FreakAngels

Because we haven't said anything about FreakAngels in a while, here we go.

FreakAngels is a brilliant web comic by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield.

Paul Duffield may be one of the most talented artists in comics. Plus he's turning out 6 inked pages a week, most weeks and doing other work to boot. Other than the occasional skip week, the man is creating 24 quality pages a month consistently. Not many people can do that.

And Warren Ellis; there's not a sicker dude in comics. He's twisted and demented in all the right ways and many of the wrong ones. I'm not sure if it's the Red Bull or the drugs he's used...OK it must be the drugs...or just a case of mental illness, but Warren Ellis is messed up.

But this is about FreakAngels. It's an almost weekly web comic that gets released every Friday (or we get an apologetic note from one of the creators or Avatar Press staff which are almost as entertaining as the comic some times).

FreakAngels is basically about "What if the Midwich Cuckoos survived to grow up?" and the global catastrophe that they would cause and life thereafter.

Things are getting even more interesting. How many comics can you get a line like this:



One of their own has returned...from the dead...and the FreakAngels are learning more about "the package" and ramping up their powers even more. We're at a point in the story where we really don't know what's going to happen next and I can't be more excited.

Sidebar: I'm a huge fan of post apocalyptic fiction. I'm pretty sure I don't want the reality, but the fiction always amazes me. Even the bad stuff (Knight Rider 2010). It's interesting to see what tech the writers think will survive whatever calamity caused the situation (not the guy from Jersey Shore. We know what calamity caused him. Radioactive chemical waste.) and how societies form or reform I should say. So often authors resort to a utopian view or dictatorship view. Personally, I think we'd end up with a police state based partly on what happened in Russia after the fall of the iron curtain.

Alice, an unpowered human who has fallen into the inner circle of the FreakAngels and our perspective character, and Arkady are my favorites right now. I like how even though Alice doesn't really know what is going on, she knows more then the other civilians who have been around the FreakAngels ever since the disaster happened and she hasn't completely crapped her pants (I know I would have by now). She keeps coming back for more. She may actually be the strongest character of the bunch.

Arkady on the other hand just doesn't really care. She's a fun loving carefree type and probably one of the most powerful members. No matter what happens she seems to take it all in stride.

If you haven't been reading, they have all of the episodes up on the website or you can buy them in trade from your local comic shop or Amazon.com today. Freakangels Volume 5 is due out soon.

New Red Trailer

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Warren Ellis's comic book work. one of the more interesting pieces of recent history is the 3 issue series Red pencilled by Cully Hamner (I almost typed Hammer just to mess with him if he ever read this).

Warner Brothers is releasing a film loosely based on this work. If you've read the series and have seen or read anything about the movie, you know the film is definitely not the comic. It looks like it will be fun just the same. Plus Ernest Borgnine appears in it, so it has to be good.

Enjoy:

Planetary #27

http://wildstormblog.dccomics.com/2009/06/10/unleashing-wildstorm-the-bleed/

Nothing terribly exciting, just the official word that the final issue of Planetary will be released in October 2009.

Yay!

FreakAngels Vol. 2 is out this week

If you're not reading this online, you should be. If you're holding out for a print edition it will be released this week.

FreakAngels is kinda like "What if the kids from Village of the Damned grew up to destroy the world and then in turn tried really, really hard to save a part of it?".

Definitely worth a read. The whole thing is available online here.

If you can't get it from your local comic shop and don't want to read it online you can get it here:

Ignition City

Ignition City

This is the series from Warren Ellis, I've been waiting a very long time for. The idea is private space travel is becoming illegal and most of those space heroes we've known over the years (like Flash Gordon) have gone to the space launch city on an artificial island to retire.

Ellis has a great history publishing similar titles and publishing with Avatar Press. Also, the artist, Gianluca Pagliarani, is the same artist as the recent, beautifully rendered AETHERIC MECHANICS.

Fill out coupon below and take to your local comic shop:

Hi Res Coupon from Avatar Press here.

Other titles by Warren Ellis you should be reading: Doktor Sleepless, Astonishing X-Men, Planetary (I know there's only one issue left and we don't know when it's coming out, but you could read the trades in anticipation)

FreakAngels 44 is up

Go read it here.

Sigh!

I'm missing my FreakAngels fix this week. It's another skip week.

If you haven't read it, go to www.freakangels.com and get caught up. Or you can get the TPB of the first act at your local comics shop or on Amazon.

New from Warren Ellis' Bad Signal

IGNITION CITY is now being staged for release in the first half of 2009. Details to follow.

Don't know what Ignition City is? Click here and here.

For those who don't want to read it themselves or Warren Ellis' site is justifiably blocked at work or school, Ignition City is a cross between Deadwood and Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and every other space hero. It's where the space heroes go to die/retire and miss the "good ole days".

Not getting Warren Ellis' Bad Signal? You should be. Click here.

If you were you'd know John Cassaday is hard at work on Planetary #27, which will hopefully be out early next year.

Update 8:36 pm: Zimm asks "So - what is about?"

My answer: I don't really know for sure yet. But I liked Deadwood and Planetary is one of my all time favorite comics. Seems like an idea that's worth trying for a few issues at least.

Update 11/3/2008 5:54 pm: Another post on WarrenEllis.com about Ignition City. It shows pictures some of the rayguns. The Bowman character referenced is a Flash Gordon analogue.

Warren Ellis' FreakAngels

You may have noticed the FreakAngels widget in the sidebar. FreakAngels is a weekly six page webcomic written by Warren Ellis, art by Paul Duffield, and sponsored/published by Avatar Press. There will be a collected edition out in November 2008 available in both Hard Cover and Paperback version.

This series is Warren Ellis' vision of what if the Midwich Cuckoos (from the John Wyndham novel) lived to be in their twenties? They live in a flooded London after a crisis they appear to have caused and protect a small group of survivors in the Whitechapel district.

The first volume is the story of what happens when Alice, a survivor from Manchester, is sent to kill Connor of the FreakAngels by Mark, a FreakAngel that had been kicked out of Whitechapel. The FreakAngels take Alice in after she fails to kill Connor and give her a place in their community and a job to do.

The dialogue is some of the best Ellis has ever written. Each character has such a distinct voice, you can almost identify the characters as much by their dialogue as you can from the artwork.

The artwork is some of the cleanest I've seen in a webcomic or even in most independent print comics. Paul Duffield is yet another great artist to be paired up with Warren Ellis. He brings a manga flavor to the artwork and just enough grit and grime to show what conditions the characters are living in. All of that, plus the guy is producing six pages of finished and colored artwork every week, with the occasional break week. Impressive!

Pros: Cost, it's free if you read it on the web. Written by Warren Ellis. Gorgeous art. Good science fiction comic.

Cons: The biggest (and only) complaint I have is the interface. Don't get me wrong, it works pretty well. It's probably one of the best interfaces I've seen for that matter. The load time is pretty quick.

Final Call: Hot Buy



Also, Paul Duffield will be signing the collected editions at Wizard World Texas where they will premiere.

New episodes are available here each Friday. Hey, look, it's Friday. I guess I better go read FreakAngels.