Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE, the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN and the Amazon Top 100 novella NORMAL. The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name.  He is the writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, now renewed for a fourth season.  Warren Ellis is an Honorary Doctor of the University of Essex.

My biography and headshots.  Contact my representatives.

This page updated 13 November 2018.

The original ebook is still doing well in the Kindle Singles charts.  I’m still very fond of the story.  You can find it here.

Details and tickets (starting at $20) at the event page, which is this link here.  Here’s the description:

In the intimate surroundings of The Farmhouse Barn, writer Warren Ellis sits down for a State Of The Weird, picking over the radioactive bones of 2013 and gathering the stories for a Briefing on the science-fiction condition of 2014. That night, he will be in the middle of writing a novella about futurists and a non-fiction book about the future of cities — except that they’re both also about strange history and Weird Shit — and he’s here to talk about deep time, storytelling and the weather of tomorrow.

It’s intended to be a small, conversational thing.  First Outside World thing of the year, a good time and place to take stock and look ahead.

It is likely to pollute your inbox on at least a weekly basis, maybe a little more, depending on what’s going on.  It is likely to contain work updates, random incoherent thoughts and other mental rubbish guaranteed to improve your life and inoculate your brain against alien spores or god I don’t even know what I’m typing right now.  It’s a thing that’s happening.  Subscribe if you think you’d like that.  http://orbitaloperations.com/

To attend, RSVP to events@nymag.com.

If you don’t know what you’re looking at: SPEKTRMODULE is a podcast of haunted, ambient and sleepy music I compile for my own amusement.

Direct mp3 link.  Or press Play on the player.  iTunes link.

@warrenellis / warrenellis@gmail.com / t-shirt? mug?

Feel free to tell other people about this podcast for sleepy people if you like it.

We are #SPEKTRMODULE

1. logotone

2.  “The Priory Bell (New Hall Priory, Chelmsford/Essex)” -  The Canonesses Of The Holy Sepulchre    (Album: Eternal Light)

3.  “Trench Ritual” – Foie Gras    (album:  Innermost Shrine, Heavily Gilded)

4.  “Dharmakaya” -  Sir Richard Bishop & W. David Oliphant     (album:   Beyond All Defects)

5.  “Brown Grass” -  Motion Sickness of Time Travel     (album:   Slow Architecture)   

6.  “Act Two, The Cory’s Shearwater” -  Lieven Marten Moana      (album:  Music from the Guardhouse)

7.  “HUCKING FELL – 10-3-13” – Sean Breadin

8.  “Favershell” -    House in the Woods        (EP: Bucolica)        

9.  “Where The Mission Bells Are Chiming (Down Beside The Sea) “-   Julia Holter   (project: Songs In The Key Of L.A.)    

10.  logotone

All previous SPEKTRMODULE podcasts live under this category header or at spkmdl.libsyn.com.

Wolverine. One of the most powerful, engaging, and controversial characters in the Marvel Universe. Or in any comics universe, really. He’s got some amazing characteristics, powers and abilities. Chief among those are Wolverine’s amazing adamantium claws. They are unbreakable and sharp as a Samurai’s katana. They were grafted to Wolverine’s skeleton, we are told. But how do they stay in there?

See, I started reading about Wolverine in the mid 1970s, shortly after his debut in The Incredible Hulk. It was around the same time that I became captivated by another technical marvel – The Six Million Dollar Man. Steve Austin didn’t have swords grafted to his arms, but he did have some fancy technology implanted and imbedded inside his body. Again, how did that bionic arm stay on and the bionic stuff in the arm (and elsewhere) stay connected to his skeleton?

Of course all these implants did all kinds of cool stuff. Stuff like cutting and blocking and lifting. And I was (and am) impressed by that for sure. But the nascent scientist in me was amazed at what held it all in. Why didn’t Wolverine’s claws come right off the bones in his forearms when he tried to cut through something? And, for those anatomy aficionados in the crowd, why don’t the claws flip over when his radius move as he turns his wrist? While I can’t provide an answer to the last question, science continues to provide some clues to the former.

Once again it’s tissue engineering and materials science to the rescue. I’m fascinated by these related branches of biomedical engineering. Seriously. If I wasn’t already committed to this whole neuroscience brain-and-behaviour gig I’d be all over biomedical engineering. And some recent discoveries in this field related to bone implants have significant implications for how we might really attach adamantium to bone. After we discover adamantium, of course. (This is your cue, metallurgical engineers. In the words of Stan Lee–Excelsior!)

So, while they weren’t busy discovering adamantium, researchers at M.I.T. (and friends) were busy discovering how to improve the fidelity, stability, and viability of making attachments to bone. And, in one of those amazingly fitting juxtapositions that science and life produce, it involves a process very much akin to and relevant for costumed superheroes–superglue.

