Ellis, Warren 1968(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1968; children: Lilith. Religion: Atheist.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Southend-on-Sea, England. Agent—(Literary) Lydia Wills, Paradigm Talent Agency, 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 2500, Los Angeles, CA, 90067; (film and television) Angela Cheng Caplan, Writers & Artists, 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 550, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. E-mail—warrene@aol.com.

CAREER:

Writer; author of graphic novels, short fiction, novels, television shows, and films. Author of comic books and graphic novels for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Vertigo, Wildstorm, Avatar Press, Image Comics, Cliffhanger, and Homage Comics. Cofounder and consultant to graphic novel site Artbomb.net; consultant to the culture site OPi8.com. Former jobs include running a pub and a bookstore, working in a record shop, and working in the bankruptcy field.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Don Thompson Award, 1998, for best writer; International Horror Guild Award, 1999, for best graphic narrative.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Crooked Little Vein, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2007.

COMIC BOOKS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

(With Scott Lobdell and James Robinson) Wild C.A.T.S, X-Men, Image Comics (Fullerton, CA), 1998.

From the Desk of Warren Ellis, Volumes 1-2, Avatar Press (Rantoul, IL), 2000.

Vampirella Lives, art by Amanda Conner and others, Harris Publications (New York, NY), 2001.

Gen13: London, New York, Hell, art by Steve Dillon and others, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2001.

DV8: Neighborhood Threat, art by Humberto Ramos and others, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 2002.

Hellblazer: Haunted, art by John Higgins and others, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2003.

Orbiter, art by Colleen Doran and Dave Stewart, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2003.

Reload/Mek, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 2004.

Red/Tokyo Storm Warning, art by Cully Hamner and others, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2004.

Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2004.

Global Frequency: Detonation Radio, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2004.

Ultimate Fantastic Four: Doom, Issues 7-12, Marvel Comics (New York, NY), 2004.

Desolation Jones: Made in England, art by J.H. Williams III, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2005.

Ocean, art by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2005.

Apparat: The Singles Collection, Volume 1, art by Jacen Burrows, Juan Jose Ryp, Laurenn McCubbin, and Carla Speed McNeil, Avatar Press (Rantoul, IL), 2005.

Ultimate Fantastic Four: N-Zone, Issues 13-18, Marvel Comics (New York, NY), 2005.

Nextwave, art by Stuart Immonen, Marvel Comics (New York, NY), 2006.

Iron Man: Extremis, art by Adi Granov, Marvel Comics (New York, NY), 2007.

"TRANSMETROPOLITAN" SERIES; GRAPHIC NOVELS

Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 1998.

Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 1998.

Transmetropolitan: Year of the Bastard, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 1999.

Transmetropolitan: The New Scum, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2000.

Transmetropolitan: I Hate It Here, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2000.

Transmetropolitan: Filth of the City, art by Nathan Eyring and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2001.

Transmetropolitan: Lonely City, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2001.

Transmetropolitan: Gouge Away, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2002.

Transmetropolitan: Spider's Thrash, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2002.

Transmetropolitan: Dirge, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2003.

Transmetropolitan: The Cure, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2003.

Transmetropolitan: One More Time, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2004.

Transmetropolitan: Tales of Human Waste, art by Darick Robertson and others, Vertigo (New York, NY), 2004.

"STORMWATCH" SERIES; GRAPHIC NOVELS

StormWatch: A Finer World, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 1999.

StormWatch: Change or Die, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 1999.

StormWatch: Force of Nature, art by Tom Raney and others, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 1999.

StormWatch: Lightning Strikes, art by Tom Raney and others, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 2000.

StormWatch: Final Orbit, art by Tom Raney and others, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 2001.

"THE AUTHORITY" SERIES; GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Authority: Relentless, art by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2000.

The Authority: Under New Management, art by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 2000.

(With others) The Authority: Earth Inferno and Other Stories, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), art by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, 2002.

Absolute Authority, Volume 1, art by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, Wildstorm (La Jolla, CA), 2002.

"PLANETARY" SERIES; GRAPHIC NOVEL COLLECTIONS

Planetary: All over the World and Other Stories, art by John Cassaday and Laura DePuy, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2000.

Planetary: The Fourth Man, art by John Cassaday and Laura DePuy, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2001.

Planetary: Leaving the Twentieth Century, art by John Cassaday and Laura DePuy, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2004.

Planetary: Crossing Worlds, art by John Cassaday and Laura DePuy, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2004.

Absolute Planetary, art by John Cassaday and Laura DePuy, WildStorm (La Jolla, CA), 2005.

Creator and author of numerous comic book series, including DV8, 1997, Gen13, 1997, Transmetropolitan, 1997—, City of Silence, 2000, Planetary, 2000—, Bad World, 2001, Ministry of Space, 2001, Pulp Volume 5, 2001, Stranger Kisses, 2001, Strange Killings, 2002, Bad Signal, Volumes 1-2, 2003; Global Frequency, 2002-2003, Mek, 2003, Red, 2003, Reload, 2003, Scars, 2003, Tokyo Storm Warning, 2003, Two-Step, 2003—, and Vertigo Horizon, 2003. Contributor to other comics, including Warrior, Deadline, Doctor Who Magazine, Speakeasy, Judge Dredd Magazine, Blast Magazine, A1, Lazarus Churchyard, Ammo Armageddon, Sugarvirus, Doom 2099, Excalibur, Ghost Rider, Heavy Metal, Hellstorm, 2099 Unlimited, Akira, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Druid, Excalibur, Ruins, Star Jammers, Thor, Ultraforce, What If …, X-Caliber, Batman, Calibrations, Carnage, Celestine, Negative Burn, Pryde & Wisdom, Storm, Stormwatch, The Sussex Vampire, Sword of Damocles, Vampirella, Wildstorm Universe, Ghost Rider, Starship Troopers, Tales of the Witchblade, Wolverine, No Justice, No Piece, Hellblazer, Generation X, Strange Kiss, Poppy, Powers, Threshold, X-Force, X-Man, JLA Classified, and Ultimate Fantastic Four.

Also staff writer for Comic Book Resources Web site; author of Available Light, a collection of short stories and photography, and Wolverine: Not Dead Yet; contributor to animated shows, including Justice League Unlimited; author of computer games, including Hostile Waters and Antaeus Rising; adapted the novel Mindbridge as a PC game; also created the role-playing game White Wolf's Adventure!

ADAPTATIONS:

A television adaptation of Global Frequency was produced for the WB network; Planetary has also been optioned for a television production.

SIDELIGHTS:

A prolific author of comics and graphic novels for adult audiences, Warren Ellis has gained a huge fan following since the 1990s for his dark social commentaries, especially in series stories such as "Transmetropolitan," "Stormwatch," and "Planetary." Beginning his career around 1990 with contributions to existing series, such as "Doctor Who" and "Judge Dredd," Ellis has created characters in the traditional superhero vein, such as in his "The Authority" comics, as well as flawed antiheroes, most famously in his journalist character Spider Jerusalem from "Transmetropolitan."

Known for his distaste for superhero comics, Ellis produced superhero stories for Marvel and DC Comics to make a living. His series such as "The Authority" and the near-future "Transmetropolitan" are much more along the lines of what he wants to accomplish in the genre. "My ultimate goal is to find a new, interesting and hopefully revelatory perspective on the contemporary world," he told Melanie McBride on Mindjack.com. "I strongly believe in science fiction in its Wellsean frame as a social fiction, using the future as a tool with which to examine the present."

The "Transmetropolitan" stories feature Spider Jerusalem, a famous journalist and author who is both a sarcastic cynic, out to find fame by getting a great story by any means necessary, and a compassionate and emotional commentator on society. Although some critics have found the crowded and messy future city setting as a type of dystopian vision, Ellis disagrees with that assessment. "I really don't see the City of Transmet as dystopian," he told Michael Oliveri on the Really Scary Web site. "It's just like where we live now. There are horrible … things and there are things of sublime beauty, and they all live in the same place." In Transmetropolitan: The Cure, a 2003 collection, Jerusalem "crosses every possible journalistic ethic to get his story," noted a contributor in Publishers Weekly. The work concerns the renegade reporter's efforts to find a prostitute who has been targeted by government assassins. "A dark palette and heavy use of black suits the bleak, violent story line," the Publishers Weekly critic added.

In "The Authority" series, Ellis and illustrators Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary present a super-powered United Nations crisis team, first introduced in his "Stormwatch" series. "The Authority" "was primarily written for a generation that had grown up with superheroes and knew all the clichés and twists the genre had up its sleeve but had enough sensibilities to target the non-superhero crowd as well," observed Rizal Solomon in the Malay Mail. "Knowing full well their audience knew what to expect, the team quickly went about subverting the whole genre." Solomon continued: "The good guys were out to save and make the world a better place, and they would pull no punches in making it happen." Headquartered in a sentient mothership that transcends time and space, the members of The Authority include its electrified leader, Jenny Sparks, winged warrior Swift, and the cyborg Engineer. "Unshackled by any constraints of reality, Ellis' mind goes spinning off into new ideas at the drop of a hat," noted Matt Springer in a review of The Authority: Relentless on the Pop-Culture-Corn Web site. Springer also commented that Ellis and his team of illustrators "continue to push the envelope of superhero comics by substituting a fierce and original creative spirit for any of the pretensions of grim reality that plagued superhero books in the late eighties and early nineties."

