So, Spider Jerusalem? By far the most ass-kicking, name-taking, awesome angry drug-addicted journalist ever.

Not only is the art of Transmetropolitan top notch- no wonky anatomy or excessive bodily fluids here, no sir- but the world being illustrated is also clearly the product of an imagination on overdrive. This is the future of a disturbed mind, kiddies.

(I'm not trying very hard to make sense, I'm afraid.)

The thing that struck me the most about the characters and setting- even more than Ebola Cola or the incredible day-to-day violence of the world of the City- was how much Spider cares. Yeah, sure, he's foul mouthed and just all around foul in many ways, but his quest for Truth *waves arms* is almost heartbreaking in its sincerity.

So, I actually don't have a whole lot to say about Transmetropolitan; Warren Ellis writes, Darick Robertson pencils, and the whole thing is dirty with shock value and shing with the Truth. It's funny and gritty and Spider is so real it hurts.

Delicious. Read, peons, before I get myself a bowel disruptor.

And what else have I been reading, if not Sai Secant's comic collection? Why, Stephen King, of course.

I don't suggest Warren Ellis and Stephen King in combination; I had some fucked up nightmares last night. (Need to seriously stop dreaming about work. Seriously.)

Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass is, as the first three were, an excellent story. Unfortunately, despite my sudden undying love for Cuthbert, I still like Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy better than Young Roland and his cullies.

That's okay, though, because the story of Susan and Roland's first adventure is still a gripping one. And Roland manages to come out of it even cooler than he was before.

King's forewords are a delight to read, particularly this one, and particularly since I myself am coming up on nineteen. The similarities to Tolkien are perhaps slightly more pronounced in Book IV: you have both the riddling game and the wizard's glass. But there's also Oz and the Emerald City, and I've no idea where the idea of a thinny could possibly have come from.

King takes elements of the familiar and puts them in a place so unfamiliar and strange it boggles the mind.

Also delicious, but with less temporal mindfuckery than I've grown accustomed to. There are three books left in the series, and another half of Roland's life to narrate; Wizard and Glass introduces Alain and Cuthbert and Susan, but you only get as far as Roland's first betrayal in the name of the Tower before he and his new ka-tet go off to meet the wizard.

Still waiting to find out how Cuthbert, Alain, and Jamie die (and that's the horrible thing- you know they're doomed, but you love them anyway). Still waiting for Jake to get a chance to reconcile his parents. Still waiting for Roland to finally die, because you just know he's going to. The salvation of the universe is so going to require a sacrifice of some sort, and you just know it's gonna be Roland.

Again, y'know he's doomed, but you love him anyway. Long, tall, and ugly is still one of my favorite heroes ever- which isn't saying much, admittedly (he's sharing that space with Sam and Nikolai Hel and Ulrich von Beck- somewhat auspicious company, I suppose).

I really do like Stephen King; he's unapologetic and delightful to read, and he's more human than a great number of other famous writers out there.

The fifth book looks a bit more like King's standard horror fare, but I can't read Song of Susannah before Wolves of the Calla, and if I don't read those two, I can't find out how the series ends in November- and this is an ending I most certainly don't want to miss.