List of Transmetropolitan Characters - Others

Others

• Ziang Huai, Channon's boyfriend, a technophiliac who sports several pounds of cybernetic machinery built into his body. Although she realized he wasn't really in love with her, Channon could not help but love him, making their eventual break-up all the more unbearable; he leaves Channon to become a foglet and is never seen again. Whilst he made no further appearances, when Channon and Yelena are at a gun range, Channon tells the simulator to generate the following set of targets: "Six. Male. Asian-American. City Modern. Slim. Under thirty." All six targets bear a striking resemblance to Ziang, and she obliterates them with gusto.

• Robert McX, a Scottish-American journalist and media personality whose regular television show is a roundup of political events from Washington DC as well as various op/ed pieces. He is a tall, burly man with a buzzcut and a thick mustache, as well as a distinctive scar next to his right eye, that runs vertically across almost the full length of his face. McX's facial structure and mustache give him an appearance similar to that of G. Gordon Liddy, though he differs from Liddy in his scar and full head of hair.

Whilst many other journalists in Transmetropolitan are presented as being primarily media personalities uninterested in delivering the truth, McX is depicted as being at least reasonably principled. Whilst his personal politics seems to be moderate conservatism and possibly elements of Objectivism, he has a measure of respect and admiration for Spider, mainly because their purpose is similar. At the end of The Cure it is McX who gets to use Spider's research to publicly accuse the Smiler of having an affair with Liesl, a transient hooker, which he does with a smirk on his face. McX is also one of the leading figures in the journalists' revolt towards the middle of the Martial Law arc (he is the first to openly defy the media blackout), and acts as a catalyst to the consciences of other journalists, leading to the widespread defiance of the media blackout that The Smiler has instituted. He has a secret infestation of intelligent venereal tapeworms, and refers to his life as a series of "horrible days."

• Kristen, a highly popular drug dealer and previously a political fixer. She worked on a campaign against The Beast, where Spider first knew her. She has a distinctly abnormal eye (possibly cybernetic) and some unusual mannerisms that lead some characters to believe she's at least partly non-human. After using her as a source for several stories, Spider turns on her when he learns her political contacts gave her information about Vita Severn's assassination - she had used her inside knowledge to bet on the likelihood of her death, using the winnings to buy a bar. For revealing this information to Spider, she and her bodyguards (one of whom resembles an adult Charlie Brown) are assassinated by a man in a blur suit.

• Senator Tartleton Sweeney, a U.S. Senator who becomes embroiled in a pornography scandal. Sweeney, who had filibustered a number of bills concerning sexual education reform, was alleged to have been paid substantial amounts of money and other gifts for doing so, as well as funding (and supposedly appearing in) a number of pornographic movies; Spider then spent the majority of issue #27 harassing and gathering evidence against him. Spider makes an example of Sweeney to teach his assistants the tactic of "monstering," relentlessly and offensively hounding public figures wherever they go.

• Liesl Barclay, a transient prostitute and drug abuser; she later took 'The Cure', allowing her to revert to human form. She was hired to sleep with the Smiler, but is the only one left alive who did so, as the Smiler has been slowly but surely murdering all the girls connected to him to prevent the risk of leaked information. Spider rescues her from imminent death and she gives him the interview and genetic evidence to back up the story. Soon after, martial law is declared, and she refuses to go with Spider's merry band, annoyed that he "treat(ed her) like a prostitute" by getting what he wanted out of her and then seemingly ignoring her, and summarily gets run down and killed in the street by unidentified men in black. However, her death prevents the rest of Spider's group from being apprehended.

• James Longmarch, a deceased Senator who had run for President against The Beast. His campaign had been supported by Oscar Rossini. His likeness was used by The Smiler in a campaign endorsement. Spider admits to having voted for him when he ran against The Beast.