No, I'm sure he intended that title to be take entirely seriously.
there was a particularly painful stretch in the mid-2000s where you could almost guarantee that an article on weird physics in new scientist or wherever would get shamelessly recycled into an ellis story six months or so down the line
I don't know that this is a problem tbh, a chronicle of historical futures is a useful thing to have in popular culture. He is kind of coasting on how much he got right in Transmetropolitan, but he is still a good writer chewing over current events from a variety of different directions, so he'll keep getting my money - and also he wrote Nextwave, so he'll keep getting my money.
Disclaimer: I read his newsletter.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 11:07 (seven years ago) link
Ellis' recent James Bond series (plural) with Dynamite were surprisingly good.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 14:47 (seven years ago) link
Ellis is a bit rubbish, and all his heroes sound like Warren Ellis writing fanfiction about warren Ellis
agree there
also agree that he's very good at "wordless" stuff, but seems to counterbalance that by claremont-ing all his dialog pages
transmet as "product of its time"? yes, but kind of read as wish-fulfillment wank at the time, too
that said, as anyone who's attended a comiccon should know, he seems like a nice guy
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 14:52 (seven years ago) link
x-post
did that 2nd dynamite JB story ever finish?
I've attended plenty of comic conventions where 'nice guy' was not the phrase people were using about Warren Ellis tbh.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 14:59 (seven years ago) link
i assume most massively successful comic book writers are compulsive assholes, tbh. something's gotta drive them to be able to put out that much work and it's usually not a good thing
― Nhex, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
I'm sure there are exceptions, but I've always assumed that there isn't much overlap between the set of skills that inform writing prolificity and those that inform healthy social functioning.
― I Ate Four Bufords (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 16:28 (seven years ago) link
Interesting! I met him a couple times and he seemed okay. Full of himself (which comes across in the writing) but friendly.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 16:56 (seven years ago) link
isn't much overlap between the set of skills that inform writing prolificity and those that inform healthy social functioning
i don't think there's a genuine correlation between those things (i've met too many nice writers) but there is certainly a tendency among assholes who happen to be writers to buy into that myth for expedience's sake
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:01 (seven years ago) link
xp to you Chuck: yep, Eidolon wrapped up with issue 12, though that ending was about as perfunctory and Ellis-onian as could be imagined. let me know if you want me to spoil it for you.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:21 (seven years ago) link
the current bond series (minus bond, it's felix leiter) is written by James Robinson and is not much fun.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:23 (seven years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, March 21, 2017 12:01 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Not a correlation but, yes, basically what you said (the prolificity creates space to excuse oneself from the development of social skills if one is so disinclined).
― I Ate Four Bufords (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:34 (seven years ago) link
I'm not exactly a paragon of either skillset, so I ain't sitting in judgment.
― I Ate Four Bufords (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:35 (seven years ago) link
Any comic writers that end up writing a long box or so of books are going to end up with a stack of clunkers. I'd say Ellis has a decent signal to noise ratio, it is just unfortunate that a couple of really interesting series setups like Desolation Jones or Fell went into the ditch.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 20:05 (seven years ago) link
I feel like he had some deeper life complications going on than the "my laptop died and I lost some scripts" line that was floated, so I'm glad he seems to be doing well. I prodded in a couple online discussions of his work about Desolation Jones and he's really just tired of talking about it.
I have the suspicion the concentrated coffee/whiskey lifestyle caught up with him a couple times, as it will for anyone who makes a go of that
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 21:00 (seven years ago) link
xpost to Ulysees
Yep! Just read, you're wholly correct re: perfunctory. Interesting comic, pretty piss-poor take on the character.
Anyway, Marvel Comics
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 21:36 (seven years ago) link
He was friendly enough at the con I saw him (and GMo!) at in '99. He asked our group what we were getting up to that evening - we knocked him back as we had tickets to go see The Phantom Menace.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 00:08 (seven years ago) link
Marvel comics! Ellis' Wolverine four-parter Not Dead Yet is a good read, if you can get past the phonetics used for the Scot character's dialogue.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 00:11 (seven years ago) link
I've been to comic conventions on three continents and Warren Ellis has never been there
have heard various stories without the "nice guy" punchline, but only one was in a hotel bar the night before a comic convention
― (±\ PLO;;;;;;; Style (sic), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 01:34 (seven years ago) link
I'd assume the intention was to cite comic conventions Ellis was actually at in reference to his character but I respect sic's pedantry
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 01:57 (seven years ago) link
I thought Chuck was intimating that Ellis goes to lots of conventions and socialises
― (±\ PLO;;;;;;; Style (sic), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 02:45 (seven years ago) link
tbf he makes elliscon every day
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 03:13 (seven years ago) link
Well, if this is the level of pedantry we're dropping to...
never been to those continents, or never been there when you were?
the story was set in a bar, or you were in a bar when you heard the story?
