posted
Also loved Hitman in a big way, and loved it's ending too. Another masterpiece in it's own way.
Lardy is dead on as to one of the major reasons why Preacher works in terms of depth of character. The Jesse / Tulip romance is one of the best ever in terms of it's sheer depth; the complicated struggles and how they'd be overcome because of a true, genuine connection is realistic yet also pure romance.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Yeah. As over-the-top as it was with all its violence, gross-outs, blasphemy and potty humor, it's really those characters that make you love it. You wouldn't give two shits about how it ended if you didn't care about them.
That said, Preacher's still not for everybody. It's not for the easily offended, for sure. Hell, I think there were a few things in the series that even offended me! His The Boys is the same way. Ennis starts off both series with huge bombast, but when he really settles in, you really start caring.
I wonder if Cramer's tastes have evolved since she opened this topic so that maybe she would like it better.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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I never followed Hitman until its end, alas.
PB, the Proud Americans TPB was were it really hit its stride. Both the character-focused bookends and the interior story arc.
Yes, Ennis was pushing boundaries of what he could get away with, but it worked. And at the end of the day he had a collection of rich characters that surpass anything gratuitous.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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There's a lot of Preacher love in this thread. I can't wait to see what you're all talking about.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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I ate through the finale of Preacher this weekend.
It left me wondering "what does that mean?" not many comic books leave me inspired to wonder about their meaning ... or to want to understand it more.
even the best books I usually get it pretty easily but Preacher has me curious about what more I could get out of it on a second and/or slower read through.
now I want to reread it to catch all the layers of meaning throughout the series, and see how it led up to the conclusions of the final story arc.
There's a lot of 'there' there.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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I followed Preacher through about the first 1/3 of the run. Liked the concept and the building of the friendship between Cassidy and Jesse & the romance between Jesse and Tulip.
But I found that I had to be in certain mood to read it. It was dark, gritty, violent, and gory, not something I wanted to read every day.
So after Jesse went home to find his grandmother(?), I needed to take a break from it and never quite made it back.
Absolute favorite character however was Saint of Killers. Twisted idea yet so wicked.
-------------------- Space travel is engineering, time travel is magic.
From: The Bright, Sunny South | Registered: Apr 2007
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Re Preacher and Hitman, I just enjoyed them for the sheer mind-blowing craziness that went on in them. Ennis took some interesting ideas and just went on a major high of exploration. Like... wow.
posted
PB, I followed Preacher from the get-go back in the day, and I can still reread it and gain new insights. There indeed is a lot of 'there' in there.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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I've reread it at least a half dozen times from start to finish and I always get something new at least once in every trade.
One of my favorite moments upon mulitple rereads: earlier in the series we meet the guy in Southwest who is blasting massive sized letters into the landscape so that from space you can read "FUCK YOU". A bit farther down the line, at the perfect moment when Jesse basically regains his perspective and will to 'fight back' against all the various antagonistic forces, the scene suddenly shifts back to this guy, as some astronauts from space see the "FUCK YOU" and are totally enraged by it. They are shown saying "some bastard wrote FUCK YOU into the landscape! Can you believe it?!" And then we see the guy cheering, jumping up and down.
It's ridiculous to the extreme--and hilarious beyond measure. But there's something kind of powerful about that moment. That was that guy's life work and it comes off as a smashing success. And its also the epitome of fighting back against authority and taking a stand. Which is a major theme of what Ennis is saying about the USA and the western genre in general.
It's a great example of Ennis' talent of taking something so outrageous / gross / hilarious and turning into something that is actually quite moving.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
^ Yeah, that's right. I think they talk about it on the train.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
This thread has caused me to start rereading Preacher! I had originally slated Y: The Last Man for my first summer reread, but this talk resparked my interest in Preacher.
I own Preacher in floppies, having bought them off the shelf back in the day. I've now reread issues 1-7, the equivalent of the first trade.
One thing that struck me in the first issue was a couple of big coincedences I don't remember noting before. Tulip happening to run into a vampire (series co-lead Cassidy) while fleeing mobsters was pretty big. But the two of them happening on Annvile just after the big cataclysm involving Tulip's ex Jesse whom she hadn't seen in five years and whom she had no idea was in Annville was pretty collossal! It took me out of the story for a little bit.
Another thing that people who experienced Preacher via trades are missing out on was the letter columns being answered by Garth Ennis! They were a real treat and are being reread along with the rest of the books. It's a real shame that DC did away with lettercols about halfway thru Preacher's run because I really missed them in Preacher particularly, even though Garth did some encores for issue 50 and the finale, iirc.
In retrospect Preacher isn't coming off as wild, risque and boundary-pushing as it did all those years ago, but one thing that stands the test of time is the overall high quality of both the story and especially characterization. The latter is something Garth Ennis has always excelled at. More than anything, it's fun catching up with some old friends.
I'll probably alternate reading chunks of Preacher along with my rgular stacks of new comics. It'll help me savor it more, I suspect.
One problem, though, is I'm missing issue 63 for some reason. Not sure what happened to it as my Preacher collection was complete. Probably mislaid in some random longbox it would take me ages to find. I'll have to track down a replacement before I get to that arc. No issue of Preacher is disposable or skippable, damnit! And it's one of the last few as well.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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