Customer Rating: 
Summary: Smile!
Comment: Great comic book (graphic novel)! Basically Spider J. is a journalist in pursuit of the "Truth" in the not-so-distant future. He is disgusted by "The City" and the depraved diversity of the hundreds of mini-cultures, religions, and cultists that the population swarms to. He writes on his laptop, he takes drugs, he is an outsider of civilization, preferring his cabin deep in the wild "up a (*&%^^* mountain" to hedonistic city life, but the city NEEDS him and his perspective. His prolific writing has made him a reluctant celebrity. And now it's time for him to tell the truth about the ultimate evil politician with a generic happy face, "The Smiler!" The art is fantastic, the story is awesome, highly recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Graphic SF Reader
Comment: Jerusalem has become a famous rich bastard type of journalist.
Spider thinks he finally has enough dirt on the President to go public, and he publishes with the help of some allies, and then does a disappearing act so that the President and hoods can't find him to take action, or force him to recant. This will also help with the worries about losing his edge from being a fatcat type.
Let us not forget the bowel disruptor gun, either.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gonzo Journalism Redux
Comment: Spider Jerusalem is Hunter Thompson channeled for a new generation. This series is such fun to read because even though it is set in the future it clearly comments on the state of our world today. Ellis is a new kind of Gonzo Journalist and Spider is his voice.Ellis comments on everything from politics to love to war to constant [chemical] use and drinking. All of the Transmetropolitan books are like a visual reinterpretation of Hunter Thompson's work and bring its crash through the door of [weak], comfortable people who just thought Hunter was a character played by Johnny Depp. Anyone whoever read and enjoyed Thompson's work should shovel all of the Transmet novels into their heads immediately and love it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A new sense of focus
Comment: This TPB is a little bit lighter than the extremely dark volumes that came before it -- Spider shakes off his depression and resumes the fight against the exploitative powers that be with new vigor. The absurd (rather than purely black) humor of the early volumes returns, particularly in the hilarious first issue of this volume, in which Spider's life is parodied in a variety of genres... Ellis' comic writing is at its peak here.As always, however, the comedy and vulgarity are tempered by a genuinely disturbing dystopian vision of a modern Western democracy gone subtly totalitarian. Among the comics being written today, _Transmetropolitan_ is nearly unique in its skillful satirical handling of serious issues.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The plot thickens.....
Comment: Thats the best way to describe this trade paperback. In this story arc, Spider grapples with the fact that his overexposure has made him a cartoon of sorts. He decides it's time to step up with war with The Smiler, a.k.a. President Gary Callahan. I cant reveal much more, except that it's a pivotal point in the overall Transmet story. If you read the series, you must pick this up. If you don't, START, then get this one. If you cant read learn. Yes I am ranting, but it's that damn good.
