warren ellis

[trofski]

i've read his authority, planetary, Ult FF, Ult nightmare, Ministry of Space and am getting ult secret. Does anyone have any other suggested Ellis reading? Thanks

[K'Nort]

Global Frequency. Two trades.

[Jake V]

Of course, outside of Wildstorm, there's Transmetropolitain. Can't mention Ellis without mentioning Transmet.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

The StormWatch trades.

Tis what the Authority sprang from.

And I probably enjoy it more, to be honest.
I enjoyed those early Ellis days where he could only get superhero work even though he hated it, so he was just doing stuff to entertain himself.

City Of Silence is 3 issues in a trade from Image and it's pretty darn good, sort of mixes his early Marvel horror stuff, with where he wanted to go next (Transmet).
Lazarus Churchyard is a bit of fun as well - I believe it was his first gig writing comics.
Image have a trade of it - a bit uneven, but good none the less.

[Paul McEnery]

There are, what, two "flip books"; basically, a couple of novellas packaged together. They're lightweight, but entertaining.

And here's another vote for Transmet, Churchyard, and City of Silence.

[Lurker]

Ya know, It seems Ellis gets by more on his attitude than his actual talent and I've never really been into angry fat whiteman comics. just my .02

[K'Nort]

There are, what, two "flip books"; basically, a couple of novellas packaged together. They're lightweight, but entertaining.

One is Tokyo Storm Warning combined with Red. I don't remember the other.

Two-Step, a 3-issue mini that isn't a trade, was fun. In a rather deranged way. I liked the art too.

I didn't mention Transmet because I still haven't read any of it.

[Tadhg]

One is Tokyo Storm Warning combined with Red. I don't remember the other.

MEK and Reload were the other two stories together in a flip-trade.

There's a trade of his Wolverine story with art by Lenil Yu, it's passable but worth a read if you're into Wolverine.

The released a trade of his Dv8 work(another WildStorm book). I really didn't care for DV8 at all, but a lot of people seemed to.

I also liked Switchblade Honey which was an OGN from AiT/Planet Lar. It's about what you would expect from "Warren Ellis does Star Trek"

[Winter Version]

I'm reading his Iron Man, Desolation Jones, and Fell. Love the guy but the Iron Man book isn't as good as his other stuff.

[Shadow Crawler]

Warren Ellis' Excalibur v1 run was great. I'd recommend it.

[trofski]

thanks a lot guys. this should keep me busy ofr a while

[Aaron King]

Orbiter! For Christ's sake, Orbiter.

[Jack Destruct]

I didn't like Orbiter that much. I think it's because it's the book where warren proudly shows his space-boner off to the world.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed Ocean, plenty of NASA-geek info, but wrapped up in a sci-fi story I could get into. The shots at microsoft were so cheap though, that they detracted from the story (me and my friends were making those jokes back in grade 10 in 1998...).

Fell #1 was great, should be a good series. Desolation Jones is awesome and shaping up to be possibly the next big thing... And yeah, all the other ones people mentioned.

Is it just me, or is Jack Hawksmoor the greatest superhero ever thought up? I don't mean "He could totally kick the JLA's combined ass", but that he's such a smart superhero for the modern day...

[miss5050]

ongoing JACK CROSS - that is one adrenaline shot!

and spider of course :)

[azrapse]

Yea, Warren runs hot and cold; but when he's hot his stuff is on par with the rest of the top writer crowd - seems to be that his personal investment in projects directly relates to his ability and want-eness to write a great ride.

I love Planetary also, awesome !!! Transment was excellent on so many levels, and although it takes a few issues to get the vibe, by the second trade one is hooked. Gotta also give a shout out to Global Frequency - the concept and story were only too short, it'd be nice to have continued with more. I'm finding Desolation Jones and Fell incredible - it's nice to have the hot Warren back in action with the stuff he's good at - injecting that x-files atmosphere in to mundane situations usually involving a character with a history to digest and self issues to cope with as well.

There's also more than a few side projects, however some were just so-so, while others were better: The three-issue mini Red was a good read, however I found Apparat and his Stormwatch run very stale as opposed to his other projects. I have no interest in the superhero medium so have no say in the Iron Man stuff or other related titles he's produced for the mass market. The mini Scars was a cool read, but not flushed out enough; and I know of his Strange Killings, Strange Kisses stuff but have yet to try 'em out.

Looking forward to reading Ocean as soon as I find #6 to complete the run, and still loving Planetary WHEN IT SURFACES ONCE EVERY BLUE MOON.

Ellis, along with Moore, Morrison, Ennis, Milligan, Delano, Gaiman, Brubaker, Vaughn, Straczynsky, and Azzarello, and more recently the Luna Brothers, will always deserve a purchase and read - the odds of finding something really good amongst this crowd is never too much of a gamble.

[Viking Bastard]

I don't think I've ever read anything by Ellis that's been bad.

That said, his stuff is not all created equal, but ranging from enjoyable to frickin' brilliant.


Transmetropolitan might just be my favourite series ever.

[Lance]

Nothing I've read of his is "bad".

I've always enjoyed his original work a lot more than the licensed character stuff.

and ANYONE who reads comics should read Come In Alone. anyone...

[Aaron King]

Oh, and his Ultimate Fantastic Four was good. For real. It was fun.

[Shadow Crawler]

Also, his Bad World was an interesting read.

[Lubichev]

Jack Cross is so very good. So is Fell. I dug his Hellblazer run too.

[Lance]

I thought "Setting Sun" was the better of the two TPBs he did.

[dancj]

TBH I don't think I fully understood Haunted. I haven't got Setting Sun yet, but I think they really missed the ball by leaving out Shoot

[roguespirit]

The only thing I find with Ellis and this isn't neccesarily a bad thing is that most of his stuff, barring Fell, reads much better as a trade or should be published as an OGN.


A lot of his stuff has the pacing of a novel rather than an ongoing monthly

[Lance]

That's true. Sometimes it takes a bit to get rolling. But it pays off...

[Lance]

Available Light is also good.

Check Amazon.com for it.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

The mini Scars was a cool read, but not flushed out enough; and I know of his Strange Killings, Strange Kisses stuff but have yet to try 'em out.


I quite liked Scars.
Thought it would make quite a good film, as long as Executive Producers stayed the hell away from it.

You should get Strange Kiss. I've only read the first mini but it had me laughing my arse off.
It has the true secret to getting non-comic readers to read a comic - have some of the grossest things you can imagine happening in it.
I had more non-comic readers (and a lot were girls) want to read it than any other book - because they'd heard about the lizard girl mutilating herself to death and the guy having lizards crawl out of his anus and needed to see it.

[Infinitylantern]

Desolation jones, Stormwatch books (all 5 are good), Ocean

[comicart]

I'm enjoying IRON MAN.
Sure, it only comes out once every 3 months, but it's worth it. EXCELLENT bad guy.

Terry

[Apathy Boy]

I think Warren Ellis is a terrific writer when he's motivated.

Unfortunately, he goes through long periods where he just hacks stuff out. You can tell he's going through the motions when he trots out the ol' cliches like the bitter, chain-smoking Brit; the editor who tells people to "die" a lot; the multiple splash pages of spaceships; the f'ed up superhero analogues; the factoid he's picked up from the latest Scientific American. For that reason, I've found pretty much all of his superhero stuff to be execrable. Yes, even THE AUTHORITY, which I thought was the dullest thing ever. (Though I haven't gotten around to reading STORMWATCH yet.)

Fortunately, we seem to be in the middle of a Warren Ellis resurgence. 75% of his Apparat books were fantastic (especially QUIT CITY), DESOLATION JONES is looking like it'll be something special, JACK CROSS is compelling stuff and FELL has been an interesting experiment so far.

[dancj]

Yes, even THE AUTHORITY, which I thought was the dullest thing ever. (Though I haven't gotten around to reading STORMWATCH yet.)

Don't let that put you off Stormwatch. I found the Authority to be massively overrated and a pale shadow of Stormwatch. The only problem with Stormwatch is that it really kicks in in the 3rd and 4th TPBs, but you really need to read the first two for it to make sense (as I found out)

Dan

[K'Nort]

Don't let that put you off Stormwatch. I found the Authority to be massively overrated and a pale shadow of Stormwatch. The only problem with Stormwatch is that it really kicks in in the 3rd and 4th TPBs, but you really need to read the first two for it to make sense (as I found out)

Dan

I also enjoyed Stormwatch much more than The Authority.

[ultramandingo]

check out his "engine" website , and watch ellis yell at anyone who dares to post about super guys!!!! its fun!

[Denyer]

I also enjoyed Stormwatch much more than The Authority.

It's become a popular stance and one I've arrived at myself. In part I think it's because The Authority took several nose-dives after Ellis jumped ship... the first two collections are particularly enjoyable, after which Millar strings out the ideas in his first Authority story for a bit and ends the volume one run with farce.

Stormwatch is great to dip into. Lots of short, self-contained stories in the first three collections.

And another vote for Transmetropolitan... if you're not quite hooked by the first collection (Back on the Street) definitely try the second (Lust for Life). It hits a stride. I particularly like the Tales of Human Waste collection too (not so much a comic as a collection of art and writing...)

[K'Nort]

It's become a popular stance and one I've arrived at myself. In part I think it's because The Authority took several nose-dives after Ellis jumped ship... the first two collections are particularly enjoyable, after which Millar strings out the ideas in his first Authority story for a bit and ends the volume one run with farce.

Also, most of my favourite Stormwatch characters didn't make it into the Authority.

[Denyer]

Yeah, I particularly liked Fahrenheit after the bar issue. It made the following storylines far more affecting. (Deliberate vagueness to avoid giving spoilers—if you haven't read SW already, give it a shot, and try to read it in order.)