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Underground > Comic Books >

The best of... Warren Ellis

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08:48 / 06.03.06

Here's my attempt to craft something that could become a recurring feature if it proves popular; a thread where various posters attempt to identify the best works of various comics creators. I've started with a writer, but there is no real reason why we can't cover artists too...

So, yeah, I figured we could start with Warren Ellis. This kind of flows out of the 'what's good' thread and my ambivilence towards citing his run on the Authority as something I'd recommend to someone looking for comics recommendations... but this thread isn't about me...

So, Stormwatch, Excalibur, Transmet, Authority, Planetary, Ministery of Space and 101 other small series in between... explain what you think is Warren Ellis's best work...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:54 / 06.03.06

I'm enjoying Planetary, and thought Global Frequency was fun in a kind of "once a week Saturday-evening thriller" type way, but I have to say Orbiter is probably my favourite Ellis. Not for the story, not even for the writing, but just for the feeling you got that this really was the comic he wanted to be writing. It reminded me of being a space-obsessed small boy, and it had that total "sensawunda" that I don't get from a lot of his stuff, no matter how many cosmic ideas he puts in there. I know I tend to overuse the phrase "infectious enthusiasm", but it's definitely appropriate here.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

09:26 / 06.03.06

Having reread the thing last night when under a lot of stressi in order to relax, I'd have to nominate Nextwave. It's got the manic energy and inventiveness which was why early Transmet was so good, has yet to succumb to Grim HorrorPorn Stylings, and is a superhero book that makes people laugh, even if they have no idea who the fuck Fin Fang Foom actually is. So far, I've lent #1 to a number of people, none of whom know anything about the characters and who would never normally read a comic involving spandex and punching, all of whom have been reduced to giggling, spluttering wrecks by about page three. Also, we get a rerun of the "Jakita kicks the engine out of the car" scene from Planetary, except for done purely for the aesthetic appeal of the various curves.

Actually, on a slightly tangential note, I've been increasingly impressed with Warren Ellis recently: having read a number of articles by him in which he doesn't degenerate into slightly bizarre rants about the state of the current music industry, but in fact talks in a measured way about how comics work as a commercial format and, more interestingly, mechanically: he talks in great depth about how the different divisions of grids "feel", and how different creators use these tiny distinctions to get certain effects. What's interesting is that although he's painted as someone who writes in an almost self-parodic "by-the-numbers" style, a lot of the techniques behind these comics are almost obsessively thought out.

Also, Desolation Jones, because it's steeped in Chandler and the Cold War, filled with chronically damaged characters trying to cope in a world gone quietly, greyly mad, and the nature of the protagonist is intriguing. Also, astonishingly beautiful art.

09:39 / 06.03.06

Yeah, I fucking love Orbiter. Just the introduction itself really moves me, and Colleen Doran's art is great. Someone said in a different thread that Warren works best when he kind of sits back and let's his artists shine.

Jawsus-son Starship

09:53 / 06.03.06

Ministry of Space is probably my favourite. Or Planetary. Toss it up.

10:30 / 06.03.06

Probably Planetary, since that seems to be the work where he shows some actual interest in the storytelling, as opposed to front-loading the characterization with massive amounts of rage & sarcasm.

However, I'd have to say that the best work of his I've ever read has to be Doom 2099. It just resonates with me, to this day.

10:56 / 06.03.06

However, I'd have to say that the best work of his I've ever read has to be Doom 2099. It just resonates with me, to this day.

"Did you really send their building into outer space?"

"...It was a long time ago."

Transmet was one of three comics that I read throughout my uni years (the other two being Preacher and Invisibles) so it has a certain nostaligic glow for me. Although it was on a downward curve towards the end.

I loved his work on Stormwatch and Authority, they resonate with me as the trades that, along with New X-Men, got me reading and enjoying superheroes again.

Planetary I enjoy, but the trades come out so damn slowly that I don't feel particularly connected to it.

Global Fequency, well, I just want more and more and more of. Loved it to bits.

