It’s just past noon here in the old country, and you know what that means.

Warren Ellis Dot Com, running a little late today. Good morning.

(Ellen Rogers)

16 original stories by the premier webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, with a foreword by me, coming this October from IDW Publishing.

YouTube clip, but audio-only. Stick with it. From the uploader:

Gregg Kowalsky playing his Tape Chants piece live at the Fairchild Chapel in Oberlin, OH. 6-10 cassette players were positioned around the chapel with source material of different sorts, Gregg walked around and made a live mix, slowly adjusting volume and speed/pitch. On tour with Ben Bracken. Dark night at the Fairchild.

The album is on eMusic.

Just discovered this guy’s work via Suzanne Gerber. Incredible. Details on ordering this print here. Christopher Conn Askew’s site here.

From The Hollywood Reporter this morning:

Robert Schwentke is painting the screen "Red."

The director of "The Time Traveler’s Wife," who has been flirting with a number of projects, is in negotiations to take the reins of the Summit Entertainment thriller, starring Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman. Erich and Jon Hoeber wrote the screenplay, which is based on the WildStorm/DC Comic.

I was in Los Angeles for a couple of days before heading down to San Diego, for an insane sequence of meetings that included spending most of one day on the Warner’s lot. Passers-by might have seen me and Bruce Timm huddled under a tree for shade and frantically smoking cigarettes before Californians came and shot us for committing Air Crimes. I have a few things in the process of Maybe Happening on the lot right now. Bumped into Craig Flores, who’s my exec on OCEAN and Untitled Arthurian Thing, and also the delightful Lisa Roos, who did her best for us on the GLOBAL FREQUENCY shoot way back when. It was one of those weird trips where the first emails you get after deplaning are “you must call the office IMMEDIATELY.” Very productive 48 hours, ending in my producers at Marvel Anime, Taro and Scott, taking me out for an excellent steak and a bottle of Pinot Noir that I think I mostly drank. William H Macy walked past our table. That guy is THIN. Thank god he was in a steakhouse, he looked like he could use a couple just to summon the strength to walk out again.

Taro had decided to drive us down to SD in the middle of the night in a hired car, so we could smoke and talk — bless the tar-lunged Japanese and their correct understanding of what a civilised world should be. We’d only spoken in phone conferences before, and by the end of the trip I’d made two new friends and only nearly died once. We got in a hair before midnight. By the time I was checked in, my friends in town had dispersed for the night, and Ryan Keely, who I was supposed to see for a drink, was across town, and I was exhausted, so I said Fuck This Town and went to bed.

Note: my hotel was non-smoking. So Taro gave me a gift: a steel Japanese portable mini-ashtray, that pops out the tray and then reseals into a pod. Lovely thing. If only the room’s window had been openable…

After pretty much no sleep at all, I was dragged out of my pit to do a filmed interview that’ll eventually form a DVD extra for the Marvel Anime stuff. This is where I discovered I had a limo with my name on a card in the window, and a driver who looked like he’s just come in from killing Clint Eastwood on the high plains. This was very strange. The interviewer was a friend of a friend, the guy who’d interviewed me for the IRON MAN DVD, and so everything went smoothly. Weird moment: one of the organisers in the room had pulled his friend’s son and his friend’s son’s friend in to meet me, so while I was stuck in this chair with a mic nailed to me these two terrified teenagers were produced. I guess I’ve reached the “fatherly advice” stage of my career. Without, I guess, having to talk about diseases or unwanted pregnancy.

Whoops. Time to go. More later.

Every week, I dig out an ancient character for the arty types at my message board to fuck around with. This week, I gave them a classic from 1941:

Jack Castle was both a drunk and assistant to a mad scientist. He is knocked unconscious by the mad doctor, so Castle would not reveal the nature of the doctor’s experiments to Elsa, the doctor’s niece. Castle’s brain is removed and then placed into the body of a gorilla. When he awakens from his operation, he seeks revenge. First, he kills the mad doctor, and then goes after his assistants hoping to be cured of his affliction.

This character was in fact called GORILLA WITH A HUMAN BRAIN.

