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.

Warren Ellis Dot Com. Good morning, sinners.

(info)

And the ladies of COILHOUSE provide a full tour of the contents, even.

I’m delighted to see the marvellous Jess Nevins in there:

And Xeni:

And there’s an interview with Ron Moore that I’m interested in, and what looks like an excellent photo essay about Kowloon, and, hell, go and look, just a shitload of stuff, buy a copy and leave me alone…

I wrote the back-page "Epiphanies" essay for this issue of the fine music magazine, out this week:

Graphic novelist Warren Ellis on musical communion with a sense of place with Sigur Rós and Julian Cope

It’s really kind of nice to be asked to write something for a magazine you’ve been reading for years. Especially when it’s a music magazine and you’re no kind of music journalist.

1. fireworks, 2. keep your eyes on the road, 3. do something for me., 4. I don’t say it enough

Jamaica Dyer’s wonderful new graphic novel is almost here. Pre-order it at this link direct from the publisher. Read a bunch of her work here. I wrote a quote for it:

The only explanation for Jamaica Dyer is that she was built by aliens and dropped here to show us all how crap we are compared to her.

I’ve now seen the complete lettered book. I’m told it’s scheduled for release in October.

I’ve mentioned that there’s extra pages in this one, right? It’s a longer-than-normal episode?

A new Kemper Norton EP, available for free download. Probably best classified as Night Music, so grab it down and play it later (unless you’re on the other side of the world, of course, in which case, download the bugger).

Massively, spooktronically atmospheric. Very good.

And that’s my longtime friend, translator/writer/model Cristina, whom I owe about three emails to, so I’m doing this instead. Good morning. I’m off to the pub.

Okay, the word got out a while ago, and I’m being drowned in emails tonight, so let’s get this done. By the power of contractual obligation, I am appearing at the San Diego Comic-Con 2009 under the exclusive aegis of Sony, Madhouse and Marvel Anime. I am in San Diego for something less than 36 hours. This is my only appearance at San Diego. Here’s the press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Marvel Entertainment Inc. and Madhouse Present an Exclusive Sneak Peek at the Re-imagining of Marvel’s Legendary Super Heroes

MARVEL ANIME TV SERIES

AT COMIC-CON

Get an Exciting First-Look at the All New Anime Iron Man and Wolverine

At the Marvel Animation Panel on Friday, July 24 at 4:30 PM

Culver City, CA (7/15/09) – Marvel Entertainment Inc., has partnered with renowned Japanese animation studio Madhouse (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers) to create four all new anime versions of classic Marvel Super Heroes. Get an exciting first glimpse of two of the planned four series at this year’s Comic-Con International, the country’s leading comics and popular arts convention. The Marvel Animation Panel will be held on Friday, July 24, and will include an exclusive first look at official teaser trailers for two of these new series, hosted by writer and multiple-Eagle Award winner Warren Ellis, who will appear to discuss writing the all new adventures of these re-imagined Super Heroes.

These Marvel Anime TV series are being created as a way of merging the beloved Marvel Super Heroes of western culture with the bold animation tradition of Japan. The resulting product will be four visually groundbreaking anime series featuring popular Super Heroes redesigned and repurposed as emerging from the fabric of Japanese culture. The series is expected to begin appearing on the Animax channel in Japan in spring of 2010.

The Marvel Animation Panel with run from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, July 24, at the San Diego Convention Center. A one-hour autograph signing with Ellis will follow the panel at Marvel’s Comic-Con booth #2429.

Madhouse, Inc., established in 1972 with offices in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Beijing, is one of the top animation studios in the world working exclusively with some of Japan’s top anime directors. They have created many well-known titles such as worldwide hits Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, Trigun, Tokyo Godfathers, and Metropolis, Japanese successful TV series such as “Death Note” and “Nana”, as well as Paprika (an Official Selection at the 2006 Venice Film Festival) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2007 Japanese Academy Award for Best Film – Animation)

Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 5,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in licensing, entertainment (via Marvel Studios and Marvel Animation) and publishing (via Marvel Comics). Marvel’s strategy is to leverage its franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world, including feature films, consumer products, toys, video games, animated television, direct-to-DVD and online.

Contacts:

Mac McLean

Click Communications

818.392.8863

mac@click-comm.com

Ann Hinshaw

Dan Klores Communications

212.981.5160

As a coda to the previous post, Jamais Cascio notes how the touchscreen generation interacts with a Kindle:

They try to "turn the page" by flicking a finger across the screen. But the Kindle doesn’t have a touch screen….Which means that the second thing that people checking out my Kindle do is get a funny confused look — why doesn’t it work?…

I did exactly the same thing the first time I handled one, funnily enough. I’m not iPhone-entrained, I’m Palm-entrained…