Big Sound Authority

Orbital Operations for 5 February 2023

Author

Warren Ellis
February 05, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

authority

 The Authority feature. “There’s great wildstorm characters that were popular for a long-time and we’re incorporating them into the DCU,” says Gunn. He loves the property because it’s a mix of antiheroes, who take matters into their own hands despite what governments advise. A basic story is being written out. The Authority was created after StormWatch, a planetary defense force against aliens, was destroyed. The former member of that group, Jenny Sparks, created the Authority with her StormWatch Black teammates Swift and Jack Hawksmoor. The team includes The Engineer (Angela Spica), Jeroen Thornedike (the latest Doctor), Apollo and Midnighter.

THE AUTHORITY was a comics series I created with and for the artist Bryan Hitch, with colourist Laura DePuy (now Laura Martin) in the late 1990s at DC Wildstorm. It was actually just Wildstorm when we started - I remember Jim Lee and Scott Dunbier gathering us all to dinner in London to explain that Wildstorm was being bought by DC, that doughty pair having just returned from Northampton to explain it all to Alan Moore.

"Alan got out of the cab with a walking stick in his hand, and I swear to god it looked like a cudgel he'd brought to beat us to death with."

Alan Moore, to me later: "Ah, yes. I affect a cane these days."

(Note: this is the correct English formulation of a sentence that might otherwise read, "I carry a cane as a personal affectation.")

After that news broke, I briefly exchanged messages with James Gunn, during which I wished him luck and told him to have fun with it, and later that day Jim Lee phoned me to give a few more details. I know very little more than you do, at this point, and this is because James and Peter Safran are running a very tight ship with very high operational security, and I'm not about to mess with that.

I'm very interested to see what happens next. As I said to James Gunn: if it gets made under his watch, I know that it will at least have good music. (The time I spoke to him before this, it was about his use of the fun "In The Meantime" by Spacehog in the Guardians 3 trailer, which I think is the only rock song in history to use a sample from a Penguin Cafe Orchestra piece.)

God, I hope those both work internationally. Geofencing on YouTube videos is such bullshit.

Anyway. There are plan for DC Films to make a THE AUTHORITY film. Obviously, it may never happen. Plans change all the time. And I won't be saying any more about it until either I'm told I can or something gets properly reported out about it. But it's nice to know they really want to make it, and I wish them all the luck in the world.

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta.

So that all happened, and I wasn't paying complete attention because I'm across two audio drama serials, some other stuff, and a big consultation job that will likely last until the spring. I like consulting gigs. They let me find out how much I've learned, how much I still have to learn, and let me pass some knowledge on while also usually teaching me something new. They're low-stress, all-growth engagements.

I am also still working on rebuilding my garden, in between the frost and rain and gales, but I think I'm going to push most of my garden notes to LTD in future. I did, however, get paid, and after the bills and financial aid and such, I hived off a little bit of money to buy fruit trees. This summer's garden hermitage will be marvellous.

And, following a Thursday phone conference with a production company, I have to break here and reshuffle my weekend so I can make a start on a presentation document.

Focus is the thing, and focus is the thing we've forgotten how to do. I mean, the whole "eight second attention span" thing is bullshit, but we have damaged our collective focus with all the shiny things, and pre-internet focus is something most of us will probably never get back. All we can do is choose to try and do better, I guess. Anyway. Shit to do!

My name is Warren Ellis, and I’m a writer from England. These newsletters are about the work I do and the creative life I try to lead. I send them every Sunday to subscribers. Feel free to send your friends to orbitaloperations.com , where they can read the most recent letters and subscribe for their own.

I’m represented by Angela Cheng Caplan at the Cheng Caplan Company and David Hale Smith at Inkwell Management. Please add [email protected] to your email system’s address book or contacts.

COMICS

COMICS, ENGINEERING, INNOVATION

CURRENTLY LISTENING

SPEKTRMODULE

Extra points if anyone actually remembers Big Sound Authority.

As mentioned, I'm in my CD library now. This has gotten a lot of play this week.

... shamanic ritualists PHURPA. Channeling the void with their eerie and engulfing overtone ritual chants rooted in the BON tradition of Tibet, their mesmerising rituals are used as a tool of transmogrification. The chanting meditations are accentuated by the use nga drums, rolmo cymbals, gyaling oboes, as well as telescopic dunchen horns, dunkar shells and short wandun horns. Their performances are meant as exercises in aural power, channeled primordial sounds aimed to alter ones consciousness, otherworldly prayer mantras pulsating through the chakras.

Tell me that doesn't sound like a fun time.

GOT MORE TIME?

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WARRENELLIS.LTD is my personal notebook, in which I make new entries several times a day. Think of it as all the things I can't fit into this newsletter, from links and bookmarks to reviews, random thoughts and life notes. If you use a RSS reader, it generates a feed at https://warrenellis.ltd/feed/ .

Notebooking Patrol 2feb23 - wherein I have started logging instances of other peoples' notebook practise.

An Injection For Hunger - guy uses a new drug to literally switch off his hyperactive hunger signal, loses weight, goes a little nuts

Also daily status updates which it turns out people do use to see if I'm alive and answering email. These are also where most of my morning photos go.

Okay. Things to do. I hope you have something to look forward to doing too. Small things are enough. Plan a little meal, plan a little walk or wheelaround, buy yourself five minutes to sit in the light with a song you like, switch your phone to do not disturb emergency contacts only and watch an entire film or read a damn book. Do something good for yourself and ban the rest of the world for a while so you can enjoy it. See you next week.

W