Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Transmetropolitan #1: Back on the Street

I had never heard of this series, and before reading Nextwave had never really thought to look into the work of Warren Ellis.  That's changed now.  Spin Magazine describes this series as follows:
...a comic book series that follows the smart-mouthed, heavily-armed, perpetually smoking journalist Spider Jerusalem, who lives in a future so grimy and chaotic it could be the present - except for the aliens.  Outfitted with water-waling Air Jesus sneakers and snacking on caribou eyes from the local Eskimo fast-food place, Spider tries to make sense of a city where a new religion starts every hour and "buy-bombs" upload advertisements into people's dreams.  Transmetropolitan is brilliant future-shock commentary.
In a world like the one that Ellis has created words are weapons - literally, as Spider is able to diffuse a riot and save lives by, essentially, live-blogging the truth about it to the population, forcing the police to retreat.  Smartly, this first book is essentially designed to merely be an introduction to Spider and the world of the book - it doesn't try to tackle a major storyline, but finds clever ways of introducing how this world works to us, and more importantly, why it needs someone as messed up as Spider.  My new comic-hook-up has saddled me with the entire run of this series so I imagine that I'll be burning through them rather quickly.  Although I may take a break in the middle to read a book I just picked up from the library (I FINALLY got a library card - how 1980 of me!). 
So for anyone who likes to question the establishment, religion, politics, television, or just pop culture and modern life in general, this book is probably for you. 
Transmetropolitan Vol. 01: Back on the Street

No comments: