting for a new generation to come in," he says. "I think the people who had come into comics with say 'Transmetropolitan' had maybe drifted out of the field again afterwards. I certainly felt that. But I think online comics and manga have brought a whole new generation back into the western comics form."
That's been good for comics that aren't based on established superheroes. "That hard bifurcation is still there, there are still clearly two different markets, but the other market, if you like the market that create their own work, is strengthening again, I think," he says.
Jul 31, 2007 at 05:10 PM by Tom McLean in Comic-Con, Interview | Permalink
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