List of Transmetropolitan story arcs

This article is a list of story arcs from the comic book series Transmetropolitan.

"Back on the Street" #1-3
Spider Jerusalem, the God-King of Journalists, is presented as having resided for five years on The Mountain, a tranquil and relatively unspoiled retreat, unmolested except for the odd murder attempt, where he has had time to grow his hair long and devote his attention to exploring new drug experiences. He is contacted by the Whorehopper, an editor of the Driven Press group, to whom Jerusalem still owes two books out of a five book deal. To avoid lawsuits, Jerusalem returns to The City, where he finds work at his old workplace, The Word, as a newspaper journalist, loses all his hair in an incident with the shower unit, and manages to stop a major riot. And this is just the beginning...

"On the Stump" #4
Spider meets his new assistant, Channon Yarrow, and ambushes the President of the United States, also known as The Beast, in a public restroom.

"What Spider Watches on TV" #5
Spider explores the near-infinite amount of channels on his television which leads him to: purchase a trendy item after viewing a blasphemous commercial, call several talk shows including one that discusses politics, and eventually immerse himself so much within the various shows he's watching that he actually becomes part of the daily television broadcasts. Channon returns to the apartment at the end of the issue after spending the day with her boyfriend and brings Spider some food before she attempts to prevent him from being blasted by a subliminal commercial which soon causes him to fall asleep and continue to see commercials within his dreams.

"God Riding Shotgun" #6
Spider takes Channon to investigate a convention that highlights the multitude of religions that are continuously created within The City. Spider exposes the fraudulent activities conducted by nearly all of the "religious leaders" within the convention until he eventually becomes violently enraged to the point where he jumps onto tables and tears down a few displays while constantly yelling the truth to those in attendance.

"Boyfriend Is a Virus" #7
Channon's boyfriend has decided to become a "foglet" by downloading his mind into a cloudy swarm of nanobots.

"Another Cold Morning" #8
Spider investigates what becomes of people revived from cryogenic preservation.

"Wild in the Country" #9
Spider explores reservations for outdated civilizations.

"Freeze Me with Your Kiss" #10-12
Spider has a contract placed on his life by his ex-wife, who is currently a head frozen in a jar, even as he is simultaneously stalked by a sentient (and castrated) police dog who wishes revenge on Spider for the loss of his genitals.

"Year of the Bastard" #13-18
Spider starts to write about politics again and is forced to take on another assistant, Royce's niece Yelena Rossini. He resumes his drug binges of mythic proportions and arouses the ire of various presidential candidates, one of whom orchestrates the assassination of someone Spider has grown to love. The story is told in six chapters where the first chapter has no subtitle and the following chapters are subtitled "Badmouth", "Smile", "Hate", "Love" and "Bastard" respectively.

"The New Scum" #19-24
Spider's efforts to bring down Gary Callahan, aka The Smiler, before he can become president end up being in vain. Meanwhile, during an election night party at Spider's apartment, Yelena finally admits that she had a one-night-stand with Spider and also that she is not really Royce's niece.

"Here to Go" #25
While being interviewed by a feedsite journalist, Spider reflects on a few of his notable life experiences and how they have influenced his perspective on life.

"21 Days in the City" #26
Each issue contains twenty-two pages, the first page always features a one-panel picture along with the title and the credits, and the remaining twenty-one pages are dedicated to the story. This issue has twenty-one one-panel pictures, each of them representing a separate aspect of life in The City. Spider acts as an omnipotent narrator as he talks the reader through his own personal insight of what it means to live in the disturbing futuristic world of Transmetropolitan.

"Monstering" #27
Senator Tarleton Sweeney pays a visit to The City where he attempts to hold a press conference and release a placating statement regarding the recent accusations against him for his alleged funding of covert pornographic films. Spider calls his filthy assistants to join him as they go "monstering" against the senator, which entails repeatedly ambushing the senator with numerous questions about the porno films (as well as the senator's personal sex life) and eventually making the corrupt senator liable for all the laws he's broken during the time he was supposed to be acting as a civil servant in public office.

"Lonely City" #28-30
Following a Rodney King-esque acquittal of a gang of race-hate thugs and the police riot that emerges at the Dante Street police house because of it, Spider realizes that The Smiler is systematically silencing anything that could discredit him during his presidency.

"Nobody Loves Me" #31
This issue shows Spider's reaction to his story about the Dante Street police riot remaining unpublished because it was given a D-Notice by the government. Driven to the edge of suicide by the thought that no one takes him seriously (in addition to viewing three horrible TV adaptations of his life and work) Spider ingests a massive amount of drugs and experiences two very twisted hallucinations. Issue #31 is drawn by several artists in addition to series co-creator Darick Robertson, the list is as follows: Lea Hernandez, Kieron Dwyer, Bryan Hitch, Frank Quitely and Eduardo Risso. The last page of this issue lists all the guest artists and the titles of their individually drawn story segments underneath a picture of Spider passed out on his bathroom floor while his cat urinates on his head.

"The Walk" #32
Spider aimlessly wanders through the streets of The City while contemplating what to do regarding the D-notice placed on his article by the White House until he notices the demolition of a dilapidated building filled with squatters by two tanks driven by the CPD. Spider refers to this as a "D-notice for people" and the incident prompts him to come up with the idea to release his article about the Dante Street police riot onto a text-only feedsite known as The Hole. The issue ends with a quote by H. L. Mencken underneath a picture of Spider sleeping peacefully by the river in a secluded section of The City.