And they just got started. Click the link to see more, and follow them through the week as more people join in. It’s open to all.

"Lordmitz."

Ken Miller.

As written by the excellent Ed Brubaker. As you can see. Because these people do the right thing, obviously. It’s out today on DVD in the US, and in Canada, but not yet in the UK. Bastards.

New York City, you lucky town:

A brief definition of the Atom Style, or why Joost Swarte is in a flying car with Raymond Loewy:

No Future is fear of the future, inability to cope with the future, the inability to desire — desire was a key postpunk word, as in the politics of desire, the philosophy of desire — and is ultimately fuckless. And no-one wants a fuckless future.

It’s way too early, got woken by the post. Off to the pub in a bit. Good morning — and it’s actually still morning here. This is Warren Ellis Dot Com.

(Lenora Claire shot by Nicolle Clemetson)

Brew a beer that is ten quid a bottle and 18.2%, stand back and let screaming idiots do all the PR for you:

"It is utterly irresponsible to bring out a beer which is so strong at a time when Scotland is facing unprecedented levels of alcohol-related health and social harm. Just one bottle of this beer contains six units of alcohol - twice the recommended daily limit."

’

Brew Dog. For clever humans.

A couple of new details on Marvel Anime and Untitled Arthurian Thing at AICN.

Chad Michael Ward’s doing an emergency print sale to cover some sudden medical costs, selling his stuff cheaper than it’s ever been. Right now, he’s banging them out for $15 per print and $5 shipping. Domestic US-only, right now, but I’m betting that if you emailed him (his email’s at the link too, and you have to email him to order the prints anyway) you could probably work something out.

I was actually cleared to talk about this at San Diego, but all the press I did there was Japanese-oriented for the Marvel Anime deal… so I’m going to mention it here, to say I did, and to maybe make up for that by giving the comics news sites something to post post-SDCC.

I’m writing a film treatment for Hollywood Gang, who co-produced Frank Miller’s 300. Hollywood Gang have previously optioned my graphic novel (with Chris Sprouse) OCEAN.

On my desk, the treatment is called Untitled Arthurian Project.

On their desk, the project is called EXCALIBUR.

I’m working directly with Gianni Nunnari, Oliver Kramer and Craig Flores (whom I was delighted to bump into on the Warner’s lot the other day) and having a great time.

So… yeah. Movie stuff. Other things to talk about soon. I’ve been sitting on that one for months.

From Wednesday in North America, from Thursday in the UK and elsewhere. And here’s a preview at Issuu.

This is the second of the two teaser pieces shown at San Diego on Friday. This is the test animation for the IRON MAN anime series I’m writing, produced for the south east Asian market. Note test animation: it’s intended to show off the style of the piece only. Nothing in here reflects the actual content, just the design and the aesthetic and the animation. The only character in this piece that is in the actual series is Iron Man himself, okay?

This is the first of the two teaser pieces shown at San Diego on Friday. This is the test animation for the WOLVERINE anime series I’m writing, produced for the south east Asian market. Note test animation: it’s intended to show off the style of the piece only. Nothing in here reflects the actual content, just the design and the aesthetic and the animation. The story itself will be loosely based on the WOLVERINE miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller from the early 1980s. This animation was directed by the legendary Rintaro, I believe.

It’s a little…different.

Home after an insanely long end to a very short trip. Back here tomorrow with many newses and things. This is Warren Ellis dot com.

(Mal Jones.)

I guess this went up several hours ago. I’m in LA and just woke up. Attend:

Reissue of Alan Moore’s “Voice Of The Fire” ambient/spoken-word trilogy of albums from 1982-5. Moore continues to refuse all royalties from his production work on U2’s “The Joshua Tree,” citing intellectual property theft and contractual irregularities. The launch party is held in a David Gibbons building, the controversial Millennium Space Fort in London.

Yes. I wrote a short graphic novel — really more of a novelette or short story — called RED. It was illustrated brilliantly by Cully Hamner. It was a creator-owned work. Summit Entertainment acquired the film rights last year.

And, yes, according to Variety, Morgan Freeman is now in talks to co-star in the putative film adaptation alongside Bruce Willis.

