Warren Ellis, apparently noting that things have been quiet lately, started an open thread over on the Engine, where you can ask him any question and expect… well, some kind of response. A couple of highlights so far from the mind of the man who writes Thunderbolts for a living:
“There’s a huge percentage of stores out there that really do only order Marvel and DC superhero comics. When I stepped in to pinch-hit for Mark and Brian on ULTIMATE FF, I found that the previous three or four years of only working on my own material had meant that a new generation of readers had emerged who’d literally never heard of me and never seen one of my comics for sale. It was really interesting. And what I’ve found since is that sales of my original TPBs have markedly risen across the board. At least 50% of the email I get now is from people who discovered me through UFF or whatever and sought out other books on Amazon or in bookstores, and thereby gotten hooked on TRANSMET or something. The DM really is two different markets right now, and there’s much less overlap than people think or expect. So I consider myself to be writing for two different markets at this time, and the upshot is that more people are discovering my original creator-owned work.”
“I think that, if I was starting from scratch right now, I’d probably go funnier, and communicate only through edicts, mysterious symbols and a team of nuns.”
Also: He doesn’t hate the French, and he doesn’t plan to return to Transmetropolitan. Much, much more in the thread; I always find these kinds of things fascinating, and Warren’s a good sport for continually doing them.
February 1st, 2007 at 10:49 pm
As a retailer, I’m constantly scratching my head at the kinds of things I hear customers and creators say they encounter with other retailers. ONLY getting Marvel and DC? Only handing out 2 or 3 comics on FCBD? And my favorite, complaining that books like Fell and Casanova aren’t worth paying someone to take out of the box, since they cost so little. Maybe it’s the fact that Dark Star is also a Used & New bookstore and we get a different crowd, but then again, we have book customers and we have comic customers, they rarely cross sides of the store, despite my best efforts. Regardless, the slavish devotion to the Big Two just seems so short sighted, and just a way to build walls around the comic community, which will be great until all the aging fanboys die off. Then what?
February 1st, 2007 at 10:52 pm
23?