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 04:34 (seven years ago) link
He was in Melbourne in 1999. https://www.armageddonexpo.com/General-Info/History/ (scroll way down).
He's no fan of cons iirc.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 05:01 (seven years ago) link
He = Warren Ellis, obv.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 05:02 (seven years ago) link
TBF, being a writer at a comic convention is my idea of hell.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 08:01 (seven years ago) link
(In Toronto, at TCAF/Beguiling and some more mainstreamy one I forget the name of. 2004-6ish?)
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 10:48 (seven years ago) link
Well, the fifth and final issue of "The Unworthy Thor" is out (to circle back to a topic from further above). Without saying too much, I'll just say that the issue is... anticlimactic, in several respects. (And yes, the content of Fury's "whisper" is revealed...)
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 04:37 (seven years ago) link
In other news, some poor schmuck of a casting director needs to find *two* white-haired actresses: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spider-man-spinoff-thor-writer-tackling-silver-sable-black-cat-movie-988065
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 04:41 (seven years ago) link
calling it now: that movie will never be made
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 10:47 (seven years ago) link
seconded
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 13:53 (seven years ago) link
As a Jessica Drew fan, I'm bummed she's not the subject of the "secret female spinoff project" (I assume her character is encompassed by the Spider-Rights which Sony controls). I think Dennis Hopeless's fun, modern reimagining of the character would translate well to the screen (though can't imagine how they would deal with her weird origin and complicated history). Maybe someday...
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
A Black Cat/Silver Sable movie makes zero sense and is completely stupid and it will never get made and I'm glad. Where do people even get these fucking ideas? I'm straining to recall if those two characters have ever directly interacted to any meaningful extent.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:03 (seven years ago) link
Can't wait for the Night Thrasher/Lyja Lazerfist team-up movie!
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:05 (seven years ago) link
Where do people even get these fucking ideas?
the studio's paid for the rights to these characters dammit, they're gonna make a fuckin' movie out of them no matter what!
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
I feel like they were both involved in that Foreigner storyline in the late '80s (when Parker wuz boning Felicia), but yeah I can't visualize/recall them sharing a panel.
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:17 (seven years ago) link
So maybe it'll be a movie that just cuts back and forth between them each doing their own completely unrelated thing. Fun times. Fuuuuuuuuuun times.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:19 (seven years ago) link
xp was Peter waiting for a girl like her
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
i understand kenneth lonergan is involved in scripting a bittersweet drama about the father-son relationship between leap-frog and frog-man which is due for release in spring 2019
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
they broke up because felicia was cold as ice to peter when he wasn't wearing the spider-man suit iirc
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:22 (seven years ago) link
SoHo loft, Nagel poster on the wall, Bambi/Candi/Randi as his neighbors... '80s Parker was cold lampin'!
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:31 (seven years ago) link
I've lived my life wrong
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
if it's any consolation, each of us is here posting about marvel comics on an internet messageboard, so i think we've all lived our lvies wrong tbh
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:42 (seven years ago) link
I recall it ended for good when Spidey burst in on Felicia and the Foreigner right after a lovemaking sesh, and the Foreigner flipped the mattress while Felicia fought Spidey off ("Sorry, lover...!"). Parker had already figured out that FH had been playing him for a fool, and that was the big showdown/confrontation.
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
i was just making a joke about the foreigner song 'cold as ice' tbrr
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
Jessica Drew should co-star in the second season of Jessica Jones imo.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:58 (seven years ago) link
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:42 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Are you by any chance selling engraved plates emblazoned with this motto and if so where should I send my money?
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:01 (seven years ago) link
i am now, ilxmail me yr credit card details
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:05 (seven years ago) link
I don't care about spider-plots, I'm just here for bad music jokes
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
you're fooling no-one, nerd
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:09 (seven years ago) link