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PROFILE: Warren Ellis Interview Introduction
[Editor's Note: A little background. Shortly after Warren Ellis announced two new projects (Dark Blue and Strange Kiss) for a publisher named Avatar, a rather nasty story broke that included some very damning indictments of the company. The company's Managing Editor, Barry Gregory left Avatar, and his wife Jenni who was doing a girl-friendly, all-ages book named Dreamwalker also ceased working for the company.]  Why did you agree to work with Avatar? Avatar had a reputation for putting out violent porn. Yeah. But you're not doing violent porn, you're doing thoughtful books that have violent aspects or sexual aspects. You are no doing that type of work. I had been given to understand that they were a very reliable independent publisher - this is at the time. Been given to understand that they were a reliable independent publisher who put out books with good reproduction, who put them out at a reliable pace at a reasonable price point. That was what I required at the time, to offer an alternate stream of work. So yeah, I went with Avatar. You've expressed disappointment at Avatar not taking the opportunity to do more with your work, while they had it. To attract similar creators to do work there. Because apparently your work was some of the best-selling stuff for Avatar in quite some time. Oh absolutely, yeah. It sold very well. Strange Kiss outsold most Vertigo Books. Really? Oh yeah. Strange Kiss did astonishingly well. It sold almost as much as Transmet.  But at the same time though, you were doing Dark Blue in Threshold, but on the flip side was... Violent Porn, yeah. I was disappointed that they didn't use the opportunity that represented to maybe put out some different work through... Threshold for instance. They themselves are in a time of change. As we were producing Dark Blue, they were publishing Jenni Gregory for instance. But by the time Dark Blue appeared, they weren't publishing Jenni anymore, and Barry Gregory was no longer with the company. There was obviously some big "C" Change going on there, whereas I thought Dark Blue would be a bridge towards Dreamwalker and stuff like that, they were obviously going in another direction. Would you feel comfortable, as a creator with some pull at Avatar, saying to the company "Maybe you should be doing books like this..." or, "You should be doing books like this, because look at how well they're selling." It's something in fact that we've talked about. I'm actually getting T. Casey Brennan... I'm sorry I'm not familiar with him. He's a conspiracy theory figure. Do you know of James Shelby Downard? I'm sorry... Okay... he's what you might call a visionary conspiracy theorist. Visionary in the William Blake-ian way, of genuinely believing he was involved in the assassination of JFK. He's written a great deal of absolutely fascinating prose about this. It's generally very very good stuff. Some people will call it mad (laugh), and certainly it is not convention, but it's fascinating stuff. And I'm actually getting Avatar to produce a collection of T. Casey Brennan's work. Of his writing? Of his writing, yeah. It'll be in a prose format similar to From The Desk Of [a collection of Warren's columns]. You wrote the "Pop Comics Manifesto" about 18 months ago? I wrote that in the Summer of 1999 in Auckland.
