February 3rd, 2012 | people I know
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The writer is an old friend of mine, and this is her first collection.
There’s an extensive preview of the book at the link, too. I wrote a quick blurb for the book, as close to the nature of the content as I could get in one line:
As fine a collection of short fictions as you’ll see today. |
February 1st, 2012 | Work
Recorded at a cafe in Hackney for London Fields Radio a few weeks back, me and Laurie basically jabbering away for several hour while the estimable Joe Stannard tries to get a word in edgeways:
January 30th, 2012 | comics talk
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Go on. Tell me you’re not just the least bit amused by that.
Brian Churilla’s THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER plays like Mike Mignola at his most hard-boiled adapting every goofy film about dreams that you ever sat through. If you love Mignola’s HELLBOY, you’ll find a lot to like in Churilla’s comically grim, energetically cartooned tale of an oneiric sniper scowling his way through Lovecraftian mindscapes. |
Also, Occult Mutilated Teddy Bear. Money in the bank.
There’s a fuller preview of the first issue at this link here. I think COOPER will develop into an entertaining genre mashup in the mode of THE SIXTH GUN.
It comes from Oni Press (who sent me PDFs of the first three issues, so I know whereof I mumble), and launches on March 14. You can contact your local comics store and give them the Diamond order code JAN12 1215.
January 30th, 2012 | brainjuice
January 30th, 2012 | people I know
A new game produced by Big Robot, the dev project run by writer Jim Rossignol, whose name should be familiar to regulars. AVSEQ works like this: connect atoms, play music. Look:
January 29th, 2012 | brainjuice
January 29th, 2012 | music
Regular reader will recognise the latter three names as being well-beloved in this parish. These three pieces, amusingly tagged on Soundcloud as “satanic psychedelia,” are as magnificently strange and beautiful as you would expect.
January 28th, 2012 | brainjuice
January 27th, 2012 | Work
At VICE’s Motherboard blog, I’m interviewed by Abraham Riesman about space travel and the somewhat confused recent claims of Speaker Gingrich.
Well, let’s start with the “51st State” bit that’s being bandied about. Speaker Gingrich knows as well as the next political mammal that the Outer Space Treaty forbids any one nation from claiming sovereignty over the moon. So, not so much with the 51st State crap…
January 27th, 2012 | about warren ellis/contact
I write books and comics and articles and other things. I live in south-east England. My next novel, GUN MACHINE, is due autumn 2012 from Mulholland Books. The film RED 2, sequel to RED, based on the graphic novel I wrote, is due autumn 2013. I have author pages at Amazon and Amazon UK. My most recent original work was SVK, produced in partnership with the design & invention unit BERG.
Public email address: warrenellis@gmail.com (gets checked once a day or so)
@warrenellis on Twitter. Facebook Page. Username warrenellis on Instagram and This Is My Jam.
If you need to contact me about writing for print or web, please contact my agent Lydia Wills using the link in the righthand menu bar.
If you need to contact me about anything involving film, tv, games or other things that move and make noises, please contact my agent Angela Cheng Caplan using the link in the righthand menu bar.
Sometimes I speak at conferences, or do other kinds of talks and appearances. I’ve previously been a columnist for WIRED UK and Reuters.
I occasionally podcast.
January 26th, 2012 | brainjuice
BECAUSE SERIOUSLY WHY WOULD SHE EVEN DO THIS
January 26th, 2012 | comics talk
Earlier today, Eric Stephenson at Image Comics kindly flowed me along an Advance Reading Copy of the first issue of Brian K Vaughan (Y THE LAST MAN, LOST) and Fiona Staples’ new comics series, SAGA. Below, a section of the first issue’s cover, which got some idiot cheesecake painter all aerated because it’s apparently disgusting and “shock value” and The Reason Why Kids Don’t Like Comics No More:
Yes. Drawn Lady is drawn nursing Drawn Baby. Presumably the real thing reduces persons of delicate sensibilities to projectile vomiting. (He’s since removed his post because so many people shouted at him.)
And, of course, it’s not a comic for kids. Defining “kids” as, I dunno, under twelve. Because there’s childbirth and swearing and alien sex in it. None of which was new to me when I was twelve, and I didn’t even have the fucking internet, but whatever. That’s not what we’re here for. I’m just making the point that this is clearly a sf/f book for non-infants. It is, I think, a very good comic, and one that will prove something of a barometer for the maturity of the current commercial comics market.
First things first: this opening issue of SAGA is the first chapter of what will clearly be a very longform sf serial about war and politics, magic and science and love and sex. The clue is kind of in the title. Brian, an extremely gifted author, has written a clever and charming script, and Fiona Staples, whom I’ve previously seen very little by, is demonstrably a very intelligent artist who creates warm and characterful performances for her actors while spinning out perfectly weighted storytelling that puts me in mind of experts like Steve Dillon. It’s a little like listening to an orchestra tuning up and running through the early phrases of a big symphony, sounding the main themes and hinting at the complex beauty to come.
Romeo and Juliet up there are Marko and Alana, from either side of a war that has no good side. And what they did – having her umbilical gnawed off there – was something that apparently never should have happened. And it’s her story (or will be):
Because, you see, the book is shot through with panels like this, and lettering like this, as if from a children’s book. And that’s the baby’s narrative.
You can almost guarantee that someone or other will complain about one juxtaposition of elements or other. That the perfectly lovely children’s-book bits and the cherished violent bits should not be seen in the same place as baby-feeding and robot fucking. Or that the robot fucking is excellent and the character writing just gets in the way. Or that the whole thing is too slow and “decompressed,” or that the swearing distracts from the magical bits, or, I don’t know, babies disturb their wanking or something. Either people will recognise this as the opening notes of a rich and extended piece that contains much, as a novel should, or they are going to find a panoply of bad reasons to complain about it.
