I have a new word, from Transmetropolitan: Gengineering. It’s short for genetic engineering, and is one of the nice little touches in Ellis’s story. You can read the Wired review of Transmetropolitan to get an idea of what it’s about, and to see what got me interested in checking it out in the first place.

While the content is sometimes quite over-the-top, including lots of random drugs, sex, and random perversions, the image Ellis and Robertson paint of the future is consistent and immersive. This future shows a culture completely converted to self-indulgence, where every whim that can be fulfilled by technology is. People freely modify their genetic traits, embed nanotech implants, and even download their minds from their bodies into new, non-organic bodies. There are a lot of clever ideas and insights into a future that is, in many ways, quite believable.

The artwork is sharp and quite clever. The early books, especially, are filled with great little details in many of the frames poking fun at both the society in the story as well as some contemporary issues. It’s a great read, and I’ve already loaned my copy out to friends or bought them their own copy of volume one.

If you want to buy your own, you can look at this search I created at Amazon. Using that link will also help support this site.