It's funny, the whole "be a cartoon" thing is how I deal with being at cons now that you mention it. Dress in a uniform and stop being a real person while shit is insane, then go home and get back to work.

(Reply) (Thread)

I thought that by now everyone agreed that even authenticity is fake and hollow, because there's no other way to be.

(Reply) (Thread)

Nope.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

im a cartoon! wait... what? :oP

(Reply) (Thread)

I get the feeling that this "Write in LJ more often" drive is going to prove to be very interesting indeed.

-Lem

(Reply) (Thread)

...punish people for being real?

*don imus?*

(Reply) (Thread)

Fuck Don Imus.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

i'd choose being squashed by a cartoon anvil as opposed to a real one. the sound effects are better, and it's more likely that i can get up and walk away.

(Reply) (Thread)

So that means if god is dead then someone has simply just stopped drawing him.

(Reply) (Thread)

This is a picture of a guy I know with a woman he thought was interesting enough to talke a photo with. This is what we consider celebrity.

(Reply) (Thread)

I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that at one point in her life she had a penis. Surgery can do wonders.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

I found News From Nowhere much harder work than Utopia, though I liked the brilliantly prescient (or timeless?) bit about the World-Market.

(Reply) (Thread)

FWIW, there's only one insubstantial mention of Doktor Sleepless on Wikipedia.

(Reply) (Thread)

We haven't really gotten started yet. And DOKTOR SLEEPLESS isn't an Apparat book anyway.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

Hmm. Interesting position. Agreed that you need a voice of truth for your writings to work. It's a good voice to use. SJ was a good character for that, and there's plenty to be angry about in this world. So your character will parody himself in a cartoonish style, outraged at his life and what he sees around him. That sounds a lot like SJ. How are you going to prevent drifting back into SJ's character?

(Reply) (Thread)

"So your character will parody himself in a cartoonish style, outraged at his life and what he sees around him."

No, not at all.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

Four times a day.

This is educational.

If you lose your nerve on this, I will be very sad.

(Reply) (Thread)

Is Lea Hernendez doing a fill in later? I want more anime Warren Ellis characters who look SO adorable while being so fowl.

(Reply) (Thread)

I don't know that charismatic leads are necessarily required for comics. In Templar, AZ the lead's got fairly low charisma while the peripheral characters ooze it. In Watchmen, you didn't have charismatic leads so much as individuals so damaged you stuck around to find out what would happen to them next. However, given how impressive Transmetropolitan's vision of a future so insane it could be our own turned out, and what an excellent guide Spider made to show us around, I'd say I definitely smell a working formula.

And the Doktor intrigues me utterly.

(Reply) (Thread)

Very interesting, Boss...I look forward to reading Doktor Sleepless. As soon as I am anywhere near a comic shop, which will be a while.

However, I do have a question for you which is something of an aside. Also in my friends page just about where this entry came in was a post in scans_daily regarding the character of Penance in the recent issue of Thunderbolts. It brings up some interesting theories about Robbie Baldwin's state of mind.

Now, many fans have been vocally upset over the new state of affairs for their beloved Speedball. Many have said they find his new state of mind 'too emo' and shallow and frankly hate it. However, the poster (I forgot their name sorry) in s_d proposed that he isn't emo, he is in fact clinically suicidal. Now, you have written that Norman Osborne sees it that way, or possibly believes he's just being emo (nice gag by the way)...I was just wondering what do you think when you are writing him? Is he being juvenile, emo and attention seeking, or is he in fact in a state of depression so black that he has actually decided to die?

Also, I suppose I'd like to know how you feel that the character of Penance was once Speedball. Don't get me wrong, I find Penance a fascinating and disturbingly fun concept, but I must admit I personally feel slightly upset that that character is in fact Robbie Baldwin. Not knowing if you have experience of the character in the past, but how do you feel about Marvel's decision to change him so drastically?

Hope you have the time to answer, I'd be fascinated to hear.

(Reply) (Thread)

No, he's clearly clinically suicidal at this point.

