Transmetropolitan - In Class Questions

1.

I believe that the gun is a symbol in the comic. We start off by seeing the main character holding the gun pointing it at the phone while they are telling him that he owes them two books. Usually guns are symbols showing who is in control or not. However in this comic I feel as though the gun is a symbol for the false sense of control. Just because he has this gun does not mean that he actually is the one who is calling the shots. He still has to write the two books. When he gets back to the city and storms into one of the business buildings to see an old friend he points the gun at the friend demanding to get a job at the business. The city editor does not even really act phased by the fact that a man just walked in his office with a gun. It seemed as though possibly a gun might be a symbol for people who are out of control because the city editor still seems to hold all the power even though he does not have a gun.

2.

The connections that I made with the story was the whole aspect of the mountain life versus the city life. Although in the comic this aspect seems to be dramatized more than it actually is in real life I feel as though it is accurate. The city people look down (as seen when spider goes to the toll booth) on the mountain people and the mountain people look down on the city people. I think this is an interesting topic to bring up because it puts both groups (city and mountain) into their own little factions.

In reality I feel as though you always want what you cannot have so mountain people want to live in the city and vice versa. In the comic they place an emphasis on how much worse the city life is compared to the mountain life. To me I connected with this because I believe that this represents how everyone thinks, which is the need for change. He moved to the mountains to get away from the city life. Essentially he was literally running away from his fears by going to the top of a mountain and staying there for five years. I think we can all relate to this. If we all could just run away from our fears without having to face them that would be great.

3.

The changes that I would make to adapt this story into a film would be to make it less on the nose. Right now there is not that much subtext because the main character says and thinks everything that is on his mind. I think that this works great for the comic medium but for film I think that you would have to show this visually. The main character does not like the bar so he just literally blows it up. He almost comes off like a god. His name is even Spider Jerusalem. I feel as though his personality would be very interesting to how as a film character but he would have to be toned down in terms of how godlike he comes off. The first thing that came into my mind when reading this was that it would make a great film noir style film. I think the thing that would have to be emphasized if this were made into a film would be the social criticisms that were apparent in the comic.  To adapt the same social criticisms from the comic into a film would make for a very ballsy film. I think that it would be relevant for today because in the comic they make most of the average people seem as though they are just drugged out vegetables. This is super interesting because it is somewhat of a opinionated foreshadowing of what could be a potential outcome for all of our futures.