And now you know about as much as I do. Heh.

Wasn’t expecting this to pop up the day before I leave for San Diego. Check the previous post for my San Diego FAQ.

Okay. Things are going to be a bit patchy here for the next seven days, due to work and travel. So no more Station Idents, I’m just going to post when I can.

FAQs for San Diego, then:

* PLANETARY #27 comes out in October, I’m told.

* FELL #10 is underway right now on this end, so don’t bug Ben. We’re on it. It’ll be a while before it’s ready.

* DESOLATION JONES remains in temporary limbo for various reasons. Wildstorm and I are working on it, is all you need to know.

* NEWUNIVERSAL remains on pause while Steve and I do an IRON MAN thing, and we’ll return to finish it once we’re done. Scheduling was the enemy — after the loss of the computer, there were only so many scripts and stories I could reconstitute simultaneously, and ASTONISHING X-MEN trumped it on the scheduling.

* Phil Jiminez just turned in his first ASTONISHING X-MEN issue. I love working with Phil.

* I arrive at San Diego a hair before midnight on Thursday and leave first thing Saturday morning. I’m there exclusive to the Marvel Anime zaibatsu, and my time is scheduled tightly all through Friday. I start at 9.30am, for god’s sake. I normally never even see 9.30am.

* My only public appearances there are:

* The Marvel Animation Panel, 4.30pm - 5.30pm. I think I don’t actually go on stage until 5.10.

* Signing at the Marvel booth, which is #2429, from 6pm to 7pm. There will probably be a limit on number of items to be signed, and if you turn up with a handtruck stacked full of comics I will have Security rape you with a Wolverine toy behind the booth.

* This is a weird one, but… a lot of people ask if they can bring me whisky. Which is incredibly kind and not at all required. If you bought a comic I wrote and liked it, then that’s really all I needed. And this time, in fact, it’s really not necessary, as I’m travelling very light and won’t be able to take it home with me. I feel weird even mentioning this.

* And, yes, I will shake hands with you. The reason I don’t shake hands at other shows is that I’m signing for six or seven hours a day, for a minimum of three days, and everyone sticks their hand out, and the lesson I learned at Heroes Con is that shaking hands with everyone who sticks their hand out means that by the end of the second day my hand is pulp. Poor old Steve Saffel shook hands with me when I was on my way out of the building after my second or third long signing and I yelped. I’m not a professional politician, I’m a writer, I already type for at least 12 hours a day, and I kind of need the hand. One hour at a signing table is a different thing. People get unusually stroppy about this. So I mention it now. And, really, if my not being able to shake hands with you at San Diego or Chicago really did ruin your week, enough for you to keep complaining about it online years later? You’re mentally ill. Seek help before you ruin the lives of your friends and families.

* Also? I am not scary. I mean, I am completely not scary. Do not approach in fear.

* These are, internet snark mongoloid reading this, NOT rules. It says FAQ at the top there.

* Also, I won’t have sex with you unless you pay me.

There. Done. Tom Spurgeon has a proper guide to surviving San Diego, a must-read.

(Simon Bisson)

Giant Carnivorous Squid off the San Diego coast.

You wait. They’ll grow fucking legs.

By my friend John Cassaday, taking us out in magnificent style.  Click.

"A relaxing cigarette."

(Actually, this is quite interesting.)

This is kind of sad. Ten years ago, David Shayler blew the whistle on sinister goings-on in the British intelligence services. (Wonderfully, when he fled the country, the French refused to extradite him back to Britain.) Sadly, he appears to have gone completely mad.

His former girlfriend, Annie Machon, who also worked for MI5, believes his long
fight with the intelligence services has led him to suffer a breakdown.

It’s an interesting read. Terrible black humour in the fact that he’s now so crazy that even crazy people are shunning him.

…he joined the 9/11 Truth Movement, falling out with them when he said he believed the 2001 attacks were the work of the American government and that the planes which crashed into the Twin Towers were missiles disguised by holograms…

It’s Friday, it’s free, it’s here: FREAKANGELS 0062.