Have you heard of the new FreakAngels? It’s a project between Warren Ellis (writer) and Paul Duffield (artist).

Ah, Warren Ellis. After a long day, reading him is like sipping a margarita done right.

It’s not that other writers are too sweet. It’s because the world is too bitter.

Have you ever had periods of aching self-doubt? Have you ever felt sick watching the powerless get screwed over? Have you ever wished that the world worked differently?

Then come with me.

Why do I read Warren Ellis? Here are four common threads that run through his work, and if you’ve ever studied the art of storytelling, you’ll realize why his stories are so captivating. But let’s start with:

The Heroes

They are vulnerable, imperfect, and often angry. They are human. They aren’t the strongest player on the field.

But they don’t give up, even in the face of incredible odds. They have more determination than a mutant terrier on speed. They have brains, and they use their smarts without mercy.

They are also compassionate. Many times they wouldn’t be so hurting and angry in the first place if they just didn’t give a damn about other people. Over the course of the story, they’ll be hurt much worse, because they care and they won’t give up.

Who they are in opposition to how the world is—that’s what drives the stories.

Oh, and by the way, Mr. Ellis tends to have very strong female characters in the loop.

Transmetropolitan was the first time I—and many others—read Warren’s work.

The main protagonist is Spider Jerusalem, a journalist on too many drugs. Now, as a writer, Spider is not going to save the world by bench-pressing nukes, or by knocking out enemies 10 at a time because his heart is pure, or by wielding enormous amounts of military-industrial power.

He just has the written word. (And a bowel disrupter, but it just makes people shit their pants.)

His enemies are politicians who have everything else.

Why does he care? He seems like such a cold bastard sometimes. Don’t get me wrong—he is a bastard. But don’t confuse the attitude with the values. The surface attitude does indeed say “I couldn’t give a fuck about you,” but beneath, he unfortunately does care. This gets him in trouble.

How he gets out of it takes ten amazingly fun, though-provoking volumes of beautifully illustrated comics.

The Problems

Problems in Warren Ellis stories are rarely simple. These are not problems that can be worked out with counseling and love. These are nasty and complex, often with humans at the center of it all. These problems affect entire communities. They affect worlds.

People often say, “well, that’s really over the top.” Dude. The problems are not just over the top, they’re insane, radioactive, and about to explode and cause nuclear winter. They’re larger than life, and are not easily undone.

And the problem always affects the heroes—sometimes directly, and sometimes the heroes get so disgusted that they need to get involved and do. The heroes are committed.

Global Frequency doesn’t have the usual set of heroes from story to story; instead, there is a much larger, rotating cast of characters who usually show up for one story, and then are gone. The two constants are Miranda Zero, who heads the Global Frequency, a completely independent covert ops organization, and Aleph, who servers as the Frequency’s communication center.

The mission of the Global Frequency is simply this: to stop any insanity in the world that threatens people. As an independent entity, they are beholden to no country or company or other organization.

Every story has a larger-than-life, prickly pear of a problem, which must then be solved by the heroes—who range across the spectrum, from world-wide renowned agents, to top-of-the-field physicists, to black magicians—and to people like you and me, with our web cams across the country that can act as a monitoring net more insidious than closed circuit TV.

But these people don’t draw pay; the Global Frequency is volunteer, every volunteer a Warren Ellis Hero in spirit. It’s grass-roots, and it’s frightening to other organizations because its members are unknown, walk beside you and me and shop at the local Safeway. Global Frequency ends up with enemies.

Most often, though, Global Frequency has enough crap to deal with when it comes to saving the world from, say, a Star Wars automated defense system that has decided through programmer error to start destroying America bit by bit.

The Wonder

The worlds where Warren Ellis’ stories play out are works of art. In a visual medium like comics, this is of course invaluable; but even when we’re talking about his novels, like Crooked Little Vein, he has a penchant for playing upon the weird and incredible.

It is often said by writers and readers that the best fantasy and science fiction instills a sense of wonder in the reader. This is something that Warren Ellis knows full well how to do. This is also where it’s evident that he spends too much time on the interwebs surfing the science blogs, fetish forums, medieval weaponry sites, or whatever else he’s happening to be researching, while drinking enough Red Bull to significantly alter his brain chemistry.

I’m not sure how else to explain the two-headed, three-eyed, chain-smoking cat in Transmetropolitan, or, indeed, many of the notions in Planetary.

Planetary is a wild ride across pop culture through the ages—including pop culture that was around before we created the term “pop culture”. From adventure pulps of all genres, to DC superheroes as well as horror, to the literary age of Sherlock Holmes and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, even to those monster movies from Japan. Warren manages to blend everything into a sweet milkshake of blast-your-brains-out awe.

I mean, there’s the recurring theme of the Universe consisting of multiple dimensions organized in a snowflake-like superstructure—196,833 dimensions, also known as the Monster Group, a real mathematical concept. And there’s a lonely alien spaceship from Another Europe that can travel between them….

Fittingly, the main character, Elijah Snow, is a detective whose domain is trekking through this weird world, exploring and discovering with his field team, Jakita Wagner (think Emma Peel from the Avengers) and the Drummer (who is in tune with information, of any kind, including the web and sound and even residual magic… which is a rather unique superpower).

The Humor

I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without mentioning this very important part of any Ellis work.

You know how some writers can just get seriously down and depressing? Especially if you have a) heroes who care more than they should, b) huge larger-than-life problems that threaten large parts of humanity or sanity, and c) a way of taking the normal and turning it into something alien?

Warren Ellis knows how to pace with humor. Yes, the chips are down and everything is going to hell in a handbasket and there are motorized fuck tentacles coming in at 3 o’clock, but the heroes remain on top of things with satire and banter. They are smart enough to see the ridiculous or the ironic in even dire situations—and sensible enough not to overham it.

Crécy is, I think, illustrative of Warren’s uses of humor. The story of Crécy is one of grim medieval warfare, back in 1346, between the English and the French.

The narrator is William of Stonham, an archer in the English peasant army, which is currently on the run from an army of French knights, noblemen, and mercenaries. He talks to us in a down-to-earth manner, as if he were just at the pub, bringing us into the confidence and mindset of a 14th-century everyday man. Very Warren Ellis.

It is through William that we learn about the history around the battle, the characteristics of the weapons used, the strategies on both sides. Basically, Crécy is one big history lesson. And it would be terribly dull, except that William has an excellent sense of pacing and also a sharp sense of humor:

“We’re not a very pleasant people, the English. The French speak in music, but English only soars when we start being bloody ‘orrible to people.”

“Their king is Philip, who is frankly a bit of a knobend. This is the guy who started the Hundred Years War, and attempted to finance it by taxing salt.”

“We’ve got Welsh with us. Can’t be helped.”

“English history says he was called the Black Prince because he wore an ornate black cuirass, and in other times wore a black surcoat over his armor. But the French called him the Black Prince, too. Because young Edward there, don’t get me wrong, is a complete and utter bastard.”

And while you’re enjoying the book, you’ll learn about how the Battle of Crécy changed modern warfare forever. Even back in 1346.

FreakAngels

So what is FreakAngels?

FreakAngels is a Warren Ellis work. So it’s likely to have:

• a vulnerable, imperfect, angry and smart hero who cares about people (and is probably a woman)
• some larger-than-life problem that threatens the hero and a chunk of humanity
• a wondrous world of odd and crazy steampunk
• black humor and brave banter

Thus, it will be awesome.

Update: You can find out more in this interview with Warren Ellis.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Tags: crecy, global frequency, planetary, transmetropolitan, warren ellis

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