Thanks to the "After Watchmen" promotion, I've read the first issue of this. OK, where has it been all my life? Hello! Journalist! This is, like, the best thing ever. I must have the rest.

Great series. Picked up the first trade at my LCS, read it, the next day I went in and got the rest of the collection.

I'm curious whether you guys think that "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas" is a prerequisite before reading Transmet.

I do.

I had only limited knowledge of Hunter S. Thompson before reading Transmet, but I still loved it (maybe even more since the derivation wasn't as obvious to me). For a long time this was my favorite Ellis series, only recently overtaken by Fell. And, yes, I like both better than Planetary.

I think that if you have read Thompson, then you can see Spider as how Thompson saw himself in the world. Without awareness of Thompson, then it seems like a pretty creative character and setting that runs the risk of deflation when you do finally discover Thompson, seeing it as a rip-off rather than homage.

But I'll take your word for it, Matt.

I thought Transmetropolitan was a great cleverly written series

The first arc was enough for me to like Transmet, but it was the single issue with the cryogenically-frozen photographer that made me love it.

Read the first trade figuring, hey, journalist! Had no desire to read any further.

Huh, weird. Interesting how two journalists can get two completely different impressions from it.