The Long Road

07/20/2004 Archived Entry: "favourites"

It’s difficult to pick a “favourite” of anything. When asked, I can come up with a list, (sometimes long, sometimes longer) but can’t commit to just one. Naming something your favourite feels too much like making a statement that you have to stand by. Besides, enjoyment of a book, author, artist, song, food, drink, pizza topping, etc is often affected by contextual and temporal bias. A comedy watched with a particularly good audience probably won’t be as funny as watching it by yourself. A cartoon you loved as a child is probably terrible now.

That being said.

After some deliberation, I’ve decided that Warren Ellis is my favourite writer - comics or otherwise. I firmly stand by this statement. For now…maybe.

Looking at the graphic novels I’ve bought, plan on buying, and have enjoyed reading Ellis comes out on top out of a list that includes Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and Mark Millar.

Ellis has Morrison’s knack for short-hand dialogue and mad ideas, except Ellis knows when to rein himself in and has a better idea of where his stories are going as to not leave the reader scratching his head, ass, and nose at the end. The fact that both writers are British means that I get that awesome wry humour that most Americans can’t grasp much less write, and a decidedly more international view.

Back in the late 90s, the man wrote Stormwatch. It didn’t set the world on fire when it first came out but eventually set in motion at least 2 trends in comics that still run strong today - proactive superheroes, deconstructionism, and “widescreen action”. All that plus it was a damn good read. Anything could happen in the book, every story arc changed something fundamental, whether it was the addition or subtraction of some key characters and elements or the team’s political alignments. And at the end, just as everything was coming together, everyone died. It was fantastic. I just read it recently and the book holds up surprisingly well considering everything that’s come since that was inspired by this book.

One of the things I admire about Warren Ellis the most is his diversity as a writer. He writes mainstream superheroes, midstream books, and low-selling, impenetrable independent works. While his indy stuff is a little too out there for me, his midstream books are full of quirks and ideas you’ll never find in a X-Men or Batman comic.

Planetary, for example, is about 3 “archeologists” who go around digging up supernatural secrets of the world. Every issue deals with a different case and is usually done in homage to a storytelling style from other mediums. And there’s also the plethora of spoofs of recognizable characters, they usually die in really disturbing ways.

Some of Ellis’ works that I haven’t read yet but have sitting on my shelf are Orbiter, about a space shuttle that’s disappeared for 6 years and come back; RED, a spy thriller; and Tokyo Storm Warning, Ellis’ take on Giant Mecha Destroying Tokyo anime.