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For Fans of Transmetropolitan

Warren Ellis's gonzo-journalist opus Spider Jerusalem raging against a corrupt future city. If you love the book's furious wit, political bile, and genuine care for truth, here is everything else that feeds that hunger.

Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's Transmetropolitan (DC/Vertigo, 1997-2002) follows Spider Jerusalem, a savage, drug-addled gonzo journalist dragged back to The City after years hiding in the mountains. The City is a howling American future of infinite media, collapsing democracy, corporate rot, and people who can no longer tell news from noise. Spider types. Spider rages. Spider, improbably, cares. The 60-issue run is one of the great sustained arguments that journalism matters, delivered through the format of a man who seems to want to burn everything down. The through-line fans chase is anger married to principle: the pleasure of watching someone call the lie out loud, whatever it costs.

Essential Transmetropolitan

The comics run and Warren Ellis's other key graphic work

AuthorityAuthorityHi FellaHi FellaSummerSummer

If You Love Spider Jerusalem, Read These

Comics and novels that share the furious-idealist reporter DNA

The rum diaryThe rum diaryThe PreacherThe PreacherOne of the BoysOne of the BoysThe Last ManThe Last ManBrave New WorldBrave New World

Films That Feel Like The City

Movies with the same satire, future-shock, and righteous fury

NetworkNetworkRoboCopRoboCopBlade RunnerBlade RunnerBrazilBrazilStrange DaysStrange DaysThey LiveThey LiveFear and Loathing in Las VegasFear and Loathing in Las VegasIdiocracyIdiocracyThe Running ManThe Running ManA Scanner DarklyA Scanner Darkly

Series for the Same Appetite

TV that satirises power, media, and the near future

The BoysThe BoysBlack MirrorBlack MirrorPreacherPreacherUtopiaUtopiaDark AngelDark AngelHalt and Catch FireHalt and Catch FireSuccessionSuccessionThe WireThe Wire

Games With the Same Punk Politics

Games that share the anti-authoritarian cyberpunk DNA

Disco ElysiumDisco ElysiumCyberpunk 2077Cyberpunk 2077Deus ExDeus ExObserverObserverShadowrun ReturnsShadowrun ReturnsRuinerRuinerFallout: New VegasFallout: New VegasTechnobabylonTechnobabylon

The Cyberpunk Genre Has One Great Political Novel

Cyberpunk produced great aesthetics and good thrillers but very little sustained political thought. Transmetropolitan is the exception. Where most of the genre uses corporations as backdrop villainy, Ellis makes the media itself the battleground, which is both angrier and more honest about where power actually sits.

Cyberpunk 2077Cyberpunk 2077NeuromancerNeuromancerNetworkNetwork

Transmetropolitan and Warren Ellis: Key Dates

  • 1997Transmetropolitan launches at DC/Helix, then moves to Vertigo
  • 1999Planetary begins: Ellis and Cassaday rewrite adventure comics archaeology
  • 1999The Authority launches: superhero comics get a political violence upgrade Authority
  • 2002Transmetropolitan concludes at issue 60
  • 2006Fell and Nextwave arrive: Ellis at his most kinetic and experimental
  • 2019Preacher TV adaptation ends; The Boys begins its run The Boys
  • 2020Ellis's Netflix Castlevania adaptation concludes its celebrated run Castlevania

Gonzo futures and rotten cities

Companion guide

Cyberpunk & Dystopia

Explore the Cyberpunk & Dystopia guide →
For Fans of Cyberpunk
Dystopian Societies
For Fans of Paul Verhoeven
It's the job. That's what we do. We print the truth.Spider Jerusalem, Transmetropolitan