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In the explosive espionage-thriller RED, Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner create a stark tale of revenge, as retired CIA killer Paul Moses finds himself forced back into the game to gain revenge on the agency that trained him.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

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About the author

Warren Ellis

2,128 books5,726 followers
Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.

The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.

He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.

Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.

A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.

Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.

Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.

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953 (37%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
Profile Image for Anne.
4,247 reviews70k followers
July 7, 2023
A very compact story about a retired CIA agent, Paul Moses, who has done some awful shit in service to his country. And now, in an effort to erase the past, a new director puts out a kill order on him.
Of course, he manages to escape. And then proceeds to kill everyone he encounters with almost supernatural ninja assassin abilities as he enacts his revenge.

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For me, it wasn't so much his fighting ability (although, that was fun), it was the unflinching look Ellis took at the way we tend to want to sugarcoat how wars are won and peace is kept.
Moses is a monster but he was a monster of our making, and he was willing to accept the burden.
Unfortunately for the new director, he was not willing to be swept under the rug.

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I can't stress how short (3 issues) this is, so if you're looking for some kind of character exploration, you'll want to look elsewhere.
Also, this is nothing like the movie R.E.D with Bruce Willis, which is ironically how I stumbled across the comic to start with (thanks, Chad!), so you need to adjust your expectations if you think you're going to get a funny story about an old agent and his friends taking out the bad guys. Not here. Not at all.

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But if you enjoy blood, gore, and morally ambiguous characters then you should be good.
Recommended.
Profile Image for Lost Planet Airman.
1,251 reviews86 followers
September 8, 2021
So much more satisfying than the Bruce Willis motion picture franchise. Here, retired, extremely dangerous Paul Moses has nothing of Bruce Willis' amiable good nature; he has instead a palpable regret thinly layered over a cold implacability. An excellent character study on several levels.
Profile Image for Scott.
1,915 reviews215 followers
August 9, 2018
Paul Moses, a former 'wet boy' (assassin-agent for the CIA), has been retired for years and is living a quiet life on a country estate. Beesley, the agency's latest bureaucrat director, decides Moses is too dangerous to be walking the earth and orders his immediate death -- that was the first mistake. A competent but inexperienced young team is sent to do the job -- that was the next mistake. Beesley thinks his headquarters will be impenetrable if guarded by a heavily armed force -- that was the last mistake he'll ever make. As Toby Keith warbled "This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage."

The hyper-violent RED (which I thought was an acronym for 'Retired, Extremely Dangerous,' but that's not used here) was the basis for the 2011 action-comedy film with Bruce Willis and a great all-star supporting cast. However, this original incarnation is a bloody, sadistic little number (only 70-odd pages) that pares down the characters but increases the body count. Not for the squeamish or easily offended, as this is a story with a cynical heartbeat and a consistent mean streak.
Profile Image for Andrew.
2,303 reviews
May 6, 2018
Okay I will admit that I was led to this from the two films which I thoroughly enjoyed. I sort of knew they were taken from a comic book I just didn't know much more than that.

Well now I do

first of all it was a limited run so it is quite interesting to see two films and a suggested TV series coming off the back of such little source material.

The second fact was that it was from the pen of Warren Ellis who I seemed to have been inadvertently following recently. Honest I was not planning it that way and I will say as much in court.

But what of the book - well it is only really tenuously linked to the films and that is no spoiler. Also the level of violence is totally poles apart which for Warren Ellis and his work is not surprising but again considering the approach of the film quite a surprise.

But what of the story - its pretty straight forward which you would expect since it was a limited run but at the same time quite insightful in to both the genesis of the film and reflection of MR Ellis's back catalogue (Punisher anyone?).

So what do I think - an interesting read and one to add to the Warren Ellis pile rather than the film tie in. IT was fun while it lasted but once its done its done I guess
Profile Image for Eternauta.
248 reviews14 followers
March 22, 2021
Αναρωτιέται κανείς γιατί ένα ταλέντο που κατόρθωσε να δημιουργήσει το αριστουργηματικό Transmetropolitan θα υπέγραφε ποτέ μια τέτοια σαχλαμάρα. Κι όμως αυτού του είδους τα ανούσια stories με ανεγκέφαλους εκτελεστές της CIA που στρέφονται ενάντια στους εντολοδόχους τους όταν συνειδητοποιούν ότι "η Αμερική δεν είναι η χώρα που κάποτε ήταν" ή (παραλλαγή) ότι "παλιά οι άντρες φορούσαν παντελόνια", μπορούν να φτάσουν μέχρι και τις κινηματογραφικές αίθουσες αποδίδοντας διόλου ευκαταφρόνητα royalties για δουλειά ενός μήνα με το ζόρι.
Παρεμπιπτόντως, στον post-Trump κόσμο είναι ενδιαφέρον να βλέπει κανείς το είδος των cultural rubbish που τροφοδότησαν (ενδεχομένως άθελά τους) το alt-right.
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,626 reviews13.1k followers
September 18, 2011
A retired CIA operative called Paul Moses is suddenly being targeted by a new CIA director for the things he did in his past. He suddenly finds himself fending off assassins as he goes from retired (Green) to active (Red).