None of which feels right to talk about, in a way. I’ve talked about all these poisonous suppositions I have, instead of focussing on the work itself, which is bad form. But I want to be true to the feeling I had on closing the issue, which was, simply: god, what if the commercial comics market in 2012 might not support a novelistic longform serial written by Brian fucking Vaughan? As with much to do with comics lately, I would like to be wrong. Because I would like to read a lot more of SAGA.
It’s a terrific book, and another sign of the new resurgence at Image Comics. It is a wonderful thing to welcome Brian back to the medium, and a wonderful thing to discover the art of Fiona Staples.
SAGA #1 is released on 14 March 2012 from Image Comics. It will cost USD $2.99. You can contact your local comics shop and give them the order code JAN120485, if you want to arrange your copy in advance. Which I would recommend.
January 25th, 2012 | music, stuff2012
In which the Head Technician leaves behind much of his radiophonic and classical hauntological experimentation and heads off into realms I described on the twitters as British Cosmic. Passing through the 70s TV memoryscape mined by The Advisory Circle, the record crosses into a zone of distortion and beats that is (to me) clearly Kosmische, loping and yet frequently meditational. Analog electronic spacelaunch. And it seems to touch down, on the last track, in a warped Leyland Kirby wasteland, reality foaming at the edges, beautiful and unsettling. It took me a couple of listens to warm up to it: it’s not as immediately pretty as its predecessors, but I’ve found it’s richer and more rewarding. Stream it for free here or click through and buy it for cheap.
January 25th, 2012 | brainjuice
Ariana and I have been saying we’d do these for years, and we keep forgetting. Ariana remembered last night. And so here they are, at the usual place.
January 24th, 2012 | guest informant
Comics creator Chip Zdarsky — dimly related by birth to Canada’s National Post cartoonist and thwarted Toronto mayoral candidate Steve Murray — is currently writing his autobiography, and has very kindly shared a chapter of said tome with me. Herein, he relates the story of the time he was offered the job of creating the WATCHMEN comics sequel.
You may not want other people around while you’re reading this.
January 23rd, 2012 | photography, researchmaterial
Reuters: “A Kashmiri protester throws a “kangri” or Kashmiri traditional firepot towards Indian police during a protest in Srinagar January 21, 2012.”
Wikipedia: “Small earthen pots filled with combustibles were used as early thermal weapons during the classical and medieval periods. Containers made at first from clay, later from cast iron, known as ‘carcasses’, were launched by a siege engine, filled with pitch, Greek fire or other incendiary mixtures. These fire pots could cause great damage to besieged cities with largely wooden construction… By the mid-17th century, fire pots had largely been replaced by shells filled with explosives, which may be seen as the direct descendants of military fire pots.”
And also: “A kanger; also known as kangri or kangar or kangir) is an Indian pot filled with hot embers used by Kashmiris beneath their traditional clothing to keep the chill at bay, which is also regarded as a work of art.[3] It is normally kept inside the phiren (Overcoat type garment), the Kashmiri cloak, or inside a blanket. If a person is wearing a jacket, it may be used as a hand-warmer. It is about 6 inches (150 mm) in diameter and reaches a temperature of about 150 °F (66 °C)… Regular use of the kanger can cause skin cancer.”
January 23rd, 2012 | brainjuice
Are now live at the store, since a few people asked for them.
SPEKTRMODULE 5 went live over the weekend, and the shirts went live last week. Good morning.
January 23rd, 2012 | stuff2012
| This collection of old interviews with Alan Moore has been great fun to flick through. The very earliest one, I’d never actually heard about. There’s a few early ones that are sadly omitted while arguably being richer pieces (the ARKENSWORD interviews, for instance, or the Eddie Campbell dialogue in ESCAPE), but the selection generally feels strong. And I’m particularly enjoying finding herein interviews that I haven’t read before.
I’d recommend this book to anyone with more than a passing interest in Moore’s work over the years, because it does quite wonderfully illustrate the evolution and mutation of the thinking behind the work over… christ, thirty years or so. It’s a nice bit of curation by Eric Berlatsky, and a joy to read. |
January 22nd, 2012 | spektrmodule
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SPEKTRMODULE 05 Underfoot 36 minutes and 29 seconds |
Direct mp3 link. Press Play on the player then find the menu button in the bottom left for other functions. iTunes link.
@warrenellis / warrenellis@gmail.com
1. logotone
2. “black and white flight” - Ela Orleans (album: “Mars Is Heaven”)
3. Hello.
4. “So-So” - KaitO (album: You’ve Seen Us… You Must Have Seen Us… )
5. “Untitled”- Skirt (EP: Horizontal Ground 10)
6. “Not That I Am” – Throbbing Gristle (album: The Third Mind Movements)
7. “A Generation Of Spiders” - Exuviae (album: Swallow The Ghost)
8. Me. Been having some lung problems for the last couple of weeks, as you will hear. Please forgive the heavy breathing. More talky stuff next time, probably, if I still have lungs.
9. “Innerspace Laboratory Program” - Saturn Finger (album: Saturn Finger)
10. “Round In Circles” - Nocow (album: “G5TAPE01: Ruins Tape”)
11. “Dancing With Friends” - Julianna Barwick (album: Sanguine)
12. “Harmo” – Nudge (album: As Good As Gone)
13. “Slipped” - Diane Kensington (album: …And Her Ministry of Digital Devotees)
14. “Untitled” - Luke Abbott (album: Holkham Drones)
15. Me again.
16 “Marconi’s Radio” – The Secret Machines (album: September 000)
17. logotone
PREVIOUSLY: 1 – Fire Axes In Space | 2 – The Lane | 3 – Comfort And Joy | 4 – Long Count
WARREN ELLIS
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