Whitechapel - My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

warrenellis — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 14:31:21 -0700

FREAKANGELS ends in four episodes' time, and the conclusion of the series is the conclusion of my time on Whitechapel. Whitechapel was never "mine": it's owned and operated, at some expense, by Avatar Press, and kept working by the efforts of Avatar's Chief Mechanic, the priceless Ariana Osborne. The end of FREAKANGELS sees Avatar expanding its webcomics operation -- as in many things, I was the canary in the coalmine for this particular way of doing things with Avatar.

Ariana won't be going away: she remains the engineer, while Si Spurrier (and, I suspect, others) take on the helmet and rubber underpants of the Warden role for this patch of the internet. I know for a fact that there are more than one new webcomics project coming from Avatar in the next few months, and I hope you'll support them and the creators as you supported me and Paul.

Perhaps you might even read their fucking websites from time to time. Scum.

In four weeks, then, I'm off. That said, the next couple of months are serious work crunch for me. So tonight, children, is my last Saturday Night Open Mic.

After this, either Si will do them, or, if he chooses not to, you can do your own.

So. It's Saturday night. What have you been up to this week? And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?

Say hello.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Alan Tyson — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 14:48:01 -0700

We're going to miss you, sir. So at least for me, this last Saturday night is going to be about telling you why I'll miss you - because I might not get another chance.

I have been introduced to so many strange and new and wonderful things because of countless plugs, notes, and offhand comments that you have made and people you've introduced here. Coilhouse, Witch House, (possibly other houses as well), Richard Kadrey, Garth Ennis, Michael Moorcock, and countless others. Coming to Whitechapel and reading your blog (I never missed a day) and The Sunday Hangover before that made my brain sharp, and continuing to do so has kept it that way. My world has gotten bigger, because you let me see a little of your world.

You say Whitechapel wasn't yours, and that's probably true. Still: it was an honor to have you on as barman, captain, Wise, Nude Old Man of the Internet Forest, batman and everything else you've been.

That said, I, for one, welcome our new Spurrier overlord, and as I've been introduced to him through you, I have a good feeling he'll do a bang-up job.

Hope to see you, if not on the 'net, then on the bookshelves, soon. You made me weird, and for that, you have my thanks.

Good hunting, sir.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Yskaya — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:10:54 -0700

So in case I've been too obtuse: Thank you Warren, my thought-leader, internet jesus and get-things-done-inspiration.
Rest assured I will be watching (and reading the website, you grump) your further experiments as closely as possible without my eyes bleeding and my brain vaporizing.

Saturday is saturday. All is well with me and mine. I'm working throughout the weekend on fun sekrit stuff.

Ginja has teased me with writing another story not unlike 'how I became a fox' and I'm building things for other 'chapelers aswell.

Be seeing all you fun people on the net. take care.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Kernowdrunk — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:15:48 -0700

Never really done the Saturday Night thing , but I know it's been important to many people here. I know they'll miss your presence.

Been writing music ( hitting a harmonium) this week , and just wanted to say that your positive reaction to my stuff from early on was a big deal for me , meant a lot , and helped a lot of other people listen to it ( some of whom even liked it ).Thanks for your generous attention.

The plan for the rest of the year is to complete and release at least one album and there are also a few gigs lined up at which all Whitechapellers , being more important than anyone else ,would be extremely welcome . Then there's the main goal of spending time with the loved ones , drinking wine , cooking lots of omelettes and finding a way to eliminate this evil government the UK appears to have been saddled with. Or at least shouting a lot at the radio.

At this exact moment , I'm raising a glass to you. Hang on...NOW. All the best and see you around somewhere. .x

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

mbakunin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:20:37 -0700

So does this mean you're relaunching the-engine.com....?

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Cat Vincent — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:26:08 -0700

Thanks guv'. And thanks to everyone involved at Avatar, and especially Ariana. This place and the crazed souls who inhabit it have widened my horizons, comforted me in bad times... and I'll stop there because There Is No Crying In Whitechapel.

(And I do read the website. Someone has to.)

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

warrenellis — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:36:52 -0700

So does this mean you're relaunching the-engine.com....?

No. Why on earth would you think that?

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

kperkins — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:37:59 -0700

Well working tonight as usual (every other sat night), but it's been a good week. I've lost 8 pounds since Monday, with a diet change, 40 more, and I'll be happy. I'm sure it won't continue at that pace, but as long as it continues....
Warren you say this was never "your" site, I'll disagree. If it wasn't for you a lot of things wouldn't have happened here that have. It would have been a different place. You make people want to make stuff, to explore things. You are a teacher, in the best sense of the word, and I thank you for that.
I hope that those who follow can do as well.

And, as always, thanks to Ariana for keeping this place running with bubble-gum, cigarette ash, and red bull.

the rest of the year shall be spent finishing A Wicked Little Town, and then doing a couple of shorts, and starting a graphic novel (for want of a better phrase). And, probably some painting.

And I do read you site, and twitter feed, so keep those updated so I have fodder for my monkey-brain. See you on the interwebs.

Good night, and thanks for all the arse-eels.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

mbakunin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:42:36 -0700

Because I still have my Engine T-shirt.....and I've been drinking.....

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

PintSizedCat — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:06:30 -0700

Since I've been on whitechapel I have to say I haven't read any freakangels, (the artist style just doesn't do anything for me), however, I have gone through many periods and met many people who are fantastic.

A shame you'll be stepping away, but I imagine I'll also step away and get on with being single, drinking, going out, and being merry. :) I'll also stay on the IRC channel for those there.

I look forward to the next adventure you share with us.
I'll be sharing my adventures at my twitter @PintSizedCat

Addendum
Warren, he'll do whatever you want him to!

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

JP Carpenter — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:10:43 -0700

Cheers Warren, so long and thanks for all the ~~fish~~ eels.

Echoing others - I've appreciated this space.

Hope all's well with Whitechapel... has been quite a hellish week, and the tension that's caused has led to a hellish day today - I need to do a lot of calming down. I'm finding weekends extremely hard - I come crashing into them and wake up on Saturday in a state of total panic that I've got to make the most of this little window of time. Because of that I seem to be wrecking them, either floundering around trying to do everything and achieving nothing, or having rows with my partner or probably both. I think I'm recognising that it's a vicious circle, a bad weekend makes the next week worse and so on. Still, there's tomorrow.

The rest of the year? I don't know... I seem to have made such a hash of the first half, I've not got much hope for the second. Get back in control (or accept the lack of control with grace), is probably the first priority. Get some discipline back is the next. Just a general reboot. Focus my anger at the government into something constructive maybe. We'll see...

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

outlawpoet — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:14:33 -0700

Gonna miss you boss.

What have you been up to this week?
Mostly work, but some cool stuff is brewing at crashspace, we're going to be showing off some cool stuff at TwentyWonder and Create:Fixate, possibly including the new EEG headsets we got for the Neuroscience Group, controlling a display.

Also the normal sleep deprivation and family drama, but who wants to hear about that?

And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?
crashspace is going to continue to grow and be awesome. We're going to finally open up a media wing. Right now the most we have is the blog and recorded livestreams from some events, but we really need to get a coherent internet presence.

my company SmartAction is doing well, and hopefully things will continue to be good. It's frustrating that the project that I spend the most time on I really can't talk about publicly at all.

got some other possibilities brewing, a video game incubator with some partners, art projects I keep putting off, reviving a webcomic long forgotten, but just about everything runs up to the time problem.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Andre Navarro — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:14:42 -0700

This being your last Saturday Night Open Mic, I could hardly start this post talking about me.

So, first of all, please show up from time to time. Here I thought about writing "WC might not be 'yours' but it's not the same without you", but true or not, the sappiness of that sentence might give you an organ failure.

Second of all, thank you for this community. It provided the starting kick to pretty much all of my projects. Even my awful movie reviews in the blog section taught me a lot about cinematic storytelling and gave me the confidence to work as a filmmaker today. Having joined WC at the miserable age of seventeen, this was a great place to grow up, artistically most of all, and make friends. My gratitude also goes to Ariana, Mark and the rest of the WC crew, along with a welcome to the new helmers.

And finally, good luck on your future projects, Warren. I'm eager to see the formats you will explore and innovate, and the stories you'll tell with them.

As for me, I'm now a ~~penniless~~ independent filmmaker. I've just been told I'll be directing my second short film, significantly more complex than the first. Having finished the script, I'm now going to plan the shoot. I didn't expect to start doing this in Brazilian soil with Brazilian friends. My life has been weird, wonderfully so. Problems still abound, but they've never been more fun to solve.

Filmmaking will be my main project for the rest of the year and beyond. I also have one novel being written with three others in the "basic concept" stage, as well as webcomic ideas. Also my usual webcomic, PITCH BLACK, which I'd killed, came back in irregular (i.e. really fucking slow) schedule because I missed doing it and saw no reason to completely stop.

