Warren Ellis Can't Think Of A Marvel Project To Do Next

[Jerome Gibbons]

bad signal
WARREN ELLIS

Thinking out loud:

I need to come up with a new Marvel
project, as I'm reaching the end on
a few things up there. I had come
up with a book to do with Mike
Wieringo, but since Mike died I can't
really work up the enthusiasm to
do it with anyone else, it was very
much written *for* Mike.

And I'm at my wit's end, to be honest.

I now have an entire folder full of
aborted ideas. See, my job at Marvel
is to be the mad scientist in the
basement, bringing old properties
back to life. The job isn't to create
new things (and I do that elsewhere,
I don't have to prove my bona fides
at creating new books), but to make
the old properties live again. And
I'm hitting the point where I can't
find anything to get up on its feet.

The sf stuff at Marvel is covered.
The remaining trademark books are
pretty lifeless stuff -- things like
NIGHTWATCH (google it) or things
I wouldn't otherwise want to go near.
There are some interesting items -
LEGION OF NIGHT is a fine title, for
instance -- but everything I come
up with reads like LEAGUE OF EX
GENTLEMEN Lite. And Marvel has
little luck with occult books in any
case.

By "trademark books," I mean books
that Marvel have already published.
NEXTWAVE was a name that Marvel
owned for a group, but the trademark
was NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E.
Because someone already owned
the trademark NEXTWAVE. It's
always better, in these instances,
to start with a trademark that
Marvel controls.

Compounding the problem is my
own intent, really. Right now, I don't
want to do anything that looks
backwards too much. Which is
probably impossible. But after
reading BLACK DOSSIER (thanks,
Scott)...well, if I wasn't already so
far ahead on IGNITION CITY, I'd be
binning it, just because BLACK
DOSSIER constitutes such a toxic
overdose of Farmerian retro/meta.

Friends have been torturing me a
bit over this, hurling Rom and the
Micronauts at me like flaming turds.
I thought about Shang-Chi for a
second, but that book's useless to me
without Fu Manchu, and Marvel
don't have the Rohmer license
anymore. Joe Straczynski's doing
a bunch of the 1940s characters.

I will continue to crap on about this
all weekend.

-- W


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from mobile device

And, you know, on the one hand, you'd think this would be good because there's the off chance that he could write more Thunderbolts. On the other hand, Ellis writing something like, I don't know, Darkhawk or Gilgamesh the Forgotten One or some shit could potentially be made of awesome.

[Benel Germosen]

It's weird how good Warren Ellis's gun-for-hire stuff holds up, compared to other writers in similar position. Some writer's who get their " baby " project don't come off as good Ellis.

Makes you wonder just how much people are better than you.

[Marcdachamp]

Fuck, I really hope he sticks around on Thunderbolts.

[Uther]

He needs to write the promised Nextwave minis ready for Immonen to do when he has a spare moment or gets ahead on USM.

Originally Posted by Benel Germosen

It's weird how good Warren Ellis's gun-for-hire stuff holds up, compared to other writers in similar position. Some writer's who get their " baby " project don't come off as good Ellis.

Makes you wonder just how much people are better than you.

Yeah.
Comics-wise, he is kinda the definition of annoyingly good.

[The Human Target]

Ellis on a revamped Tomb of Dracula would rule the school.

[Joe Henderson]

He needs to write Darkhawk!

(hey, he considered it once)

[Disney-Owned Corpse]

Impossible Man!

[Jerome Gibbons]

Originally Posted by Benel Germosen

Makes you wonder just how much people are better than you.

Oh, I wonder about that every day.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Originally Posted by Uther

He needs to write the promised Nextwave minis ready for Immonen to do when he has a spare moment or gets ahead on USM.

Immonen as USM artist is fine, but I'd much rather see him draw more Nextwave. If only he could do two books a month (actually, now that I think about it, I don't know if he can't do two books a month).

[Uther]

Originally Posted by Pablo D.

If only he could do two books a month (actually, now that I think about it, I don't know if he can't do two books a month).

Let's not push him.
We don't want to break his precious art.
But, what I'm saying is... Maybe if (and this is the big 'if') he manages to get a book and a half done a month - they don't speed up the USM release schedule, they build a back log giving him time to do a Nextwave 3 or 4 issue mini a year or so.