Warren Ellis Interview

Since Keith's a lazy bastard who claims to have "no time to edit and post" this, I agreed to do with with great weariness and trepidation. Well, actually, I volunteered to post this because while it's short, it definitely is...interesting, to say the least. But first, a info bit that Keith wrote in his post about the parameters of this interview:

Okay, for all those websites that have been bugging me for
interviews all year, it's the end of the year and I feel like
tying off its bloody stump today, so here's the deal:

I'll answer a four-question interview for any website so long as
it reaches me within 12 hours of my sending this email. It's
about 11am GMT right now. The other condition is that I
won't answer any questions about late books (for the simple
reason that I'd be answering the same two or three questions
a dozen times or more) and will throw out the entirety of
any submission that includes such (for the simple reason
that stark stupidity should not be rewarded).

Send your filthy questions to me here at [ADDRESS].
And for God's sake, try to make them interesting or funny,
rather than the same bloody questions I always seem to have
to field...

-- W

With that in mind, here are the questions and answers:

In a message dated 12/29/03 10:32:55 PM GMT Standard Time, Keith@wotmania.net writes:


1) A lot of our readers are new to the graphic novel medium, or seeking a way to introduce friends to comics - what would you say are the Essentials? What works (both of yours, and of others), are simply the best (overall, and as introductions)?



Please: just go to http://www.artbomb.net. I consult to
the site and it's been designed to serve that very purpose,
so that I don't have to answer this question ever day of
my life.


2) This next one is kinda traditional - You have 5 pet monkeys. What do you call them?



"Get," "Away," "From," "Me," and "Shiteyes."


3) Seeing as the email that you put out calling for interviews asked for questions you'd have fun answering - what is the single question you most wish you had been asked, and how would you have answered it?



Q: "Would you like to stop now, Warren?"

A: "Oh dear God yes."


4) What's your take on the growing number of webcomics - both those aping the traditional daily strip, and the rapidly rising set that seem to ape the conventions of larger comic book style story arcs?



Well, for every Justine Shaw and Patrick Farley, there seem to be about twenty people who don't have the faintest idea what they're doing. Which is about the same ratio as in print comics, really. I'm happy for there to be an absolute explosion in webcomics. The more there are, the more good work the ratio will allow.