I'm planning a few trips over the next years, to the UK and the US, so I can finally meet some WCers in person. Perhaps at a comic con.

So all in all, I'll be very busy with things I love working on. This sounds suspiciously good. With my usual pessimism I can almost feel the gigantic dingleberry dangling over me from life's asshole. It'll probably fall when I realize I'm getting fat again, requiring another suicidal crash diet.

This will not change my plans to eat a few hot dogs tonight, though.

Cheers.

Ah, and a just-taken picture:

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

TypewriterJason — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:20:51 -0700

Today is trying to finish a short story re-write, read a tonne of plays to find something nice and classic to produce here in Calgary, (currently working through Tom Stoppard) and wrangling an comics anthology project whose title came from on of Warren's Bad Signals... FIGHT COMICS.

(I've written five different stories for five different artists, which was an ambitious choice to start a self-publishing venture...)

I've found myself more a listener than a speaker on Whitechapel; after working the day job and keeping up with many different projects, I often find myself with nothing else useful to say. That said, I've encountered so many interesting things just by listening. Much like how William Gibson finds Twitter as his Weirdness Aggregator, Whitechapel has been my 'interesting frothy mad ideas' and 'people making stuff' aggregator, and the community always inspires...

Thanks again for helping build the playground.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

lgenius — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:27:57 -0700

Always enjoyed the Open Mics, but being a unemployed and unambitious man I never had need to contribute.
As for me recently, I have been enjoying the National Rugby League a lot more that the Rugby Union.
This week was also filled with meeting people who "I'll just love " and "you have so much in common with".
Instead it involved meeting people who spent nearly a hour talking about how Gremlin's is still a mind fuck and for the first time in my life being accused of snobbery for not preferring Pabst as my beer of choice and smoking cigars instead of rolling my own cigarettes. Which is how I plan on speeding the rest of my year and I plan to get off my ass and finish some stuff that lays in large piles taunting me.

It seem like your leaving this place in good hands.
I will miss you coming in and closing threads when that start breaking down or the immediate shut down of useless threads.

Will continue to read and enjoy your work.
Thanks

90% lurker Lance Grubbs

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

RobSpalding — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:38:27 -0700

Farewell Lord of the Arse Eels (I feel you should have a business card that says that just for special occasions)

This week was mostly nothing, but I've actually made it down to my local pubs the last 2 nights in an attempt to stop being such a shut in.
Last night I had a discussion on whether aliens helped build the pyramids. The guys girlfriend and I fought a valiant losing battle against obstinancy on that.
Tonight a girl went into the beer garden and returned with a balloon animal from somewhere. No-one knows where she got it from!

The rest of this year will be spent tying to actually achieve something based on yours and others attempts to get us to Get Excited and Make Something. A novel has crystallised and many short works have found their form thanks to you and this forum. So if I make it medium (I'm not overly ambitious) then there will stilll be stuff the is Your Fault.

I'm looking forward to Gun Machine.

Be well, Boss.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Darkest — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:44:31 -0700

I'll miss having you round the place Warren. Ah well back to reading Warrenellis.com (This is a lie I checked it 5 subjective minutes ago)

Don't really know much about Mr. Spurrier but He's made a good impression. Haven't read any Crossed yet because it isn't my cup of tea but if it's available for free, well there's no reason not to give it a try (with a bucket nearby naturally).

But there is not Ocular Saline in Whitechapel so on with my week.

I have mostly been doing the important bits of paperwork and orders for my shop putting the little gears for the device to run smoothly. Me and my brother have been doing the local fairs drumming up awareness and making some cash selling a couple of bits and bobs. Did the Godmanchester Gala day today it was ok. Talked to people and I think we increased the awareness of the shop. Exciting.

On a more personal note I have been poking through my notes for a project I call Abstract which is a sort of supernatural mystery/ investigation set in Toronto.

Also I have been trying to get out more and do things again because frankly my health is beginning to suffer and if it weren't for the shop I probably would have gone off the deep end.

Predictions/ Plans for the (rest of the) year:
Get a "smart" phone. Make an actual effort to get out and meet new people, see new places experience new things. Work towards getting my drivers licence. Properly contemplate learning an instrument (drums are the current front runner). In short get out of my comfort box a little. It's a pity I can't travel because obvious commitments but at least I should be motivated next time I have the opportunity.

Hope we can keep S.N.O.M. going. I'm off to order some things.

Edited to say: I appreciate how much Ariana and co work behind the scenes and to hope that Warren still pokes his head round the door on occasion.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

RenThing — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:48:53 -0700

Hi, Warren.

What have you been up to this week? Taking care of the kid. California, in that liberal/hippy fashion, has an awesome program where both parents can take six weeks off from work and the state pays for that time (at disability rates which isn't much but it's something) so I've been spending time with him and the wife. He's three months-old today and it's blood marvelous. I've also been (finally) getting back into writing and have downed one short and will be finishing another tomorrow.

And how are you going to spend the rest of the year? Working, writing, traveling around California for various weddings of friends and with the job the wife just got we'll be finally digging ourselves out of debt.

Warren, I followed you over here from LJ when you announced Whitechapel years ago and it has been a blast. This place may not have belonged to you but it was more than a little yours, if anything because of the constant threat of the eels if we didn't stay in line. Please come back and visit when you can, you mad old man.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Fauxhammer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:49:26 -0700

It's been an honor, Chief.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

edward — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:07:50 -0700

Hello.

Though I look more than type I have enjoyed the camaraderie of WC.

So: tonight after I type this I wll continue making pizza with a hungry- looking Rott' watching every
movement for falling food.

Things look bleak for the coming year, trying to hold fast until I can move the dog & I out West hopefully.

Other than that?

Sunshine out in the arsehole of Rochester, NY & the hush before the Independance Day clamor.

(By the way. I am mad about FREAKANGELS. Thank you.)

E.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

VertigoJones — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:14:28 -0700

This is kind of like the point at which they re-branded the old ABC as an Odeon, It performed the same function, but it wasn't quite the same. It's been an good time to keep an eye on yourself, Mr. Ellis, as the scope of your work has ever increased, and become evermore interesting, and I believe we were all very honoured to have a common point of interest that was so transparent, wherein you could be, about what was making your world tick.

During my time on this board, my life has changed dramatically, largely of my own volition, and after re-locating to the South, I've finally, I think, managed to stagger to my feet. It's taken a while longer than I anticipated. The short term future is finally settled, and now I guess I'll finally see if I can actually draw something in a non-geological timescale.

Whitechapel is fantastic and like a petridish raped by a mad scientist, what it has created, is probably quite beyond what anyone here would have guessed. I've not got so far with my own schemings, but I've seen a number of great talents flourish and grow and will hopefully following them long into the future.
Best of luck to you, sir.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Paul Sizer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:38:46 -0700

If not for this place, THIS image would not have jump-started my career in a way that I could not have ever foreseen.
This place got me to level up, to draw more stuff more often, and to get it done fast and good(er).
Turns out all I needed was a strict/inspired headmaster and a community that would kick my ass to produce better each week. That and fear of forum humiliation.

I've worked my entire career to prove that comic illustration and typography could be a viable combination and to find my niche in it. My failing was to wait for clients to ask for it. I needed to just fucking do it and when I finally did, they started coming to me. In (relative) droves.

So thanks Warren, for making this place somewhere that incredibly smart and talented creative people congregated and showed each other a next level existed.

Thanks for putting up with the shit so that the good stuff could rise to the surface.

I'll not abandon Whitechapel, because I think there's still a lot to be accomplished here, but it will be a different place without you poking stuff with a stick.
Cheers, sir.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Artenshiur — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:43:38 -0700

This week I have made a new and excellent friend. I am settling in to my new place and my new job, both of which are fantastic. Life is as good as it gets, really. I'm going to spend this year adventuring around New York and the world, and some small portion of it being sad that there is no Uncle Warren to be afraid of.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Rooth — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:52:05 -0700

Well the other great folk here at WC have already said it all better than I could, Warren - so I'll just offer a hearty Thank You for all of the ways that you (and this great community) have affected my Life, my Art and my Future.
One day I will shake your hand (and offer you a bottle of good Canadian Whiskey with other).
Happy Trails, Cap'n.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

misat0 — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:52:45 -0700

Hello Mr E,
I'm just going to keep things simple.
Thank you for providing everyone with such a unique environment, it's been a real pleasure.
As for me, the rest of the year will be challenging and interesting if the last 18 months are to go by.
And as the mother of a possible future overlord, all I can say is watch out world He wants to "Fix things".
Belinda

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

odarable — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:02:26 -0700

Hey Warren. I know I've never been one for kissing your arse every chance I got, and I question the silliest of things from time to time. But I'll really miss you around here. Be well, produce more great stuff for me to waste what little money I have on, and if you're in Bergen I know where they sell both the best beers and the whiskys. That being said, I have great faith in the people taking over. It will never be the same, but I'm sure they'll make it a different kind of good, which is awesome too! Thank you for being part of setting into motion what became Whitechapel. It has truly changed my life, and all to the better!

This week I've been relaxing, oh, and I went to see Bob Dylan live outdoors here in Bergen - and he had Suzanne Vega with him too. That was pretty awesome. For the rest of summer I'll first be at Norway Rock (babysitting The Darkness and Black Label Society and U.D.O. as an artist host), then to Slottsfjell in Tønsberg for some of the same (and seeing Mogwai!), then chillin' like a villain until it's time to go to Schlotheim in Germany and the Party.San festival and see great metal bands (and try to get backstage with Enslaved on the grounds of hey, you work at my favourite pub, I drink there, and your sound guy sometimes pretends to be my elder brother to get me out of trouble, LET ME IN). It will all be good. Rest of YEAR... Become a better light tech. Learn the GrandMA and how ot make them moving heads do sexy thing. Finish more high school subjects. Have good times but still try to drink less... That's about it!

Ok, just to be sentimental:

I added that photo to your Facebook page in 2008 and I STILL have half-scary nerds from all over the world adding me as friends just because I've touched Warren Ellis. You are appreciated.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

256 — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:03:55 -0700

Thanks for eveything, Boss. It's been a pleasure.

On topic: Very strange week, and in a not very nice way. There will be Developments tomorrow, I think, and I reckon it's about 50/50 whether it'll get better or worse.

Wish me luck.

@lgenius

This week was also filled with meeting people who "I'll just love " and "you have so much in common with". Instead it involved meeting people who spent nearly a hour talking about how Gremlin's is still a mind fuck

Ah ha ha ha haaa

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

LokiZero — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:26:05 -0700

Steve Huls here. Thanks for the good times and the good comics, Swami! I've been there since the WEF, and I'll be there for whatever you do next, where ever and whatever that may be.

I do hope there's another forum in your future. Maybe a few years down the line when your mind is failing and all you remember are the good parts.

As for my Saturday, we went a little crazy with the credit card:

So here's to forgetting:

Be seein' ya, boss.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Beamish — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:28:36 -0700

It was another long, stressful week. I gave a speech on comics and mentioned Shoot. So that was a plus side, also my friend David may be finishing our comic short soon, and I am drinking. So, not all bad. Mr. Ellis, thank you, you will be missed, and stalked (politely).

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

infomancer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:50:23 -0700

I continue on as usual. Working, reading, and listening. The rest of the year will be a lot like that, only with a little less working, thank god.

As much as all the great people here add to the content, this has long been a way to visit your braincloud, Mr. Ellis, and there will no doubt be a different tone around here with others in the big chair. I'm interested in seeing what's next here at WC, but that means my days will be that much less Warren-y, unfortunately. Keep broadcasting, we'll all be on the lookout for your transmissions.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Aurora Borealis — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:00:13 -0700

The final one? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh well, all good stuff comes to an end, and in this case the end might be a new beginning (more webcomics, yay).

Wait, does that mean we have to start reading the website again? Haha.

This week I decided to sort all the data on my hd. AS a result I'm burried under a truckload of things to watch and listen, backup and/or delete, happily rediscover long lost gems and scratch my head why the fuck have I dloaded this thing... and so on!

Also, preparing for my own ongoing webcomic...
And that's how I want to spend the rest of the year, cranking out chapter after chapter of b/w art. Hoping to start drawing (or at least thumbnailing) around my birthday (so around 15th). I find that birthdays and new years are fairly good motivators to work, as long as I don't let the "oh god, I'm older again!" mood to pound me into the ground.

(I'm at the same time really anxious to just get started and really afraid that I'll screw it up without adequate preparations... I guess I'll just sort what I have already prepared, do more designs and just dive in, like I did the last time)

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Argos — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:11:36 -0700

Hey Warren,

I joined Whitechapel a year and a half ago when I was the most depressed I'd ever been in my life. I was failing classes at my Uni and not getting out much, as I was living without car in south San Diego where there is nothing to do and the public trans is god awful. I gained about 20 pounds during that time as well. Whitechapel was exactly what I needed - a group of people with whom I could socialize without needing reliable transportation, whose creativity and intelligence inspired and encouraged me to not give up, pull myself together, and start DOING something again. I made many wonderful friends.

Fast forward to now and I've gotten my shit together. I now have my Bachelor's of Science in Ecology and I am doing volunteer work at an aquarium, spending my saturday mornings as a seahorse nanny, cleaning their poop droppings and feeding them (Btw, our aquarium has wolf eel babies, they're about forearm's length now and black and red and look very cool, you'd love them).

I've also found the love of my life, a fiercely intelligent and creative being who also has a mohawk and goes to Burning Man. I've moved in with him in what I think is the best part of town (Hillcrest, in San Diego), where you can easily get around on foot, bus, or bike, where there is plenty of culture and art and folk of my kind, and many opportunities for actually being active around town in meaningful ways.

I've also gotten fit, having lost those twenty pounds I gained, and now have a very healthy resting heart rate of 60bpm, down from a previous 90bpm. I can no longer eat simple carbs and sugars or I feel like total shit because I've been taking care of myself so well (Well, if I have too many. And I still have plenty of good beer. Mmm....).

In short, when I joined the Whitechapel Legion I was at my lowest, and now on your last Saturday Open Mic Night, I am at the peak point in my life. I am truly happy with the direction my life is taking, and I thank Whitechapel for being part of that journey of success. I look forward to seeing what other work you come up with in the years to come and ranting at you again in whatever other message boards you run.

Let me know if you want a wolf eel, the aquarium is in massive surplus of them.

Oh, and some horror for the week, because you all simply MUST hear about this:

The other day on the bus some 60ish year old dude with shoulder length hair and a bag of prescription meds gave me a note, scribbled on a wrinkled piece of torn brown paper bag, that said: "I do piercings and tattoos @ reasonable rates. I would like to party with you and put some art on u. My name is Pain." I'd post the picture I took of it except it has his email and phone number on it and I haven't taken the time to photoshop it out yet.

- Argos

Baby seahorses say herro!

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

Purple Wyrm — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:19:34 -0700

As a semi-lurker I've never manned up sufficiently to contribute to these threads. But as this is the last ship from the havens (to go all fucking-elf-story)...

What have you been up to this week? Just another dull working week sadly, building an online trade quote system for a solar panel company. I did relieve the boredom by starting work on an incredibly nerdy stained glass window design to print out and paste up onto the thin, useless window by my front door. Ideally it will convince my neighbours that I'm

a: Creative and interesting.
b: A mad bastard to be avoided at all costs.

(If you can't make them like you being feared is the next best thing.)

And how are you going to spend the rest of the year? Working, and trying not to spend too much money so I can actually afford to pay for the cruise to New Zealand I'm taking in the new year. It's all booked, but they're stating to send me letters asking where the cash is. I've also got to decide what I'm going to write while on said voyage. Too many old movies where a frustrated writer goes on a cruise to get away from it all have convinced me that I need to do some writing while on said cruise - no idea what about though.

Thanks for everything Mr Ellis. You made us like you and fear you in equal amounts and shall be truly missed.

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

ebullientsoul — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:24:55 -0700

Fuck apologizing for this feeling: It remains inspiring and intimidating to post in your presence, Mr. Ellis. I'll miss it. I bought Fell, Desolation Jones, Ghost Boxes, plus whatever issues of anything with your name on it I could find in Rome because of this forum. I don't think I'm going to stop now.

What have you been up to this week?
I have started a new job. One that sounds like it's part/full time, which is good, because, I have just gotten one of those Ideas. I thought it and went "That would be a delicious story," then thinking "wait...I could do it!" Now, all I have to do is flesh it out.

And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?
Moving into an apartment.
Sending off more applications/pitches for freelance gigs.
Write letters.
Make a .pdf compilation of my best writing so far. (I have no idea if it will "work" in any traditional sense, since I'm not an artist, but after seeing Public Domain, I'm inspired to do the same thing. Put it out on Mediafire around December and call it a Christmas present.)

FURTHER EDITS: This is the 10,000th thread, apparently. Also, thank you for overseeing this place. That went unsaid the first time around pre-edit, and I want to correct that.

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Mark R — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:25:09 -0700

Evening Warren-
I'm a reader, not a writer. But this being your last Open Mic Night, I thought I'd take a minute to jot down my offering of appreciation for the space you created here. I've enjoyed the last three and a half-ish years of your brain droppings, dnd the synapse tickling posts that everyone else drops in here, too. 'Your' Whitechapel has been a place that has routinely made me think. And I very much feel gratitude to you (and everyone else that has a hand in it) for making a space to allow it to happen. So then, here's to you and your future, and to the future of Whitechapel.
Be well, sir.
Many thanks.

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Orpheus — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:26:02 -0700

It has been a true pleasure, Warren. Just dropping in to see whats about and developing has always brightend (or indeed ruined, in a good way) my day. Whitechapel has become a beautiful amalgamation of fantastic minds, one entity. It is commendable, I say, and deserves some from of knighting. Pronounced, Sir Ellis.

Personally, my day as a bar manager and waiter has been an absolute horror. Timings being constantly off balance, staff who cant find thair back pocket with two hands and a map and a tsunami of customers with a holier than thou frame of mind. I also need new shoes, as i can feel gravel stones as i walk over them and have a nasty tendancy to get my socks wet.

The rest of the year? More of the same, really. Hopefully better than this day for a scale of good to rock bottom. OH! And a family trip to Brazil and Canada.

I raise my dark glass of porter to all. Cheers!

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mybrainhurts — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:45:17 -0700

My usual experience with these is to see them when they open think "Oh, I'll write something in there in a minute" and then wake up on Sunday afternoon when they're closed. But I do appreciate them a lot.

What have you been up to this week?
What I've been doing for the last couple months. Looking for work. Writing (currently about the Anti-Nowhere League's bizarre second album). Reading. Worrying about money. Greatly amusing an old drunk lady with your William Carlos Williams parody shirt. Winning a burrito speedeating contest (okay so the last two only happened this week).

And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?
Writing more. Reading more. Hopefully getting a job. Definitely going to the US at the end of October (my girlfriend's paying for me). I want to build up a decent readership for my blog. I hope there is enough of an audience of people who want to read 3000 word posts about 2 minute punk songs. I got into it properly mainly out of spite towards a bunch of terribly written punk blogs which seemed to be getting popular. I've recently received my first messages of support from people I don't know (and been described as 'if Laurie Penny just wrote about punk rock' by an Australian comedian friend of mine) and something close to my first hate mail (got told that nothing I said was relevant or worth reading as I'm a white male the other day by someone, which was fun). Which is awesome. In the rest of the year I want to keep it going while also focusing on my fiction a bit more. I'm also managing to worm my way into the local literary scene just by dint of having enough time to turn up at book readings and zine launches and things. By the end of the year I want the first draft of my novel done and to have received at least one death threat. That would make me feel like a real writer.

This is from a few months ago now but my camera's busted and my webcam has a mind of its own so it's still the most recent picture of me I have (also featured, woman who is far too good for me):

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trini_naenae — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:45:47 -0700

Internet Jesus,

Thank you for hosting this place, even when we are being vile hugging annoyances. And for SNOM, which continues to amaze me. I doubt you find my life interesting, but you seem to be willing to read about it anyway. Thank you for creating a space and audience for us to rant about our lives, show off our art/music/etc and connect to other wierdos. Wonderful weirdos. Also, thank you to Arianna, Mark, Paul Duffield and all the behind the scenes people for making this work. And thank you to Si for being mad enough to be willing to take over.

This week: Work drama finally got dealt with, though it did mean I ended up crying in front of one the co-worker I was having problems with. At least he finally got it and is better at listening now. Yesterday I got to ride a horse bareback in the lake. Which was lots of fun and tiring. My legs were wobbly for a couple hours

Plan to do by the end of the year: Moving into an apartment. I've been needing to do that for a while now. Time to finally do it.

Photographic proof of mad horse riding claims, in which I am anything but glamorous (I'm still trying to get on properly in it).

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HEY APATHY! — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:26:47 -0700

Hey Warren, going from the only Comics person with a fun, interesting and usable message board to the only Comics person with no message board at all! Life is weird, thanks for the forum. Whitechapel was my introduction to both online communication and reading cool webcomics. I have made some good friends here and better yet the new enemies I discovered can’t actually reach across the pub table to stab me with their broken pint glasses.

I spent the past week getting ready for some upcoming art shows…

and learning to speak Japanese from my buddy Mark ( on the left) and some new friends ( I'm the bald guy on the right)…

For the next 360 days or so I plan to get a good grip on nihongo and fly to Japan just so I don't have to perpetually despair over the fact that every day of my life is almost exactly like the one before only more tired and wrinkly.

THANKS AGAIN GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE GOING TO DO NEXT!

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Soviet Rocket No. 9 — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:42:35 -0700

Dear Scary-Man-Who-Calls-Me-Bad-Things,

I'm going to make this short, and not so sweet. Your presence will be missed, and your mad genius when it comes to using the net to do crazy techno magic. Because of you, I like ambient and dropstep music. It is also because of you, I realize that comics are not just a medium of communication, but the best means of communicating with a mass audience. Print is not dead, it just needs to survive. I like Whitechapel because of the community it builds, in my area I am looked at as the strange one, my viewpoints and interests are looked down upon as unnecessary. It is in Whitechapel I see new ideas spring and form. I was not once, but twice insulted by you. Please don't write about me on your website, I pretty much deserved it, and liked the fact that one of my idols (even though harshly) interacted with me. I hope that you pop back into here when necessary. Avatar seems like its got a level head, when it comes to dealing with creativity, and looks as though it isn't going away. The place has changed, the faces have grown, but its the intense insanity that I want to stay. Si seems like a worthy successor.

Sincerely,

Nathan H.

P.S.

Since I first lurked here I have: graduated; gotten an internship with a Senator's office; dumped a girlfriend; had my parents divorce; changed my politics; changed my views; learned to love history, strategy, and science; denounced my belief in "God"; got an iPhone and joined the cult of Steve Jobs; became addicted to "Coilhouse" and started more addictions than I have time to write. By the end of this year, I plan to be employed and moved out of my grandparents' home, FINALLY get "dream girl", and finally get laid again.

Shine on you crazy drunkard diamond!

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Jeff Owens — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:43:10 -0700

I'm trying to refrain from saying it, but I just can't. Thank you and you will be missed around here.

This week (today, in fact), I attended the funeral service of my mother's best friend, and a woman who was a strong presence throughout my life, Dot Stadler. But the week started with my girlfriend Liz coming home from six weeks out of town. Also, a friend got married and another one is having a child, so I suppose it balances out in some ways.

This year, I plan to keep having fun playing with Minibosses all over the country (and hopefully out of the country) and I plan to keep hating working.

Everyone has already said everything else I have to say.

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agentarsenic — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:47:54 -0700

I went to the local speciality booze store tonight and they actually had Brew Dog - so I bought some Hardcore IPA and drank it in your honor. It was really good, dark and bitter (like I like it) with some sweet overtones - just like our Daddy Warbeard.

The Cult of Ellis and the grand maester himself have shown me a lot of strange and wonderful things over the years, like a dick covered in bees and witch house and burial. You all have turned me into a man of refined taste with a strong stomach for photos of dickbees.

Tranetropolitan got me back into reading comics and books like Desolation Jones and Fell kept me reading them. When they stopped/hiatus-ed I went backwards and read great books by Pekar and Eisner and the rest of the slice of life old guard. Then I read things like Nawlz and The Nightly News and saw the future of the medium.

None of that would have been possible without the rantings and ravings of some bearded, crazed British man.

Thanks.

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CamyLuna — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:02:49 -0700

Started hanging about a few years ago because I wanted to use the internet more often. I didn't know much about what was out here, and decided to dive in. I'm still falling. Thank you for opening my mind to so much stuff. I'll miss you.

This week was good. Busy at work, but I'm not getting stressed out. Finally, I get that it's a job and not a vocation.

This year I'm going to act on at least one of my crazy creative ideas.

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munin218 — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:04:18 -0700

Been writing. Been making things. Made a business deal to potentially start wholesaling my jewelry. Tried to make a new friend, but he turned out a bastard who incidentally now wants nothing to do with me. I think. He isnt saying either way, so im making an assumption here.

My cat is trying to kill the footbath and my husband broke two of his toes after a morning quickie.

Its been a really weird week.

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taphead — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:08:41 -0700

Well damn.

This week I've mostly been eating and drinking myself silly at this cabin here.

How are you going to spend the rest of the year? Well. The idea is to just get back to gigging, seeing as that seems to be the only way I can actually make sound go like. Also, preferably with ladies, yes.

That's not important right now, however. This is what is important; here's what Whitechapel has been to me:

This is the first time I've been actively involved in a web forum for this long. Why? Because this is a forum of people who DO THINGS and GET THINGS DONE. I think that on a personal level being here coincides with the acceptance of the fact that I have at some point, despite my best intentions, become a musician.

I shall elucidate. I come from a family of professional musicians, and if there is one thing their example has tought me, it is not to follow in their footsteps. I have seen people burn out, I have seen people lose their love of music, I have seen families disintegrate. And so, I decided not to be a musician. That was very much the plan. And yet, over the past 10 years (since joining Älymystö, to be precise) and especially the last 3 years (after starting my solo things), I have mutated. I have realised music/sound is what I do, what I think about, and what I pretty much revolve around. And so, here I am. I realize that the fact that I make as little music/sound as I do makes me a a rather shabby musician, but now that I've accepted my part in this thing, I guess I'll just have to start getting busy. I am reminded of your words in re: writer's block. And so I play gigs. And so I surround myself with people who DO THINGS and GET THINGS DONE. And so I am here.

Whitechapel is a continual source of joy, and inspiration, and a reminder to DO ANYTHING. Start with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible. We are all freaks, and angels. (Excuse the awful comparison, but it does resonate.)

Thank you for these connections, and your support, and the vectors for contagious enthusiasm. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hope to see you in these parts evern after the garments of rulership have been passed on, ~~boss~~Warren.

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Akiramich — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:14:41 -0700

PLEASE DON'T GO!

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Dextra — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:15:48 -0700

Hi, Warren. I just wanted to say thanks for bringing me here. I've met some really interesting people here and I hope to continue to do so. That's about it. My week hasn't been very interesting, and tonight has just been me, a fuckton of Chinese food and a Big Bang Theory marathon. Whoo.

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Rootfireember — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:30:54 -0700

Thanks for this place, Warren. It's saved my life a few times; and as I've said a billionty times before, I'll miss you. Hopefully Warrenellis.com will continue to provide inspiration, entertainment and bits of occasional horror.

Nothing interesting this week, beyond summer classwork being insane, work being equally insane; the usual stuff.
It makes me wish there were more hours in a day, as mom's decided to be social/worried about me this week, which means trying to wake me up at 7am to know if I'm okay.
Never was a morning person.Gruuuh.
I need more hours for my art and writing. :P

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Luke — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:35:13 -0700

Hello!

Cheers for chiseling another crack in the boundary between creators and enjoyers, I'll be here to read everyone Avatar sends running over your footprints through the minefield. And clicking the hell out of any links they dare present.

This week kicked ass. One of my articles got over a million views in a day. Which was nice. I've also punched through a first draft for a Machine of Death submission, and am looking forward to the rest of the combo of re-re-re-writing (in between rent-paying gigs) over the next seven days.

This year I'm getting the first book out the Lulu-door and wondering what country I'll spend 2012+ in. The Lovely Lady X is finishing up a PhD in molecular genetics and now gets to investigate labs while writing about how she reprogrammed living things. I get to be grateful I make my money with a keyboard and can work anywhere, meaning we can go anywhere, absolutely anywhere (that promises to pay her and give her access to expensive gene-manglers.)

Thanks to everyone who posts in these threads. Now start looking forward the portmanteu of genital descriptors the ever-beautiful Si will bestow on the next iteration.

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James Cunningham — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:36:16 -0700

My week was... a week. Next week is birthday week, however, and I've got three days in a row off starting tomorrow. None of those days are my birthday, of course, and my girlfriend works two out of three of them, but they'll be sunny and warm days of rest despite being slightly misplaced in time so damned if I'm going to bitch about it. As for the rest of the year, I'm going keep on going day by day, spend as much time with loved ones as possible, try to save up a bit of cash so I can afford a real life, and write a few video game articles here and there. I've got nothing to complain about.

And like everyone else has said, thank you for Whitechapel and everything it's become. I've been reading your stuff since Tundra's Lazarus Churchyard, so even when you thought I was a babbling idiot it was still a privilege to talk to you, and the creative people who spring up around you.

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StefanJ — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:39:40 -0700

I'll third the notion that you should drop in now and again, Warren.

Inturweb discussions forums that are worth a damn are few and far between. There's a fine group of sane people here. I don't think that's an accident.

* * *

This week zipped by pretty fast. Training meetings at work, one sleepless night walking a dog with the runs.

Three day weekends light a fire under me. I took off early yesterday to start moving around furniture, preparing for a long-overdue carpet washing. It was a fine hot day today for that. Got everything done by 11; I left the windows open and fans going and headed for Mount Hood.

It was in the eighties down here in Portland, but up on the mountain it was around 40 F, and there was a healthy coat of snow around. There were people skiing, on July 2nd. Neat. The dog wallowed and thrashed in the snow; I got my feet cold and wet. An hour later, I was buying fresh cherries from a farm stand. Oregon. Neat.

I think I've finished my mystic lantern project. Now I just need to pack it up and send it to the recipient.

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Jon Wake — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:40:28 -0700

Damn. End of an era, it is. My comic just got picked up by a publisher, and its largely because of the press Warren helped generate.
It's been a helluva ride. See you in the funny papers.

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FC — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:44:42 -0700

Wow. It's strange to think of how much time has passed. I think The Engine was still around back when I started school, then we all moved here. It quite easily took me through graduation up 'till this point... and while I'm barely an active member beyond some of the art, photo and SL threads, I have to say I'll definitely miss your presence here. I wish the best for your future endeavors!

As I've posted elsewhere on the forum, i spent a lot of time out yesterday photographing a couple of live concerts & fireworks for Canada Day. I also happened to roast my upper back in the process, so I'm dealing with a fairly large sunburn. Thankfully aloe and lidocaine are making the process a little more manageable. Otherwise, it's been a pretty busy week - I have a bunch of projects on the go and will be writing up some documents for a new one soon. I need a clone or three to do all the things I want to do.

Here's me, taken long before my slow roast yesterday.

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razrangel — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:50:57 -0700

Lord Almighty Ellis, I'm only not crying because it's too fucking hot and I need the water and because it'll annoy you. But still feeling all end-is-fucking-nigh and it sucks. Followed you up and down Livejournal but missed the email/Engine-y things. Whitechapel was a natural and quickly became a good virtual weigh station. You've got good people surrounding you, it's been a privilege to correspond with you and get to know the fabulous strangers of Whitechapel. Freak Angelsshould be an anime. Unless that utterly pisses you off. Anyhow, thank you for getting us into this sandbox. Thanks for playing Warden and containing any messes before they got out of hand. Thanks for giving prompts to creative types who feel something burgeoning but don't know quite how to get it out. Those creative people made quite a buzz that got the rest us - well, me - hot and bothered to Make Stuff. Many of us without ever pulling on our pants*. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In the time I've been on Whitechapel I headed off to New York City - without a particularly useful plan - and got to know Whitechapelers there. I fought depression and an ugly economic term there. And I don't know that I would have made it through all that well without regular SNOMs, Friday Freakangels and Whitechapel meetups at that one bar off Union Square. I can't say for certain that I wouldn't have made it, but I haven't the slightest idea how I would have done it. Ultimately I had to return to Southern California and I still miss New York like crazy. But Whitechapel helps me to remember to keep moving forward. There have been a lot of "I want to" and "I'm planning to" statements I've made here and some I've followed up on, some I haven't, but being able to make them has happened only because I saw other people plowing ahead with their plans and art.... My preferred art is behind the scenes, directing and stage managing, dramaturgy and occasionally writing, so I don't have anything to show here. Even when I perform I can't bring anything to show off. But the fact that people give a shit anyway and cheer me on is quite encouraging.

This week was tent-poled over Tuesday & Wednesday's voice classes. Everything else felt a bit sleepy and dull. It's been hot. It's like Mama Nature was listening when we whined about not getting a summer last year and decided to let the hammer drop right on Midsummer. I don't remember what chilly mornings are like. I've had trouble sleeping. I can't keep on one train of thought for very long. Ah but my voice classes rocked. Air conditioning FTW. Two different classes, usually two different teachers. But this week one of the teachers was out so my demo prep teacher also led the animation class. Suffice it to say that Steve Staley knows his shit when it comes to voice work. Demo prep was bittersweet since it was the last class out of six. I could have kept talking with Steve for a while but it's a bit rude to keep a working pro from his appointed rounds and even though he extended his time by giving me a lift in his car to where my truck was, we had to go our separate ways with a hug and promise to link over facebook. Of course, we went our separate ways for a solid 20 hours... then Animation class. Heh. Animation was fun (how could it not be?) and I had a good time exploring characters that garnered me a few personal "hey good job!" comments from classmates.

Going forward I need to make a commercial demo. That's the plan for July. It's a lot of money to drop so I must proceed with caution, but proceed I shall. The plan is own the space I take up, to fill out the noise I make with conviction. I can't promise it'll all be set by the end of the year; it's probably one of those obnoxious "journey" projects. But I am going to take charge of my life and be the agent of change in my own life, as Steve likes to say. I mean, I knew already that no one would swoop down and save me, but now the shit gets real. I'm me. I'm Flor and you're going to listen to me.

*I usually wear pants. It's shoes where I draw the line between having it my way and conforming to societal standards and tyrannies.

Me (on the right) and friends the day after a most epic annual party called Piquarius. Tail end of February, the night before had been one of the coldest in recent memory (frost in LA is damn rare). Epic inebriation, epic ass-making on the part of a few friends (not the survivors you see here), epic um...indulgence on my part. At this point I'm at around 32 hours with no sleep. I'll go another 6 before I'm ready to lay down.

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chris g — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:53:43 -0700

Thanks for everything, Warren. I learned a lot and became a better kind of bastard thanks to you and Whitechapel =D

I posted a new Space Shark this week. I've been holding in that particular episode since December. It could've turned out better, but I'm just glad to get it out of my system finally.
SDCC is gonna be here before I fucking know it. I got my passes for Thursday and Friday only. I didn't get a hotel room for the night so now I dunno why I fucking got more than one day. I guess it's because I had a fucking blast last year and that time it was only one day. I'll figure it out. I always do.

Anyway, thank you again. I still am baffled by how far Space Shark has come. It has not made me any money or whatever, but it has made me slightly less of a nobody than I was before I debuted the comic. I've made it onto pretty much every comics news site I enjoy/respect in this first half of the year. I am still shocked that I even made it to this point. I still see myself as that punkass kid in the back of class drawing silly shit for friends to laugh at.

Anyway, I made the Action Warren figure in your honor, I hope you dig it <3

Anyway, I'm spending the rest of the year trying not to get fucking roasted since the balls hot summer is in full effect now. And see how much further Space Shark takes me :D

PS:

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Brandon Seifert — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:05:37 -0700

Well, damn.

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muse hick — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:42:54 -0700

thank you, mr ellis

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phill_sea — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:45:34 -0700

| <3 |

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Fishelle — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:46:21 -0700

I'm gonna miss these things.
Whitechapel hasn't changed my life like it has with other folks here. My art is probably about the same as it would have otherwise been, though maybe a bit more willing to say impolite things, and Whitechapel does get credit for giving me the idea for one of the pieces that appeared in my only solo art show. I have gotten a bit more attention on my blog and such; most of my traffic for it comes from this place. But there's not been an incredible change that just threw my life upside down the way it needed to be for things to work out in the best possible way for me.
Still, it been a place with neat things that make me think, pretty art and comics, and a good selection of people to befriend. That's all I needed it to be, and everything has exceeded my expectations. You may tire of reading the word tonight, but, well, thanks. Thank you for everything.

I came here a little over a year ago. My first open mic thread I had just said goodbye to the first person I ever fell in love with so he could knock on people's doors and preach about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon for 2 years. Part of my plan for the year to come is to welcome him back at the end of this. It's a good thing I have most of the year to figure all that out, as I fell in love with someone else in the meantime. I won't go on too much about that, but it's been on my mind, having just reached the halfway point of this waiting business and getting a letter on thursday and all that. I keep thinking about something I read in a Jeffrey Brown comic recently, that you don't really get over people, your heart just gets big enough to love more of them.
This week was frustrating and wonderful and exhausting. I felt like work was even more of a waste of time than usual. We hurried to get some posters done so we'd have nice decorations when a big fancy General came to the base. Of course, they didn't get used. Which would be fine if the last 2 summers of my life, all the things I've laminated and framed, weren't sitting in the back corner of a room gathering dust. If that job we'd rushed so much wouldn't be joining the piles of useless hours.
On the bright side, Thursday was a short day. It was the Independence Day celebration and I got paid for 5 hours of walking around outside on a day with perfect weather, talking with nice people about things that weren't work, watching a parade and jumping round on one of those silly giant rubber blow up things they have for rich kids birthdays and whatnot. That was a good early start to the weekend.
Today and yesterday I helped my sister move. A lot of the other people that helped were people she didn't even really know, but were just folks from the church we go to, doing something nicer than they'll ever know. I spent a bit of time looking out the window of the room that will be mine in a couple of months. It's such a beautiful place. I felt more at home in those few minutes than I have in a very long time. I feel like I have so much to be happy about and look forward to.
In the next year, I will start living there, and going to a new university with a new printmaking professor. I'll learn letterpress and screenprinting, and do more relief work. Maybe I'll make a book or two. I'll come on Whitechapel and see some cool things, as I have this past year.

Thanks again, Internet Jesus, for letting me ramble on like this. We're going to miss having you around.

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brittanica — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:49:12 -0700

Old pic, but it still works.
I haven't really shown my face on a Saturday in a while, but this is worth making time for.

You said this isn't your Whitechapel. True. It used to be... WC to me now? It's the IRC room where I go in to say hi occasionally and have Cameron capslock some randomness to me. It's the group Skype call on Tuesday nights (and sometimes Fridays) that devolves into a bunch of adults typing "BEWWWWWBS" for no reason. It's most of my Twitter feed; a bunch of little interconnected bits of info and comments. It's the stack of Christmas cards and prints and paintings (which I still need to get frames for) from all over the place. It's the turntable.fm room I am in this very second, listening to an electronic song w/ a Dalek sample. I don't spend a lot of time on the boards nowadays, because Whitechapel is damn near everywhere. I'll try to rein this in before it gets too sappy, but thank you for what this place has become.
And, goddamn it, I am giving you a hug someday.

Lately, life has been rough. Surprise, surprise. The fella quit his job Tuesday. It had become a slowly sinking ship, and it wasn't even a very good place to be before the beginning of the end. Don't quite know what's going to happen now. We have bills covered for a couple weeks, but who knows if he's gonna get another job before we get in trouble.
So, yeah, the whole "rest of the year" thing is up in the air at the moment. But I'm gonna make the best of it.

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dot_xom — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:10:23 -0700

For the last open mic, sir, you get one last SUAVE:

It's been a pretty quiet week of little else but work and drinking. Just got back from Australia with my mates last week. Some photos here.

Also, found out that Kieron Gillen will be in town for Nerd Prom Singapore 2011. Did back flips of joy (not really, but let's pretend that I did).

My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

oddbill — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:13:08 -0700

Telling you what I'll be doing the rest of the year is pretty much also summing up what Whitechapel has been for me under ~~the auspices of your mad caprice~~ your benevolent philosopher kingship.

For one, as a result of frankly being jealous of the praise many terrific artists were getting here over the past couple of years, I started drawing again. This year, a lot of threads of that started to coalesce and I should have some sort of a gallery show before the end of the year, possibly in September. Some recent work that's going to be the base of some of that is here:

As a result of feedback I got on a long neglected lofiscifi thread, the boulder has started rolling down the cliff of myself and a friend putting together a film festival of very-low-budget science fiction films in LA, probably in October of 2012. I expect the rest of the year to be filled largely with work on this.

I made a few friends here, got a bit of inspiration, and had my opinions on things challenged and changed occasionally in welcome ways. So, for all that, cheers!

Here is a short tribute I put together to commemorate your last Saturday Night with us:

Please don't kill me for that.

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icelandbob — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:55:38 -0700

Shit man this is it.....

Well. in the grand old tradition of SNOT, i am typing this while completely out of my skull. but there is not going to be any of that self- satisfied whining and bad typing that is associated with me (well, ok, maybe a little bad typing).

I will miss this. i will miss the fact that it was a small but significant opening for people to pour out their true feelings and situations. Sometimes the situations was trivial, sometimes it was truly ugly and pitiful. But there was no judging. THAT was the thing about this thread. There was no "fuck you" or "you're a loser HAHA!" stuff. people bared their souls and people on here responded. It was true. it was REAL.

I have confided things to this thread that i have never really spoken to with my immediate friends. It's not that i can't speak to them about stuff, but this thread is liberating. and i for one will miss it.

Thanks Warren for putting up with my 7am fucked up shit. and here is a pic of me being fucked up last night. Oh and the mohican is back!...

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chainsaw.serenade — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 01:35:28 -0700

Up to this week: the mad scramblefuck that is deadline week. We're still behind on the next issue. And trying to raise funds for my trip back home.

What I will be up to: Finally going back to the States (and the 9-5) after a spring spent wandering the Eastern Seaboard and Quebec, a little bit of traveling, and hopefully a lot more creating.

I wish I wasn't so very often prone to bouts of lurkiness. I feel like I know everyone here, but I never say a damn word myself.

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keyofsilence — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:28:56 -0700

You will be missed Warren. It was great to be here while you were at the helm and it'll be sad to see you parachute the fuck out of this place (Whitechapel is some kind of sinister dirigible apparently).

Finally got my band to agree to a more frequent practice regime. We met up yesterday for the first time in months after I threatened to start a new project because we weren't getting anywhere with such sporadic and infrequent jam sessions. It was very much a case of me throwing my toys out of the pram, but it actually worked so the end justified the means.

The rest of the year will see me jamming and gigging, drinking lots of fine beer and Scotch, finding a job/sending forms off to my insurance company so they pay my mortgage for me, walking two miles along a beautiful canal every fortnight to the brain-raping hate factory that is the JobCentre, getting some writing done and improving my Chess skills (yes I am a nerd why thank you).

All the best!

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Will Ellwood — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:59:45 -0700

Taken last Sunday at Alt. Fiction in Derby. The very end of the Sunday after the last programmed event. Cropped from a large image

Ah shit, the last Open Mic. I'd really better post to this or else regret it.

It really is like others have said, Whitechapel's been important to me. To me this has been a social space on the Internet that's mostly been free from gratuitous displays of people behaving like arseholes and filled with intelligent noise. (OK, yes also Godzilla Bukkakie, but I try not to remember that.) And as well as the forum, the IRC channel that's attached to this place is always on in the background and provides a constant stream of weirdness and warmth. Mostly I think good things about this place. There is also inner ear damage from all the shared music.

What have you been up to this week?

The usual stuff. Reading. Doing some work for a local reading festival. Arranging a writing workshop/picnic that involves going to ancient sites around the county.

And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?

A lot of work for a reading festival website. Moderate the Whitechapel IRC channel with Taphead and Ata. Become a zen master of short stories. Get back into condition fit for rock climbing. Maybe start a business.

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DavidLejeune — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:09:22 -0700

Oh God. This is the last one is it?

Well, since this has in part turned into a retrospective: I registered on Whitechapel immediately after the Coilhouse Magazine launch party. I had been lurking for several months, and then I attended said party and recognized a bunch of people from here (Mer, Zo, Trotsky, and somebody else who's name I don't remember were the ones I recognized almost immediately) and thought 'how the hell can I introduce myself to these people without coming off as super creepy?' And I couldn't, really. So I decided to remedy that by joining up (too late to make any difference for that evening, obviously).

In my time on Whitechapel, I've made a couple of friends. i've gained enough self-confidence to give my heart completely to somebody in a way that I never could before (even though it didn't work out and destroyed that self-confidence, and lost me my heart), and mostly learned to enjoy the scenery, and that, sometimes, it's okay to let my brain spill out where everyone can see it. The SPIT, and the SNOM, and the Draw Each Other, and the Vile Hugging threads have kind of become my de facto Whitechapel hangouts, and it's been good. Whitechapel has become my second internet home, and once I nest in a place I tend to stay, so we'll see what Si and whoever else may take up management will bring. I'll always be in the corner with a pint. And probably a broken heart. Thanks for giving me a place to cry, even though there is No Crying on Whitechapel.

I almost want to put together a self-portrait montage a la Oddbill's thing, but I'm slightly the worse for drink (after hanging out with oddbill, coincidentally), so I shan't. No picture this week.

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Morac — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:30:39 -0700

I am sad to see this go, even if it does return in another incarnation. Some have said that endings are important, but I feel like I am just getting started here. In any case, a tip of the hat and a chug of the beer to you, Mr. Ellis, for being the focal point that brought this great community together.

I suppose I should add some actual Open Mic stuff, or it just wouldn't be proper.

What have you been up to this week?

This week has been a bit of a roller-coaster. On Thursday, my grandmother's boyfriend died. I'd only known him for a few years, and he lived a long and full life, so I'm not devastated like I have been in the past. We'd known for about a week that he didn't have long, so everyone got to make their piece, and there was no protracted illnesses leading up to it, either. All in all, it could have been much worse. But still, you know, death.

On Friday, my ceiling starting spewing water everywhere. Turns out some wanker on the third floor left a tap running into a plugged sink, and then went out. Three apartments, including mine, ended up getting soaked. A few of my light fixtures need to be replaced, and a bunch of painting on the ceiling needs to be done. I'm damn lucky nothing worse was damaged, as most of it came down in hallways or in the bathroom. But it was still an incredibly stressful experience.

Those were the downs, but there were a few ups as well. I managed to watch a very impressive 10 minutes of fireworks down in the inner-harbour on Canada day (perhaps not quite impressive enough to justify three hours of waiting, but oh well). I also managed to finish the story I was working on for Steevo's super-short fic compilation, which I am very happy about. I may submit it to a few other places as well, perhaps Weaponizer or some such. We shall see.

You can read it on my website, if you are so inclined.

I also hung out with Neil Gaiman in Turntable.fm late last night. That was a very cool experience. There were only maybe 15 people in there at the time. I've avoided the subsequent broadcasts he's done, as there's generally a few hundred people in the room mere minutes after it's announcement on twitter. But that initial broadcast was a lot of fun.

How are you going to spend the rest of the year?

Over the next few months I shall be job hunting, due to me graduating recently (though I still need to finish my resume, something I have been very lax about). Hopefully I'll be able to land a gig at a game company that makes games I like, though I may have to work my way up.

In the mean time, I'm working on a game with a few other recent or upcoming graduates from my school. We've only got a few more weeks before we hit alpha, which is super awesome. Even if this project ends up making no money, I've learned so much about programming, working with other people, and programming with other people, that I could never imagine not doing it. It's also really reinforcing that this is the right career for me. I really love doing this type of work.

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city creed — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:47:26 -0700

Well, thanks for building this space and jamming it full of such lovely, gifted, insane people Warren. You do know some interesting folk.
Best wishes and luck for all your future projects, though I can't help thinking: One does not simply walk out of Whitechapel...

This week, I went back into a kitchen with a white jacket on, which gets easier the further I get away from the old chef me.
Hayfever kicked in and my eyes are two swollen fleshy puffballs of hate. The sun shines on Glasgow with fierce disapproval.

This year, in September, I start honours - Literature and Informatics - I better come clean now and say I'm going to be using Spirit Tracks as a reference in negotiations on my thesis subject. Exactly where that will lead for me, I'm not sure, but I have some tall ideas.

One of the strongest themes that has emerged here over the last few years is the way we have seen creators developing their skills and confidence, growing in consciousness and ability, levelling up. This is a large part of whitechapel's unarguable inspiration payload I reckon.
It is maybe less often mentioned how Warren's own work is evolving. Comics Writer has been a hopelessly insufficent description for a while but Internet Jesus doesn't really cover it either anymore, does it? --Mr Ellis sir, I am very very glad that you are out there somewhere battling crap visions of the future, cussing down auditoriums full of blithe technocrats and insisting that tech belong first to the people who use it. If the curtain falling on freakangels means more of your fearsome energy and attention available for that sort of thing, then I am properly excited.

Go loud.

Edited to add a pic, since it's the end of the world and everything:

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Will Couper — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:01:33 -0700

*salutes* The internet isn't going to be the same without a Warren Ellis forum somewhere on it.

This week I have been mostly not sleeping. Yesterday I assisted in presiding over Frank Quitely's signing in Plan B Books in Glasgow. This unfortunately coincided with the biggest orange march of the year. It made things interesting.

For the rest of the year I will do what I always do: write and wait and hope to find an artist for comic projects.

Will

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Paprika — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:19:34 -0700

Thanks to Warren I now know how to buy my daughter a pony, I think.

I'm not sure its going to be the same without Warren poking at stuff but I'm sticking round to see how the new poking goes.

For the rest of the year I will be growing mushrooms, signing off a transmedia game, lifting heavy weights while shouting to Norse Gods and doing some colouring in.

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MagicSword! — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:41:07 -0700

Dear Boss Ellis, just keep on ingesting, imbibing and inhaling whatever it is that allows you to do the things you do and keep inspiring the fuck out of everyone. Thanks for being part of starting the only forum I've ever known that didn't make me want to break things after a couple of months of membership.

It's a balmy Sunday night in Sapporo Japan and I'm full to bursting with meat, beer and Street Fighter 4 for the iPhone. That's not too bad.

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Oxbrow — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:51:41 -0700

Thanks to Warren for bringing this together, as well as for about a thousand pages of webcomic. Hope you'll look in from time to time.

This place got me drawing again on a weekly as opposed to blue-moon-ly basis, and if my drawing itself hasn't improved at least my colouring has...

That's me on the left.

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government spy — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 05:40:17 -0700

I'm at work this morning, on the winning end of insomnia week...

Definitely feels like things are changing here. People have that "end of summer camp/tearful goodbye" feeling. Enough of us will stay here, methinks, and remain cohesive. But it wont be the same without the boss.

Actually having people over later this evening for grilling meat & drinking beer, not intending to coincide with the American Independence Day, more of a have cash & food & beer..

Came home from buying groceries & cute upstairs neighbor girl had some hipster dude in her front door refusing to leave. I asked her if she needed help, and she said she was fine, shortly afterward heard the door slamming, and screaming so I made a second appearance, just looked at the guy, and he left. Neighbor girl is happy to have a big guy like me living downstairs. Felt like I did the right thing without being intrusive; apparently he had not put his hands on her, but he did force his way inside. Time to go, buddy.

On the end of FA, it's been an honor being here. Cheers, boss.

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Finagle — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:07:37 -0700

It has been fun, Mr. Ellis. WC's been there for me through some tough times. You've done well at building a community.

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CaratheWalton — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:57:36 -0700

Ah Mr. Ellis

Thank you for the opportunity to correspond with everyone here on WhiteChapel. My visitations to this site got me off my butt at times and gave me encouragement. I have taken up photography again because of this site and the community has provided a great area to vent and get support when needed.

Since I've finished Grad school, over the next year I'm going to try to rework my lessons for school and hopefully lose that other 30-50 lbs I want to lose. I've lost about 47 in the past year and I'm so close to the 50 mark that I can almost taste it . . . so to speak.

Best of luck to you and I shall miss your musings here.

-Cara

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Kay Orchison — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:00:52 -0700

Already posted about my day on another thread, but suffice to say it was pretty fine. Fixed broken things, made new things, planned art, ate good curry with my Mum, made the kids laugh before bed.

Raising a glass to Mr Ellis now as Australia runs out of Saturday. Will say this before you go, Warren - the FreakAngels format worked. The regularity, scale, availability of hard copies, clearly defined story arc, it has been the best webcomic on the planet for the life if its run.

Just so you've heard it in so many words.

This place also works. I'll be staying on.

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rickiep00h — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:05:00 -0700

Let's see if can get in under the gun on this one.

First, since this has become a Eulogy for the Soon-to-be Departed, the following things are all directly related to my time at Whitechapel:

1. I've internet-met quite a few people that I would call friends. I don't know they'd say it back in return, but oh well.
2. I've been turned on to countless bands, musicians, writers, and artists of every sort. Even a short list would be fucking boring to read through, but it's a number of highly talented, highly skilled, and highly trained ninjas.
3. Avatar (by way of WC, of course) finally gave me an offer I couldn't refuse and got me to go to my first large-scale con, where I met Ben Templesmith, Jonathan Hickman, Mike Wolfer, Ryan Kelly (and, I suppose, William and the rest of the Avatar crew at C2E2 2010). They are all super cool, super nice, and snappy dressers. Especially Ben.
4. I've started taking photography, writing, design, and architecture seriously. I don't know that the first two are going to be paths of fame or fortune, but I just got accepted into the interior design program at my local four-year. So hopefully that will get me somewhere.
5. My mind has officially been expanded. I may still be a stupid, indignant twat, but at least there are Important Things in my brain.

This is a short list, and properly vague, but let's just say that without WC, my life would have been very different indeed. There's going to be a giant "BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW"-sized hole where Warren's ire used to be. (I have a strange feeling Si's reign will be slightly less terror-inducing, but that remains to be seen.) I may not have met my spouse here, or launched an amazing career here, but Whitechapel is very much a part of who am and what I've become as I claw my way toward 30.

I'll try to keep up through RSS and your now-sporadic comics work, and I'm really looking forward to this new digital thing you're planning. I will always thoroughly enjoy your essays and prose, and I'm looking forward to Do Anything 2 (if that's still on the plate), the next novel(s), and whatever else your brainloins give birth to.

As for me? Well, I still look the same as I did three years ago when I started my account, a few new grey hairs aside. I have the standard "several projects at various levels of completion" going right now. My life has been, relatively speaking, fairly stable since WC came along (moving halfway across the country notwithstanding). My outlook and all that hasn't appreciably changed since last week, and with no amazing news to report, I'm out of here for the week.

Goodbye, Mr. Ellis. Don't be a stranger, though.

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Rachæl Tyrell — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:06:34 -0700

Dear Sir:

Your online presence has, in many ways, and many times, literally changed the course of my life. I thank you.

It is nearly 10am, and I've finally retired to bed. I've just, for the first time, been the sober "older and experienced" person overseeing two friends endure a psychedelic experience, one of whom was tripping for the very first time. All evening a storm slowly mounted, shifting the barometric pressure, igniting the fire at the back of my skull from the brain swelling. Strangely, the pain at the back of my head (combined with my own psychosomatic ability to induce a certain degree of that trippy-taste at the back of the tongue) resulted in my being even MORE able than usual to practically trip along side them. I'm not amazingly well traveled in psychedelics compared to others I've met, but they always felt rather comfortable to me (sans the strychnine). Being so often forced to deal with significant pain, I think, has also given me the ability to endure the brain agony through clinging to the delirium effect. That, and... well, it's rather enjoyable for two friends to be referring to you as a Fox Spirit all evening. Also, I am slightly crazy.

I really would rather hang out with abstract and odd tripping people than too-drunk people, I think.

I'm pretty wacky right now.

I've my SSDI hearing in a few days. I'm terrified.

I'm also a dirty smoker again. And I've run out of cigarettes.

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Warped Savant — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:26:02 -0700

Hello there, Warren. It's been great having you in the helm of this little corner of the internet. Although you don't own it, you're the reason that I started coming to this forum. I can honestly say it's the one that I've been on the longest and, although I don't say much on here, it's still the one that I've been the most active on. I, like others, hope that you stick around and keep talking with us. Just 'cause you're not in charge doesn't mean you can't come and play...

As for other things now:
This week, at Razrangel's advice from last week, I've been lying on my beautiful, bordello red carpet and staring up at the ceiling while listening to random 78's on my 1916 wind-up record player. (No, not a gramophone. It's a stand up Sonora that looks like this.) It's been a pretty awesome week. There's been a few problems with my new house, but nothing that my father and I can't fix. I think we might start having an actual father/son relationship now, which is pretty big for us. We've never really seen eye to eye growing up, we started to a few years ago when we went to Peru and hiked to Machu Piccu but we've never really done anything together since. It's kind of sad, really.

With that all being said, I'm going to go back to lying on my floor starting at my wooden ceiling.

Cheers.

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snafu — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:12:07 -0700

Man I almost missed it. Glad I checked in this morning. Mr. Ellis, your presence will be sorely missed on this board. But I will continue to hunt down your writing. In the past 2 years I have almost completely stopped buying and reading comics. I still search out your work and read it and will continue to do so. It was easy when you were regularly telling us what was coming up. You also pointed to to some other great books that I have enjoyed. I need to find a new pusher.

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CrusherJoe — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:25:51 -0700

Under the gun too, as it's Sunday morning here.

I lurk far more than I should, but I want to thank you for spearheading the only genre based forum I've found that doesn't assault me with negativity. Trying to remove as much of that from my life as I can, and coming here to read people talking about the things we love helps with that.

What did I do this week? Worked, which included leading the Ghost Walk and the Hollywood Tour of downtown Wilmington, NC. The first one is difficult for a skeptic, but I try to make it fun, although tips have been slow. The second is more fun, but the kids who want to see nothing but One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek locations make me weary. Does no one want to see Dean Stockwell's brothel from Blue Velvet? Apparently not.

The rest of this year means hopefully finishing my first screenplay, and finding a way to mount a production of Bogosian's TALK RADIO, bowing in 2012 (fingers crossed).

Please don't be a stranger. This WAS very much your forum no matter what the original intent, and I hope you pop in a bit, as I don't think it would be inappropriate.

I will continue to look at anything with your name on it, Sir.

And thank you for Planetary.

Here's me at the Ghost Walk if I can upload this correctly.

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Sobreiro — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:26:38 -0700

Boss, have a final RR thread for old time's sake! And bon voyage onto the future.

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Ricochet — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:53:56 -0700

For me Whitechapel was where I first started to really interact with the internet in any real way.
Sure, I used email and I searched for things but until Whitechapel I never really engaged.
Here I've met amazing people, been introduced to stunning art and music, learned to read again just for the pure enjoyment of it, been able to ask questions of artists and performers and people of all kinds without fear of being dismissed or condescended to, read some of the most heart-breakingly honest stories, been inspired to try things and think things I'd have never thought to otherwise, felt included and never been bored.
For sharing your lives and your interests with me and letting me share mine, I thank every single person on Whitechapel.

Warren, thank you for letting me know this sort of world is out here and I love that I stumbled onto it because I was following the worlds you showed me in your writing.
I think the biggest thing I take away from your benevolent dictatorship is that the world is a more interesting place when people get excited about making or learning things and then share that passion and its products with others.
That and to never click on something when you say not to click on it. Ever.

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Henchbot — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:59:01 -0700

The Age of Men has ended, it is over. Enter Godamned Bat Spermioso and his orcs.
Miss the shit out of you Warren, it just aint the same.......

fuck.

Is there a WC refugee camp anywhere?????

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Alastair — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:42:41 -0700

Gah, this place made me a better person. thank you. its been fun.

goodnight

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warrenellis — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:28:39 -0700