You're a journalist named Spider Jerusalem. You've spent the last five years living on a mountain, spending the advance for your next two books on drugs and cable television. But now, flat broke and with things looking mighty bleak, you must venture down from the mountain and back into the city. But, while you're at it, why not whip out that rocket launcher, load it with a missle that says EAT ME, and blow up that nice little tavern you used to frequent.
So you go back to the city and go see your old friend Royce at THE WORD, where you used to work. Royce is the City Editor now and, with some persuasion, agress to give you your job back. Even sets you up with nice new living quarters. Nothing left to do now but score some Vasopressin, Guarana, Gingko Biloba and especially some intelligence enhancer and get to work.
By the way, you have now cleansed all the hair from your body, met your Godti101 Maker, and hooked yourself up with a pair of live shades. You have purchased a powerful bowel disruptor, have a two faced cat that smokes unfiltered black Russian cigarettes by the gross, crave monkey burgers and have just gotten a new assistant who used the money she made stripping to put herself through Journalism school. Together, you will set the world on it's ear, just as you did five years before. ALL IN ALL, IT'S A GOOD LIFE.
Welcome to the world of Spider Jerusalem. Welcome to Warren Ellis' TRANSMETROPOLITAN.
So you're the kind of guy who believes in questioning authority at all times. You like to raise a little hell while altering your mind with some highly toxic drugs. What do you do? Visit with the President, who happens to be at the urinal next to you, and turn your bowel disruptor on him. Yep: that'll definately leave a stain! What else?
How about hooking yourself into an Amfeed while you gorge on a bucket of caribou eyes.
Next?
Maybe taking on the world of the various religious leeches and showing them up for who they really are. While you're at it, don't forget to defecate in the curch of Tesla.
And while you're at it, don't forget to reclaim your dead wife' head out of cryo while avoiding a police dog who you once had castrated. Just another day in the future.
TRANSMETROPOLITAN is one of those rare titles that comes along once in a great while and absolutely blows away everything around it. It's funny and irreverant. It's witty and wry. It's a million mile an hour assault on the senses. In short, it WAS the best of the now defunct Helix titles and currently ranks up there as one of the best Vertigo titles going.
While the stories are intriguing and thought provoking, it's Warren Ellis' use of characterization which truly shines. There's Jerusalem: the drug inhaling, chain smoking, foul-mouthed journalist whose columns go out live to a waiting world holding its' collective breath to see what this pop culture superstar is going to do next. It's Channon Yarrow: stripper turned journalist whose whole world is turned upside down when her boyfriend wants to effecively end his life by being downloaded into a machine and becoming a foglet. It's Senator Gary Callahan: Presidential candidate and newest wolf in sheep's clothing. It's Yelena Rossini: Royce's niece and Spider's newest assistant, who despises him and with eyes full of daggers.
All around this brave new world are the signs of the times. Air Jesus sport shoes. Sex Puppets-with games for children of all ages. Ebola Cola-the hemorrhage that refreshes. Free solid gold shotgun pendants from the Church of Cobain. John's wanting to be pleasured with cheese graters. Boxed baby seal eyes and brain of Welshmen Pate...all available at your local Black Ops deli.
It's a world gone mad, but the only one they've got.
Ellis, best known for his truly manic work on STORMWATCH, has fast become the Nineties version of Alan Moore. He breaks all the rules, grinds them up and tosses them back at you. He's the angry young man with a pen in his hand. So too is Spider Jerusalem. Is it any coincidence that the 'mountain man' we meet in the early part of issue #1 is a long haired, bearded, wild-eyed writer who bears a VERY striking resemblance to the afore mentioned Mr. Moore?
And Darrick Robertson, who has toiled on a number of gigs during his comic book career, is doing the best work of that career on this title. His pencils, along with Rodney Ramos' inks and Nathan Byring's creative use of colors, just adds to the already exagerated characterizations. This book is an absolute howl! Truly one of the more entertaining and thought-moving titles being published, either by a mainstream or independent company. Good or bad, there is no way you can read this title without experiencing any number of reactions and emotions. As with all of Ellis' work, I highly recommend it.
Be advised that it is not for the faint of heart as nearly every other sentence has a string of foul-mouthed epithets which just wash over you like red tide. So coarse is the language there are several really great one liners and bits presented in this series which I can't even describe in this publication, so you'll have to read it for yourself. The violence level is also quite high and quite graphic.