Somehow, Warren Ellis Returned

Tuesday was quite the day for comics news. As of 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, it seemed like the news of the day would be that Disney and Lucasfilm had finally broken the seal keeping Star Wars away from the pop culture IP grinder and would allow for a five-issue crossover with Marvel Comics titled Hope Assembles (yes, really) to be published in 2027, timed to coincide with the original Star Wars' 50th anniversary.

But then Image Comics released a press release about a new series, Ghost Drive Station, which it will publish in November. The sci-fi noir features artwork by Lordess Foudre and is written by Warren Ellis, which adds considerable baggage...

Foudre is relatively unknown in the comics world, though she has notable credits for album artwork and a strong following on social media. I hadn't heard of her, but my Weird City partner Tom Cheredar is a fan: "The digital art she posts on Instagram feels like the antidote to the toxic algorithmic harm we consume on social media without thought. The '80s cyberpunk-esque meme style of Lordess' digital images contains messages that pierce through the noise. Or they do for me. Not much else in an Instagram news feed contains posts prompting me to reassess my relationship with my technology." (Examples shown below.)

Image Comics lists an unusual and vague set of credits for Foudre: Soccer Mommy's Color Theory, Trashumanism, and Kasablanca, only one of which is a comic. Transhumanism is a graphic novel (alternatively described as a "narrative art book") that Foudre worked on as part of the multimedia project of the same name by artist and musician Le Destroy. As for the others, Foudre designed the album art for Color Theory by indie rock musician Soccer Mommy, and did production design for a tour by electronic music act Kasablanca.

Some have interpreted this as Ellis needing to go well outside his normal circle of would-be collaborators to find someone willing to work with him, whether for ethical reasons or to avoid damaging their own reputation. However, Ellis and Foudre have been working together for some time, as Foudre has regularly provided artwork for Ellis' ongoing newsletter, Orbital Operations.

Warren Ellis is back, so let's remember why he was gone in the first place.

For those who need a refresher, Ellis was once a figure of some renown in the comics world, having cultivated an image as a foul-mouthed purveyor of hard, gritty sci-fi like Transmetropolitan and big-idea superhero comics like The Authority.

Then, in 2020, the website SoManyofUs went live with testimonies from more than 60 women detailing how Ellis had allegedly groomed and sexually harassed them, a number that eventually grew to nearly 100 individuals. In a remarkable show of grace, the women who made up that group did not ask for Ellis to be “canceled’ or permanently exiled from the comics community, but for him to embark on a journey toward restorative justice. They even provided the outline of a plan, with the concrete steps he could take to make amends.