January 5th, 2009: Post #6896
Posted in: Work
Comments: Read 1
Due to some appalling fuckup that I can barely conceive of, I’ve got four comics released this week. Available from Wednesday (in North America) and Thursday (in the UK and elsewhere), then:
ANNA MERCURY #5
DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #11
GRAVEL #7
NO HERO #3 (OF 7)
I can only apologise for this, and point out that I have no control over distributors and confirm that, no, I did not write them all in the same week and then conspire with the publisher to release them all in the first week of the new year.
January 5th, 2009: Post #6895
Posted in: comics talk
Comments: Read 4
PLANET OF BEER, the forthcoming collection of comics by Brian Sendelbach, looks fucking mental:

January 5th, 2009: Post #6894
Posted in: photography
Comments: Read 5
Random image found on random website, no source or context supplied:

January 5th, 2009: Post #6893
Posted in: people I know
Comments: None
* Detail from new Eliza Gauger painting "The Monk":
* Bruce Sterling’s State Of The World mass interrogation session for 2009 has begun. These are always funny and terrifically interesting, and this one’s just getting warmed up:
I’m a bohemian type, so I could scarcely be bothered to do anything "financially sound" in my entire adult life. Last year was the first year when I’ve felt genuinely sorry for responsible, well-to-do people. Suddenly they’ve got the precariousness of creatives, of the underclass, without that gleeful experience of decades spent living-it-up. These are people who obeyed the social contract and are *still* getting it in the neck…
January 5th, 2009: Post #6892
Posted in: people I know
Comments: None
January 5th, 2009: Post #6891
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 1
Well, today was supposed to be the glorious opening of 2009’s working year, and the commencement of another year’s blogthinging. And then I had to bury the last of Lili’s rats, who died in the early afternoon. Little bastard had to wait until the ground was frozen solid and covered in snow, of course. So I haven’t finished the column I have to file today and I haven’t done shit here.
So I’m here, but moving slowly. About to open up long-neglected feed aggregators.
The new Animal Collective album isn’t bad, thus far (I’m two tracks/10 mins into it).
January 4th, 2009: Post #6890
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 19
January 3rd, 2009: Post #6889
Posted in: people I know
Comments: Read 2
Dennis Culver’s BACON ZOMBIE:

January 3rd, 2009: Post #6888
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 2
Yes yes YES I KNOW I’d said I’d stop talking about them, BUT… from today’s ANSIBLE email blast from Dave Langford:
GORDON VAN GELDER’s _The Magazine of Fantasy & SF_ is switching to bimonthly publication. ’Rising costs — especially postal costs — and the economy put us in a position where we either had to raise our rates severely or cut back somewhere. Given the state of the economy, I decided a cutback on frequency made the most sense. We’ll lose a little more than 10% of our content this year, but publishing on a bimonthly schedule should put us in a great position for the coming years.’ (2 January)
Combine that with ANALOG and ASIMOVS’ recent format change that cuts out 4000 words/issue and introduces other publishing efficiencies… well, I guess it’s good that they noticed something’s wrong, right? In any case, that’s the trifecta.
Signs of creative life elsewhere, mind you:

January 2nd, 2009: Post #6887
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 3
I do an irregular podcast here, called The 4am. It’s composed entirely of music sent to me by bands and musicians. If I like it, I play it, basically. You can find the first 16 episodes in warrenellis.com’s sidebar player or here — they’ve been played some 64000 times.
And, for various reasons, I’m now pretty much out of music to consider for it.
Therefore, I need new music. If you think you’d like to be on the podcast, please email me your music (mp3, 128k or better) at warrenellis @ gmail.com. That email address is only used for the podcast. Including a link to your site is always useful — saves me having to hunt around for it myself.
Tell your friends if you like. But I can only play mp3s sent by the artists themselves. if you send me mp3s from bands you really like, I just have to delete them. Okay? Thanks.
January 2nd, 2009: Post #6886
Posted in: people I know
Comments: None
January 2nd, 2009: Post #6885
Posted in: people I know
Comments: Read 1
Gillen does his annual pick of 2008’s pop litter.
I personally detect a certain mongoloid poptimism creeping in, and really want to twat him with steel gardening implements over a few of his selections. Which is good. Gillen’s 40 of the year is always an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
And, yes, I don’t have it together enough for big round-up posts yet, so it’s going to be tumblestyle for a few days.
January 2nd, 2009: Post #6884
Posted in: Work
Comments: None
January 2nd, 2009: Post #6883
Posted in: Work
Comments: None
December 31st, 2008: Post #6882
Posted in: music
Comments: None
In at the end of the old year, Kemper Norton releases a new, free EP, entitled WINTERVALS. Get it via this link here.
December 28th, 2008: Post #6880
Posted in: Work
Comments: Read 4
We do the covers waaaaay in advance. #10 just came out, and I just wrote #12.

