"Sky was the limit"
Remember when you were a kid and someone ever asked "if you could choose a superpower, what would it be?". You thought being a wise ass when replying "the superpower of having all powers"! Alright, well, imagine that this actually happens to a random reverend in a small town in Texas... then you start to get an idea what Preacher is about.
Some series mark the comics industry and become classics, such is the case for Y: the Last Man, or The Walking Dead. It was the case for Preacher in the 90s, a rocking series published between 1996 and 2001, nowadays less of a blockbuster, but definitely a series that continues to shine, move readers and entertain them through nine 200-page volumes (pretty good job!!). Preacher is very western inspired, besides the fact that it mainly takes place in Texas, there are many references to the genre and to western movies - for example, the hero has the strange habit of asking a ghost of John Wayne what to do when he doubts. However, I don't really like westerns, I guess it's not my generation, yet I loved Preacher. Mmmmm how does that happen? What's it about this series that is so captivating? Preacher is provocative, fun, tabooless, and deals with topics anyone can relate to: beliefs, friendship, love and "doing the right thing".
The Story:
It's hell of a mess in Heaven: Genesis, the child of an angel and a demon escaped down to earth, angels started a war between each other, and most importantly.... God has left and cannot be found. The entity Genesis flew down to earth, and established home in the body of Jesse Custer, a preacher in the small town of Annville, TX. After that event, Jesse finds himself able to speak with the Word of God, ie, he can speak in a voice that would force anyone to do anything he says. Yes, absolutely anything. No exceptions. As I read this, I could only imagine the world of opportunities that this ability opened. I imagined all the possible wrongdoings and abuses coming in the next pages ... however I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Jesse doesn't use the Word all the time, but only in specific situations. After discovering his ability, and understanding how upside down are both Earth and Heaven, he decides to take on a mission. Clearly, not the type of task suitable for a summer intern, here would be the job description: "find God and convince Him to go back to Heaven" - yeah nothing less than that.
For that purpose, Jesse surrounds himself with two friends: Tulip O'hare, his girlfriend who he deeply loves, and Cassidy, a hard drinking Irish vampire with a funky thick accent. The well balanced trio goes through many adventures from coast to coast, overcoming many obstacles that a secret organization, The Grail, puts on their way. The Grail is the keeper of a centuries-old secret, it has plans for both the world and Jesse Custer, and will do everything (I mean, even launching a nuclear bomb) to stop Jesse from succeeding.
The series has two major features that plunge the reader deeper in its world, book after book. First of all, this story is restless. Whenever you think you are done with a crazy adventure, something else even crazier, phonier and more entertaining comes up. The result is that you never get bored, some crazy development is always around the corner.
Also, let's face it, the small print on the back of the cover that states "suggested for mature readers", cannot in any way prepare you to what is inside those books. It's not that the series is gore or particularly violent, violence is often very graphic in comics, it's just that Preacher is extreme, in every way. To give an example, in volume 2 "Until the End of the World", there is a scene where a disgusting zoophile character pees on a pile of hay after having sex with a chicken in a barn, except that in the hay was hiding a severely inbred kid with one eye only. So after having accidentally witnessed the intercourse, the simple inbred kid gets also accidentally peed in his one eye, then tries to escape but eventually gets killed before leaving the barn. At first, the zero limit aspect of the series is a little shocking, then passed volume 3, you start not only to get used to it, but also to expect Ennis to go all the way in his ideas, no matter how crooked these are. When in volume 7, "Salvation", the writer implies that something very wrong is going on in the well guarded building #4 of the meat factory of the town of Salvation, TX, I got quite excited, intrigued, and somewhat afraid to finally find out what goes on in there.... and wow! Ennis greatly lived up to my expectations, I could not have expected any such fucked up thing!
The second great feature is the incredibly well done construction of each character. Ennis masters the art of solidly building characters throughout the story, and this applies to all characters. Volume 4 "Ancient History", is even entirely dedicated to telling the past of three characters, Cassidy, the Saint of Killers and Herr Star. It is wonderful to get to know where all these characters come from, it helps immensely to understand their behavior, aspirations and feelings. For example, it's awesome to learn about the past of the Saint of Killers, how he was a mortal being with a heart, and what chain of events turned him into an immortal trigger-happy killer.
