Preacher, in its comic book form, was and is in my humble opinion the most important comic that came out at the time of its release. People talk about the impact that the Dark Knight Returns had, and it had a massive impact, we moved away from the term comic and over to graphic novel. Comics had grown up. We now had serious and grown up story lines. Ennis was fearless in what he wrote about and for a lot of people it was edgy, but for me it pushed things so far I thought it brilliant, here was a writer getting his message across and no one was censoring him, I'll leave it to you to seek it out and see just how far The Preacher goes, you may not like it, but you will be endlessly entertained.
The comic itself was written by Garth Ennis,
A northern Irish born comic writer who later on became an American citizen, you can also find a lot of his early work in another great comic institution the 2000AD,
For those of you haven’t read it, please do, it’s got some of the greatest stories and characters ever, it’s being going for 40 years odd now and shows no sign of slowing. Judge Dredd, Rouge Trooper, Slaine, I could, and will eventually, blog about them endlessly!
Garth wrote the comic, and Steve Dillon drew it, you can thank him for some of the best art you will ever see, evocative, clean and just downright bloody lovely!
We lost Garth recently, and I for one am heartbroken at that, I grew up reading his amazingly well drawn characters and scenes. One of my earliest experiences was reading Cry of the Werewolf in the 20000AD back in 1983,
If you get a chance read it. You wont be sorry.
So, Preacher, what was it about? who was it about? Why was it such a ground shaking comic for its time? Well for a start Garth and Steve owned it. Unlike so many other people involved with the creation of Comics they didn’t see other people make a fortune off their creation, they had artistic control and were fairly compensated for it, a fairly unusual situation up until that point.
The titular Preacher is Jesse Custer, even so early in the comic we are given signs that this is an homage to the American West, to rugged individualism, one man’s struggle against higher powers, whether that was family, state, church or even God.
After being inhabited by Genesis, the offspring of a union between a demon and Angel Jesse sets out with the voice of God and able to compel those around him into complete and utter obedience. Not a power he used lightly I should point out for Jesse was as handy as a man ever was with his fists.
Tulip is and was his girlfriend, we get introduced to her in an explosive and violent way,
This is not the usual girlfriend eye candy sexist nonsense you got in comics usually, Tulip was independent, clever and could kick ass as much as Jesse.
Cassidy was a bit of an enigma, we find out over the course of the comic that he is actually a Vampire, he never takes off the shades and is actually a bit of a bastard, as much as he is Jesse’s best friend.
There is a particularly poignant where he revisits a past love years later, a love he betrayed and cast aside, we get to see a different side to Cassidy, he’s still a bastard, but you feel there might be some hope for him…maybe.
Arseface, god love him, what can you say, he seems to be a trope for all the hopeless helpless lost youth of the world, the self-destructive, the naïve and the stupid, but who ultimately see the error of their ways, sometimes too late.
Herr Starr, the living embodiment of the conspiracy behind the scenes, the group that start with the best of intention, but over time become corpulent, greedy and lethal. He represents, for me anyway, those that always think they know best for the rest of, what is it the say? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Starr suffers more and more as the story develops, in his pursuit of Jesse Custer as the living embodiment of divine will he seems to sacrifice more and more of what makes him human.
The Preacher is a road movie comic, as Jesse hunts down an absent god he in turn is hunted by one of the best comic book villains ever set to paper, in fact I don’t know if you could even call him a villain, he is more of a force of nature, death incarnate, the storm made flesh.
This is a man whom death has moulded into vengeance, nothing but furious vengeance. For Jesse that means trouble as he isn’t affected by Jesse’s voice of God, there is nothing stopping this lethal force awoken by angels to track down and kill Jesse.
As I said the comic itself is a road move, romance, knockabout comedy, meditation on what it is to be man, Vietnam war, family and how they can fuck you up.
At the heart of it, it’s about the love a man has for his friends and lover and how he would do anything for them.
It takes us across a mythical American landscape at a time when America was fascinating to us all, when we imagined ourselves driving down dusty roads during the day and drank and caroused in whiskey bars at night.
I almost forgot to mention the legend that is Glenn Fabry, he drew the covers for this series and my God what an artist, every cover was a genuine work of art, the covers made the anticipation of what was to go on inside even better.
God rest his soul, when Steve Dillon died I think an age of comics went with him, between Steve and Garth they produced some of the most memorable characters and situation. I remember going to the comic shop when I knew the next issue was released and reading each word and taking in every panel as slowly as I could, knowing that a rushed read would leave me with a month’s wait till I could hang out with these guys again, and for that and making me the adult I am I thank those two guys, Steve and Garth.
I like to raise a Glass to both of them, and especially Steve as I quote the famous Irish Toast
“May your soul already be in heaven an hour, before the devil knows your dead”
Steve, you were a rouge and made my teenage years and later ones more bearable knowing you were out there and that I could hang out with the coolest bunch of people ever.
Steve Dillon 22 March 1962 – 22 October 2016. Rest in Peace fella.
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