Where to start? Warren Ellis really needs no introduction, especially not from someone who was still learning to read when he was already helping to shape the future of graphic novels.

He's written for both Marvel and DC Comics including work on Ultimate Fantastic Four and Iron Man. He penned Transmetropolitan, a graphic novel set in a dystopian future, as well as writing columns for everyone from Suicide Girls to Reuters. His new novel, Gun Machine is a New York Times bestseller and is already being developed for television by Chernin Entertainment and FOX. His first non-fiction book, from FSG, is due in 2014. RED 2, the sequel to the Bruce Willis-Helen Mirren film RED based on his book of the same name, will be released in August 2013.

Katie Antoniou: You started writing Transmetropolitan back in the late 90s, and while all of it was sharply satirical, some of it has turned out to be quite prophetic; for example you wrote about a world where a journalist could have an automatic camera and voice recorder built into his sunglasses- that seems to have predicted the smartphone revolution. How do you feel about the personal technology trend?

Warren Ellis: I don't know that I predicted anything. It was all on the cards. The personal technology field is a constant, mild disappointment to me, to be honest. Things there are never as interesting as they could be. And I say that as someone who lives with a phone in their hand. Human nature tends to mitigate against seeing the present day in its full glory, but I still feel like every device I see and use has either been intentionally crippled in some way or is leading down a cul-de-sac of uselessness. (Read Warren's thoughts on Google Glass here).

KA: The Guardian said 'Technology is utilised in a way that occasionally makes Gun Machine read like an issue of Wired magazine with action scenes.' What are your predictions for the Next Big Thing in the world of technology?

WE: Never, ever do predictions. It's a mug's game.

KA: There seem to be some parallels between your portrayals of the Presidents in Transmet and the corrupt, amoral, politicians in shows like The Wire and The Thick of It. Your portrayals were hyperbolic in the extreme and yet they bear comparison to the politicians in these other shows that make a viable claim to verisimilitude. Do you think people are more interested in portrayals of the political system on TV these days than they are in actually voting?

WE:The viewership figures of THE WIRE would tend to give the lie to that. Haven't heard much about this remake of YES, PRIME MINISTER, either. Right now, the atmosphere is more politically charged than it's been in fifteen or twenty years, but that's not saying a lot. A coalition government can either be a spur or a smothering blanket to the idea of voting -- in the next cycle, people may work harder to get the vote out and get people thinking about the nature of voting, or they may just assume that they'll end up with a bunch of mediocrities they didn't vote for no matter what happens. And, as far as American politics goes, I imagine TRANSMET looks rather tame compared to last year's parade of insanity over there.

KA: You've written a series with the wonderful artist Molly Crabapple; how does it work when you collaborate with an artist? Particularly when writing a graphic novel- do you and the artist work simultaneously? Together or separately?

WE: It most often starts with me writing something. Certainly in the case of ARIADNE with Molly, it started with me deciding to write something for her -- we'd vaguely talked about something, I think, but as I recall I kind of sprang that on her. It's a case of my studying someone's work and then writing something that I think best fits their skills. The way they draw is usually a big part of the inspiration: I don't like to write "blind," not knowing who's going to draw something.

KA: Similarly,what goes on when your work is turned into a movie? The 2010 film Red was based on your graphic novel- do you get any say in screenplay or casting?

WE: They buy the right to adapt, so in most cases I think it's better to actually let them exercise the right they bought. The level of involvement varies. I usually have a couple of notes on the screenplay, at least - I did on RED - mostly on the order of "I think you missed this bit, was that a deliberate choice?" My "William Gravel" graphic novels are currently in development at Legendary Pictures, and I have a deeper involvement there. But, on the whole, I believe that if I didn't want them to make the film they wanted to make, then I shouldn't have sold them the rights.

KA: The couple of times I've met you have been through mutual friends- firstly Katelan van Foisy then later Molly Crabapple who I mentioned before. Both these ladies are ridiculously talented and also pretty easy on the eye- which made me think of the comments Tony Harris made about 'quasi-pretty-not-hot-girls' invading Cosplay conventions. How do you feel about some comic book writers and artists getting indignant about women claiming their place in geek culture? If they're so threatened by girls in catsuits, why do they write and draw them like that?

WE: I was disgusted by that whole thing. It just came off as gynephobia to me, and adolescent male neurosis about women controlling access to sex. I'm not sure how small and ridiculous, as a man, you have to be, in order to see women celebrating the medium's creations as sexual taunting and threatening to your safe space. And I'm fairly sure I never want to find out why it's only okay, in their world, that men cosplay. Maybe I'm not supposed to get it.

See Warren speaking about Gun Machine at Foyles here. Buy the book here. 

Note from the editor: I'd like to thank my long suffering boyfriend Ibrahim Sha'ath for helping me with some of these questions as he'd read more of Warren's back catalogue than I have.