Published: 1999-2000 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 377 Pages
Review:
Well, here we are… the end of the road.
And man, what an end this was.
I was half expected the series to end with a whimper because everything I truly love never seems to know how to properly end itself. But Garth Ennis penned a worthy story that channels back to a lot of what he built this series off of and gives us a pretty satisfactory conclusion to not just the series but to all the plot threads involving the key characters.
Having also just finished the television series, I can say that the comic is, by far, the superior version of the story with the better ending for all parties involved.
This moved by at a brisk pace, pushed the envelope as it always does but it gave us a real slice of humanity amongst all the rubble and edgy boi ’90s shit.
I didn’t really know how much I loved these characters until their stories concluded.
It’s really hard to talk more about it other than my actual feelings because to delve into the plot, at this point, would kind of spoil the whole thing.
Frankly, just read this series if you haven’t. It’s one of the best long running series ever created for the comic book medium.
Rating: 10/10 Pairs well with: the other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
Published: 1998-1999 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 368 Pages
Review:
At first glance, Preacher‘s fifth volume may seem like filler. The reason being is that it diverts from the main storyline for almost its entirety and only comes back around to the primary plot at the very end.
In this chapter, Jesse Custer is basically on his own after somehow surviving death, a confrontation with God and having his heart broken by seeing the love of his life and his best friend sharing some romantic gestures.
Very late in this book we do catch up with Tulip and see her leave Cassidy behind, as months after what she believes to be the loss of her love has left her broken.
The first two-thirds or so of this follow Jesse as he becomes the sheriff of a small town, goes to war with new villain Odin Quincannon, a character I didn’t know was in the comics and thought was created just for the first season of the Preacher television show.
Jesse must free the town from the tyranny of the supremely fucked up Quincannon, as well as his Nazi lawyer that has the hots for him. During this plot thread, Jesse also discovers that his mother is still alive and they are able to reunite and find some peace with the loss they both suffered from each other’s absence.
In the last third of this volume, we catch up with Tulip and see how shitty her life with Cassidy has become. Mostly, we get her origin story told over a few issues, which added so much context to her character and her harsh life.
Honestly, if I knew what the gist of this book was beforehand, I might have been apprehensive, as the main story was rocking along at a great pace. However, this book gave us so much more character development and context that it only makes the series stronger and has thus, built up my enthusiasm for the sixth and final book.
Rating: 9.5/10 Pairs well with: the other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
Published: 1998 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 365 Pages
Review:
Man, this series hit its stride from the get go but it hasn’t lost it and it actually comes even harder in this book.
Where the last collection was sort of the start of the second act of the entire series and didn’t have as much of an impact as the two volumes before it, this book really puts things back into a roaring motion with a pretty immediate bang.
The first issue in this collection is actually the origin story of Herr Starr. It lets you understand the villain more intimately, as well as his motivations and his hunger for power.
After that, this gets right back to the main story where the added context of Starr’s backstory really gives this string of issues a lot more depth.
This book is action heavy and a lot happens. This changes the game quite a bit, shuffles the deck and puts our heroes into positions they haven’t found themselves in yet. This is just great storytelling that feels like it is leading to something big. It’s as if Garth Ennis had a vision when he started and he’s fulfilling what that vision was.
Now I’m not sure how carefully planned this series was from its beginning but Ennis has created a rich, lived in world that only seems to get better. Most comic book series that run for a long time lose their momentum and the story gets lost.
Preacher is damn near perfection, which is pretty incredible considering that after this chapter in the saga, you’re more than forty issues into the story.
Rating: 9.75/10 Pairs well with: the other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
Published: 1996-1998 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 349 Pages
Review:
The Preacher series reaches its halfway point with this volume and what’s great about it is that it is still rolling strong. This collection is a bit different than the first two, however, as it doesn’t just collect issues of the regular Preacher series but it also includes the Saint of Killers miniseries and the Cassidy starring one-shot. Both of these side stories add more context and some extra backstory to these characters.
Overall, this is still a fantastic chapter in Garth Ennis’ epic tale. It doesn’t flow as nicely as the first two volumes, as the inclusion of the other two stories gives it a somewhat disjointed feel but these stories felt necessary to the larger tale and I can’t really think of a better way to include them.
Once the main story gets going again, it picks up right where it left off. Some things come back into play that needed to be followed up on earlier in the series. For instance, Arseface returns for revenge but his story takes a pretty interesting turn.
While I love the version of Arseface that we’ve gotten with the television show, I like how the source material is so different and even if he’s not a main character, his material here is fun to read, I can see why they changed him for the show and gave him a bigger role in the scheme of things but I probably prefer this version of the character, as his arc works better and he seems more fleshed out, even though the comic used him less.
This is the first half of the middle act. So nothing huge happens but it moves forward at a good pace and drops some new things into the narrative to help build and enrich the plot.
In the end, this is the weakest of the first three collections but it’s still stellar and it just makes me want to keep on reading.
