Preacher vol 1 Gone to Texas By David Wallace

As fans cry out at the cancelling of the Boys by DC or Wildstorm I thought this would be the perfect time to look back at Garth Ennis’s hugely successful series by reviewing the first trade.

Its like the start of a really weird joke and it goes something like this…so there’s a preacher his ex and a vampire driving in a truck. See what I mean (I just wish I was funny enough to come up with the punch line). Add to this a saint of killers a sick twisted serial killer, the most unlucky bunch of cops you have every met and the word of god and you get preacher.

This is one of those stories I’ve only seen in the comic store for years and always said I’ll get it next time….ahhhh this will teach me. Its possible to sit here for hours trying to pick apart all of the themes running through this book. Looking at the depiction of heaven and hell and the larger concept of religion in whole. But to be fair it may, even in some subtle way diminish what this book is at its core, and that is fun.

While Mr Ennis seems to have a love of causing facial disfiguration he also has a great sense of comic timing to. Pacing in comics is perhaps one of the toughest things to pull off and so its nice to say that preacher does an excellent job of pacing so as to never make you feel board.

While it can be argued and I’m sure it has that most of the characters found in these books are simple archetypes, its nice to know that they fit so well into the story. You have the raciest, bitter filled, tobacco chewing, foul mouth Texas sheriff. Or maybe the super rock cop that is like a action hero from Tango and Cash or some other 80’s action cop romp. But what Ennis does so well when playing with these characters is make sure that when its time to pack these characters up, and put them out to pasture, like so many other characters before them, you will be thinking god, I never thought they would end up like that. And that is what Ennis does best of all he keeps you guessing. And almost every time you don’t see the curve ball till it hits you right in the face.

Even though I’m sure a copy of preacher will never be welcomed within the Vatican it is interesting to see another take on heaven. In this first book you start to see the power base up there. And also shows that no matter how good you were in life it still might have been better to go down than up in the end. Especially when the boss is out of the office.

Steve Dillon, the artist on this book does an excellent job of giving us this wide almost deserted world for these characters which helps so much in the story. You really do get sometimes a real sense that the three central characters are all alone even when there standing in time square surrounded by thousands of people. And it also helps im sure that when Ennis asks for someone to have there jaw blown off Dillon delivers every time. (And trust me he ain’t called the saint of killers for nothing).

Now before the T.V series hits and preacher becomes a house hold name I strongly recommend you if you have yet to do so go out and read this book. While maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, and while definitely earning it’s mature reader stamp preacher still gives all you could want it a title.