The fantastic Warren Ellis does a tremendous job of writing an enthralling revenge tale. Moses shows that despite being old that he is far from useless as he kills his way to the top to take down the CIA Director who ordered his retirement be called off.

It's a very short read as it was only a 3 issue run originally but even so you can see why Hollywood read it and thought there was a film there. In the book it's just one retired hitman Paul Moses (Bruce Willis in the film) but in the movie there's a whole team. The book does a far more compelling job of telling the revenge story and does it in style with Cully Hamner's excellent art. With Hamner's work you feel the bullet snap back the head as it hits, his work is tremendous.

A great comic book from Ellis and Hamner and a great read. Better than the film and one of Ellis' best, highly recommended.
Profile Image for Andy.
1,194 reviews90 followers
January 17, 2020
Die Verfilmung ist Längen besser, dass man gar nicht mehr von einer Verfilmung reden kann, sondern eher von einer Inspiration.
Profile Image for Lolly's Library.
318 reviews96 followers
July 3, 2017
Short, violent and to the point. Not much character development and what story there is serves only to move the action along, nothing more. For those looking to expand on their movie experience, move along, there's nothing to see here. In fact, it was the movie which expanded on the book, which only focuses on the tale of Paul Moses and his reactivation to the world of assassination. Other than that, the layout is crisp and focused, and the animation is vivid and well-done. I would say not much bang for your buck with this slim novel, but with the number of gunshots portrayed in the story, I'd be lying. I will say, unless you intend to pass this book among your friends to share its value, get it from the library first and then decide if you'd like to add it to your permanent collection.
Profile Image for Bry.
635 reviews96 followers
September 11, 2012
Not what I was expecting I'll admit, but come on?! Where was Helen in the ball gown with the machine gun??

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I guess I was just expecting the movie that I saw to be a bit more in line with this since this is the original story....I know, I know what the hell was I thinking. Since when are movies all that faithful to their books?

The story focuses only on Paul Moses - no geriatric sidekicks for him this time round - as he is sucked from his retirement when the CIA suddenly wants their golden boy of yesteryear unable to spill any of his past deeds.

I liked the story (even without Helen's character) but it got pretty preachy. It also subtly hinted blatantly accused the CIA or assassinating JKF and MLK Jr. among others. But the preachy-ness does really help to characterize Mr. Moses and gives him a lot more depth and emotion than you would expect a man who has been murdering people for the last 40 years would have.
79 reviews
December 26, 2010
Quite enjoyed the movie, and as a result tried the graphic novel (maybe that was my mistake - the movie caused some preconceptions in my head). Was to say the least quite dissapointed. Firstly, it appeared to be a slightly thinner than normal graphic novel, but not too bad. Until i found that the actual graphic novel was less than half the content of the book! Storyboard sketches etc made up most of the book! What ended up in the movie, was pretty much "inspired" by the book, but if a direct comparison had to be done, i would estimate that the movie contains about 20% material from the book, 80% newly written material (if the book had to be filmed "as is", it would result in a 15 to 20 minute shortfilm). And the irony is that the "newly written" material (and characters) is what made the movie for me.
Profile Image for David Dalton.
2,593 reviews
December 27, 2016
I liked this very much. Only complaint? It was too short. Different from the movie as this story was only about Frank. The movie did incorporate elements from this story and expanded on those elements. This Frank is a stone killer, but like the movie version, he JUST wanted to be left alone. I would have loved to have seen this 3 part story arc extended to five or six parts. It was really pretty straight to the point. So do not expect the movie version of Frank, but this is the story that laid the foundation for who Frank Moses is/was.
Profile Image for Gavin.
1,216 reviews89 followers
February 9, 2014
Nice to see when a short little story gets done by a writer who isn't going to compromise or flinch. Too many would take this story and do what Hollywood did to it (in fact, so different to the book, there's no humour in Paul Moses at all, there's no sidekicks, just one pissed off man.)
The art is brutal, in a good way, just strong colours, red obviously being the base, and a lot of bullet motion, heads snapping back, and angry man face.
Also nice that Ellis didn't take an idea and try to stretch it out for more issues, because it keeps it pure and visceral.