"Dancing in the Here and Now" #33
While Spider remains unconscious inside their shared apartment, Channon and Yelena escape from him in order to go bar hopping and enjoy a shopping spree for some new clothes. After a little while, Channon notices that they're being followed so they go into a gun store to purchase some weapons. They both test fire a pair of "MARR special-issue nerve-breaker" guns (using a replicated series of Channon's ex-boyfriend for target practice) and then return to the street where they're immediately confronted by a mysterious black car and the same person that had been following them earlier. Yelena destroys the car while Channon confronts the nameless female government agent and tells her to back off. The ladies sit and talk in a nearby park about what just happened and the both agree that they've never felt more alive than during the time since they started working for Spider. As they're leaving, Spider appears at the end of the issue and says, "They love my ass." as he picks up a dead pigeon (killed by Yelena throwing a breadcrumb at the back of its head) and shoves it into his mouth.

"Gouge Away" #34-36
Having gathered his evidence in secrecy, Spider releases a blistering attack on the President. However, when the President retaliates and gets him fired from The Word, Spider and his assistants manage to evade a forced eviction as they promptly disappear into the milieu of The City.

"Back to Basics" #37-39
Newly independent of The Word, Spider begins publishing articles exclusively through The Hole, but first he has to survive an assassination attempt by a three-man team as he exits the lavatory of a bar, and even though the masses are now reading his words again... things are not exactly as they may seem.

"Business" #40
Spider interviews two pre-adolescent children, one boy and one girl, who sell themselves for sex every night and sleep in a homeless shelter during the day. At the end of the issue, he speaks with the guy who runs the shelter and then points across the street at another child propositioning himself by uttering the word, "Business?"

"There is a Reason" #41
The first eight pages of this issue feature a page length monologue by a mentally ill person, most likely suffering from schizophrenia, and the last sentence spoken by a sickly looking man on page eight is the title of this issue: There is a Reason. Spider begins to narrate the issue with the words, "More crazy people on the street than there used to be," and he continues to explain why this has happened for two pages before talking directly to Channon and Yelena in a diner. He then takes them for a walk through The City in order to find another crazy person who happens to be a witness to the devious sexual activity performed by Alan Schact, a representative of The Smiler first seen during the "Year of the Bastard" storyline, who helped him get elected by illicit means. Spider continues walking and talking to his Filthy Assistants (and also to us, the reader) as he explains why stories need to be sought from those who have no true voice to represent themselves in the new version of America that President Gary Callahan is trying to achieve. Spider stares at us one final time at the end of the issue and repeats the mantra of this story: There is a Reason.

"Dirge" #43-45
During a huge 'ruin-storm' that sweeps across the City, Spider is rendered incapacitated. Upon his revival in Yelana's father's house, a doctor diagnoses him with a degenerative brain disease due to neurological degradation from multiple exposure to information pollen. After the storm dies down, Spider and his Filthy Assistants discover that someone has destroyed all the of the new records in the Print District, including the proof they needed to fight The Smiler.

"Here Comes the Sun" #49
Spider, Channon, and Yelena visit the Vita Severn Memorial Federal Disaster Zone and discuss President Callahan's chances at re-election. They resolve to write a piece linking the mayor of The City to the disaster and crash a bar, assailing the patrons and staff to get at Fred Christ, hiding in a back room.

"Happy Talk" #50
Following from the start of the confrontation in the previous issue, Spider, Yelena, and Channon beat the backstory behind multiple past events concerning Fred's involvement with President Callahan. The three leave Christ bloody and beaten, with the intent to use the newly gleaned information in a new Spider-written piece.

"Two-Fisted Editor" #51
Chafing under the new restrictions the government has placed on his newspaper, Royce sets out to assist Spider in bringing down the Callahan Administration. But to do so, he has to retrieve his private data cache, which contains evidence of the Smiler's corruption, and deliver it to Spider before the Smiler's operatives get to either of them first.

"The Cure" #52-54
Spider's brain may be shutting down, and professional assassins sent by the President may be on his ass, but Spider is content, because he's back on the case and finally finding the nails he needs for the Smiler's coffin. But even armed with such things as the Chair Leg of Truth, Spider's enemies, outside in the chaotic streets and within his own head, may yet win the day...or perhaps Spider's crusade will finally inspire others to seek the Truth...

"Headlong" #55-57
The Smiler declares that the City is now under martial law, and Spider's posse narrowly manage to avoid assassination before taking refuge at Yelena's father's home. After they expose a massacre by the National Guard detachment, resembling the one that occurred at Kent State University, and causing the media to finally stand up against the President, Spider has one final confrontation with Gary Callahan at Dante Street.

"The Long Day Closes" #59
In the penultimate issue of the five-year series, gonzo journalist extraordinaire Spider Jerusalem and the disgraced American president Gary Callahan have their final confrontation very close to the area where the Dante Street police riots took place. Martial law continues to allow government troops to run free through the various streets and neighborhoods of the City as it slowly burns around them. Open conflict with citizens and civilians, all of this witnessed by various members of the press, continues unabated. A special selection of the Secret Service remains in a protective circle around President Callahan as he speaks with Spider, but none of this really matters as the final smack across the face gets delivered by the empowered against the "powerless." Detective Malandra Newton makes her final appearance (she was last seen in issue #44) in order to arrest The Smiler right before the final page of the issue when we see Channon and Yelena frantically run into the room as Spider collapses to the ground, blood flowing freely from his nose as he mutters, "One last stunt. Took it all out of me. I am so fucking tired." right before he closes his eyes and the issue ends.

"One More Time" #60
Spider has returned to his mountain home to live out his remaining days in peace, letting his assistants take his place in the public spotlight. Everyone thinks he'll die soon, but in the end, it is revealed that Spider has recovered from his disease, and is faking illness so that people will leave him alone.

"Edgy Winter"

 * from Vertigo: Winter's Edge 2

"Next Winters"

 * from Vertigo: Winter's Edge 3