I asked myself before reading the first volume: my friends have recommended Transmetropolitan to me, but how on earth can a journalism-themed graphic novel interest so many. 
 The answer is generic yet very effective: a phenomenal first volume. 
 I have read so many titles with an awesome first volume. Many have kept me interested and excited until the end/current story arc (Chew, Sandman, Preacher, Scalped, Y The Last Man) while there are some that performed poorly after the first volume (Black Science, Sex Criminals). 
 Transmetropolitan captures what the 90s is made of: beautifully chaotic and crazily colorful (not psychedelic because that would be the 70s), plus a handful of shitbombs here and there made by intelligence-inducing drug user gonzo journalist named Spider Jerusalem. 
 Our protagonist definitely has a heart but is so fed up with urban pop culture / a city ripe with weird fashion statements, racial discrimination and prostitution with other "normal" people living their normal life that reacts violently whenever something radical shows ups in the news or whatever sources which they subjectively deem to be credible. In short, Spider is fed up by today's society. 
 Warren Ellis' commentary about the transient riot that happened to be Spider's first comeback column in the series is brilliant in two ways. First, it is not bound by time. Something will come up somewhere and things will go down ugly in the end because someone did something nasty and everything blew out of proportions. That is just how evil and primal the core of humanity is. Everybody are warriors of a silly cause, defenders of self-righteous faith and fighters of subjective law. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong. All is in the middle of this civilized muddy ocean of sorts. Second, Transmetropolitan manages to be (and paradoxically) unbiased in a way that it presented the truth from all sides. Spider Jerusalem is not a self-righteous man, god he is far from it, yet he reports what he see without judging one side in favor of another. The way Ellis wrote the story, it is neither a preach nor a manifesto of a particular view. It is an opinionated truth, but still the truth. I just love how he manages to walk that very thin line. 
 As my friends recommended this to me, I also recommend Transmetropolitan to you.