2025

And a happy new year to you from out here on the Thames Delta.

Today I’ll be brief, as I haven’t done one of these in several weeks and we’re all emerging bleary-eyed into 2025.

In this letter:

• A quick note from Mission Control

• the three rules of comics covers

• The News

• Chasing The Nightmare

OPERATIONS

A QUICK NOTE FROM MISSION CONTROL

2025 launched on January 2. A year of production, organisation and focus. I ended the year very behind on various things, and I have a ton of plans to get in motion ASAP, so this is, sadly, The Year Of Not Farting Around.

(I say “sadly” because I actually quite like farting around. I think I read six or seven books last month.)

I’m running my new notebook system with four sections now, and I need to strip down an old ultralight laptop for working on a lapboard downstairs at night. There is a lot to do.

(If anyone wants to talk to me about doing stuff together, now’s the time, before I fill all my work slots.)

And I have a long list of things I want to write to you about, because the visual essays I did towards the end of last year were a lot of fun to do and I really enjoyed getting into that crunchy deep-comics stuff with you.

THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM should be in a comics store or bookshop near you in a couple of days.

So weird to see work from twenty-five-plus years ago under one cover. But also lovely to see Tom and Bryan’s art from back then all over again. It’s a brick of a thing. I think, recently, only the EXCALIBUR compendium has been heavier.

Trivia: I kept the character Swift from the previous run because she was created by the previous writer’s daughter and I thought she’d like to see her character continue. I have no idea if she ever did, but I hated the idea of a young kid opening a copy and not seeing her own character there.

DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHAZARD EDITION is already on shelves. It’s an outsize hardback edition.

My first thought on taking it out of the box was, “jesus, Jim, this is huge.” Because Jim, or JH Williams III to you, wanted a permanent hardcover edition that would sit right next to his catalogue of fine art editions. But it is a much larger book than I was expecting. Mr Williams took the lead on this one precisely because he wanted it to match his other books, and I just approved the designs and watched him make something marvellous, which was frankly very relaxing. It’s a lovely thing to own, and one of my own favourite pieces.

ORBITAL

COVERS

I want to do something more extensive on the subject of comics covers soon, but, for now, let me just set out my stall.

Comics covers have three jobs to do.

1. A comic cover must speak to the tone and themes of the work inside.

2. It must stand out on the shelves or webpage.

3. It must be a beautiful object that you would like to have in your home.

There have been many arguments over the years about what a cover should be, but these are my rules.

I always prefer the cover to be done by the interior artist, but, if, for whatever reason, that’s not possible, then the cover should embody the tone of the book and its general themes. It does not have to be about precisely whatever is happening in the book itself. It represents the feel and atmosphere of the work.

My pitch for the PLANETARY covers was, every issue, the book would look nothing like anything else on the stands. Think about how comics are displayed in comics stores etc, sure, but think first about the impact of the image and design and what it does to you as a viewer and participant. The cover has to make you want to pick the book up and find out about it.

The third rule is the hardest, as everyone has different tastes. But when you have it, ask yourself: is this a thing I would want in my own home? On a table, or on a wall? Is is a beautiful object that would make my home a slightly lovelier place if I owned it? If your answer is, “well, it just does the job it’s supposed to do,” then it’s the wrong cover.

Now, here’s a completely counter intuitive example:

L’ECHO DES SAVANES was a French comics anthology magazine. This issue is from 1974. Those are the three editors and founders on the cover, the cartoonists Nikita Mandryka, Claire Bretecher and Marcel Gotlib. First, let us admire the flex: the editors had themselves painted for the cover of their own comic.

The tone of the thing? These three want to take you on a midnight ride through the dirty city. Gotlib looks a bit sleazy, Mandryka is a sinister intellectual and can we all just agree that Claire Bretecher looks incredibly fucking cool? You know what’s being promised.

Even in an age of fantastical comics covers in France, I bet you no other editorial team were getting themselves painted for a cover as creatures of the night who were ready to take you places you may not be ready to be taken to.

As an object, it is of its time, and there’s a little bit of big-head caricature to it. But it’s a lovely bit of painting, and the whole thing just makes me smile. It bypasses all the rules we have for comics covers and rides off into the dark.

Next time you’re near a comics or book store, have a look at the shelves, see what jumps out at you, and ask yourself why. It’s a useful question. And you’ll learn more about your own tastes as well as what design does to you.

Now: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM. 2025: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition.

And now:

This is available as a print from the lordess.io store.

OTHER

CHASING THE NIGHTMARE

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

I re-started warrenellis.ltd, my digital notebook, on January 2. Read over my shoulder. It generally updates every six hours.

The only places to find me on the internet this year are LTD and this newsletter. Oh, and I occasionally look at pictures on Instagram. Don’t look for me on any of the new social media apps: I don’t need them in my life.

This letter has been zapped to you via Beehiiv. Running this newsletter as a free broadcast has costs, and maybe you’d like to buy me a coffee to help things along.

And that’s me started for 2025. Proper essays and shit will resume next week. Until then, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself on having survived 2024. Remember: you have been trained at Orbital Operations, and 2025 hasn’t got a chance against you. See you next week.

W