Haus of Mystery

11:27 / 06.03.06

I actually think Lazarus Churchyard was one of his best. I'm swayed mainly because I absolutely adore D'Israeli's artwork (so fucking underrated), but I think it's also some of Ellis' stronger writing. Distinctly British flavour, reminiscent of Deadline, Revolver and all those early 90's 'experimental' British comics. Shorn of the smugness that in IMO hinders his current writing style, LC has the feel of a hungry young writer trying to do a psychadelic cyber-punk piece. Just nice and weird.

13:13 / 06.03.06

Wasn't Lazarus Churchyard originally serialized in Revolver? Or was it in another one of those early-90s anthologies?

And on the D'israli tip - have you seen Scarlet Traces a sequal of sorts to the War of the Worlds...

Haus of Mystery

13:55 / 06.03.06

BLAST! actually. A brief attempt to do a 'European' style alternative anthology. It was OK, but Laz was the best.
Haven't read 'Scarlet Traces', but did pick up 'Kingdom of the Wicked' by the same team. It's nice enough, but as i said it's mainly D'Israeli's art I was after, as there's so little of it about.
Also: How was that 'Leviathan' strip in 2000ad? Looked lovely.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:25 / 06.03.06

I recently read his run on Excalibur for the first time and really liked it. It felt like he was testing a lot of ideas out there, and in retrospect feels like wacky fun Ellis Lite, which I quite enjoyed.

Early Transmet was brilliant, but got a little dodgy at the end.

Planetary is my favorite, but as much as I like reading it when it randomly shows up at my shop I really kind of want to see how it ends at this point.

15:20 / 06.03.06

A popular perception of
Transmet is that it tailed off during its run, the bone of contention among readers being where this started to happen. Personally I really enjoyed the first three issues. After those first three issues it was never quite as tightly written, engaging, or enjoyable again...

I can definitely see what people mean about Ellis's enthusiasm. Ministery of Space posatively bled with enthusiasm for the space programme... And it had fantastic Chris Weston art reminicent of The Eagle and Don Lawrence's ouvre. But while I was sold on the idea of the story from the outset I found the execution to be somewhat lacking... It read like a fleshed-out pitch rather than a fully formed story in its own right...

the credible hulk

17:26 / 06.03.06

I find I don't like a lot of Ellis' work, but the stuff that I DO like is at the top of my list.

Planetary is my favorite thing that's currently being published, bar none. I liked Transmet all the way through. Yeah, the first year or so of issues were better, but I think the later stories were still solid. The Authority was great for his run. Even Millar, who I usually quite like, sort of fucked it up after Ellis left.

I loved Orbiter. It was a wonderful, self-contained sci-fi. At a time when dozens of comic series are being optioned for Hollywood productions, I think Orbiter could be done exceptionally well.

18:13 / 06.03.06

I think I've been at least entertained - if not more - by every professionally published thing I've ever read from Ellis. That is utterly sad, yes it is. But, true.

I just pulled out 'Dark Blue' a couple hours ago, and damned if that wasn't a helluva thing. With a lovely name for his protagonist. And last month, I reread some of his 'Hellstorm' and 'Excalibur' from back in the day. Stumbling, sometimes editorially hampered and manipulated ('weregirl' and whatnot), but the impetus is there and so, too, the magick Ellis habit of trying to get his characters in ensemble pieces hooked up and laid in short order.

Reading those 'Excalibur' issues, it becomes all too clear that most superhero books? Nobody ever actually dates anyone, and if you date, like Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, there will be no sex. You get to pick one person and pine for them for three hundred issues. Then, you shack up, and there can be no one else. When there is someone else, people scream from the bleachers about how Scott and Jean are meant for each other and... yeah.

Reread all the currently out 'Planetary' and it ran remarkably smooth. I like the alternate considerations that come in small packets like 'Red' and that Ellis has latched onto a notion of simple but not stupid. What we call stupid fun, something like 'NextWave' isn't, really - it's very simply laid out, but there's obviously some thought going in from the creative end. Same with those apparatchik singles from so short ago. Simple presentation of things that have been seriously engineered and articulated.