Rating: 9/10 Pairs well with: the other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
Published: 1996-1997 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 369 Pages
Review:
A big chunk of this book in the Preacher series is the Crusaders story arc, which I already reviewed here. It takes up six issues of the fourteen collected in this volume but I wanted to also review this book as a whole body of work, as I am reading through Preacher in its entirety and in order.
Man, I fucking loved this book in the series and it would actually have been perfect, except for three of the issues that served as flashback/origin stories for Jesse’s dad and Cassidy. Now those stories are important but they kind of slowed things down a bit.
I guess reading this from month to month, the backstory issues were fine but it kind of gets in the way of the larger, more energetic story for the main characters. And I think that the main plot threads in this were just so damn good that even though the origin tales added context and depth, they just had a negative effect on the overall momentum.
This book is pretty important to the larger Preacher mythos, as this is where we meet supervillain Herr Starr, as well as learn all about The Grail and what their purpose is. For those that watch the television show, the events here sort of line up with the end of season three and the start of season four.
But the comic book and the TV show are very different. While they follow similar threads and have similar themes, the comic is way more over the top and intense than the show. In fact, until really reading this from the beginning, I guess I didn’t understand the depths that the comic would go, even for ’90s edgy boi shit.
While the first installment to the series was damn good, this one is close to perfect for what this story is and for Ennis’ style as a writer. I hope that momentum continues going forward as I don’t want to waste too much time before jumping into the third book.
Rating: 9.75/10 Pairs well with: the other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: The Boys is a comic book about a five person team tasked with keeping superheroes in check. In their world, superheroes are celebrities with all the narcissistic failings normal people have, but magnified. It was adapted into a well-reviewed Amazon Prime TV show. In this video, I compare and contrast the comic book and TV versions and argue that the TV version made some adjustments that drastically improve the material.
Published: 1995-1996 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 351 Pages
Review:
Over the years, I’ve read several different story arcs from the Preacher comic book series. But never have I started from the beginning and tried to read the series in its entirety.
I’ve only read the second story arc that makes up this first book. So getting into the earliest Preacher issues was a real treat.
This kicks things off with a bang and for fans of the television show, the beginning of the comic is vastly different, even if there are some similarities.
As dark as the show is, this is bleaker, meaner and has a harder edge than anything that they can put on television, especially in 2019 where everything is deemed “too offensive”.
In fact, this is ’90s comics at its peak. But this was also from an era were Vertigo wasn’t complete shit. Say what you will about ’90s comics, good or bad, but this is one of the titles that defines the best parts of that decade. Everything in the ’90s was “extreme” and this encapsulates that like no other comic except for maybe some bootleg and outlaw comics of the time.
But this doesn’t feel like it’s a gimmick that didn’t age well, it feels genuine and authentic. That’s probably why it has stood the test of time.
Garth Ennis was on his A game right out of the gate and his fantastic writing is greatly enhanced by Steve Dillon’s art on every page, as well as Glenn Fabry’s stupendous covers.
Preacher is a perfect storm of hardcore, extreme, edgy boi shit and I mean that complimentary. It’s a product of its time and the culture around it. While I’m sure that is off putting to some, like easily offended snowflakes in 2019, this is still a comic series with merit and a lot of emotional turmoil that the reader can relate to despite how dark this world is.
It also examines a lot of religious taboos and criticism in a creative and exploratory way. As someone that grew up in a really religious environment, some of this was uncomfortable for me to read the first time but in retrospect, it’s good that it challenges these ideals and asks what the point to it all is.
Preacher is not a comic series for everyone. I can see where it would push away certain sects on the right side and left side of the political spectrum. For those of us in the middle, who want some of the answers to life’s mysteries, it’s a cool exploration into that backed up by badass characters doing badass things and killing off scumbags that deserve it.
Rating: 9.5/10 Pairs well with: the other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
Original Run: July 26th, 2019 – current Created by: Eric Kripke Directed by: various Written by: various Based on:The Boys by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson Music by: Christopher Lennertz Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Kapon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Elisabeth Shue, Simon Pegg, Jennifer Esposito, Giancarlo Esposito, Haley Joel Osment, Brit Morgan
Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios, Kripke Enterprises, Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, Kickstart Entertainment, KFL Nightsky Productions, 8 Episodes (so far), 55-66 Minutes (per episode)
Review:
If I’m being honest, the trailer for this show hurts it. When I saw it, I thought it looked cheesy and way too edgy boi. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the show was something much better than what the trailer alluded to.
In fact, this is the best superhero show on television. Now I’m saying that only having seen the first season, as that’s all we’ve got at this point. However, I have a good feeling that it should maintain its quality, at least for another season or two, as it ends in a pretty profound way like a stiff, solid gut punch.
Like Preacher, another television show adapted from the comic book work of Garth Ennis, this is a dark tale that shows some people at their very worst while still providing enough lightheartedness to help take the edge off.
