Warren Ellis
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- This article is about Warren Ellis, the writer of comic books. There is a separate article about Warren Ellis, the violinist and composer.
Warren Ellis (1968 - ) is a British author of comic books and graphic novels who is well known for his acerbic wit and sociocultural commentaries both as an online presence and through his artistic output. He is a resident of South East England, England.
He claims to have been born approximately seventeen months before Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The televised broadcast of the event is his reported earliest coherent memory.
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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 failing Hellstorm series with #12 and wrote the series till its demise with #21. He also did some work on the failing 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.
Ellis then started working for DC Comics, Caliber Comics, and - most notably - Image Comics' Wildstorm division, where he wrote DV8, a Gen13 spin-off series, and took over Stormwatch a previously action-oriented team book, which he gave a more idea- and character-driven flavor. He wrote it from #37 to 50, with artist Tom Raney, and when it was relaunched as volume 2, with artist Bryan Hitch. Following the end of volume 2 with issue #11, Ellis and Hitch launched the highly regarded The Authority, a superhero team rising from the ashes of Stormwatch.
In 1997 Ellis started his creator-owned series Transmetropolitan - about an acerbic "gonzo" journalist in near-future America - with artist Darick Robertson at 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 published. Transmetropolitan ran for 60 issues (plus a few specials), ending in 2002 at the conclusion of its storyline.
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 shootings, that it would not publish "Shoot", a story depicting a similar incident, which he'd previously scripted and was already illustrated and scheduled for publication.
Ellis also returned to Marvel Comics, as part of the company's "Revolution" event, to head the "Counter-X" line of titles. This line was intended to revitalize the X-Men spinoff books Generation X (comics), X-Man, and X-Force, but it was not successful, driving Ellis away from mainstream superhero comics for a time.
In 2003 Ellis started Global Frequency, a 12-issue mini-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 - a "Year of Whoredom", as he put it. He took over Ultimate Fantastic Four and Iron Man, both for Marvel, with whom he signed a two-year exclusive work for hire contract. He also wrote an episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled "Dark Heart," which debuted on Cartoon Network on December 11.
Ellis' Apparat Singles Group were released across the end of 2004 and into 2005. Ellis described the titles 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 under Avatar but carried only the Apparat logo on the cover.
Bibliography
The Complete Warren Ellis bibilography (http://www.fourteenseconds.com/warrenbib.html) Every single issue and graphical novel written by Ellis from 1982
Marvel Comics
- Hellstorm - Prince of Lies
- Doom 2099
- Druid
- Excalibur
- Starjammers
- Storm
- Pryde and Wisdom
- Ruins
- Wolverine
- Ultimate Fantastic Four (2004)
- Ultimate Nightmare (2004)
- Ultimate Secret (2004)
Wildstorm
Planetaryallovertheworld.jpeg
- DV8
- Stormwatch
- The Authority
- Planetary with John Cassaday
- Global Frequency
- Mek with Steve Rolston
- Red
- Reload
- Tokyo Storm Warning
- Two-Step
- Desolation Jones
- Ocean
DC Comics and Vertigo
- Transmetropolitan
- Hellblazer
- Orbiter
Image Comics
AiT/Planet Lar
- Available Light
- Come in Alone
- Switchblade Honey
Avatar
- Bad World
- Dark Blue
- From the Desk of Warren Ellis, a collection of essays from Ellis' mailing list of the same name
- Scars
- Strange Kiss
- Stranger Kisses
- Strange Killings
- Strange Killings: Body Orchard
- Strange Killings: Necromancer
- Angel Stomp Future (under the Apparat label)
- Frank Ironwine (under the Apparat label)
- Quit City (under the Apparat label)
- Simon Spector (under the Apparat label)
Others
- Lazarus Churchyard
- Calibrations, later reprinted as Atmospherics (Caliber Comics)
- Sugarvirus
External links
- Warren Ellis official web site (http://www.warrenellis.com/)
- Die Puny Humans (http://www.diepunyhumans.com/), Ellis' former research site
- The Complete Warren Ellis bibilography (http://www.fourteenseconds.com/warrenbib.html)
- Bad Signal (http://www.flirble.org/mailman/listinfo/badsignal), Ellis' rant and "thinking out loud" mailing list
- Brainpowered (http://www.artbomb.net/brainpowered.jsp), Ellis column at ArtBomb
- LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/users/warren_ellis/), Ellis' LiveJournal account
- MySpace (http://profiles.myspace.com/users/16108045), Ellis' MySpace account
- Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/user.php?uid=4902369), Ellis' Friendster account
- 12-Hour Message Board (http://warrenellis.suddenlaunch3.com/), Hosted by Ellis on March 18th, 2005
- WEF (http://forums.delphiforums.com/ellis), Defunct WarrenEllisForum at DelphiForums
- Screaming Wireless (http://moblog.co.uk/blogs.php?show=37) Ellis' PhotoBlog
- Slashdot interview with Warren Ellis (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/09/1727245)