You didn’t honestly think you’d seen the last of Spider Jerusalem, do you? More than eight years have passed since TRANSMETROPOLITAN conclude and, now, Bleeding Cool’s saying that the title’s coming back for a charity special early next year intended to benefit the Hero Initiative and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. While both Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson will be back to, respectively, contribute a forward and some key art, the bulk of the book will feature stories set in “the City” by a variety of other talents. That’s all we know for now - - expect more details to come forth on the official Transmet twitter account.
It’s been a spell since any new TRANSMET’s been on the shelves, so here’s a quick refresher for those unfamiliar -- the comic's about the misadventures of the outlandish Spider Jerusalem, a “gonzo journalist” who fights political corruption in a chaotic cyberpunk future teeming with grotesque advances in technology. At the same time, he has to deal with drawbacks of the celebrity his journalism’s brought him.
Obviously, there's a lot more to it than that, but those are the basics. .
You know, this brings up an interesting point for discussion. From the fan’s perspective, one drawback for creator-owned comics is that, if you fall in love with the characters and the world, you’re usually doomed to never see them again once the original creators move on to the other things. Sometimes, the torch gets passed along to other talents, as has been the case for TOM STRONG, TOP TEN, HELLBOY and a few others… but the question then is, how willing are you to read a book so closely-identified with its creators if the creators themselves aren’t involved? Would you want to read, say, the WALKING DEAD even if the Robert Kirkman was writing something else instead?
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here .
