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PROFILE: Warren Ellis Interview Introduction
Do you want to push comics into new places? Do you want to be "Warren Ellis writes the Transmetropolitan comic strip" in the newspaper? Right now, if I'm perfectly honest, I've got so many perfectly good reasons not to work in comics anymore, that some days it is a trial. On 99 days out of 100, or 9 days out of 10, I'm still enjoying working in comics. But the days are coming, more and more often, where I'm wondering why I'm doing it, and I'm wondering why I'm still shouting at people about it. You're doing a lot of other-media right now. [Sighing] I am... You're doing Webisodes, pitching Jerry Bruckheimer films... [Laughs] Yes, I have a meeting with Jerry Bruckhemier films on Saturday. They want to talk about some of the proposals based on some of the projects of mine that are circulating. Any Names? Nothing's going to come of it I don't think. I'm in LA anyway. They phoned us, to ask me to come in so they could meet me, so it would be rude to not. Is it more important for you to write, or is it more important for you to write comics? It's more important for me to write. [Pause] Do you think that might be what's leading you away from comics? It's always been more important for me to write. What's leading me away from comics is that we're going through a period where it's more and more difficult to live comfortably within the boundaries of the medium. Which is ridiculous bearing in mind we're in a period of fantastic diversification, and there are more good comics available now than ever before. But it's a wearing business, to be in. It is a business where you are - as you know - picked at by a dozen little idiotic things you shouldn't have to deal with every day. Not to mention the little idiots... Oh, I'm just talking about the business... I'm not talking about all the, um... ... all the ancillary... That's just water off a ducks back. I hate e-mail, and I get several a day. It's just something you deal with. It's just some idiot using the home computer while his mum's out... Do you find your forum a hindrance or an advantage in producing your work? Being able to communicate so directly with your readers? It doesn't really have anything to do with the production of my work. I have a very powerful set of filters, and what people say about the work doesn't affect what I do with it. I've never written anything in reaction to commentary. That's not the job. What do you want to do? What do you want to do beyond this? Work less and rest more. I'm getting tired. Comics are making me tired. And I don't want to be tired anymore. So the next couple of years may be a time of change for me. I still like comics, and I still want to do comics, but comics are making me tired. I hope they don't end up wearing you down completely, they've done it to a lot of other people. 
 That's what comics do... [Laugh] I'll come back in ten years and do a comic book about Jesus. [Laughs] If only you would. What are...[Laughs] I've just got this perfect vision of this book y'know, "JESUS: GOD'S BASTARD". [Laughs] Dammit, Frank Miller may have beaten you to it... [Deadpan] Oh. Dear. What a shame. [Laughs] Sorry, what was your question again? What are the ground rules you lay out for yourself now, when you decide to take on a project? It has to be different enough from anything else I've done to really capture my attention. It has to be a challenge. I have to see a way in it, that I can make a new noise. Because that's the point of writing - to create something different, to make a new noise. Because if I'm not doing that then I'm just typing. Introduction
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