It gets even better, though. That’s because they were trying to improve the strength of bone connection to implanted devices especially those made from titanium. The coolest element this side of adamantium and vibranium. Titanium is commonly used in the manufacture of joint replacements, most notably the hip. Titanium also gets extra cool kudos by virtue of being a real element.

What this team discovered was that they could stimulate better growth between bone and titanium by using a special superglue adhesive in rats. This adhesive consisted of multilayers of ceramics and nanolayers of polymers mixed up with protein. This super-slurry mix included signaling molecules that bone would normally detect as bone. Since bone likes to grow back to itself, the basic concept was to trick the body into thinking the titanium implant was bone (or at least bone-like).

This was accomplished by making many, many, ultra-thin layers that then worked like superglue to help get bone cells to grow together. This worked much better than conventional bone cement that has a more brittle and less stable outcome. It’s kind of like really good double-sided tape. Except it’s biological tape that grows both ways and has bone growth proteins (for those keeping score it’s osteoinductive bone morphogenetic protein–2, or BMP-2 for short) that help stimulate this growth.

I love this study. Like much of the best science it’s simple and elegant. Lead author Nisarg Shah and colleagues made all kinds of advanced measures (like regulatory hormone release and stem cell differentiation) on how well implants adhered to bone using this new procedure. But some of the measures were also very simple and included how much force was required to pull the implants out when different adhesives were used. The bottom line is that this new approach seems to be a great improvement on the old bone cement model. This is a very real world concern for joint replacements such as hip and knee in humans.

This study using a rodent model is a fantastic proof of principle that dramatic improvements in the fidelity and stability of implanted devices in humans is on the horizon. Human trials are planned next and will the next test of this approach. We really are on the road that will take us to more stable implants of many devices.

We’re currently shooting from the hip, but can claws really be that far away?

© E. Paul Zehr (2013)

E. Paul Zehr is a frequent guest poster here on extraordinary medical matters. This is his info page.  His most recent book is INVENTING IRON MAN: THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUMAN MACHINE.

Related articles

• GUEST INFORMANT: Julian Simpson, Writer/Director
• SPEKTRMODULE: Podcast 26 – Universal Time Crack
• Webcomic: BLANE THROTTLE

If you don’t know what you’re looking at: SPEKTRMODULE is a podcast of haunted, ambient and sleepy music I compile for my own amusement.

Direct mp3 link.  Or press Play on the player.  iTunes link.

@warrenellis / warrenellis@gmail.com / t-shirt? mug?

Feel free to tell other people about this podcast for sleepy people if you like it.

We are #SPEKTRMODULE

1. logotone

2.  “body should” -  Wrugs    (EP: Braided Gas)

3.  “Brompton Road” -  Dollboy     (album:  Ghost Stations)

4.  “The Letter (Part Two)” -  Liberez       (album: The Letter)

5.  “Cloud Prayer” -  Iasos    (album:  Celestial Soul Portrait)

6.  “Come Wander With Me” -  SLEEP ? OVER     (album:   Dark As Night 2E c32)

7.  “Celestial King for a Year (Pt. 2) -   Richard Moult     (album:   Celestial King for a Year)

8.  “Angel Tech” – The Grid    (album: Bliss)

9.  “Slambient Desire” – Sonic Youth    (album: Demonlover)

10.  “Reed Sodger “ – Clive Powell w/Sean Breadin (album:  John Barleycorn Reborn)

11.  “Lilyguilding” -  Kurt Ralske    (album:  Good Night Music To Sleep By)

12.  “60 to 0” -  Baikonour     (album:   Fork Ends)

13.  “Don’t Get Any Closer” -  Eluvium     (album:   Nightmare Ending)

14.  logotone

All previous SPEKTRMODULE podcasts live under this category header or at spkmdl.libsyn.com.

SCATTERLANDS will resume at scatterlands.com in a few weeks.

You can find me on Twitter as @warrenellis and Jason as @theJasonHoward.

Jason and I are also talking about another project together.

There will also be a paid digital collection of the first fifty panels, and an eventual print edition, all organised by the same publisher.

Last one of these I’ll do for some while.

I also have presences on Tumblr, Facebook (a Page) and G+, but those are just coverage and for occasional play.  The Snapchat account is also just me farting around: I’ve been writing about apps and code in that general space lately, which is why I have it.  Also also, I have WhatsApp, for friends only.

And that’s that.  After Friday, there won’t be daily posts here for some time, so I thought I’d get this in now, just for old time’s sake.

(And to forestall the usual questions: the photo was glitched with the Decim8 app, and the text was added with the Over app, both iOS in this instance.)

Related articles

• A Boring Post About The Apps On My Phone
• Cities Are Matter Battles

The tranche of panels after this will be serialised in a different place.  It will be mentioned here.

If you don’t know what you’re looking at: SPEKTRMODULE is a podcast of haunted, ambient and sleepy music I compile for my own amusement.

Direct mp3 link.  Or press Play on the player.  iTunes link.

