Preacher, By Garth Ennis And Steve Dillon

Preacher

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. 

 

Ummm . . . No God. That’s a bad plan.

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.

 

NOT Jesse’s Ex-Girlfriend.

Oh, and there’s a worldwide secret society with virtually unlimited power, based around the bloodline of the secret offspring of Jesus Christ. The actual child is a moon-brained idiot locked in a cage, the culmination of dozens of generations of inbreeding to keep the Jesus blood pure, because what could go wrong with dozens of generations of inbreeding? The society’s chief henchman is a domineering, power hungry psychopath for whom the ends always justify the means. He’s one of literature’s biggest shit bags, in the way only a comic book villain can be.

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.

 

Yes Sir.

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.

 

Bill Bryson wrote the sequel.

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.