Bloody Good

Having worked on more than 50 graphic novels for Marvel, DC, and other big-league imprints and penning everything from screenplays to a weekly Web column for the punk-pinup SuicideGirls, Warren Ellis might be the busiest writer in pop entertainment you’ve never heard of — though that could change.

Fresh from San Diego’s Comic-Con International, the British enfant terrible comes to the Valley to promote his first novel, Crooked Little Vein. In it, Michael McGill (the classic burned-out private eye who — if God made Adam out of clay — was sculpted out of bourbon and eye boogers) ends up with a job of national importance: Find the real U.S. Constitution. You know, the secret one with the invisible amendments, bound in the skin of the extraterrestrial who so unwisely butt-fucked Benjamin Franklin.

Yes, that Constitution.

What’s more likely to increase Ellis’ recognition (or notoriety) is his upcoming comic series Black Summer. The premise: If superheroes are vigilantes who value order over law, what happens when the President himself is a villain — one who, say, starts an illegal war? If you’re superhero John Horus, you kill the President, consequences be damned (and they are many).

The signing marks Ellis’ only in-store appearance of 2007.