Transmetropolitan

[Reverend Del]

Has anyone else read this frankly amazing set of comics? If you have then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about and if you haven't, fear of spandex, or a whole host of other reasons I can think of off the top of my head, you should. I promise you there isn't a superhero in sight. No moral quandry's because frankly the main character is a four letter word. A harsh one. He's likeable in the same way that most bastards are, but what he is above all else is human. Flawed, imperfect, mentally screwed up. He's us, only cooler and more scary. He's joined by two equally messed up headcases, if they aren't to start with, they sure are at the end and the comic features a full supporting role of freaks, weirdos and even a few normal people. The strange thing is the vision Ellis paints of the furture could easily be our own. A few tweaks, a few things that might not come to pass, but generally an extrapolation of the world we live in today. Something we can avoid if we open our eyes to whats happening beyond our front doors.

It's not idealist, it doesn't seek to change the world. It's just a comic. That make's you think. It pushes the boundaries of what we can and cannot say in a printed format. It's vulgar in places and downright effed up in others.

An excerpt, filtered for content of course.
Context: Main charcter is sitting atop the roof of a strip club, writing a column going out live, about a riot going on below.

"I'm sorry. Is that too harsh an obsevation for you? Does that sound too much like the Truth?

"Eff you. If anyone in this craphole city gave two tugs of a dead dog's knob about Truth, this wouldn't be happening.

"I wouldn't be seeing a Transient women with blood on her face huddled in a porn-store doorway cluthcing her belly.

"I wouldn't be looking at a dead boy, thirteen if he's a day, draped over the hood of a police wagon.

"No-ones eyes would be bleeding from incapacity sprays or the nerve bomblets the cops are launching down Cranberry.

"I wouldn't be surrounded up here by the people who have to live and work here, openly weeping.

"Enjoying this? You like the way I describe disgusting crap happening to people you probably walked past in the street last week?

"Good. You earned it. With your silence."

It's a little glimpse of the writing, a small glimpse of the workings of Ellis's mind. But it's something you should read.

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Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.