I was handed this character, who doesn't belong to me and is controlled by the owning company. I really couldn't give much of a bugger about whatever he used to be, sorry.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

Authenticity is over-rated. Authenticity means having no choices.

(Reply) (Thread)

Oh, cry me a river, ya honorless dog.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

Goddamn, Warren. You don't pull punches, do you? I can't wait to read Doktor Sleepless.

(Reply) (Thread)

TRANSMET was massive in terms of many things, one of which was length. Do you plan on DOKTOR SLEEPLESS around the same length?

~Max

PS- Damn good job on NEWUNIVERSAL #5... "doctor of mystery," such a good line, I might have to steal it.

(Reply) (Thread)

Three more times for the day, looking forward to saturday night open mic, highlight of my week tbh ;)

(Reply) (Thread)

The whole pre-emptive turning himself into a cartoon thing is really interesting... I feel like it happens almost constantly in the music industry, music being ironically so much about the artist's image. I also find it interesting when that image that they've trapped themselves in starts to rub against who they really are and come apart - Britney Spears here in the States, for example. Self detruction is a beautiful thing.

I know you're a man of many ideas, and I was curious - everything being cyclical, nothing new under the sun, etc. - are you ever frustrated by everything being derivitive and tempted to come up with other ideas for comics that play with the format (such as Phyllis Johnson's Aspen magazine, back in the 60's), or add things to your comics that break the fourth wall, like including a soundtrack to be played while reading (such as what Harmon & Schrab did with Scud: The Disposable Assassin)? Do you ever feel like branching out like that, or do you think those are more gimmicky stunts that take away from the story?

(Reply) (Thread)

In my cheery little comic Phonogram, there's two sorts of magic. One is based purely on music as sound and the feelings it provokes - roughly equivalent to white magic in most common magic systems. The other is based around everything *around* the music, generally speaking related to manipulation of image to create effects in others (and your self). The latter is called "Faustian" for the reasons you describe.

Of course, it applies just as much to the Clash as Britney Spears...

KG

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Where runs the blurry line between characture, parody, and the truth we will not speak

Looking foreward to your first cut, dear Doktor.

(Reply) (Thread)

We go through cycles, you see, here in the cultural shithole of the Western world. Sometimes we embrace authenticity. Sometimes we reject it as knowing and insincere.

any time there is communication there is inherently a loss of authenticity. you can only be more or less clear in communication, but you can’t really pull away all the extras and attachments when you represent personality (or represent an idea, or anything like that).

I think I prefer this side of the pendulum. I would rather trust the surface when being blatantly shallow- because at least I know I'm not going to break through to something nastier underneth. I can see all the nasty right on top.

By creating and engineering a personality (product) that is more removed from the creator, and outrageously so- it’s more accurate because it doesn’t melt into the blurry lines of the creator’s own personality. So the mask or the cartoon is more completly it’s own entity. This is why i think the Gorillaz work but Blur is boring.

and I went on a tangent. blah.

(Reply) (Thread)

I would rather trust the surface when being blatantly shallow- because at least I know I'm not going to break through to something nastier underneth. I can see all the nasty right on top.

That seems like kind of a dangerous assumption.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

I like Spider, but I'm glad he's not coming back for the Variety Show Christmas Special with cameos from Tim Conway and Steve Martin. Thank you for that.

And this "Doctor Insomnia" fellow sounds interesting. I look forward to him.

(Reply) (Thread)

Oddly, one of the things I vividly recall from when I first met you* for that Hostile Waters interview with Julian was me asking something to do with whether HW's world was a Utopia, and you were clearly visibly uncomfortable with the idea of Utopias for all the reasons you describe here - i.e. Implication of Stasis.

KG

*Which gives me the sudden surprise of realising it's the only time I've met you. Net-time is odd.

(Reply) (Thread)

Is DOKTOR SLEEPLESS going to be released as a monthly comic, eventually collected as a trade, or will it be a trade right off the bat?

(Reply) (Thread)

Monthly comic. Trade schedule not set as yet.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)