Category: Comics

An Interview With Warren Ellis on Doktor Sleepless

If I had to make a list of exactly why I love comics, Warren Ellis would easily make the top ten. He’s written some of my favorite comics of the past ten years: Transmetropolitan, Planetary, the riotous NextWave, Ocean, Red, Reload, and too many other titles to count. Now, he’s jumping back into the longform comics pool with his new series from Avatar, Doktor Sleepless.

The first page of the script says, “Who’s afraid of a cartoon mad scientist?” John Reinhardt hasn’t slept in over a year. Does he take some Rozerem and star in commercials with Lincoln and beavers? Heck no! He straps on some goggles and takes us for a ride.

The comic is going to be accompanied by its own wiki. As Ellis wrote in a Bad Signal email, “It will have backmatter. Massive backmatter. DOKTOR SLEEPLESS will be shadowed by a wiki at www.doktorsleepless.com and backmatter will move to and from the wiki. Sometimes it’ll be seen in print before it goes on the wiki, sometimes not. Once the book’s live, the wiki will be opened up for readers to add to it. You will see why.”

I asked Warren some questions about the project and its artist, Ivan Rodriguez.

You’re encouraging readers to participate in the wiki for this site. What sort of content are you hoping to get from readers?

Connecting up the dots. There’s a lot of information in DOKTOR SLEEPLESS, and it’s all interconnected and tangled together. Sorting out the disparate skeins and seeing how they might plug together will give many different angles on the work. It was people on the Lost wiki who pulled a screenshot from one episode and worked back to the realisation that people from the show’s metamaterial were actually on the island…

How did you determine Ivan Rodriguez was the right artist for this project? What does he bring to this project? You’ve talked about writing to an artist’s strengths; what aspects of this project play to his strengths?

He has a strong commercial, open texture to his work that’ll help make the book — which might otherwise have appeared somewhat odd and esoteric — more accessible to readers. I like the way he stages, I like the elegance of his figures. In his pages, everything seems hyper-real, if you like — too strange and graceful to be completely real. It’s an interesting effect, for a book like this.

What’s driving you to create this book? How would you compare/contrast this to, say, Transmetropolitan?

TRANSMET was about Truth in the modern world. DOKTOR SLEEPLESS is about Lies. TRANSMET was about a different kind of hero. DOKTOR SLEEPLESS is about a different kind of villain.

Doktor Sleepless will be coming out monthly in full color from Avatar in July. Each issue will be $3.99, with three covers available.

Thanks to Warren Ellis for his time.

What’s the saddest comic you’ve ever read?

ESPN’s Bill Simmons had a link to sadkermit.com, with a clip of everybody’s favorite frog singing Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”, complete with images of Kermit shooting up heroin and staring at portraits of Miss Piggy and Jim Henson. It reminded me of the saddest comic I ever read, Chris Aubry’s “I Still Think Of You, Jim Henson”. The piece originally ran in the back of Cerebus 162. I remember sobbing for nearly an hour when I saw it.

I’m running it here, but with some trepidation. I couldn’t find any information as to Aubry’s current whereabouts, so I’m running this without his permission. I’d feel worse about it, but the strip shouldn’t be forgotten. Chris, if you’re out there, drop me an email or comment here with what you’re currently up to (or, if you want, a request to pull this down; I’ll understand and comply).

I Still Miss You Jim Henson

So what’s the saddest comic you’ve ever read? Drop a line in the comments.

More YouTube goodness

I can’t figure out how this relates to comics, other than I found this on the Nodwick site. But it’s still darn cute.

Memo to Amazon 2: Thanks for listening!

ITEM! Looks like Amazon restored the old-school Gold Box this morning. And there’s even Tezuka’s Phoenix: Dawn in there for me. I just purchased the amazing Buddha books from Vertical, and this might be another series I break down and get.

ITEM! But then again, it looks like Buy.com has brought back the Google Checkout deal one more time! For those not familiar with this program, you can get $10 off every $30 order (not including pre-orders). Since Buy’s prices tend to be lower than Amazon’s on books, this is a great way to get some graphic novels.

ITEM! For those who want to buy some of the exclusive Marvel books at Barnes & Noble, PayPal will be running a rebate promotion starting on Thanksgiving. You have to sign up here. Not sure of exactly how much you can get back, but every item purchased gets free shipping (in the US and Canada).

