There's no faster path to paranoia and delusion that the red carpet of celebrity, and in the city no one is more famous than mega-popular attack journalist Spider Jerusalem. Nearly paralyzed by his own media omnipresence, Jerusalem has been reduced to a populist character, his muckraking teeth blunted by the sticky-sweet syrup of adulation. Luckily, he still has his enemies to keep him on his toes—even through a narcotized fog, nothing concentrates the mind like a high probability of imminent assassination.

In the twenty-first century, a network society is emerging. Fragmented, visually saturated, characterized by rapid technological change and constant social upheavals, it is dizzying, excessive, and sometimes surreal. In this breathtaking work, Steven Shaviro investigates popular culture, new technologies, political change, and community disruption and concludes that science fiction and social reality have become virtually indistinguishable. Connected is made up of a series of mini-essays-on cyberpunk, hip-hop, film noir, Web surfing, greed, electronic surveillance, pervasive multimedia, psychedelic drugs, artificial intelligence, evolutionary psychology, and the architecture of Frank Gehry, among other topics. Shaviro argues that our strange new world is increasingly being transformed in ways, and by devices, that seem to come out of the pages of science fiction, even while the world itself is becoming a futuristic landscape. The result is that science fiction provides the most useful social theory, the only form that manages to be as radical as reality itself. Connected looks at how our networked environment has manifested itself in the work of J. G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, K. W. Jeter, and others. Shaviro focuses on science fiction not only as a form of cultural commentary but also as a prescient forum in which to explore the forces that are morphing our world into a sort of virtual reality game. Original and compelling, Connected shows how the continual experimentation of science fiction, like science and technology themselves, conjures the invisible social and economic forces that surround us.

Outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem attacks the injustices of his surreal 21st century through black humor as an investigative reporter for the newspaper The Word in this critically-acclaimed graphic novel series written by comics superstar Warren Ellis, the co-creator of PLANETARY and THE AUTHORITY.In this volume, Jerusalem targets three of society's most worshipped and warped pillars: politics, religion, and television. When Spider tries to shed light on the atrocities of these institutions, he finds himself fleeing a group of hit men/kidnappers in possession of his ex-wife's frozen head, a distorted creature alleging to be his son, and a vicious talking police dog.

Now in softcover, the second novel from one of the hottest writers in modern SF

Working as an investigative reporter for the newspaper The Word, Spider Jerusalem attacks the injustices of his surreal 21st-century surroundings. Spider ventures into the dangerous Angels 8 district, home of the Transients—humans who have decided to become aliens through cosmetic surgery. And don’t miss Spider’s confrontation with the president of the United States...in a men’s room. Plus, when Spider tries to shed light on the atrocities of these institutions, he finds himself fleeing a group of hit men/kidnappers in possession of his ex-wife’s frozen head. Collects TRANSMETROPOLITAN #1-12!

The forces of darkness are closing in on outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem and his merry, filthy band--but now they've got their own rope around the neck of corrupt President Callahan, and it's time to start tightening the noose.TRANSMETROPOLITAN: THE CURE is the ninth volume reprinting the acclaimed series written by Warren Ellis (PLANETARY, RED) with art by Darick Robertson (The Boys). Jerusalem and his cohorts step up their investigation into Callahan's misdeeds and turn up some startling evidence...not to mention a sole surviving witness to the President's depravity. The problem, as always, will be getting the word out before the massive forces of the Executive Branch black out everything--and everyone--involved.