Tear Jerker / Transmetropolitan

• SPIDER JERUSALEM MADE ME INTO A PORN STAR. While it's initially played for laughs and titillation, it's clear Indira did not take what happened to her well at all - and neither has anyone else. Her parents stopped talking to her and she'd be hounded by people who saw her as just another porn star on the street. The worst part is that Spider didn't even consider her that important to be remembered, just some assistant who volunteered to help. He has no idea what happened in that bar.
• One of Spider's snapshots of the street talk about a girl who'd been molested by her brother and bribed with stuffed toys to keep it "their little secret". Said brother eventually committed suicide over the guilt, breaking his sister's heart because as much as he'd abused her, she still loved him and missed him.
  Spider: Imagine something with me: You're a thirteen-year-old girl. And you've got a row of beautiful cuddly toys on your shelf. Imagine being goddamn thirteen and thinking: I got that bear for letting my brother come on my breasts.
• The riot that happens in Angels 8. Even though Spider has a lot of contempt for the Transient leadership (especially how they make empty promises protection in exchange for sexual favors), none of them deserved the total war the cops wage on them.
• "Another Cold Morning", following a former photojournalist from the late 20th and early 21th century who was supposed to be revived with her husband. Her husband dies in Southeast Asia, too far to be revived, and she herself is dumped traumatized, confused, and alone, into a future that's even harsher, individualistic, and more uncaring than 1980s New York could ever be. The worst part is that she's lucky - she kept all her resources, but is in no state of mind to use them. The other revivals have no such access, and can only wind up at glorified homeless shelters with nothing to their name.
• Spider's interview with the Smiler's wife.
• The brutal assassination of Vita Severn. Spider's reaction is telling: for the first time in the entire series, he is neither angry nor smugly content. He is absolutely horrified.
• The massacre at the college campus by the riot police is as terrible as you can imagine.
• Spider's journalistic exploration of the world of child prostitution is one of the most brutally heartbreaking moments in the comic. And it hits you right out of the gate with this line from the start of the story: "Can we go to Long Pig? They have toys."

  Spider: You can let yourself forget they're just kids so easily....

  • One of the saddest parts of the story is a low-key moment that slips by in a single panel- a teenage streetwalker called Tamika who's waiting to be hired for underage sex accompanied by her mother. But her mother isn't pimping her out, no, it's not that simple. The girl Spider is trying to interview explains that Tamika's mother has tried to stop her prostituting herself, but can't, and has given up. So her mother does the only thing she thinks she can- keeping her daughter company between jobs and writing down the number plates of cars she gets into to try and ensure her safety. She has a loving mother who does actually care and she still CHOOSES to whore herself out. Holy hell...
• The gradual decay of Spider Jerusalem due to his illness is pretty hard to read. He gets better, but still...
• The excerpt from I Hate It Here about Spider attending Transient funerals following the Angels 8 riot:
  Today, the City's youngest culture buries its dead, and stupidly stops to thank me because I only let a hundred of them die.
• In Filth of the City, alongside his usual journalistic ramblings and mayhem, there are a few pages where he sobers up, including one who's excerpt is only a sentence long- Sometimes I want to be someone else so much it hurts. The excerpt is accompanied by a picture of him sitting alone in the park.