This was an experimental loan from the library, but I think the experiment did the work out for me. I'll still give the next one a shot, though. ( )

I liked how this felt more like reading his column than reading a part of a story and I liked all the different looks provided by the different artist, it felt fresh but still consistent with the feel of the original comics.
There is nothing here that really adds to the story arc but I love how it gives more background and layers of Spider's world. ( )

I’ve been reading Warren Ellis’ blog for a few years, and enjoyed some of his other work, and I finally sat down to read my stack of Transmetropolitan collections. And, being a software engineer, of course I picked it up with the one labeled “Volume 0”. (When indexing arrays in languages like C, the index 0 indicates the start of the array.)

In the spirit of Warren Ellis’ writing, I accuse him of having this volume numbered 0 explicitly to mess with people like me. It’s not an introduction to the series, it’s not a backstory, it’s not a prologue. It’s a collection of the columns written by the series’ main character, gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem. It is a paean to decadence and depravity, written by a man who clearly loves his world so much that he holds it so close he sees a great deal to hate; amidst the curmudgeonly bile and self-loathing bitterness, there are kernels of wisdom.

But if you’re picking up the series for the first time, put this volume at the end of the stack. I’ve picked up enough details here and there that I was able to figure out a number of references, but I’m sure I would’ve appreciated it more had I read it after reading the rest of the series. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1011032.html

I got this because I had picked up recommendations for Ellis' Transmetropolitan series from various sources, and this fairly slim volume was numbered #0 in the shop, so I guessed it might be important introductory or prefatory material. Well, if it is, I'm not sure I can be bothered to follow up with the rest of the series. The book starts with a short story about how much protagonist Spider Jerusalem hates Christmas and other people, and it's then a series of several dozen single-shot images by different leading comics artists, each ostensibly illustrating a different instalment of Jerusalem's misanthropic newspaper column. Some of the illustrations, as you would hope, are indeed striking, but the combined effort is neither thought-provoking nor funny, and I began wondering pretty soon why I was supposed to care about this unpleasant character or his unpleasant opinions. Perhaps if I'd read the rest of Transmetropolitan I'd know the answer, but based on this I am not going to rush to do so. ( )

Warren Ellis' anti-hero extraordinaire Spider Jerusalem returns, this time in excerpts from his column. With dozens of guest artists - the best of the genre - and some of Ellis' best lines, Volume 0 should be required reading for anyone with a sense of humor, a love of journalism, a taste for comics, and a high threshhold for the obscene. ( )