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Underground > Comic Books >

Warren Ellis

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Matthew Fluxington

11:55 / 29.04.02

listening to what the owner thinks they should buy, finding out what's new and the like

Maybe I'd feel better about this if Ellis had any semblence of taste.

19:02 / 29.04.02

Flux: All your bad thoughts about Warren Ellis seem to have borne karmic fruit.

I've just logged out of his Forum...

...and Andy Calo is running amuck there, pulling exactly the kind of shit he's pulled here, testing the man's patience and that of his moderators.

19:24 / 29.04.02

FLUXXXRAD?

Sleeping with enemy, now, son?

Matthew Fluxington

19:28 / 29.04.02

Ah, I've had that id for quite a while now - I think that might actually be my first post there, ever.

Matthew Fluxington

19:34 / 29.04.02

Ellis seems really cocky about this - if Tom hasn't been able to do much about Andrew while having his address and phone numbers, what does Ellis think he's going to do? Call him up and have a heart-to-heart? Still, he's a lot more draconian that our beloved Coates...

Regrettable Juvenilia

17:13 / 02.05.02

Steve and Flux - there are loads of creators who post on the WEF, and the single biggest argument in its favour is surely that it provides a great way for projects from less well-known creators, particularly projects which don't fit into the industry's twisted idea of what is 'mainstream', to come to the attention of people whose tastes do generally run in that 'mainstream' direction. Whatever you think of Ellis' taste (which seems fairly eclectic to me, and certainly preferable to a huge number of other prominent creators, even those whose work surpasses his, eg Grant Morrison), it's not only unfair but fairly clearly inaccurate to pain the WEF purely as a piece of self-promotion - it has that funtion, but it also does a lot of promoting of other work, arguably better work. Ironically, this is where the degree of sycophancy shown to Ellis by many of the forum's visitors has a use: when he tells them to check out a comic they wouldn't otherwise have looked at, a lot of them really do it.

I'll come back to this thread later to talk about Ellis as a writer...

05:57 / 03.05.02

It was really created as promotion tool for Ellis. But it has grown bigger. I've started to kind of like the place after I got some useful inside information about the making and the business of comics - which is something of great importance to myself. His online persona there can irritate when you see threads being closed, words being filtered. I couldn't agree more with Harry Christmas on that (in)famous 'Is Ellis Mad? Or is It Me' thread some barbelith relaunchs ago. But more than ever (forum owners have to pay Delphi for moderation and other tools) I understand it's his house, so his rules apply and I respect that. It's like imposing a mad order in his permanent 24-7 press conference. The guy usually breaks his own rules by starting some screwball go-nowhere topics, like the 'This is what they want; Kick-Splode' when Authority was officially put to rest. All that depends on the guys mood, but even with some other moderators the forum runs almost free.

If it wasn't for Ellis' name there, it could be considered along with Barbelith as a very good andreal example of an internet community. You'll find people to talk about almost any subject there (perhaps not Chaos Magick =) ). Some WEFers don't actually read his comics and most of those who do, know how to post a well argumented opinion - a not offensive 'flame war style' one - when they don't like his material. Of course they usually choose not to post when it's the case.

Activism-wise Top Shelf has shown numbers that more or less prove the WEF indeed had a remarkable role in the campaign to save the publisher. Barbelith folks will always look 'cooler' and less 'nerdy' to me (even though some here behave as nerdy as Usenet can be, which sometimes is alright).

Both are different animals that strongly reflect the creators that based them, even if both places have grown apart from their influence. Don't know if my posture towards this is so zen it got passive, but I try to take the best out of both places because I know what I won't find in both of them.

20:40 / 03.05.02

Hmmm, Flyboy, I think the idea that the WEF exists as an exercise in self promotion is borne out in the forum's name. However, that doesn't mean it isn't more than that. Or that, on some level, the fact that Ellis is recommending all this cool stuff to people who frequent his board isn't on some level self promotion. Ellis is in some parts a frustrated journalist, so I'm sure it serves needs he has there. Ack, what an unwieldy phrasing.

I think I'm starting to get bogged down here. I have no bones with Ellis recommending stuff, I think I said I just prefer the way it is done with the artbomb project rather than with the WEF. It will be interesting to see if artbomb is allowed to evolve it's own forum or if it almagamates in some way into the WEF.

I guess I have issues with the way Ellis runs the board. I do agree with Vortex, in that it is somewhere that exists in a nice way the way Barbelith does, but I don't think it's on a level with Barbelith in that it's still a fiefdom, no matter if he does break his own rules or whatever. I guess that's why I avoid it. It could well be that it's time for me to reappraise the place. I have to add that I also really hate the way Delphi boards look.

uncle retrospective

08:21 / 04.05.02

I have to say I have quite a bit of time for ol' Stalin. He's not always on target and he took the edgyness (swearing/violence and the indignation people feel about how shit the world can be) people loved in Transmet and ran with it. Fair play. Some of it is good (Transmet/AUTHORITY) some (Ministry of space) are just not good.

But I just found this. Shoot.
The Helblazer story about school shootings that vertigo pulled and buried.
I'm not surprised it got pulled after columbine.

16:54 / 04.05.02

Whereas it should have been pulled simply for being Not Very Good...

18:27 / 04.05.02

Just to point out, there is a separate discussion of Shoot going on in this forum at the moment, in the thread Shoot The Online Comic Club.

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