Right now I am watching this documentary on comic book writer and author of a number of strange novels WARREN ELLIS. I am most familiar with his work on his original comic TRANSMETROPOLITAN which had a 60 issue run from 1997-2002 and focuses on a drug-addled manic-depressive journalist named SPIDER JERUSALEM who rises above the mass of chaotic sects and degenerate mob rule of the near-future cyberdystopia. Spider targets his ire at a number of big personality politicians with rabid, but poetic vitriol, which gains him the respect of the people as he simultaneously struggles to make his way through the traps and pitfalls of the jungle-of-signs and advertisements that assault everyone in the hyper-mediated warlike streetlife of the everyday world. This documentary is a good look at his work and impact, and has many good segments with other comic writers, and cultural figures, from Joss Whedon, Claudio Sanchez of band ‘Coheed and Cambria’, to adult film star Stoya.