December 27th, 2008: Post #6879
Posted in: people I know
Comments: Read 1
The second print issue of the altculture blog is released today.
You want one. Issue 1 was really, really good. You want one a lot.
December 27th, 2008: Post #6878
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Off
December 24th, 2008: Post #6877
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 16
Have a good one, folks. See you on the other side.
Unless I’ve managed to finally drink myself blind by that point. Because then, obviously, I’ll be too busy learning human echolocation to be here.
December 23rd, 2008: Post #6876
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 13
December 22nd, 2008: Post #6875
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 20
December 22nd, 2008: Post #6874
Posted in: Work, brainjuice
Comments: Read 10
Thank you to Tom Phillips and METRO magazine for claiming that I am one of the ten best things on the internet.
(via about a million people who sent me the link)
December 19th, 2008: Post #6873
Posted in: Work, people I know
Comments: Read 11
December 19th, 2008: Post #6872
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Off
December 19th, 2008: Post #6871
Posted in: Work, people I know
Comments: Read 6
Right here.
And, for those who haven’t yet seen the book, NPR even provide a rather nice preview of it.
It remains the perfect holiday gift for the mental patient in your life.
December 18th, 2008: Post #6870
Posted in: comics talk, people I know
Comments: Read 26
I am a little concerned that I have turned into some kind of floating webcomics character/meme.
December 16th, 2008: Post #6869
Posted in: brainjuice, people I know
Comments: Read 1
"GODMOTHER’s a book of heartbroken magic for anyone who stayed up past midnight and wondered where the fairy tale went. A beautiful, aching book."
For Carolyn Turgeon’s GODMOTHER, which is out March 2009.

December 16th, 2008: Post #6868
Posted in: brainjuice, people I know
Comments: Read 5
I am reading two very good books right now. I am reading one of them on the laptop, and I am reading one of them… okay, I admit it, I’m reading it on the toilet. But anyway.
Catherynne M Valente’s PALIMPSEST just knocks me flat with her use of language: rich, cool, opiated language, language for stories of strange love and hallucinated cities of the mind. Here’s what it says about PALIMPSEST on its Amazon pre-order page:
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers…
The first scene proper, discussing the trains of Heaven, just blew me away. It’s out in February 2009.
Cherie Priest’s BONESHAKER is an absolute riot. If anyone else had told me they were writing a steampunk zombie action thriller set in Seattle I would probably have looked for something heavy to stun them with and then made my escape. BONESHAKER dodges every single pitfall in the idea that you can think of, effortlessly, and entertains the fuck out of you while doing so. Also, there’s a man in it called Swakhammer. Which is possibly the best name ever. It’s just a hell of a good time, and I think it’s going to be a game-changer for Cherie (even though she’s already getting starred reviews from Publishers Weekly).
The book doesn’t come out until mid-2009, I think, but her most recent novel, released only a few weeks back, is getting brilliant reviews. It’s called FATHOM. You should look at it.
I have to write back cover blurbs for both of these books. Looking forward to it.
December 16th, 2008: Post #6867
Posted in: brainjuice
Comments: Read 18
Someone on Twitter just sent me this.
I am not entirely sure what to say.
It is called "Warren Ellis: King Of The Internet."
December 16th, 2008: Post #6866
Posted in: Work
Comments: None
Available in better comics stores from Wednesday in North America and from Thursday in the UK and elsewhere: