Comments on: Global Frequency

By: October 2012 Previews: A Small Month, Full of Reprints » Comics Worth Reading

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 02:47:40 +0000

[...] that the two previous collections of the 2002 anthology science fiction series are out of print, DC is sensibly bringing the series [...]

By: My Favorite Creative People This Year. | E.B. Lane

My Favorite Creative People This Year. | E.B. Lane — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:14:31 +0000

[...] I love his work on The Authority, but his unexpected takes on the art form are best displayed in Global Frequency and Planetary. Once you digest those, you’ll be ready for [...]

By: What Comic Would You Recommend to a Science Fiction Fan? » Comics Worth Reading

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:33:00 +0000

[...] suggestions are excellent), and Paul Cornell (Captain Britain). I’m sorry I forgot to mention Global Frequency, which is notable as time-capsule SF — it was so much of its time that now it’s like a [...]

By: What Is Your Geekiest Thing? » Comics Worth Reading

What Is Your Geekiest Thing? » Comics Worth Reading — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:20:04 +0000

[...] ringtone for my cellphone. It’s the sound used for the special phones on the unsuccessful Global Frequency TV pilot. I don’t think anyone but me recognizes it, but whenever my phone rings, I’m [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:21:40 +0000

Just watched the pilot -- good stuff! I was surprised at how big-budget it was. And how many cool roles for women! I liked seeing Josh Hopkins (Swingtown) in a different role, and I really liked the coin effect. I wish this had made it.

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » March 4, 2009: A better user experience

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:55:31 +0000

[...] [Review] Global Frequency Link: Johanna Draper Carlson [...]

By: Charles RB

Charles RB — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:43:29 +0000

You’ve inspired me to go re-read it now!

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:42:49 +0000

Dave: Gracious, you’re right! I thought Planetary must have come after GF since it’s still waiting to be finished. Turns out it started 3 years before. Thanks for the correction!

Catullus, great observation. Noah, thanks for the links. And Kelson, yes, I agree. The shootout issues were my least favorite.

By: Kelson

Kelson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:12:42 +0000

My favorites were “Invasive” and “Big Sky.” And probably “The Run” after that. I guess I preferred exploring the weird concept over using the concept to introduce a shootout.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:54:33 +0000

…but everyone in the stories was extremely good at whatever they were being called upon to do. Most of us in those situations couldn’t free-run across an entire city in twenty minutes or whatever, so the answer to that question would be “cry and get eaten by the threat.” It was a competence-fetish series. Nothing wrong with that.

By: catullus

catullus — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:00:56 +0000

Adventure anthology comics in the 1950s (“My Greatest Adventure,” “Tales to Astonish”) played heavily on the ways in which “everyman” (and then, not “everywoman”) would be thrust into a unique situation, and still prevail. The genius of Warren Ellis was to graft so much structure as was necessary to introduce contemporary everymen and everywomen (yeah, the 1001 were supposed to be unusual, but aren’t we all?)to situations where, well, just what would an ordinary person do?

By: stan rod

stan rod — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:56:15 +0000

The weakness of characters has always been Ellis’s main flaw. Has he ever written any other kind than a generic hyper-competent smartass jerk of a tough guy? I’m not even going to say “guy/gal” because all his women are just men who are drawn female.

By: Dave Snyder

Dave Snyder — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:29:19 +0000

Planetary would be the precursor to Global Frequency, wouldn’t it? It started years before.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:15:05 +0000

For me, the whole thing was, oddly enough, too sentimental. It’s a puzzle anthology, but the stories spent too much time trying to make us care about the done-in-one characters. Fun, though.

Michelle Forbes, the woman who played Admiral Cain on BSG, was Miranda Zero in the pilot–thought she did a good job.

By: Paul Sizer

Paul Sizer — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:53:05 +0000

This is one of my favorite books, not only for Ellis’ tight, quick-paced writing, but also for the slew of amazing art that graces the pages. Ellis is in full form here, and his idea-splosions never get in the way of a tight, solid story. The fact that a TV pilot was made of this, and then trashed, is very bizarre, and also fitting, as I think that something would get lost in the translation. Essential modern comics reading!

By: Noah

Noah — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:08:54 +0000

I LOVE Global Frequency! Good points on all counts, Johanna. But I’d add a few things I think are worth mentioning:

- Ellis hit on the idea of a tech-savvy “Smart Mob” before it became big: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_mob

- All of the covers are by Brian Wood, which necessarily makes them incredibly awesome.

- There was a pilot filmed for a Global Frequency tv show, but it wasn’t picked up. It was leaked onto Bittorrent in 2005. Wired wrote about it here:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2005/06/67986

The writer of the series, John Rogers (also behind the new awesome show, Leverage) had a bunch of blog posts about the show here:

http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/06/gf-storm-surge.html