2010 March 20 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Review: Preacher vol. 1-9 by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon

Posted by Anastasia on March 20, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 202010

42-50. Preacher vol. 1-9 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Publication: Vertigo (1995-2000), Paperback (all), ~1856pp total / ISBN 9781563892615 (vol. 1)
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Rating:
Read: February 27-28, 2010
Source: Borrowed
Summary from Amazon:

Here’s a book guaranteed to offend a bunch of people, not only because of its profuse profanity and graphic violence, but because it’s the epitome of iconoclasm. Like a brutal accident, you can’t watch but you can’t turn away. The story follows an ex-preacher man, Jesse, who has become disgusted with God’s abandoning of His responsibilities. So Jesse starts off into the wilds of Texas with his hitman girlfriend and new best friend (a vampire) to find God so that he can give Him a piece of his mind. Despite its superficial perversity, this book contains what may be the most moral character in mainstream comics. A cult hit in the making. Fans of Quentin Tarantino take note.

Review

How can I review something like Preacher? I can’t, really. For one thing it’s too long. For another it’s too awesome. And for a third thing you really just need to read it for yourself because it is just that good.

I could go on for ages and ages about what I liked, let alone the themes and messages and so on, but I’ll break it down to a few points and hope they’ll be enough to convince you to read Preacher. So, what I liked:

1. The characters. Not just Jesse, who’s a likable protagonist with flaws and other human traits, but also his girlfriend, Tulip, who’s strong and interesting and GREAT, and Cassidy, the vampire who tags along with them for a while. I even liked the villains, especially Herr Starr, a bald bad-ass motherfucker who starts out sort of a baddie and ends up as an object of ridicule (and some seriously funny sidestories).

2. The plot. It gets a little weird in some parts, and I don’t entirely see the point of hunting down God and making him take responsibility for His actions (because what do you do after that? You spank God, and then what?), but I liked the rest of it. The character development is really great, though, and for sure by the end I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next.

3. The writing. Besides the stuff that could be considered plot holes, the writing was top-notch. Every volume was full of great stuff, love and anger and fighting! And excitement! And heartbreak. Reading the whole series over a weekend was a real rollercoaster, a fun one. At the end I could only sit back and think “wow.” It was great!

4. The art. It’s not revolutionary but it is very well done, entirely consistent throughout the series and sometimes it even borders on beautiful. That was such a nice thing to have, especially after what happened in other series like The Books of Magic and its sequels (starts out with great art that quickly deteriorates into crap). Sometimes I think it’s trying to get too realistic (does a 20-something really have as many wrinkles as Jesse does?), but it’s definitely not bad.

Have I convinced you yet? I hope so, because this series has turned out to be one of my favorites, right after the all-mighty Transmetropolitan. Which, if you knew how much I loved that series, you’d know it’s a compliment. Do at least get the first volume of Preacher! It’ll be enough to tell you if you like it or not, and it’s really worth giving it at least that much of a chance. Go into it with an open mind, and you may even surprise yourself with how much you’ll like it!

(It is pretty violent and full of swear words and possibly offensive, but if you can handle Quentin Tarantino’s movies, you can handle this. No prob.)