TheFranciscos.Net

Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

One of my all-time favorite series is Garth Ennis’ and Steve Dillon’s “Preacher”. This is a great story about a man’s quest to find God (literally) and his struggle against a secret religious organization that threatens to take over the world. Along the way, he is joined by a vampire who becomes his best friend and his girlfriend who is tougher than Rambo. It’s a romantic, religious, and funny tale that’s guaranteed to take you along for the ride. Garth Ennis isn’t afraid to pull any punches, and it shows in the dialogue and subject matter. It deals with things such as religion, friendship, love, and even bestiality/s&m all from a very fresh point-of-view. As Kevin Smith says in the foreward of the second book, controversial is just another word for intelligent and interesting.

The series was originally published in Preacher #1-66, and various mini-series and one-shots. It was then collected into 9 books, 8 actually since 1 book is composed purely of background information.

The duo of Garth & Steve have since gone on to reimagine Marvel’s The Punisher, but Preacher still remains their masterpiece.

Randy Lander from TheFourthRail had this to say about Preacher:

“If profanity, bestiality, sacrilege, or things of that ilk offend you, you probably won’t like Preacher. But if you can tolerate those things, or even find them mildly amusing, you’ll love Preacher, a western/comedy/romance/road story that has interesting things to say about what it means to be a friend and to love someone “until the end of the world.” It also has something to say about what to do when your voice must be obeyed, your best friend is an Irish vampire, and your enemies include an unkillable murderous saint, a fanatic in control of a powerful and old secret order and God himself. “

Preacher gets the highest rating: 5 out of 5 stars.