And, to be honest, the standard Ellis tics don't bug me as they do so many. Chainsmoking, harddrinking bastard cynic with a heart o' gold who moans on about coffee and threatens physical violence to randomly interfering other-characters? I know more of these than I do, say, Peter Parkers and Selina Kyles.

Two words on why Ellis' works work for me: defiant optimism. It's the core of nearly every piece.

And the strange feeling of looking at a mirror every time he gave Moira McTaggert some panel-time, with her shit instant coffee and houseful of non-rule-abiding permanently visiting friends, as it were.

Jawsus-son Starship

19:06 / 06.03.06

the thing that ruined transmet for me has to be the last page of the last issue, a little picture of warren ellis giving us all the middle finger, proving once and for all that he's sooooo edgy. or a twat. toss it up.

Bubblegum Death

19:57 / 06.03.06

I haven't read a lot by Ellis, but I would second the poster who said Doom 2099.

#29(where Doom conquers America) is one of my favorite single issues.

20:26 / 06.03.06

I've often been curious about Doom 2099 under Ellis's pen - which issues of the series did he do? He wasn't there from the start, right?

Bubblegum Death

23:12 / 06.03.06

John Francis Moore wrote the first 25 issues (I think), and then he wrote the last couple.

I only have the Ellis issues though; and even then I'm missing a few.

01:39 / 07.03.06

What's interesting is that although he's painted as someone who writes in an almost self-parodic "by-the-numbers" style, a lot of the techniques behind these comics are almost obsessively thought out.

I'm not trying to ruin anyone's picnic, but I think this underscores what a lot of the frustration with Ellis is all about -- that he can expound all kinds of marvelous-sounding theories about what comics are and what they should be, and then turn around and routinely produce work that reads exactly as though it were written in "an almost self-parodic 'by-the-numbers' style." There seems to be a disconnect between what is practiced and what is preached. I don't know if he's not capable of living up to his own ideals or if he's just too jaded to try (or if the latter is just an excuse for the first), but either way, it has always driven me up a wall that someone who can sound so enthusiastic and inventive often displays so little enthusiasm and invention -- but then, I haven't yet read Nextwave, and remain hopeful that this time he'll let me finally kick the football. The pages I've seen don't strike me as anything special, but there's a lot of love from usually non-Ellis-loving quarters, so I'm looking to...uh...reading the trade for free over a cup of coffee in Borders.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:10 / 07.03.06

NextWave, two issues in, is career-justifyingly good.

10:07 / 07.03.06

none of you bells have mentioned 'fell' clearly the best thing he's ever done, though it does perhaps remain to be seen if anything he does can sustain itself for more than three issues. except planetary. which managed about a dozen.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:30 / 07.03.06

I'm surprised you didn't find Fell a little too... Gothic isn't the right word. Industrial? In the sense of being equivalent to the subculture/genre. I can't really cope with reading Ellis comics that remind me about the record he made with Deathboy.

14:21 / 07.03.06

'record he made with Deathboy'

ai ai ai, i've no idea what that means but it sounds fucking horrible.

it's the format dops it for me mainly, i think: elly as i'm sure even his detractors would agree is an excellent theorist of what makes comics work, and in fell he's basically taking the planetary seven-inch single idea but actually sticking to it, with only the very vaguest of over-arching mysteries to detract from the unity of each issue: no ads, and a letters page, and less than one-pound fifty. i also like the way that like, one monthe there's a weird stroy in tthe fortean times, and then next month there's a story about the same thing in fell, and elly's all 'kuttin ejjj!!' and i'm all 'whatever'

outside of that, it's the art: templesmith, who apart from this i'm largely unaware of, doing, to these eyes, a beaut pastiche of early painty sean phillips and lots of other experimentalist 80s guys

15:48 / 07.03.06

Warren Ellis sings! (Sort of.) Follow the link to hear "Revolution" (oooohhh, ejjjjjjj-EE) in all its awful glory.