Because comics move slow these days. It's as simple as that. I had a line set up at Wildstorm... That actually happened? Yeah, yeah. I wrote the Pop Comics Manifesto in the summer, and by the end of the summer I had the line set up at Wildstorm. I was putting together books and I was putting together people, and by February of 2000 I still didn't have a working contract. I'd scheduled this work to start appearing in June of 2000. So we were four months away, not for solicitation but from first release. I still didn't have a working contract! Can I ask why it didn't come together? Is it something you can discuss? I don't want to openly insult anyone, they know what I think. There's no reason why I should say anything more. Fair enough. What are the three books that are going to be coming through your new imprint at Image? There's MINISTRY OF SPACE, which will be illustrated by Chris Weston. That's the alternate history of the space program. The next is BLACK HORSES, which is by me and John Paul Leon, which is a crime story with a touch of the supernatural. And the third one is MORNING DRAGONS, which is two Viking longships pitching up on the northern coast of Japan around the year 1180. Are these going to be black & white or colour? Ministry of Space and Black Horses will be colour. Ministry of Space will be coloured by Laura Depuy. In the announcements you hadn't mentioned any ancillary staff. Colourists, inkers... has that not been worked out? Well there are no inkers, Chris is inking himself, John Paul is inking himself. And Steve Leiber, who's drawing Morning Dragons, will be in black & white. Black Horses is the one that's on a long deadline so we haven't actually decided on a colourist for that yet, we're still talking about that. John Paul doesn't actually read a lot of comics, we're sort of catching up on this modern, computer colouring thing. Have you got tentative dates or formats for these projects yet? I'm assuming they're all three issue mini-series? Ministry of Space will be Spring 2001, and that's a three-issue mini-series. Black Horses will probably be late summer 2001, and that's a three issue mini-series. Morning Dragons is up in the air, and that is going to be a black and white, 100 page original graphic novel. Oh, thank you! [Smiling] See, there you go [Smiling] Back when I said "Why are you with Avatar?" - I challenged you on this on the forum - and you said "There's no one out there." I rebutted with Image, and actually put you in contact with Jim Valentino. Well, really, Image wasn't set up for that at the time. These projects needed money to be produced. These books, are these self-financed? Are you going to the wall with your own money to produce them? I have this secret treasure trove in the alps. [Pause] Okay, I guess we can leave that there. [Smile] You've hired Mike Heisler on as the Editorial...
Between you and Image? Or are you still calling the guys are Image? Mike Heisler is handling all the production for me. Who's handling the design of the books? Book design has always been very important to you. W- Mike Heisler and the artists, with me chipping in. Image is sort of notorious, I've heard from people who've worked with them, for not offering a lot of advertising support. No, well Image Central is absolutely not set up to do that sort of thing. They don't have the staff. Is that a concern you have? It was something I knew going in. They don't have the staff, they don't have the money, they just can't do that kind of promotion at Image Central. No one must ever forget that when we're talking about Image Central, we're really talking about 4 guys and a secretary. They're not deeply staffed they way Todd McFarlane Productions is, or Top Cow Productions is. Those guys aren't Image, they work under the banner of convenience that is Image. And it's those three guys and the woman who answers the phones who keep that banner flowing, and no one must ever lose sight of that. I knew going in that obviously I wasn't going to get massive amounts of promotion or support, so I will be doing that all myself. So you've taken ancillary steps to promote the books... I now have a very large press list. I have friends who all showed me their press lists, and I will be doing it all myself. If it comes off, then you will see the stuff in newspapers, web-sites and magazines.
Absolutely crucial. But when we do the Image projects, the three issue miniseries, in the solicitation in previews, there is going to be in bold letters a statement of when these issues are going to be trade paperbacks. You will see in bold a letters a statement saying "This work will not be trade paperbacked for a year, or eighteen months" or whatever decision we finally end up making. So you're seriously going to put out a three issue miniseries, then wait a year, or eighteen months, to put out trade paperback collections of your Image work? Yeah. [Pause] Why? [Pause] Because we're still in the period of change. Where half of the stores are ready for original graphic novels, but the other half or more are still relying on the monthly grind - they need their 32 page pamphlet. It is a simple as that. There's a lot of people who haven't yet bought an original graphic novel, who will buy a 32 page pamphlet. It's because we're in the middle of the time of change, we're in the middle of this flux, and we have to carefully build a bridge from one end of it to the other. Do you want to abandon Pamphlets? Yeah Entirely? Yeah. Do you feel that the extended serial format is viable in any context? To ensure the continuation of certain age old franchises there will always be indefinite serial pamphlets. There is always going to be a Superman monthly, there is always going to be a Batman monthly, Spiderman, whatever. They will never go away entirely, but there is no reason why the entire industry should be based on that, nor the entire medium. I mean, just because there are Soap Operas on Television, does not mean that every television show has to be a Soap Opera. Introduction
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Why has it taken you so long to move forward with it?
You've written extensively about trade paperbacks, and original graphic novels. How important are these formats to the work you're doing at Image?
