The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

previous - next - random review

Warren Ellis, �Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street�

Started January 12 � Finished January 12, 2002; 72 pages. Posted 15 January 2003

Astute readers will notice that I�m reviewing a lot of fucking graphic novels recently. There�s a reason for this. Apparently, several people made resolutions at the New Year to get rid of all their funny books and grow the fuck up. In fact, they way the store has been so busy lately, I think everybody made resolutions to get rid of every book they ever owned and watch television instead.

We�re drowning in new arrivals at the store. Of course this is a veritable gold mine for me. Resolutions are stupid. The last one I made was to make a serious effort to get through the books I had on my to read shelf, and look where that got me.

At work, I have a box for my stuff, and I use it mostly to hold stuff that I want to pick up later. Of course, since all this great stuff has come in lately, my shelf was crammed to the gills with stuff to pick up, both books and graphic novels. I�ve been trying to only buy one book when I finish three that I have waiting, but the shelf looked like it was going to collapse. So I bit the bullet, and last Friday I bought 77 dollars worth of stuff that I had waiting for me. Amongst that pile were about 30 graphic novels.

Despite my assertion that graphic novels are more intricately and intelligently plotted and structured than 90 percent of our mystery/thriller section and 99 percent of our romance section, I think if I reviewed issue after issue of superhero comics I would turn into the comic book guy from The Simpsons. So I�ve been balancing these works with the big books — anything on my shelf which is over 370 pages. So far, it seems to be working and I haven�t ballooned out to 300 pounds.

Transmetropolitan just finished its run of five years, and the final issue to me felt anti-climatic, so it was good to go back to where it all began. Make no mistake, this isn�t a costumed superhero darting around. This details a foul-mouthed, heavy drinking investigative journalist who loves to push the buttons of those in authority.

You can see, then, why I like this comic.

Some of it can be rather silly, even (dare I say it) cartoonish. But, like the scenes in Terry Gilliam�s version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, when the main character, Spider Jerusalem, sits down and starts to write, the words are so well-crafted that you forget the excesses shown earlier to marvel at how powerful the written word can be when done correctly.

Too bad I don�t know the first thing about that, huh?


Rating: Worth new, and it happens to be cheap — a rarity in graphic novels these days.

previous - next - random review