Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Steve Dillon
1995-2000
An
Alexandrine Couplet About The Preacher
A preacher, a vampire, and an assassin
Hang out with each other—and take the
fight to God
Preacher
is a comic book series made up of 75 issues, collected in 9 trade paperbacks or
6 hardcovers. It is – though personally I prefer to avoid the term when possible
– a graphic novel. It was planned, written, and published with a clear
beginning, series of story arcs, climax, and end.
The plot is just flat out insane.
Here Goes: An angel and demon meet and fall
in love. It’s all hot, heavy, and bow-chicka-wow, and they have an offspring
named Genesis. Genesis falls to Earth, lands in a church during service, and
gets wrapped in the body of a Southern tough guy turned preacher named Jesse
Custer. Because his name isn’t Western enough, whenever he comes up against a difficult
situation he hallucinates a spirit guide in the form of John Wayne who usually
tells him to act like a man and beat someone up. When Genesis fuses with him,
it blows up Jesse’s church and the entire congregation. This is all part of
God’s Plan, but at the time no one knows that, God seems pretty pissed, and the
angels trying to track Genesis down are terrified and turn to strong drink.
Meanwhile, a hard drinking Irish vampire
who’s an old friend of the preacher shows up, as does his ex-girlfriend, who’s
trying a stint as an assassin but isn’t very good at it.
After the angel-demon-preacher-fusing
explosion levels his church, Jesse emerges unscathed. He learns that he’s inherited
from Genesis the power of the Voice Of God. Anything he says out loud,
anything, people will do. So if he says “go fuck yourself” (and he does) you’re
going to end up in the hospital and really unhappy about it.
With this power, he can control anyone
he wants, in any way. He still prefers to solve problems by beating the Hell
out of them, but if he felt like having Mr. T fight his battles for him then
feed him Nerds On A Rope, Mr. T would do that.
He wouldn't be happy about it . . . |
+
. . . But he'd do it. |
This all sounds over the top. And it is.
It’s way more over the top than I’m even letting on. In addition to the
angel/demon progeny, the vampire, the John Wayne hallucinations, and Jesus’s
great great great inbred grandkid, there’s the God’s plan thing, a love
triangle, a redneck family plot line, cannibal hillbillies, the Irish Civil War,
the KKK, a fanatic Kurt Cobain fan who blew off most of his face with a
shotgun, an immortal Saint Of All Killers who shoots virtually everything in
his path and once murdered Satan. And that’s only what I’m remembering right
now. I mean, it goes on and on, and it has everything.
The truth is, buried underneath the action,
adventure, a little sex, and a lot of Western themes, underneath the fist
fights and gunfire and cannibal hillbillies, this is a really well written,
cohesive narrative. The characters are strong, have a surprising amount of
depth, and (assuming you can suspend your disbelief about vampires and people
who can literally command involuntary action with their voice) are believable.
The religious plots are well explained and entertaining, which is pretty
difficult. Preacher holds an incredible amount of stories together, and
does it with style and precision – most comic books have one or the other, but
this nails both. The good side of having a large number of storylines is if a
reader gets bored with one it doesn’t really matter since it goes away quick
and there’s a lot more going on. Most important, Preacher never loses
sight of its entertainment value. It never forgets it’s a comic book.
And, because of the nature of this blog,
I can’t help but add this, a photocopy of a page from the book. The bald,
cycloptic gentlemen is the above mentioned psychopathic henchmen, but by this
point he’s murdered the guy in charge of his organization, taken the reins, and
is driving it into the ground in his quest to find and control Jesse and his
magic voice power. It’s a page that’s very near and dear to my heart.
Keep those grammar standards strong,
Brotha!
|
Sorry if that was a little hard to read in this format. I hope it was worth it.
So, Preacher. It’s so full of
bizarre twists and turns and it’s likeable if for no other reason than it’s spectacular
scope and insanity, and really there are lots of other reasons to like it. The
ending is one of my favorite endings in literature. It’s an all-around good
time.