174 ELLIS, WARREN
United States, and thus represents one of the most successful American underground
comic titles of all time. Several works of prose fi ction also use the ElfQuest title, as do
role-playing games and, announced in July of 2008, an upcoming feature-length fi lm
produced by Warner Brothers.
See also: Underground and Adult Comics
Patrick Scott Belk
ELLIS, WARREN (1968–). A prominent British comics writer, Ellis began his career in
1990 with contributions to the various British weekly comics such as Deadline, Doctor
Who Magazine, Speakeasy, and Judge Dredd. Soon after, he started working for Marvel
Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics, and he has contributed to numerous well-
known Marvel titles, especially in the X-Men sequence. However, it was his work with
artist Bryan Hitch on DC /Wildstorm’s Stormwatch and Th e Authority that propelled
him to fan-favorite status. Since then, he has continued to work for Marvel, DC, and
Image, but has also worked a great deal with Avatar Press on creator-owned titles such
as Gravel, Doktor Sleepless, and Anna Mercury. Ellis has long championed the use of col-
lected editions and helped to convince comics publishers that it was a viable publishing
model. Much of his work remains available and still in print via collected editions. Ellis
published his fi rst conventional novel, Crooked Little Vein, in 2007. He has also written
for television and the video game industry.
His most important works are his longer form ones. Th ese are the previously
mentioned Stormwatch and Th e Authority (which deal with a much more realistic
take on the political and cultural impact of superheroes coupled with large-scale,
over-the-top action), Transmetropolitan (which details the career of gonzo journalist
Spider Jerusalem in a not-too-distant, postmodern future as he fi ghts political cor-
ruption), and Planetary (an intriguing look at superhero fi ction of the past century
via the members of the Planetary Foundation in their role as archaeologists of the
impossible).
Ellis has also published many shorter form works as either stand-alone graphic
novels or as limited series that vary from 3 to 12 issues in length for a wide variety of
publishers. Th e most important of these works are Ocean (2004 –5), Orbiter (2003),
and Global Frequency (2002– 4). In addition, the ongoing series Fell began in 2006 and
continues of this writing in 2009.
Some common themes inherent in Ellis’s work include the erosion of societal taboos,
the characteristics of subcultures, a strong utopian desire in spite of dystopian trends, in-
formation overload, the personal and cultural impact of technology, and post-humanism,
though these serious themes are often treated with an outrageous sense of humor. He
has called himself “the last modernist” due to the fact that his themes and execution have
more in common with modernists than his contemporary postmodernists. Stormwatch,
Th e Authority, and Planetary, in particular, are concerned with the creation of what Ellis
terms “a fi ner world.”
