Rating: Summary: Pure Ecstacy Review: I love Preacher. If I could meet Garth Ennis, I would give him a big sloppy kiss. He is my hero. I started reading Preacher with The Saint Of Killers mini that is in Ancient History. My love of westerns drew me towards it. Then I discovered the main book. Ecstacy. Until the End of the World is the best book of Preacer out there. It is one of the most well-written volumes out there. I love the grounded sense of morality in the midst of such archaic madness. Jesse Custer is a hero to be worshiped. Buy all of the trades. Read 'em over and over. Cherish them. This is kind of a rant here, but writing about Preacher got me thinking about TV. Word to producers: WE LIKE STORY ARCS! EPISODIC ADVENTURE IS OLD WHEN THAT'S ALL THERE IS!
Rating: Summary: Best example of "comic" book writing you'll find Review: I read Spider-Man, Justice League and other "super-hero" comics. Preacher belongs to a completely category. No subject or situation is safe from writer Garth Ennis. The first story, which reprints the monthly Preacher issues 8-12, is an outstanding example of brutal storytelling. Yes, there are injections of particularly violent scenes every few pages, which could be described as gratuitous, but what makes the story so readable is the characterisation. You really feel hatred towards the filthy, murderous Jody, T.C. and Gran'ma. A masterstroke is the use of a ghostly image of John Wayne, who acts as Jesse Custer's guardian angel. The second story, which reprints issues 13-17, isn't quite as compelling but that's only in comparison to what has come before. Preacher: Until The End Of The World is a graphic novel that I wouldn't recommend to everyone, purely because of the extreme nature of the story contained within; but for the open-minded, it's a real treat.
Rating: Summary: Best example of "comic" book writing you'll find Review: I read Spider-Man, Justice League and other "super-hero" comics. Preacher belongs to a completely category. No subject or situation is safe from writer Garth Ennis. The first story, which reprints the monthly Preacher issues 8-12, is an outstanding example of brutal storytelling. Yes, there are injections of particularly violent scenes every few pages, which could be described as gratuitous, but what makes the story so readable is the characterisation. You really feel hatred towards the filthy, murderous Jody, T.C. and Gran'ma. A masterstroke is the use of a ghostly image of John Wayne, who acts as Jesse Custer's guardian angel. The second story, which reprints issues 13-17, isn't quite as compelling but that's only in comparison to what has come before. Preacher: Until The End Of The World is a graphic novel that I wouldn't recommend to everyone, purely because of the extreme nature of the story contained within; but for the open-minded, it's a real treat.
Rating: Summary: Annihilates "Gone to Texas" Review: I thought I had seen it all in comics when my eyes first got a taste of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's world of Preacher in the first TPB Gone to Texas, but the minute I began to read Until the End of the World, I realized I was sadly mistaken. Here we find out about Jesse's past in the first story "All in the Family", where we see a young Jesse grow up with the people who murdered his father in front of him, and we get to see his bloody confrontation with them as his past catches up with him. This story has a strong sense of complete black comedy while keeping the reader entertained with an insane amount of violence and insanity displayed as only Ennis and Dillon can bring. The second story, "Hunters", features Jesse and Tulip re-uniting with Jesse's hard drinking Irish vampire buddy Cassidy while Jesse continues his search for God as some very bad people search for him. Along the way he comes across an extremely depraved ... deviant who calls himself Jesus DeSade. This story has a sense of tragedy to it while still keeping the insanely dark humor and blood curdling violence that readers of the Preacher series are used to. All in all, Until the End of the World is my favorite Preacher book of the entire series, and is one of the best comics I have come across in a very long time.
Rating: Summary: It rocks!! Review: I've read all of the Preacher books in disorder but once I got all of 'em read them in the right order and I have to say it's one of the best comics I've read. It's graphic, it's sleek, it just rocks. Once I picked it up I just couldn't put it down till I finished it and re-read it a few times to get some details straight.
Rating: Summary: Ennis and Dillon step it up in collection 2! Review: If you enjoyed the first collection, you're in for a treat; it just gets better from here. Ennis's writing doesn't waver in the least and Dillon settles into the style that he continues for the rest of the book.The first chapter in this collection dwells on Jesse and Tulip's past. In an uncomfortable yarn reminiscent of "Deliverance", we meet Jesse's family: the matriarch of the Custer clan and his good ol' uncles, Jody and T.C. We learn how Jesse was raised, about his mother and father, how he met Tulip (and what he did to make her so upset), and why of all people did HE become a man of the cloth. Ennis breaks several unwritten rules of comic storytelling and does it with grace. We see God for the first, and certainly not the last, time. There are numerous moments that seem right out of a good ol' western, plenty of powerful events and great lines. And that's just in part one. The second part introduces another main player, Herr Starr, who becomes responsible for most of the plot from here on in. Wizard magazine voted him as the funniest villain ... and not for anything he does intentional. He is a soldier of misfortune. There are two instances that will have you rolling with laugher at his expense. The collection ends on a cliffhanger, so don't hesitate to pick up the next volume, Proud Americans, presently. And remember : don't mess with Jesse's kin; it would be bad for you, as so eloquently shown with Hoover.
