We are a wholesome thread, thank you very much.
Hey, did you know Gary owned a comic shop? Apparently owning a failing business give him forever geek cred?
Ha. I'm sure admitting failure got him more than a few side looks.
Plus he's from the lesser talented wave of the British Invasion. The early Brits; Alan Davis, Alan Grant, Alan Moore, Chris Claremont, loved American comics and superheroes. To be sure, Moore would try to swipe that love under the rug. But there was a love and even respect for the storied industry they were carpet bagging into.
Same with most of the second wave guys. Gaiman loves DC superheroes despite not being terribly good at writing them, Morrison is a cape and cowl nutter. But second wave onward you started getting these Brit bitches that hated heroes and Capes and clearly disliked American comics. Garth Ennis, Peter Milligan, Jamie Delano. All contemptuous of the things that made American Comics books the giant of the Western comic genre. And that reflected in their work. None of these guys put out top selling books. They had well remembered, genre titles.
Ellis came on the tail end of all this. That last big wave in the early 90s that included Abnett, Gary Frank, and others. He was mostly an editorial darling; harnessing the inner self-hatred of a comic book industry that has forever felt deeply insecure about itself and that hates its history.
I don't think losing Ellis was a loss. Not like the one comics suffered with from talents like Alan Moore degenerating into a nutter or Mark Millar deciding he only wanted to write thread bare, thinly veiled television pitches.
What little of value he had to say about American Comic books was said in the 90s and early 00s. It wasn't terribly original then.
I absolutely blame him. His talent, such as it is, dried up over a decade ago. He's stagnated and his contempt for comics is a reason why they are so fucked up. He's not alone. If Geoff Johns had spent more time in the last decade focusing on DC comics and less time trying to play Hollywood mogul, and failing, the comic wouldn't be where it is.
I would object to Karnak. chronologically the last story you raise was Thunderbolts, which was what? 2007/8?
Ellis has stagnated. His stories don't crack the top ten. He's an editorial darling, which is understandable. But you're right. In an industry where Scott Snyder and Jason Aaron are DC and Marvel's top writing talents; someone like Ellis is a cut above.
In other CG-related news, fallen illustrator Noah Bradley wrote up his own experiences about being cancelled last year after a bunch of women accused of him of rape. Noah however did not go full Comicsgate and instead wrote a big apology letter for all the women he "pressured into sex". Surprisingly, this did not expedite his return to mainstream professional circles and now people just spam his explicit admission to being a sexual predator in his twitter replies. Bereft of any hope of redemption, now Bradley has adopted the identity as his own, as "the Cancelled".
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What It’s Like To Be Cancelled
noahbradley.com
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The article itself has a few gems as well, including this Liam-tier rant:
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I don't know about you guys but anyone retarded enough to actually put this in writing is someone to watch in my books.
Interesting.