@warrenellis / warrenellis@gmail.com / t-shirt? mug?

Feel free to tell other people about this podcast for sleepy people if you like it.

#SPEKTRMODULE

1. logotone

2.  “The Mystery Sonatas, The Five Glorious Mysteries, 15. The Coronation of the Virgin: Passacaglia” -  John Holloway/Davitt Moroney/Tragicomedia    (album: Biber – The Mystery Sonatas)

2.  “The New World” -  Ian Hawgood & Aaron Martin   (album: Wolven (A Modern Interpretation) )      

3.  “Good Luck to You Sailor (Slight Return)” – Josh Mason    (album: Timecode Beach)

4.  “Coda, For The End Of Days” – Oathless     (album: Peripheral: Music For An Imaginary Film)

5.  “Singularity” -  High Wolf    (album:  Kairos: Chronos)

6.  “Wat Tyler” -   Petrels    (album:  Wat Tyler)

7.  logotone

All previous SPEKTRMODULE podcasts live under this category header or at spkmdl.libsyn.com.

SCATTERLANDS resumes next week, for five days, before we move it to another site. I simply forgot to upload the last five, due to the madness of the last two weeks. I actually took yesterday off, and went to London to see Julianna Barwick, which was an experience more joyous than even I expected. (It was also wonderful to see digital wunderkind Matt Sheret and writer/filmmaker Anne Holiday there.)

Today I’m doing the new copyedit on DEAD PIG COLLECTOR for FSG. At some point after that, we’ll have a new release date — Sean’s working mightily to get things slotted into place. While he’s doing that, I’ll be moving on to take a look at where I am on the non-fiction book, with an eye to getting that wrapped in the next few weeks.

The AVENGERS: ENDLESS WARTIME graphic novel is in the can. My short story for Institute For The Future, THE LICH-HOUSE, should appear on BoingBoing sometime in the next few weeks. Ben keeps making muttering sounds about that issue of FELL he’s working on, but, frankly, the man’s barely alive from the workload he’s got, so I don’t press him on it.

I have a comics publisher who actually wants me to ask on Twitter for artists to work with, which makes me laugh every time I think about it.

I find I’m actually missing not having the newsletter, a little bit. Replacement services on the scale I’d need, though, are a little pricey. That said, on the whole, a lower digital profile suits me for the moment. Right now, I’m only active on Twitter and Instagram. And, I suppose, WhatsApp and Skype, insofar as I turn them on, and only later recall that nobody has my IDs for those services.

Right. More coffee, then setting up my iPhone 5, which I had to get because I’ve thrashed my 4S to death too far in advance of the release of the next iPhone. It’s a beautiful day here. I hope it’s nice there.

Release date and other details to follow.

Once again, all my gratitude to my book agent, Lydia Wills.

Top of the week.

Related articles

• ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT And The Novel For Television (warrenellis.com)
• Reading Lists: Rachel Rosenfelt, James Moran, Jason Howard (warrenellis.com)

If you don’t know what you’re looking at: SPEKTRMODULE is a podcast of haunted, ambient and sleepy music I compile for my own amusement.

Direct mp3 link.  Or press Play on the player.  iTunes link.

@warrenellis / warrenellis@gmail.com / t-shirt? mug?

Feel free to tell other people about this podcast for sleepy people if you like it.

#SPEKTRMODULE

1. logotone

2.  “Ruckverzauberung 6.1” – Wolfgang Voigt    (album:  Ruckverzauberung 6)

3.  “Rites: I “ -  Paul Jebanasam    (album:  Rites)

4.  “Icepulse” -  Netherworld     (album:  Alchemy of Ice)

5.  “Nicotine Incense (Trepan Redux)” – Lussuria     (album: American Babylon)

6.  “Untitled” -  Ulaan Passerine   (album:   Ulaan Passerine)    

7. logotone

All previous SPEKTRMODULE podcasts live under this category header or at spkmdl.libsyn.com.

I think I may actually have briefly died in the night.

I’m using a Fitbit Flex to monitor my sleep patterns, as I’ve suspected for a while that they’re a bit fucked.  After the day I had yesterday (and that was only part of that day), I needed a decent night’s sleep, but that’s a bit much.

After Pic 050, SCATTERLANDS will be moving to a different site.  That takes the onus off me to update this site daily, and I’m availing myself of that opportunity.

I sent the last newsletter post last night: that system was paid for by my previous publisher, and therefore will now be switched off.  I have no plans to set up another one right now.

I may go into the field of competitive sleeping.

DEAD PIG COLLECTOR is cancelled (for now).

If you pre-ordered DEAD PIG COLLECTOR: Thank you! And I’m sorry. Really sorry. Your vendor will reverse the pre-order soon.

The newsletter, MACHINE VISION, used a service provided by Mulholland Books, and is now closed.

Professional queries should be directed to my literary agent, Lydia Wills.  This constitutes my complete statement at this time.  In fact, I’m still in bed.