5 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Journalists Who Risk Everything for the Story

Spider Jerusalem (Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis)
Arguably the most recognizable Hunter S. Thompson caricature since Uncle Duke, Spider is the mad prophet of a transhumanist mega-city known only as The City (because everyone forgot it had any other name). Spider carves a place for himself by force as he clashes with corrupt politicians, subconsciousness-invading blipverts, and his own public image as a crusading hero. As The City is menaced by a deranged power-monger, Spider and his assistants are forced to take their bomb-tossing mentality to the point of literally tossing bombs. But beneath Spider’s violent, rage-filled, ruthless exterior beats the heart of someone who cares far too deeply for his fellow humans and wants to believe in the inherent goodness of it all. For his troubles, he’s proven wrong, time and again.

Jack Barron (Bug Jack Barron, by Norman Spinrad)
The protagonist of Spinrad’s prophetic dystopian satire, Jack Barron isn’t as vitriolic or aggressive as some proponents of the gonzo philosophy, but don’t be fooled— he’s as counter-cultured as the best of them. From his desk on Bug Jack Barron, he politely and charitably gives the corrupt government and their mega-corporation lobbyists just enough rope to hang themselves with. He’s sort of like Jon Stewart, if The Daily Show allowed people to call in, but with 10 times the viewers and 10 times the insanity. When a major corporation decides to bribe him, the result is all-out warfare between the champion of the public and a shadowy conspiracy that promises immortality. While Jack may only be human, he’s far from stupid, and more than willing to fight when it’s called for—and personal attacks are to be met with a scorched-earth policy.

Jack Sparks (The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp)
Jack Sparks is perhaps an odd one to mention, since his journalism seems to be in the Bill Bryson vein—a narrative of personal experiences—but he does follow the tenets of gonzo journalism to a degree: he sacrifices himself for the sake of the story, puts himself in the middle of things, and delivers work that is as personal as it is informative. Never is this clearer than when he almost destroys his career with the ill-advised report Jack Sparks on Drugs. In Last Days, his commitment to the story goes too far, as investigating a strange youtube video posted to his account—and the mysterious supernatural events that follow—recall to a traumatizing event in his youth, and eventually result in his demise (no spoilers; it’s in the title, people!). Throughout, Jack’s arresting personality and deeply personal style make the question of how it happens interesting.

The bloggers of the Newsflesh trilogy and Feedback, by Mira Grant
When the news is secretly being suppressed by a government conspiracy involving the CDC and several other agencies, citizen journalism is automatically the counter-culture, and any blogger who posts the truth becomes a revolutionary. In the post-apocalypse of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series, most of the population was accidentally infected with a disease that turns them into zombies when they hit the right viral load or die. Mainstream news media was the main force behind the coverup, with the real story being spread via blogs. In Feed, Georgia and Shaun Mason are two of the lead bloggers following a democratic presidential candidante across a virus-ravaged U.S., dedicated to getting the truth out into the world by any means necessary, willing to head directly into the fray to get the story by any means necessary. In Feedback, we meet another team covering the other side of the political spectrum. Across the entire series, bloggers are involved in resistance both overground and underground, weird cloning scandals, terrorist cells, and exposing major political scandals, managing to survive in a wretched post-apocalypse where if the zombies don’t kill you, the government will.

Scott McGrath (Night Film, by Marisha Pessl)
Scott McGrath is unique on this list, as his investigation isn’t funded by a major news service or magazine; instead, he acts alone. But Pessl’s run-down noir protagonist is a former newspaper reporter, disgraced by an attempt to expose notoriously reclusive director Stanislas Cordova. When Cordova’s daughter leaps to her death under mysterious circumstances, McGrath decides to investigate for the purely unselfish reasons of writing a book about his experiences. Night Film is, in part, a novel about just how unsuitable he is for the task, as Scott frequently allows his obsession to lead him down blind alleys and through a variety of unusual occurrences, proving that perhaps there’s such a thing as being too close to your story, even for gonzo journalists.