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As I mentioned in my Day One Report from Wizard World Chicago, one of the highlights of my time in the Windy City was Friday’s interview with writer Warren Ellis. It was a complete turnabout from my last experience interviewing him, as this time around it was actually a very pleasant conversation, full of laughs and topics that we both seemed to enjoy chatting about. My previous interview with him (while I was editor of wizarduniverse.com) was, well… difficult. I’m not sure if it was the oppressive heat, the chaos of San Diego Comic-Con or my affiliation with Wizard, but it was definitely not one of my finest interactions with an interviewee. (I’d link to it, but it was another victim of the Great Wizard Website Purge of ‘07.)

As always, I’ve provided an excerpt of the interview here, with a link to the full article immediately following the excerpt. Oh, and be sure to check out Ellis’ excellent webcomic, FreakAngels if you haven’t already.

For anyone familiar with the online presence of award-winning writer Warren Ellis, it came as no surprise when the author announced at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con that he would be scripting an original, ongoing webcomic hosted by Avatar Press and titled FreakAngels. The concept, the preview art and even the name of the series all seemed quite, well… Warren Ellis.

What has been surprising, however, is the ease at which the longtime print author has adapted to the online medium and managed to create a compelling, unique series with very few blips in the weekly schedule he set for himself and FreakAngels artist Paul Duffield. At a time when top-tier print titles are failing to meet monthly schedules time and time again, Ellis and Duffield have managed to create a consistently compelling, unique series worthy of mentioning in the same breath as many of the more established webcomics out there. The fact that the series also has Ellis’ considerable online savvy and the resources of an up-and-coming publisher like Avatar behind it only makes the entire package even more intriguing to anyone with an interest in the digital evolution of the medium.

Avatar afforded me a few minutes to speak with Ellis during the recent Wizard World Chicago convention (where he was the event’s Guest of Honor), and I was glad to have the opportunity to ask him about FreakAngels, his thoughts on the online publishing scene, and how it all relates to traditional British storytelling.

COMICMIX: Coming from the print side of the industry, did your creative process change much for FreakAngels, Warren? How did the new medium affect your routine?

WARREN ELLIS: The only thing that has really been affected is the length of the episode. But even then, I’m not really writing with six pages in mind so much as I’m writing with 144 pages in mind. I’m writing FreakAngels in 144-page blocks, so I’m really keeping my eye on the bigger picture as opposed to keeping an eye on the ending of page six. So really there’s been no change at all.

I’ve kind of refused to change. [Laughs]

CMix: Why the decision to work in six-page blocks? Does this story lend itself to that format, or is there another reason why six pages seemed appropriate?

WE: I grew up with British comics. British comics were weekly anthologies and they were full of stories that were around six pages. So I’m being a proper British writer by doing my weekly science-fiction comic, and I’m doing them in six-page episodes.

Head over to ComicMix for the full Warren Ellis interview.