Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Black Summer(and Supergod, and No Hero) probably work alot better in the overall context of the time - not the political context, but that of comics overall.
Warren Ellis is one of those writers where he does something completely new and off the wall - sometimes it works, sometimes it stumbles - and then everyone around him scrambles to copy it because 'holy shit this is actually something new and innovative and exciting and' rather than doing anything new and exciting they just copy/paste until it's a bad parody(See: Extremis, Nextwave, Authority, probably a few others that I missed.)
Warren Ellis is pretty much a Comic Book Writer's Comic Book Writer. I have no idea if the stuff he wrote on his blog still exists in any sort of form nowadays, but several times he went all-in describing the creative process and history and what he has to do not only to write comic books but what it takes to get it published.
And he was very, very big on the concept of using comics as a medium to push out new ideas, and do them cheaply. He actually wrote a comic with this entire goal in mind - Fell - and I think it's worth checking out.
So, yeah. Warren Ellis doesn't really do characters. He does ideas, concepts, lobbing them out like hand grenades before moving on to something new - which, again, when the comic book environment is focused on reboots and milking the same characters for endless decades, makes for quite the refreshing change.
So, it's a fair criticism. I think he can do characters - stuff like Transmetropolitan, Doktor Sleepless, arguably Planetary with Elijah Snow - he just... doesn't. Most of the time.
More options
Context Copy link