Comics as Contemporary Literature

The comic that I decided to read was Transmetropolitain by Warren Ellis and boy is it one hell of a ride. I just found it to be purely entertaining, from its crazy cyber punk world to its badass, no nonsense main character Spider Jerusalem. Its super violent and full of dark humor that made me smile throughout. To me it felt like a far less serious version of Watchmen. Spider is a deeply flawed anti-hero that operates in an even more messed up city similar to several of the characters in Watchmen. They both also heavily use allegory in certain political, social and cultural aspects of their stories. I found it to be more sophisticated than most hero comics while also being completely over the top and hyperbolic at the same time, which is why I think I enjoyed it so much. I also enjoyed some of the pop culture science fiction references sprinkled throughout its panels, such as Spider's blaster pistol that looks a lot like Han Solo's blaster, or some of the background aliens that are very reminiscent of Twi'Leks from Star Wars. It seemed to me like Ellis was influenced by the underground comics that came before him, such as Heavy Metal, or other comics like Watchmen. This is a comic for me that I found to have a world and characters that are unique and interesting, that set it apart from other comics and left me wanting to read more.