Rating: Summary: The Pinnacle of Extreme Review: It's hard to believe that Ennis and Dillon could top Gone to Texas, but they do it here. Jesse Custer gets confronted with his past and now we know why he's as messed up as he is. Heck, he's been brutalized throughout his childhood and when his family finds him, they shoot his girlfriend right in front of him. Of course that's not the end, because God himself brings her back, and then they have an argument. Truly the ultimate in blasphemy, this book is a roller coaster of action and drama. You rarely find characterization done so well in this medium. You really get to know the central characters and what drives them. Ennis shows what a truly great writer he is. Dillon's artwork shines its bloody best here. The realistic depictions are tempered with a cartoon feel that lend a surrealistic quality that perfectly compliments the story and creating a symphony of sequential art. It's more brutal than the first book and it certainly isn't for everyone. But if you want to enjoy a comic that goes where no other comic has gone before, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Rating: Summary: The Pinnacle of Extreme Review: It's hard to believe that Ennis and Dillon could top Gone to Texas, but they do it here. Jesse Custer gets confronted with his past and now we know why he's as messed up as he is. Heck, he's been brutalized throughout his childhood and when his family finds him, they shoot his girlfriend right in front of him. Of course that's not the end, because God himself brings her back, and then they have an argument. Truly the ultimate in blasphemy, this book is a roller coaster of action and drama. You rarely find characterization done so well in this medium. You really get to know the central characters and what drives them. Ennis shows what a truly great writer he is. Dillon's artwork shines its bloody best here. The realistic depictions are tempered with a cartoon feel that lend a surrealistic quality that perfectly compliments the story and creating a symphony of sequential art. It's more brutal than the first book and it certainly isn't for everyone. But if you want to enjoy a comic that goes where no other comic has gone before, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Rating: Summary: Well, it was half good..... Review: Let me start this by saying that the first half of this book absolutely rocks. If you already own the first book in the series, "Gone to Texas", go ahead and add this to your shopping cart right now. The first storyline is well worth the 11 bucks. Unfortunently, the second story arc found in this book, "Hunters", is unbelievably dull. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but hardly anything happens. A load of new characters are introduced, and it takes FOREVER to learn who these characters are and what motivates them. Even by the end of the book, you STILL don't really know what Herr Starr is all about, and thus you gotta buy the next book. This collection is great, and the first storyline is stupendous, but it just doesn't live up to the standard the original TPB laid out.
Rating: Summary: The Southpark of comic books Review: Multiply Adam Sandler's vulgarness by three and convert him to christianity and you have our protaginist, Jesse Custer in a nutshell. He's out to find God and make him do his job in Heaven. He can make people do anything he wants by telling them to(like literally count every grain of sand on the beach), and he hangs around a hitwoman and an Irish vampire. He has grown up with murderous red-neck Bible thumpers who killed his parents and his best-friend at a young age, and he's tough as nails. Preacher is more to comic books than what Southpark is to television. They're both violent, vulgar and sacreligious. But one thing Preacher lacks that Southpark has is censorship. Comic books, largly looked apon as "kid stuff" turn out to be the perfect format for putting in whatever you want. By the second page of this tradepaperback, I was convinced that the authors got to put whatever they wanted in this book. And if the first half says they got to put whatever they wanted in this book with no restrictions, the second half(which features animal sodomizers and some real cracks at the Christian religion) really scream that statement. Preacher has shown that all you have to do is slap a mature reader label on the cover and you can pretty much do anything you want. And anything is just about all you see in here. A cat flushed down the tolit, and dog nailed to a cross by the head, just to name a few. Plenty of bloody fist fights that make Mortal Kombat look like a pillow fight, and lots of cussing. But it isn't all gratuituious violence and vulgarity. Every act of violence, every cuss word, every disgusting act, moves the story along, believe it or not. Nothing that happens in this book is pointless. The diolouge is snappy and the characterization is awesome. Buy this book if you're not squeamish. You won't regret it.
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