Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis, of Transmetropolitan, The Authority, and Planetary fame is one of the greatest writers in comics today. Honestly, this isn't that difficult, though. He could write comics about deep sea turtles with yellow capes who fight bipedal mutton shanks for control of the seven magical soup spoons, and it would still prove better plot fare than "I shall have absolute power once I make Superman into a vampire!"

Anyway, the point of all this is that one of Ellis' big, cool comics at the moment is Global Frequency, which tells the story of 1001 agents of a global rescue organization. The agents are all the best in their field (which, for several dozen of them, appears to be computer hacking)...fields that range from urban siege warfare, memetic programming, theoretical rocket propulsion theory, and advanced quantum mechanics. It's wonderful to watch a dozen geeks work together to save the world, rather than three guys in capes, spandex, and their underwear on the outside.

I picked up the second GF TPB today, Detonation Radio. Ellis' work is often disturbing, with very visceral imagery, but some of the stuff in here...gah. The scene with the Japanese mental hospital where doctors worship the beauty of the vivisected, mutated, and mutilated human body...dear god. I may have nightmares. The two page shot of their "altar" is honestly one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever found in a comic book.

GF has also been optioned off as a TV show. Ellis talked on his email blog, Bad Signal, about how the pilot is done, they just have to shop it around. The fact that the original material's writer endorses the show based off his work makes me very happy, and is quite encouraging.

And I continue to babble on, and on, and on. I'm tired, and I have an exam tomorrow.