- Devin is going to arrive shortly and mind-blast you all with his impeccable pop culture skills, but before we get to there, I need to write… well, something for the site this week.
- Before I started pushing my way through Transmetropolitan, I asked Twitter what the story might read like if it were published today. Say, for example, the conditions were still in place that Ellis had the time and inclination to blast through a 60 issue run instead of the shorter projects he tends to lean into today. Would it be the same book, considering the difference in culture intake? As I near the halfway point, I’m leaning towards “yes”. In a lot of ways, Transmet is eerily prophetic and deeply disturbing. The Future Spider lives in remains a sickening mirror to our society, both in terms of pop culture consumption and the politics of it all. I think maybe the only difference would be the presence of more meme-culture bits, as he pretty much has the decline of proper journalism laid out pretty bare.
- And oh, but the sweet and terrifying stories where Spider laments what could be if we all cared a little. He cares. He cares so much he hates, and he spits and kicks and disrupts your bowels and he wants it all to be better. He uses words as weapons, attempts to aim as well as the medium will allow, and he uses The Truth to build and fix and fight against all the horseshit. He’s a lot like I imagine Warren Ellis to be - a crusty, beaten and frothing exterior with a center filled to the brim with hope and cuddliness. Not that either would care to admit that.
- Running straight into something else entirely: the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. What a wonderful piece of cinema. I could (and I guess will) qualify the movie by saying it’s not perfect, but that’s the most pessimism you’ll get out of me in regards to this film. We don’t like to criticize things too much here at C!TB. Our whole reason for existence is to counter the culture that required thought pieces to hit the internet by midday Friday, pulling on all the strings until the fun movie we all enjoyed falls apart at the seems. I enjoyed it. I saw it twice with Danica and James, once on a preview night, and once on the day of release (which happened to be my birthday). I want to see it again, in the theatre, and we just might do that on our vacation. Because fuck you, squares, we’re going on vacation and we can do what we want.
- Otherwise, it’s been a mad bit of churning to get pieces half ready for three different sites, while getting the shop ready to weather three weeks without me and prepare to attend a couple of weddings. Mark my words: come hell or high-water, content will go out from me daily, somewhere, somehow, even through vacation. I’m preparing now. This is what professionals do, yes? I wish to be a professional. So. Onwards. We’ll talk again soon.
I absolutely agree that Transmetropolitan is an incredibly smart book that works nearly as good today as it did fifteen years ago. But it’s one of my favourite comics ever, so I’m not entirely unbiased. I think that if it was to incorporate one thing from “today” into an update it would be grassroots social organization through increased interconnectivity through the internet. Hints of it were there in the original, but it’s so much more of a possibility these days.
I also love the scenes where Spider gets furious at people because he cares so much. It’s the best part of the character.