Cowboy Scientist

18:29 / 07.03.06

elly's all 'kuttin ejjj!!' and i'm all 'whatever'

Hahaha! Yeah, I've got the same feeling with some of his writing; the latest Planetary, with the systems stuff, is a good example of this, I think.

22:49 / 07.03.06

I'm not very fond of Ellis haven't enjoyed anything quite like the fourth trade of Transmet which I read nearly three years ago. Desolation Jones, Fell aren't half bad and Planetary is commendable when read in trade but nothing extraordinary. I think he's been tremendously lucky with artists who make his decent work shine at times.

I think Scars was one of the better things he did which had a really strong opening and some well written afterwords even if the story lost appeal halfway through. I think Ellis can be a wonderful columnist when he's not trying too hard to connect with his embarassing camgirl/goth fanbase.

Come in Alone is easily his best work, it managed to excite me about comics at a time when I was growing up and turning to "real" books with very little knowledge about comics without superheroes.

23:38 / 07.03.06

I'm not trying to ruin anyone's picnic, but I think this underscores what a lot of the frustration with Ellis is all about -- that he can expound all kinds of marvelous-sounding theories about what comics are and what they should be, and then turn around and routinely produce work that reads exactly as though it were written in "an almost self-parodic 'by-the-numbers' style."

Spot on -- his (mostly successful) pose as "writer to be taken seriously" creates expectations for his work that do not typically survive contact with the work itself.

That said, his writing is IMO quite a bit better than average in terms of what's typically published in the superhero genre -- taken by itself (ie. without reference to the public WarrenEllis persona), his work stands well above the Caseys and Austens and miscellaneous other relatively generic sooparearo writers. I can generally count on being reasonably entertained by any given Ellis trade paperback in that particular genre (I did long ago learn not to bother with Ellis singles, however).

On the other hand, his attempts to do "serious" "important" comics have tended to fall flat for me. Planetary just reads like something trying very self-consciously to be oh-so-groundbreaking, and hey, it would've been had it been published in 1994. Sadly, it wasn't.

09:28 / 08.03.06

Mod hat

Can ask people not to respond to Sensitive Rapist's posts. His screen name is the subject of a large amount of debate in the Conversation and the Policy and he has been asked to change it. In the mean time it would probably be for the best if he wasn't encouraged to post.

09:49 / 08.03.06

My relationship with the works of Warren Ellis has become strained recently. I loved Orbiter, Ministry of Space, Lazarus Churchyard, Transmet and so many more, and was blown away by what he did converting Stormwatch into The Authority...

But my perceptions began to tumble when I tried to see what he was making of the Justice League team in New Maps of Hell. It was not the idea that I came stuck upon, but instead the dialogue, which suddenly, in the mouths of the characters I knew so well, seemed... so Warren Ellis... Those lines could have come from almost any of his jaded, ultra-violent characters and suddenly seemed generic. Since then, I have had to cut down on the Warren Ellis, despite loving almost all that I have seen by him. I mean, I still buy Planetary and Desolation when I see them, but the magic was somehow stolen from me...

I mean, I am noone to talk and I am as dust before his altar, of course, and remain a good loyal reader and customer, but does anyone else feel a little the same way?

21:15 / 08.03.06

No, not really, given the impression he gives of a man who might consider the Borg Queen teh HOT.

However, all the best writers are pervs, so. As an fyi, according to CBDB, Ellis wrote 25-39 of Doom 2099 which I've always quite fancied getting my hands on.

Looking through the list, I'd opt for Excalibur which may be a case of diminished expectations, but it really seemed interesting, cool and bleak for what it was back in 1997-8 when I read it. John Constantine sub and all; the concepts were probably largely recycled Moore in retrospect, but you know - aliens that had killed (their) god, Warlock being used as some kind of big brother in a dystopian future, going to the pub. In context it all seemed quite groundbreaking. Likewise a lot of Stromwatch - though I've no love for his really quite dull and irritating Authority, and I find it's general good reception somewhat bewildering. Stormwatch really recreated the Wildstorm Universe from ground level up; you can see it in all the later books like The Monarchy just how much is owed to that - it's bleak, again, without being particularly realistic and the old tropes like alternate universes are all used pretty innovatively, with just a pinch of New Scientist or fitever.

It's all about the grime, isn't it?

Latterly, Planetary - at least for the first twelve or so issues - brought some more freshness to the superhero game; quite specifically the recasting of various Marvel characters as analogues, but affixed such oddities as Welles, Oriental cinema and Conrad to them.

Lately, however, I think Desolation Jones has the potential to be quite possibly his best work; it's pretty much luxuriating in filth (I think I want to say: it is his The Filth) but with that tiny glint of, you know, if you kick the shit out of enough folks some total bastard might get their comeuppance and the titular character might get some redemption and serenity. Jhw3's pulling out the stops to make sure it's the best looking an Ellis book's been; the red line geography in the first issue (which I believe Warren said was his idea) was just a great touch and Villarubia's shifting palette really helps convey it as a mood piece.

21:19 / 08.03.06

p.s. this is a great thread idea. I fancy a bit o' Milligan next mebbe?

23:07 / 08.03.06

Just a recommend: His 6-issue arc in Hellblazer, HAUNTED, is v. good. Constantine is a character that suits some of his characterisation tics, and the pacing, as well as the internal monologue from Constantine, has a real strength to it. It's ultraviolent for ultraviolence's sake at times, but it works within the context of the story, methinks. Anyone else read it; got thoughts?

23:23 / 08.03.06

I read it at the time and was left feeling ambivilent when his run was curtailed when DC declined to run his Hellblazer script entitled 'shoot'. I liked Haunted, but was not really impressed by 'shoot', Ellis's short story with a slight columbine theme. 'Shoot' didn't really hold together for me... not such a great loss to comics that it was not published at the time (although I'm sure it will see the light of day eventually) so I was both sad to see Ellis leave the title, but also kind of glad too if that makes sense...

00:12 / 09.03.06

As for Ellis leaving 'Hellblazer', I think it's always nice when people make at least an attempt at some sort of integrity. If you say you're on a book until someone forces you off, that's one thing, but it's something else if you come onto a title or write/publish anything for a specific set of reasons and then have those violated or made impossible. Thinking here, also, of Ellis' 'Druid' coming to such a short end because of behind-the-scenes switching out of folks.
Makes more sense to me than, say, that mid-eighties 'Fantastic Four' run of ye olde Jonothan Harkness. Though spitefully doing it wrong might have some personal entertainment value.
And I agree, this thread's a good idea. There should be more. In fact, if it weren't that there's already probably a thread like this for him, Alan Moore would be a good candidate. I'd love to see what people would come out with for Milligan. Or someone with a low presence in other threads here, like Adam Warren, Richard Case, one of the Kesels or a Severin. So we can be sold on - or turned off further from - people and works not often discussed here.

01:22 / 09.03.06

Ellis's Hellblazer run was very "eh" to me. "Haunted" was marred by some just godawful art, but Ellis didn't help matters any with a John Constantine who...well, to be honest, was just another tough-talking Ellis chainsmoker, and while that should have worked, it really didn't. Constantine is an easy character to write on the surface, but I didn't feel like there was much depth to Ellis's portrayal. That's perhaps forgivable when it comes to the one-shots, but less so in "Haunted," which prefigured the current wave of two-issue stories dragged out to six issues by virtue of being a two-issue story dragged out to six issues. Ellis did treat us to some windy interior monologue toward the end, but to me it just read like the same contrived epiphany du jour Ellis used to occasionally trot out at "moving" moments in Transmet. As they say, your mileage may vary.

(In Ellis's defense, his short run was not only better than that of Paul Jenkins or Brian Azzarello, but actually a lot better than the amazingly shitty "Son of Man" arc that preceded it. Talk about a writer who lost it...but anyway, back to Ellis...)

"Shoot" (which is kinda...eh...and not really that shocking at all, but which has some very nice art by Phil Jiminez) used to be all over the web. You can probably find it if you look around.

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