The same thing applies to the funky character of Cassidy. Cassidy is no classic vampire, all the Twilight, Robert Pattinson pretty face thing, or the garlic and I-only-sleep-in-coffins-please are totally thrown down the drain. Cass prefers a Jack on the rocks over a glass of blood (good choice!), and only fears sunlight. It's awesome to have lots of details on his past, from how he was a normal young man in the Irish army against the English, to how he became a vampire, to how he eventually travelled to New York and now loves this great city. His past also helps to understand why he is so close to Jesse, and why their friendship seems so strong. However, the drinking problem and his 97 seven past years of messing around the US, may at some point cause trouble to the balance of the adventurous trio : Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy... It's always nice to see someone take a bullet - or 1,000 - for their friend, of course it's easier if that person is an immortal vampire, but everyone has darker sides and a past that cannot be undone...
Whether Jesse manages to fulfill his mission is irrelevant here. What is important is that Ennis plunges you in a reckless passionating quest, full of surprises until the very end. Indeed, I found the ending very well thought and inventive. Often, I take the last volume and read the last pages again, they are so well done, so smartly drawn and so beautiful, that it is a pleasure to read them as it brings back fun moments of the saga. Reading the saga can be kind of a double edged sword. Indeed, Preacher can make the most boring place on earth a lot of fun, but can also make the coolest place a little dull, as long as you don't know what happens to Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy. Preacher is a heavenly delightful series to read. Word.
The Art:
The story was published in the 1990s, and inevitably, Dillon gave it this very pleasant 90s touch. Whether the colors, the clothes, the details in the background or other graphic references, the art plunges you back in the last decade of the 20th century. So, as a kid of the 90s, reading this series today had a nice nostalgic yet cool feel, something quite unique that I didn't find in other more recent series.
There are many dialogues in Preacher, and sometimes drawing long dialogue scenes is a challenge for the artist. However, Dillon aces at drawing dialogues, making those scenes even more interesting. Indeed, the facial expressions of each character adds immensely to what they say. For example, if a character is lying or ashamed, Dillon might emphasize a tension in the eyebrows and throat, or emphasize a lack of eye-contact. The art perfectly matches the scenario in the sense that it contributes to provide information on the feelings and thoughts of the characters.
Lastly, as mentioned above, Preacher is a very extreme series... and it would have been easy to be very extreme in the art and show everything in a very raw manner. However, Dillon did a way smarter job than that. Indeed, the artist hit the right balance between showing enough but not too much. Some of the scenes are suggested by shadows, or the horrified face of a character, but are not graphically illustrated. Even though graphic violence or sex can be shocking, suggested violence or sex can be freely interpreted by the reader's imagination, so potentially worse than what the artist would have drawn. It is very enjoyable that for some scenes, Dillon lets the reader picture what has happened. One last note on the art, Dillon draws without complex the character of God. It is interesting to see his take on that task in the context of Preacher.
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| Cover Vol. 1 |
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Steve Dillon
Volume 1: Gone to Texas (1996)
Volume 2: Until the End of the World (1997)
Volume 3: Proud Americans (1997)
Volume 4: Ancient History (1998)
Volume 5: Dixie Fried (1998)
Volume 6: War in the Sun (1999)
Volume 7: Salvation (1999)
Volume 8: All Hell's A-Coming (2000)
Volume 9: Alamo (2001)
Remember when you were a kid and someone ever asked "if you could choose a superpower, what would it be?". You thought being a wise ass when replying "the superpower of having all powers"! Alright, well, imagine that this actually happens to a random reverend in a small town in Texas... then you start to get an idea what Preacher is about.
Some series mark the comics industry and become classics, such is the case for Y: the Last Man, or The Walking Dead. It was the case for Preacher in the 90s, a rocking series published between 1996 and 2001, nowadays less of a blockbuster, but definitely a series that continues to shine, move readers and entertain them through nine 200-page volumes (pretty good job!!). Preacher is very western inspired, besides the fact that it mainly takes place in Texas, there are many references to the genre and to western movies - for example, the hero has the strange habit of asking a ghost of John Wayne what to do when he doubts. However, I don't really like westerns, I guess it's not my generation, yet I loved Preacher. Mmmmm how does that happen? What's it about this series that is so captivating? Preacher is provocative, fun, tabooless, and deals with topics anyone can relate to: beliefs, friendship, love and "doing the right thing".