ITEM! Mile High Comics is running a progressive discount program on a significant portion of their collection here. Starting today, the books are 60% off; on Friday, the discount increases to 65% off; and on Monday, the discount reaches 70% off. The catch is that if you wait for the higher discount, the book might sell out. I believe any order over $40 in the US gets free shipping.

ITEM! Tales of Wonder is still running their obscenely cheap Black Friday sale. I bought a copy of Jamie Delano’s 2020 Visions for $3.09, which is insane for a book with Frank Quitely work (even if it is black and white). There’s some great bargains in there, including the Sandman 10th Anniversary statue for under $50.

ITEM! Mailordercomics.com just unveiled their specials for the November catalog cycle. Best deals include Civil War: The Return and Silent War #1 at 75% off, and over 900 comics and graphic novels at 40% off. I’ve used Mailordercomics as my primary comics supplier for years, and I highly recommend them. They back up their prices with great customer service and perfect packing. You can’t go wrong.

Memo to Amazon: I’m sad

ITEM! My good friend Glenn apparently didn’t get the memo that November is “Let’s All Stop Writing Our Blogs For A While” month, and sent me an email asking for updates.

Of course, it’s my own fault. I’ve spent the last week building a new desk. Part of the problem of buying and loving oversized comics is that you need a big reading surface for them. I read everything at my desk, and my current desk, a fiberboard construction I’ve had since the late 90s, just isn’t big enough. It had no open “real estate” to place anything but a small manga book, making reading a challenge. One night two weeks ago, I broached the topic of getting a new desk to my wife, and she agreed with me. Rather than wait for her to change her mind, I rushed out and got a much bigger desk at Staples.

This desk is, as the Swedish would say, Yuge. Therein lies the problem- I live in the upper floor of a two-family home. The package weighed too much to be carried up the stairs, so I did what I normally do in these situations. I opened the package in the car, and made a few trips up and down the stairs bringing up pieces of the desk each time. This worked until I got to the final piece, the desktop itself. I failed to adjust for its size and awkwardness, and pulled a few rib and back muscles in the process. Ouch! I also had some problems with the actual assembly of the desk; I had to contact the manufacturer to replace parts that were damaged when one of the two desk hutches tumbled over in mid-construction.

I finished the desk last night. Tonight, I have to move everything off the old desk, move it out of the space, clean up the area, and then move the new desk in. I’ll take photos and share. Woot!

ITEM! Amazon.com has betrayed me this morning. I feel a loss.

Amazon’s Gold Box program used to heavily rely upon the favorites list generated by your browsing and purchase history on the site. This meant that if I spent time cultivating my favorites on Amazon, ranking books I liked highly and ones I didn’t poorly, I ran a good chance of getting a book I wanted at a lower-than-normal price. Each day was like pulling a slot machine- ten items would be presented at random, each carrying a larger discount than normal. Sometimes it would be wonky (apparently, it thinks I have a thing for out-of-stock purses. No wallets, just purses. Scary.), but you could get some great deals on occasion.

Apparently, that day has come to an end. Now, everyone gets the same item in their Gold Box. I’m heartbroken; Amazon now knows everything about my book preferences, but refuses to reward me for that information. The item for sale today is a Coleman 54-quart cooler. It’s a brisk autumn in New Jersey; I don’t think I’m really in the market for such an item.

It’s my own fault, really. I’ve been abusing Buy.com‘s Google Checkout promotion that ended yesterday. I was getting $10 off every $30 I spent. It was a weird deal, because you couldn’t get the deal if you were logged in to your own account. Instead, you logged out of your Buy.com account, shopped anonymously on the site, and then checked out using Google. I was getting a discount without providing Buy with the critical information about myself that it really wants.

Last night, I tried making one last purchase, since the plan was expiring. But Google Checkout seemed to crash, and I couldn’t purchase that last Krazy Kat book needed to complete my collection. Of course, I can purchase it at Amazon for a low price, and they’ll ship it two-day for free (I was granted a free month of Amazon Prime, their promotional shipping discount program). But I won’t get a super-low price like I would have gotten at Buy/Google.

I feel like I’ve been dumped. Today, neither site truly “wants” me. Buy.com isn’t offering me $10 off $30 anymore, while Amazon will no longer reward me for all those times I spent whispering in its ear about my love for Essentials and Masterworks. I’ve been jilted by two lovers, it appears.

Good thing Tales of Wonder has a big sale going on…