My edition had Tokyo Storm on the reverse pages, and that book was terrible. God was it the polar opposite to this...
Profile Image for Mitchel Broussard.
243 reviews245 followers
October 12, 2010
Fleshed out, it could achieve greatness. However, what we get is a 70 page splatter fest of a wholly unlikeable old guy killing mostly-innocent people for the mere fact that they kinda made him angry. Thank god it seems the movie is adding a cast of diverse characters, and Bruce Willis seems to be bringing comedy into it. Because this was way too serious and way too short to be anything enjoyable. If a 90 minute movie can pull off a solid action movie out of this material, I think congratulations will be in order.
Profile Image for George K..
2,559 reviews345 followers
March 20, 2015
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι ενθουσιάστηκα, από την άλλη όμως σίγουρα δεν απογοητεύτηκα. Αρχικά να πω ότι το αγόρασα με 2-3 ευρώ από παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο, οπότε και χάλια να ήταν, μικρό το κακό. Έτυχε να δω πρώτα την ταινία, η οποία είναι σαφώς ανώτερη, οπότε ήξερα τι να περιμένω από σεναριακής απόψεως. Σαν κόμικ είναι ελλιπές, χρειαζόταν μεγαλύτερο χώρο για να αναπτυχθεί καλύτερα η ιστορία του και να μην υπάρχουν κενά, γι'αυτό ίσως παίρνει και γενικά μέτριες κριτικές. Από κει και πέρα το σχέδιο μου φάνηκε ωραίο, με κάποιες καλές σπλάτερ σκηνές. Και, όντως, με το ζόρι 20 λεπτά κρατάει η ανάγνωσή του!
Profile Image for Stephen.
847 reviews14 followers
November 16, 2010
A dick sandwich. Avoid. You get about $3.00 worth of ideas and stories in this piece 'o shit GN, but you have to pay $15 for it. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. I strongly advise all potential purchasers to spend their hard-earned money on something else. This is not a worthwhile read, and the art is far below expectations.
Profile Image for Artemy.
1,045 reviews960 followers
December 24, 2015
I've never seen the movie (and I don't intend to), but this comic is very cool. Violent, gritty revenge tale. A very short read. Nice artwork. You should probably read it.
76 reviews
April 25, 2020
Es una maravilla de narrativa económica, concisa y contundente. Cuando el nuevo director de la CIA toma su cargo, le muestran una película sobre el trabajo de Paul Moses, agente retirado que por sí solo ha cometido más asesinatos políticos y golpes de estado que nadie en nombre de su país. Horrorizado, decide que dejarlo con vida representa un riesgo de que el público conozca las actividades que desempeñó y prefiere mandarlo a matar, iniciando una guerra de un hombre contra la Compañía. Brutal y violento, este breve comic reflexiona sobre lo que significa “ser un hombre” y cómo ésto ha cambiado con el tiempo. Warren Ellis nos da un guión a la vez sencillo y pulido, mientras que el arte de Cully Hamner es limpio y claro, con mucho dinamismo. La película que hicieron inspirada en este comic tiene un tono diametralmente opueso (la vuelven una especie de comedia romántica) y es su propia cosa, pero ambas versiones de esta historia son igualmente buenas.
Profile Image for MasterGamgee.
1,431 reviews22 followers
December 28, 2023
This was an OK read. I think I was expecting something else with the story. It was very thin - most the comic was advertisements for other comics - and the whole story line felt like it just skimmed the top of the situation/people/emotions.

I also have to admit that I got these because I really enjoyed both the movies. An aside - beats me how the writers got anything so interesting from this comic to be able to create two movies.

Anyway, glad I read it but it is not a keeper for me.
Profile Image for Kk.
1,816 reviews14 followers
February 26, 2021
I am such a fan of the movies..

During the end of scenes, you would see flashes of comic pages which added a cool layer to a fun movie. When I found it through my library, I was just over the moon!