A trio of superhuman archaeologists who travel the globe investigating the secret history of the twentieth century are the focus of Ellis's acclaimed "Planetary" series. "To say that Planetary is compelling is an understatement," wrote January Magazine online contributor Claude Lalumière in a review of Planetary: All over the World and Other Stories. Lalumière added: "Every detail is important. All the pieces fit into some kind of multidimensional puzzle whose scope readers are compelled to imagine but yet unable to grasp. Every time a piece falls into place it unveils a new intricacy: yes, a form is glimpsed, but also the overall shape is revealed to be much more complex than previously believed." Woody Evans, reviewing Planetary: Leaving the Twentieth Century in Rain Taxi, believed that the strength of the series is the complex relationship between the protagonists. "The ‘mystery archaeology’ that forms the core of Planetary's plot may certainly draw readers to the books," Evans wrote, "but the sustained and complex varieties of love and hate between the characters gives them a reason to stay."

Ellis has also published the graphic novels Orbiter, about a long-lost space shuttle that Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction reviewer Charles De Lint called "easily one of the more thoughtful sf stories I've read in some time, in any format," and Desolation Jones: Made in England, about a shattered and scarred former British spy. "Jones' outlook is thoroughly cynical, the dialogue hard-boiled, and the ending noirishly bleak," remarked Booklist critic Gordon Flagg.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America's Intelligence Wire, February 6, 2003, Patrick Rollens, "Comic Has Straightforward Appeal," review of Global Frequency.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, September 24, 2003, Rizal Solomon, "Return of Planetary," review of Planetary, Issue 16; July 14, 2004, Rizal Solomon, "Simply Marvellous," review of Ultimate Fantastic Four: Doom, Issue 7; March 31, 2004, Rizal Solomon, "When Worlds Collide," review of Planetary: Crossing Worlds; December 1, 2004, Rizal Solomon, "Man in the Iron Mask," review of Iron Man: Extremis.

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Gordon Flagg, review of Ocean, p. 74; November 15, 2006, Gordon Flagg, review of Desolation Jones: Made in England, p. 39.

Colorado Springs Gazette, January 26, 2006, Bill Radford, "‘Nextwave’ Series Plays with Marvel's Lesser Heroes."

Entertainment Weekly, March 24, 2000, Jeff Jensen, review of Global Frequency, p. 96; November 22, 2002, Marc Bernardin, review of Global Frequency, p. 82; February 21, 2003, Jeff Jensen, "Q & A: … With Warren Ellis, Writer of the Sci-Fi Media Satire Transmetropolitan and the Space-Program-in-Peril Comic Orbiter," p. 157; June 3, 2005, Jeff Jensen, "Comic Books 101," review of Desolation Jones, p. 89.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1998, review of Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street, p. 689.

Kliatt, May, 2004, Heather Lisowski, review of Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze, p. 28.

Library Journal, September 1, 2003, Steve Raiteri, review of Orbiter, p. 140; July, 2004, Steve Raiteri, review of Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze, p. 61.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October-November, 2003, Charles De Lint, review of Orbiter, p. 49.

Malay Mail, December 19, 2001, Rizal Solomon, "Back to the Cutting Edge," review of "The Authority" series.

News Herald (Panama City, FL), July 8, 2005, "Global Frequency: The Best TV Show You Can't Watch."

Publishers Weekly, December 18, 2000, Meredith Yayanos, "Transmetropolitan's Warren Ellis," p. 36; June 17, 2002, September 15, 2003, review of Orbiter, p. 46; February 16, 2004, review of Transmetropolitan: The Cure, p. 153; June 21, 2004, review of Red/Tokyo Storm Warning, p. 45; October 31, 2005, review of Apparat, Volume 1, p. 39.

Rain Taxi, fall, 2005, Woody Evans, review of Planetary: Leaving the Twentieth Century.

ONLINE

Die Puny Humans,http://www.diepunyhumans.com/ (March 30, 2007), Web site run by Warren Ellis.

January Magazine,http://www.januarymagazine.com/ (April 17, 2007), Claude Lalumière, "Archetypal Archeology," review of Planetary: All over the World and Other Stories.

Londonist,http://www.londonist.com/ (June 24, 2005), Mike Atherton, "The Warren Ellis Interview."

Mindjack.com,http://www.mindjack.com/ (October 3, 2004), Melanie McBride, "The Transmetropolitan Condition: An Interview with Warren Ellis."

MySpace.com,http://www.myspace.com/ (March 30, 2007), "Warren Ellis."

Newsarama.com,http://www.newsarama.com/ (January 30, 2007), Matt Brady, "Warren Ellis: Novelist."

Pop-Culture-Corn,http://www.popculturecorn.com/ (April 17, 2007), Matt Springer, review of The Authority: Relentless.

Really Scary,http://www.reallyscary.com/ (October 3, 2004), Michael Oliveri, interview with Warren Ellis.

Revolution Science Fiction,http://www.revolutionsf.com/ (July 11, 2002), Kenn McCracken, "Warren Ellis Is on the Global Frequency"; (July 16, 2002), Kenn McCracken, "Warren Ellis: Thinking outside the Box"; (January 2, 2003), Robert R. Chase, review of Planetary; (October 8, 2003), Dana Broe, review of Orbiter.

Warren Ellis Web Site,http://www.warrenellis.com (October 3, 2004).