You’ve probably never heard of Warren Ellis. Unlike a few of the comic book luminaries that have transcended the industry, such as Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Frank Miller, Warren hasn’t. Yet. This is in no way related to his talent — he’s one of the most widely regarded and respected writers in comics, and has been for a while. One of my favorites in fact.
Four or five years ago a friend recommended that I sign up for Warren’s mailing list Bad Signal, describing it as “chaotic and random, but good”. After signing up my inbox quickly began to fill up with emails (several often from the same day) on topics ranging from what comics he’s working on to the state of the world to profanity-filled ramblings to technology. Most of these sent from the pub using a fold up keyboard plugged into his cell phone.
Having been in the interactive industry for quite some time, I consider myself to be pretty tapped in to the tech space. Yet I would frequently be hearing about cool new stuff for the first time from Warren. Things like Second Life, Ning, and blip.fm found themselves on my radar through him — these I would then forward to my industry friends who, like me, hadn’t heard of them either.
So how is a comic book author so tapped into tech?
First there’s Warren’s seemingly borderline addiction to trying out new online services. He’s since pared things down a bit, but at one time I feel like he was a member of just about every Twitter Tumblr social virtual whatever was out there. He also taps into the wide-range of interests his fans have, and creates a space for them to discuss these topics — most enabled in one form or another by technology — here’s a good example. A large daily intake of Red Bull might be helping too.
Today, with the abundance of blogs and the maturity of news aggregators and mobile, I’m able to better keep up with Warren. But I have to say his commentary gives these online services much more context that a blurry scan of my RSS feed and the quickly-written-rush-to-post reviews they link to.
In a world where everyone in your daily Twitter and blog circle seem to all be regurgitating the same content, Warren might be a fresh source for something new.
Here’s a list of some of the places to find him online — I’m sure there’s many more. Between these and the pub, I’ve always wondered where he finds the time to actually get any work done.
- Bad Signal (mailing list)
- Warren’s Blog
- WhiteChapel (message board)
- The 4am (a podcast he compiles of original music sent by artists)
- MySpace
- Last.fm
- Blip.fm