CBR: When Words Collide - Mar 7, 2011

[CBR News]

This week, Tim talks with Cody Walker, editor of "Keeping it Strange: A Planetary Guide," about all things Warren Ellis. But they mostly end up chatting about "Planetary" and it's importance in the history of comics.


Full article here.

[surfersilver]

Comic Book Legends Revealed JUST described how the Green Hornet & the Lone Ranger are related in "real life."

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...-revealed-295/

So Ellis is clever to work on that connection, but it wasn't an original idea (which actually makes it better IMHO).

[Vig]

"My favorite example comes from "Dead Gunfighters" (issue #3). In this issue, the ghost of a Japanese policeman"

Said story takes place in Hong Kong and pays homage to John Woo movies.
He's Chinese.

[bongoes]

This reminded me that I need to finish reading Planetary.

[rev sully]

Okeeday...
At the end of the column, Cody in the MARVEL canon you didn't mention "NEXTWAVE: Agents of H.A.T.E". Owch.

But really...I'm oft to say that I have "Two Favorite Living Sci-Fi Writers" (especially to really d-bag Sci-Fi fans ^_~)...
as Grant Morrison & Warren Ellis.

One thing I want to say off the bat though...I don't see the thrill in ORBITER.
I think its Warren Dumbed Down for the Masses. It's great. It is brilliant. But...
But.
I dunno.
MINISTRY OF SPACE is a better title. I "get" why lots of people dig on ORBITER though.
I do think it is Warren Ellis at his "nicest".
C'mon...he's frakkin' mean to these paper people.

On PLANETARY though....Tim recently talked about a single issue with the John Constantine pastiche. I read that as a single-issue WAY BACK.
I love how PLANETARY can be read and one can be completely aloof of the WildStorm muck-muck.
The Snowflake has a better number of Universes than 52.
The death knell of the WildStorm Universe though was Warren Ellis inventing the Carrier. I think the All-Powerful AUTHORITY inadvertently shot the WildStorm Universe in the foot. I liked all those STORMWATCH books too.

I just happily finished ASTONISHING X-MEN: EXOGENESIS. #4 is mad good...I've never seen WOLVERINE tore up so bad...wow. That was the Prime X-Men Team with a NEXTWAVE flavor profile. Good Stuff.

I feel bad talking in a context though without TRANSMET. I've honestly see Spider less of Hunter S...and more of JUBAL HARSHAW of Bobby Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land". I write in a Gonzo Vein...I Can Say That.

back to PLANETARY. That last issue was great wuzzn't it?
How about the BATMAN issue Crossing Worlds. The Alternate JLA was great versus the Alternate PLANETARY team. Phil Jimenez art? No mention? great story...Superman Dies as Only Superman Can!!!

I myself need a new read of PLANETARY but since I frequent FunnyBook Bodegas...I wish to emulate my inital reading and hunt down single issues...I love the ads and such. What can I say? Maybe I want an excuse to ditch the DC COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS in my CRISIS longbox.
PLANETARY #27 nacherelly finishes my CRISIS Longbox but iDigress....

crea shakti,
Rev Sully

Eric O'Sullivan
Boston, MA USA

PS...Thanks for the link to "Come In Alone"...I was unaware of this!

PS "COME IN ALONE: Issue #52
by Warren Ellis, Columnist | Come In Alone Home |

CBR HOMEPAGE
COLUMNSCOME IN ALONE


Category: Comic Books | Print Article
Fri, December 29th, 2000 at 12:00am PST
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

Shut up. I'm talking.

Click above to see a larger view of the above scene from Morning Dragons, coming in 2001.In the meantime, the superb JIMMY CORRIGAN collection and SAFE AREA GORAZDE are getting sparkling press everywhere but comics. TIME's website even offered up a top ten graphic novels of the year. An imprompu poll on my message forum showed that most respondents' comics shops didn't have even half of the listed books in stock.
Are these books selling well? Who knows? Diamond don't release tracked month-to-month sales of graphic novels and trade paperbacks to the public. Neither do the other comics distributors, to my knowledge. God only knows how you'd go about getting numbers from the book distributors handling OGNs and TPBs. The paper trail on books like these is a staggering mess. The order numbers that comics people find so sexy - whoo, you got 100,000 of these ordered, but they'll only be on sale for seven days? Be still my beating heart. - are intangible in these instances. I've shifted tens of thousands of copies of trade paperbacks this year, but who the hell knows?

This has been a year like no other for comics and comics people getting press outside the culture. Phil Jiminez got profiled on salon.com just the other week...

"...the superhero's cultural and economic dominance of the medium is the same as walking into a bookstore to see nothing but novels about nurses as far as the eye can see."
But you know what? If you really want nothing but superhero comics in your store, relax. If you really are just waiting for them to bring the fucking Micronauts back, then everything is fine"

[theloupgaroukid]

Long time fan Tim, first time poster (here).

As to the impact of Warren Ellis, I always wonder why his "Counter X" experiment with the lower tier X-books always gets overlooked. Coming off of Transmetropolitan, Planetary, and the Authority, and bringing that sensibility to X-Man, X-Force, and Generation X was the beginning of the "Vertigo-ization" of mainstream Marvel (made explicit when Marvel hired Axel Alonso away from DC), IMO.

[zenbullet]

You both don't realize that Warren's definitive run on something is Transmet because neither one of you have read it?

Also OCEAN was better than ORBITER.

Or you know, FREAKANGELS?

One of the best comics on the planet?

No?

Also, counter-X was pretty snazzy. His Doctor Strange was pretty good too.