There are differences..Like its Paul Moses instead of Frank. The thrumbsucker in question who tagged him was the new Director rather than some cube drone. This work centers around the first oh, 20 mins of the film...minus MLP. Moses got the kill squad sent to "retire" him. Then he goes to DC to find out why...
Profile Image for Howard.
267 reviews9 followers
September 18, 2022
Complete edition of the graphic novel Red that the Bruce Willis movie was based on. The movie was a star turn for Willis' wise cracking persona and the other stars. This is NOT that movie. The protagonist is rightly described as a monster that is let loose after retiring by a new CIA administration deciding it was better if he was killed.
Profile Image for Luke Kondor.
Author 56 books71 followers
February 26, 2018
A quick bish bash bosh of a read. Quick and dirty and full of violence.
Profile Image for Macky Santiago.
Author 3 books70 followers
January 20, 2020
Wild

Certainly a more violent and grittier story than the movies. Darker. But 100% fun anyways. let sleeping dragons lie. Or they paint the town red.
Profile Image for itchy.
2,176 reviews29 followers
May 29, 2021
Nuts! Langley's closet skeleton opened a can of whup-ass on them. Or maybe Pandora's Box is more apt.
Profile Image for Scott Firestone.
Author 2 books19 followers
November 12, 2020
I came to Red the graphic novel via Red the movie. Red the graphic novel is an okay, rather pedestrian book about a man who wanted to retire from his life as a government agent but gets violently pulled back in. I can't believe someone wanted to make a movie out of it--especially because the movie is so different from the book, and SO MUCH BETTER. The movie is on my short list of underrated gems. I love the characters. I love the story. I love the action. And it's so very funny. Every single change from the book to the movie was for the better. So give this a miss, and you won't actually miss anything. But if you haven't seen the movie, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Profile Image for Fila Trece (Liantener).
1,155 reviews25 followers
January 25, 2021
Estas historias del asesino imparable al que provocan y "despiertan de su letargo" me fascinan. Tendía que hacer memoria para saber cuáles son las primeras, pero ya desde aquella película de los noventas con Stallone y Banderas escuchamos sobre esto. Ahora tenemos a John Wick, a Will Smith y a Bruce Willis en ello.
La película de Willis está basada en este comic y me gustó, así que me animé a leerlo. Y la verdad es que el comic es mejor. Carece de toda la parte cómica, y muchos de los personajes ni existen, pero si tiene ese sentimiento del "asesino imparable con el que nunca debiste meterte" tan atractivo. Digamos que el comic tiene que ver más con John Wick que con la película "Red".
Es demasiado corto para mi gusto, me habría gustado disfrutar más el desarrollo de los eventos y de las reflexiones del protagonista, pues las cosas se suceden muy rápido.
Si les gustó la película por las bromas quizá no les guste, pero creo que cualquier fan de historias de asesinos entrenados encontrará algo que disfrutar de "RED"
Profile Image for gremlinkitten.
449 reviews104 followers
June 2, 2011
Judging by thickness of the book, I thought there might be more story than there ended up being (74 pages, the rest sketches and the script). While the plot was decent, it seemed more like a prelude than a finished story. Though it had a beginning and middle, there was no end, just another beginning. I would have liked more. The artwork serves the story well and I had no trouble following the layout, though it is the color schemes that stood out to me. They were fantastic. From the subdued blues of darkened rooms to the sunnier colors when Paul is having a more carefree moment, they really brought the panels to life. Overall, a fine story but not something I'd care to read again.

This might just be me, but every time the C.I.A. Director, Michael Beesely, popped up, I thought "Principal Flutie!" (Ken Lerner) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. :D
Profile Image for Martina Urbanová.
Author 3 books71 followers
November 16, 2019
Myslím, že podobne ako mnohí iní ľudia, aj ja som sa k tomuto komiksu dostala sprostredkovane a len preto, že sa mi nesmierne páčili filmy, ktoré boli voľne inšpirované práve týmto kratučkým príbehom. Osobne som fascinovaná tým, ako filmoví tvorcovia tento príbeh celý od základu prepracovali a rozšírili o ďalšie fascinujúce postavy. Čo sa týka komiksu, dosť ma bavil, bol taký temný a hrozne strohý, ale zase ako taká úderná jednohubka sa hodil.
Profile Image for Mike.
1,524 reviews145 followers
December 14, 2012
Just a blast to read. A short, sharp, focused little tale that takes its premise directly to its logical conclusion. Glad this was there for the movie to leapfrog off, but more serious than the movie by far.
Profile Image for Gert.
71 reviews23 followers
February 20, 2015
RED is a short story comic about a retired agent. I'd read the book before the movie and it was a great and fun little thing.
Don't, however, go in with the movie in mind. You will be sorely disappointed and unable to appreciate the simple elegance.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews

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