Transmetropolitan is a postcyberpunk comic book series written by Warren Ellis with art by Darick Robertson and published by DC Comics. The series was originally part of the short-lived DC Comics imprint Helix Comics, but upon the end of the book's first year the series was moved to the Vertigo imprint as DC Comics cancelled the Helix Comics imprint. It chronicles the battles of Spider Jerusalem, infamous renegade gonzo journalist of the future who is a homage to gonzo journalism founder Hunter S. Thompson. Spider Jerusalem dedicates himself to fighting the corruption and abuse of power of two successive United States presidents; he and his (filthy) assistants strive to keep their world from turning more dystopian than it already is while dealing with the struggles of fame and power, brought about due the popularity of Spider via his articles. The monthly series began in 1997 and came to its conclusion in 2002. The series was later reprinted in a series of ten trade paperback volumes. The series also featured two "specials" (I Hate It Here and Filth of the City) with text pieces written by the Spider Jerusalem character and illustrated by a wide range of comic artists. These were later collected as part of the book's trade paperback program.

Spider Jerusalem begins the story as a long-haired hermit living in a fortified hideaway on the side of a mountain, who has been retired from the City life, and from writing for a living, for five years. When he runs out of money and is threatened by his publisher (only ever referred to by Jerusalem as "whorehopper") to whom he owes two books, he is forced to pack his car and drive south back into The City, a twisted amalgam of pervasive consumerism, sex, violence, and drugs. The City (never named, but a monument resembling the Statue of Liberty appears to give it away as New York) is the largest in the world, and the center of the political and social culture. However, this futuristic culture is highly liberal, self-centered, and focused almost exclusively on present-day matters. "Revivals" from cryogenic stasis are largely ignored and left to fend for themselves on the streets. Cultural "Reservations" are established for the sole purpose of preserving past civilizations. Some people convert to "foglets," clouds of nanomachines that make anything from particles in the air and can spread thin enough to be invisible. No one even knows the current calendar year (this fact revealed by Spider in Issue #42), so everyone always refers to events in time relative to the present day. Jerusalem returns to working for his old partner and editor Mitchell Royce, who now edits The Word, the City's largest newspaper. The first assignment he attaches himself to is an attempted separatist secession by followers of the Transient movement (a group of people who use genetic body modification based on alien DNA to become a completely different species, forced to live in the Angels 8 slum district) led by Fred Christ, a former rock group manager and impresario similar to Malcolm McLaren. Jerusalem manages to stop the (secretly staged) riots and police brutality that follows, only to be beaten brutally by police on the way home for his troubles.

The first of the two main storylines centers on Jerusalem's relationship to the current president, the man commonly nicknamed "The Beast." Spider soon picks up two sidekicks, Yelena Rossini and Channon Yarrow (known collectively as the 'filthy assistants'), who become his full-time partners in his journalistic battles. The second storyline involves the election and corrupt presidency of Gary Callahan, nicknamed "The Smiler," soon revealed to be even worse than The Beast, whom Spider had badly wanted to see leave office. Jerusalem's investigations delve into the new president's well-cleansed background, immoral campaign tactics, and the assassination of Vita Severn, the Smiler's campaign manager, to whom Spider had taken a rare liking. The storyline culminates in Spider's triumph over Callahan and his forced retirement due to ill health, returning to his beloved Mountain as he struggles with a degenerative neurological illness with similar symptoms to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

By this point, having achieved what he set out to achieve in life, and secure in the knowledge that The Smiler and The Beast will no longer bother him, he attempts to resign others to the fact that he will probably never write again, and that his chances of stabilization (compared to progressive symptoms) are slim at best (in the 2% region), while chances of recovery are even less likely (slightly under 1%). He is taken care of by Channon and Yelena, who remain with him as live-in assistants. At the conclusion, once everyone has gone and he is alone in his garden, Spider puts an unlit cigarette in his mouth and pulls out a gun, putting it close to his head, as if to shoot himself -- and uses it to light his cigarette. The comic ends on the image of Spider saying "one percent," twirling the gun and bursting into maniacal laughter, which, after Spider's earlier statement that he is completely unable to light his own cigarettes, leaves the reader to assume he is in that one percent of people who recover, and has dodged the bullet once again and wishes for nobody to know, the better for him to be left alone.