Why does everybody love Transmetropolitan so much? Someone recommended it to me, and I found it so cruel, hateful and offensive for no reason, I couldn't even finish the first trade :( And seeing all the universal praise, I feel like there's something wrong with me, as it is probably the worst comic book I've ever read.

ANOTHER COLD MORNING is issue 8, and the one where the sadness beneath the rage comes to the fore most clearly. It’s stand alone, available on Comixology and I can’t recommend it enough.

Transmet rages against things, and does it in an outrageous mode that is clearly beyond politeness, but there are things so vile in the world that politeness would be more obscene than anything Spider ejaculates into the void. It’s cruel, hateful and offensive for very moral reasons.

(It’s the error of politeness which trips up a lot of people with Ennis as well. Ennis is one of the writers in the medium most interested in genuine questions of morality and right, of common and basic decency. The style is so vivid that some people only see that, and can’t get to the substance.)

People also find it funny. You may not find hyperbolic responses to everyday frustrations funny.

Do try ANOTHER COLD MORNING though. It’s very quiet, very angry. If Transmet’s general mode doesn’t appeal, it’s one that you can at least go “Oh, right, I get that this stuff is why people like it” and move on.

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