Warren Ellis is a writer I have mixed feelings about. On a good day, he can turn a sharp concept into an elegantly written comic, odds are featuring a protagonist who has a more than passing familiarity with one or more countercultures, and deals with the ills of the world partly through sharp dialogue expressing a cynical cosmology. On the other hand…well, just take a look at how much Ellis writes, and tell me how he can possibly hope to maintain consistent quality.

No surprise then, that I’m pretty fussy when it comes to investing in Ellis. I thoroughly enjoyed most of Global Frequency, a 12 issue series that ended up giving rise to a stillborn tv pilot, and have picked up a few other titles over time, particularly enjoying Frank Ironwine, his one-off collaboration with artist Carla Speed McNeil. Frank Ironwine was Ellis’s indie comic riff on the tv detective show, and he seemed to enjoy writing it more than some of the projects he takes on for Marvel.

Three years ago, Ellis returned to the world of the detective in his series Fell, created in a new format for Image. The slimline format has fewer story pages than regular comics (making up for that deficiency with what Ellis calls ‘backmatter’, which serves the function of DVD extras) and is a dollar cheaper, the idea being to give readers a good slab of pop culture for a low entry fee. Also, the stories are self-contained, an approach which usefully contrasts with the nonsensical degree to which Marvel and DC comics need readers to have an exhaustive knowledge of not only the comic they’ve just bought, but maybe half a dozen or so which overlap with it.

Detective protagonist Richard Fell has newly been transferred to Snowtown from across the bridge, where a more civilised existence can be led. Here in Snowtown, smog and murder are the order of the day, and both are ably depicted in the art of Ben Templesmith. Sketchy, vague in detail but clear in feel, Templesmith’s art perfectly captures the confused and messy sense of life in this urban sprawl, and confirms once again Ellis’s flair for bringing out his artists’ strengths.

Fell is a sharp cookie, and needs his smarts to get by in Snowtown. Even friendly faces can mask danger: his developing relationship with the young woman who tends the local bar leads to her branding him on the neck. Their gradual intimacy is skilfully depicted, each issue moving Richard and Mayko’s story forward while concentrating on another dismal crime: their first date turns into a case that Mayko assists Richard to investigate.

The crimes themselves are drawn from less savoury headlines across the world, and if you’re familiar with Ellis’s online presence you’ll have a good idea of what to expect: this is a man who turns his ongoing research into a promotional exercise. What he does with that research is what matters, and in Fell he’s created a world in which his seedy fascinations make some kind of sense. Besides, the plotting is always good for a few surprises, and the dialogue is lean and distinctive.

What Ellis has done in Fell is to create a comic that can be easily appreciated by fans of detective fiction in prose or screen form. If you liked Se7en, if you’ve enjoyed Joseph Wambaugh, if you’re into Homicide, then this is a comic you can relate to. I tend not to read individual issues, so this review is based on Feral City, the first volume in the series, containing the first eight comics but none of the backmatter.