The cast is absolutely superb in this. Every single person that’s a regular on the show is putting in some top notch work. Karl Urban kills it in everything and that should go without saying. However, I don’t know much about Jack Quaid but I’m a fan now. The real standout though is Anthony Starr, who plays Homelander, who is this universe’s version of a Superman. Except this Superman is a total asshole that does some unbelievably heinous stuff.
I wasn’t completely sold on the show until episode four, which was the halfway point for this short season. Starr’s Homelander takes center stage and shows you the type of mad god that he is. While powerful superheroes turned evil and running amok is nothing new in the genre, this was some next level shit. And it was a moment that could have made the show or broke it. It certainly made it, as its perfectly executed, giving off the right sort of emotion and context, adding real depth to two of the main characters.
Since I loved the hell out of this show’s inaugural season, I don’t want to spoil too much. But if it’s not hitting the right notes for you early on, give it until the end of episode four. At the point, it’s hard not to go on.
The Boys is solid storytelling, solid character building and maybe the savior of the superhero genre, which is starting to get redundant and tiresome like spaghetti westerns by the late ’70s. And maybe that’s because this isn’t a standard superhero story, it’s real drama with high stakes and there are a lot of narrative threads and different avenues that the show can explore.
In only 8 episodes, it perfected world building and gave us something special… something I definitely want more of. Only two other shows really ensnared me like this in the last ten-to-twelve years: Mr. Robot and Breaking Bad.
Now the rating is pretty high but it just represents the first and so far only season. Hopefully, The Boys can maintain its quality moving forward.
Rating: 9.5/10 Pairs well with: another Garth Ennis comic turned television show: Preacher.
Published: October 31st, 1996 – March 31st, 1997 Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry (covers)
Vertigo Comics, 156 Pages
Review:
Since I just finished Preacher‘s third season, I am really happy because the show is in a spot that I remember really fondly from the comics: the six-part Crusaders story arc.
No longer owning the Preacher comics I had in the ’90s, as they were lost somewhere along the years and after several moves, I had to round up these issues again. Luckily, my local comic shop had all six issues and in pristine condition, I might add.
It was great revisiting this series and if you haven’t read the comics but are a fan of the show, you can jump right into this story and know where you are. It has some of the stuff from the back end of season three in it and it also goes into what I assume will be the early parts of season four. Ultimately, this is just a badass chapter in the long epic that is this superb series.
Cassidy, the vampire, is captured by Herr Starr and his minions. Jesse has to leave Tulip behind as he goes on an insane mission to rescue Cassidy from The Grail’s fortress. We meet the Allfather, get to learn about the angel that is imprisoned with Cassidy (seen in the season three finale of the show), get some awesome action when the Saint of Killers takes on The Grail in their stronghold and get to see Starr in all his evil greatness.
As much as I like the show, I still love the comic and this just made me realize that I need to give the entire series a revisit.
Garth Ennis was on his A-game here but any fan of comics from the ’90s knows about how great this series was. Steve Dillon’s art still looks incredible and frankly, I wish more comic books had even half of the style that Dillon did here. I also love the Glenn Fabry covers and some of them have become so iconic over time that I may frame a few of these issues.
Preacher is an exceptionally great comic book. Even with a television show, there are just too many people that haven’t delved into the source material. It’s fucked up, twisted and delightful.
For fans of the series, this arc is a high point and ’90s comic book perfection.
Rating: 10/10 Pairs well with: The other Preacher stuff, as well as ’90s Spawn and Garth Ennis’ run on Shadowman.
Published: July 6th, 2016 (this collected edition) Written by: Garth Ennis, Paul Jenkins Art by: Dennis Calero, Ashley Wood
Valiant Entertainment, 200 Pages
Review:
This collected edition is just called Shadowman without any extra subtitle to differentiate it from the general franchise. This collects Shadowman numbers 1 through 4 and Shadowman Presents: Deadside numbers 1 through 3. This is the run that was written by Garth Ennis (the mind behind Preacher) with art by Ashley Wood.
I’ve never read a Shadowman story but I vaguely remember the video games from back in the early ’00s. So this was my first experience with the character in a literary sense.
That being said, I’m not sure if this was a good jumping off point. It’s hard for me to tell if this is how all Shadowman comics are or if this is just Garth Ennis being Garth Ennis and trying to be artistic as fuck without giving me much to really care about from a narrative standpoint. While Preacher is a good example of Ennis style blending well with substance, this just lacked substance or at least any substance I cared about or could relate to.
As I got about a third of the way into this, I really didn’t want to keep reading it but I stuck around, hoping it would be worthwhile by the end and because I loved the art. Really, the art is the absolute high point of this book.
After reading this, I’m still not sure what Shadowman is or is supposed to be. But I’m going to do more research and try and find a better jumping off point.
And maybe this will make more sense if I have more context.
Rating: 4.5/10 Pairs well with: Other Shadowman collections (I assume) and Garth Ennis’ Preacher (which greatly exceeds this).
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Talking Pulp 
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