The Story:
 |
| Cover Vol. 2 |
For that purpose, Jesse surrounds himself with two friends: Tulip O'hare, his girlfriend who he deeply loves, and Cassidy, a hard drinking Irish vampire with a funky thick accent. The well balanced trio goes through many adventures from coast to coast, overcoming many obstacles that a secret organization, The Grail, puts on their way. The Grail is the keeper of a centuries-old secret, it has plans for both the world and Jesse Custer, and will do everything (I mean, even launching a nuclear bomb) to stop Jesse from succeeding.
 |
| Party at Jesus de Sade's (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
Also, let's face it, the small print on the back of the cover that states "suggested for mature readers", cannot in any way prepare you to what is inside those books. It's not that the series is gore or particularly violent, violence is often very graphic in comics, it's just that Preacher is extreme, in every way. To give an example, in volume 2 "Until the End of the World", there is a scene where a disgusting zoophile character pees on a pile of hay after having sex with a chicken in a barn, except that in the hay was hiding a severely inbred kid with one eye only. So after having accidentally witnessed the intercourse, the simple inbred kid gets also accidentally peed in his one eye, then tries to escape but eventually gets killed before leaving the barn. At first, the zero limit aspect of the series is a little shocking, then passed volume 3, you start not only to get used to it, but also to expect Ennis to go all the way in his ideas, no matter how crooked these are. When in volume 7, "Salvation", the writer implies that something very wrong is going on in the well guarded building #4 of the meat factory of the town of Salvation, TX, I got quite excited, intrigued, and somewhat afraid to finally find out what goes on in there.... and wow! Ennis greatly lived up to my expectations, I could not have expected any such fucked up thing!
 |
| Jesse solving problems (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
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| Cover Vol.7 |
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| Cassidy meeting another vampire (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
The same thing applies to the funky character of Cassidy. Cassidy is no classic vampire, all the Twilight, Robert Pattinson pretty face thing, or the garlic and I-only-sleep-in-coffins-please are totally thrown down the drain. Cass prefers a Jack on the rocks over a glass of blood (good choice!), and only fears sunlight. It's awesome to have lots of details on his past, from how he was a normal young man in the Irish army against the English, to how he became a vampire, to how he eventually travelled to New York and now loves this great city. His past also helps to understand why he is so close to Jesse, and why their friendship seems so strong. However, the drinking problem and his 97 seven past years of messing around the US, may at some point cause trouble to the balance of the adventurous trio : Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy... It's always nice to see someone take a bullet - or 1,000 - for their friend, of course it's easier if that person is an immortal vampire, but everyone has darker sides and a past that cannot be undone...
 |
| Cover Vol.4 |
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| The Saint of Killers (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
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| Jesse Custer & Cassidy - Goodbyes are always hard (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
The Art:
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| Jesse & Cass on the Empire State (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
There are many dialogues in Preacher, and sometimes drawing long dialogue scenes is a challenge for the artist. However, Dillon aces at drawing dialogues, making those scenes even more interesting. Indeed, the facial expressions of each character adds immensely to what they say. For example, if a character is lying or ashamed, Dillon might emphasize a tension in the eyebrows and throat, or emphasize a lack of eye-contact. The art perfectly matches the scenario in the sense that it contributes to provide information on the feelings and thoughts of the characters.
 |
| Jesse's childhood (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
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| Cover Vol.1 |
Lastly, as mentioned above, Preacher is a very extreme series... and it would have been easy to be very extreme in the art and show everything in a very raw manner. However, Dillon did a way smarter job than that. Indeed, the artist hit the right balance between showing enough but not too much. Some of the scenes are suggested by shadows, or the horrified face of a character, but are not graphically illustrated. Even though graphic violence or sex can be shocking, suggested violence or sex can be freely interpreted by the reader's imagination, so potentially worse than what the artist would have drawn. It is very enjoyable that for some scenes, Dillon lets the reader picture what has happened. One last note on the art, Dillon draws without complex the character of God. It is interesting to see his take on that task in the context of Preacher.
 |
| Killer in action - Vol. 1 (c) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon |
- Overall: 8.5/10 (don't ask why .5)
- Explicit Content: 11/10
- Parental Advisory: yeah definitely, and grandparental as well
- Roller-coaster-while-sitting-down feel: 9/10
- I love John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and everything that has to do with Westerns: 9/10
- Yeah, well I don't, I only like Jack on the rocks, is it still worth a shot?: yes hands down
One of the best comic books (can we call it a graphic novel now that it's been collected?) I have ever read, seen, or heard of. My only qualms are with the ending. I guess I just thought this would all build up to something a bit more glorious, but I was left feeling like there would be a next page that would blow my mind. It might also have been that my mind had so thoroughly been blown in the previous pages I had nothing left.
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