WARREN ELLIS is a graphic novelist and author of the NYT best-selling novel GUN MACHINE. His graphic novel GLOBAL FREQUENCY is being developed for television by Jerry Bruckheimer and FOX. He is the writer of the graphic novel RED, adapted into the film starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. His next book is NORMAL from FSG.

28. The Maiden

Published May 20, 2011 by Warren Ellis

Listen to what the ghosts are telling you.

A man called James Douglas gave the Maiden, an early form of guillotine, to the court of Mary Queen Of Scots in the 1500s. Legend has it that he was also the first person to be executed with it.

As a rule, Western societies tend to need people like you to give the concepts behind digital cities to them.