Transmetropolitan is
an inspired work of refined madness. The comic series created by Warren Ellis
and Derrick Robertson follows the futuristic exploits of Gonzo journalist
Spider Jerusalem, the uninitiated may need to take a moment to let the sheer
greatness of that name sink in, on his restless crusade for the truth (and drugs).
Transmetropolitan has shades of Alan
Moore and early nineties Frank Miller but Ellis blazes his own path with this
series. My first impression of Spider was that he was just another nineties’
sardonic anti-hero. However a tangled web of political intrigue reveals
Spider’s true nature as a caring, earnest, hyper-violent man-child who manages
to be strangely endearing. Perhaps more important than Spider himself is the
horrifying and wondrous sprawl of future NYC that he reluctantly finds himself in. While the story
is driven by an endless gush of new and explosive absurdities, the world Ellis
and Robertson have created feels oddly prescient and alive. Ellis’ mash up of genre
tropes, social commentary, surreal humor and stylish ultra-violence sets an
unprecedented tone for the series that would be difficult to capture as
effectively in any other medium.
For all its skull-shattering brashness Transmetropolitan
actually offers a fairly nuanced look into the future. Ellis posits a future
that rides a razors edge between utopia and urban hellscape. In the real future
there is no morally unassailable position, no magic solutions. The future just
introduces a different range of compromises, Spider is the personification of
this reality. Ellis’s techno-optimism sits comfortably alongside uncompromising
bleakness. This is a view of the world that should resonate with contemporary
readers. The promise of life changing, reality-altering technology appears
closer today then it ever has before. Likewise the dangers to our civilization only
appear more inescapable day by day.
As I mentioned earlier, Transmetropolitan
is a truly unique work. Its distinct tone separates it from other more
archetypical works of cyberpunk from writers like William Gibson or Bruce
Sterling. That being said I would also recommend Ellis’s earlier tonally
similar work Lazarus Churchyard. Though it lacks the craftsmanship and diversity
of attitudes he later achieved with Transmetropolitan,
it’s still worth a read. While not in the cyberpunk genre Ellis’s writing
reminded me of The Filth by Grant Morrison, The Filth portrays a similar mix of comic absurdity and futuristic
intrigue. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Hard Boiled by Frank Miller,
which I imagine had some influence of Ellis’s writing. On a more surreal
tangent I want to mention a comic from a similarly original mind, The Incal written by Alejandro
Jodorowsky’s, drawn by Mobius. So far very few movies have ever done justice to
the scale and insanity of the kind of world created by Ellis in Transmetropolitan. Without giving anything away The Congress directed by Ari Folman,
comes close, as does the razor sharp future satire Black
Mirror. Where movies fall short
I think interactive entertainment offers a new opportunity to deliver similar
kinds of narrative worlds in a new frontier. From the absurd indie game Jazzpunk, to the
beautifully subtle narrative of Transistor to
blockbusters like Deus Ex: Human Revolution
and Cyberpunk 2077.
