Preacher (comics)

AUTHOR: Ennis, Garth

ARTIST: Richard Case (illustrator); Steve Dillon (illustrator); Carlos Ezquerra (illustrator); Steve Pugh (illustrator); Peter Snejbjerg (illustrator); John McRea (inker); Matt Eyring (colorist); Grant Goleash (colorist); Matt Hollingsworth (colorist); Patricia Mulvihill (colorist); Pamela Rambo (colorist); James Sinclair (colorist); Clem Robins (letterer); Glenn Fabry (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1995-2000

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1996

Publication History

Preacher was initially published in 1995 by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, with writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon as the creative forces behind the comic. Ennis wrote Preacher and the Preacher specials; Dillon drew the entirety of the main series and the specials Preacher: Cassidy—Blood and Whiskey and Preacher: Tall in the Saddle, with guest artists Steve Pugh, Carlos Ezquerra, Richard Case, and Peter Snejbjerg handling artistic duties on the four other specials, Preacher: The Story of You-Know-Who, Preacher: The Saint of Killers, Preacher: The Good Old Boys, and Preacher: One Man’s War, respectively. Preacher was first collected from single issues into trade paperback form in 1996, and it has been reprinted multiple times since, owing to its continued popularity. The series ended in 2000 with issue 66.

Plot

The Reverend Jesse Custer is possessed by a half demon, half angel called Genesis in an event that incinerates his town, leaving him the sole survivor. Found soon after by his former girlfriend, Tulip O’Hare, a roguish Irish vampire named Cassidy, and an invulnerable man in a duster coat called the “Saint of Killers,” Jesse realizes that Genesis has put the “Word of God” at his disposal and that he can make anybody do whatever he wants them to do. After using his power on the Saint of Killers and an angel summoned by the saint, he discovers that God has abandoned his post and given up on creation.

Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy leave on a journey to track down God. They make a brief stop in New York, which ends with Jesse using the Word to kill a man for the first time. Tulip and Jesse leave Cassidy to go east and, in the process, are abducted by T. C. and Jody, Jesse’s maternal uncles by his grandmother Marie L’Angelle, who had ordered both of young Jesse’s parents killed to ensure his obedience. When Jesse and Tulip are held captive in her home, Marie strikes again, having Tulip killed.

God secretly brings Tulip back to life and warns her to stop pursuing him. Jesse escapes captivity, killing his uncles and his grandmother in the process. After tearfully reuniting with Tulip, they make their way to San Francisco, where they run into Cassidy once again and are attacked by the Grail shortly after. Cassidy is taken captive and mistaken for Jesse; Jesse and Tulip find out his location from a Grail officer.

Jesse ditches Tulip in a hotel to keep her from danger and travels alone to the hidden Grail compound in France. There, he encounters the angel who fathered Genesis. After conversing with the angel, he comes to the realization that God has given up his duties out of fear of Genesis, and he cuts a deal with the Saint of Killers. Jesse saves Cassidy as the Grail compound is destroyed, and they return to New York, where Jesse reconciles with Tulip.

At Cassidy’s suggestion, they go to New Orleans, where a voodoo priest puts Jesse into a trance to unlock Genesis’s memories. Jesse awakes from the trance with the knowledge that fulfills his bargain with the Saint of Killers. Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy travel to Monument Valley to meet with the saint and pass on the information, but they are attacked by Grail troops and tanks. The saint slaughters the Grail force while Jesse and company escape. As an atomic bomb is dropped on the Saint of Killers, Jesse sacrifices himself to save Cassidy and Tulip, who afterward assume the worst.

Jesse survives, minus one eye, and ends up in the small town of Salvation, Texas. He soon becomes the sheriff. He discovers that the owner of the local bar is actually his mother, and he ends the reign of a malicious industrialist. After a hallucinogenic trip brought on by peyote, he remembers the fight with God that cost him his eye. He tracks down Tulip through her best friend Amy and, shortly after, confronts Cassidy.

Two weeks later, Jesse and Cassidy confront each other outside the Alamo in San Antonio; Jesse drugged Tulip to ensure she would not interfere. Unknown to the other, they have each made deals: Jesse with the Saint of Killers, for vengeance on God, and Cassidy with God, to resurrect both former friends after Genesis is freed from Jesse’s body. After a prolonged fight, a final friendly gesture from Jesse leads Cassidy to sacrifice himself at sunrise. Jesse is then shot and killed by Grail snipers. Because of Cassidy’s deal, they are both resurrected later, and because of Jesse’s deal, the saint is able to kill God. Tulip, though glad to see Jesse alive, ends the relationship because of Jesse’s decision to drug her instead of trusting her. The series ends with Tulip (eventually) forgiving Jesse and riding off into the sunset with him, while Cassidy, freshly reconfigured as a human and inspired by Jesse’s last gesture of friendship, decides to “try being a man for a change.”

Volumes

•Preacher: Gone to Texas (1996). Collects issues 1-7. Begins the series and introduces the core concept of the series: a being that, as a result of its conception, is more powerful than God.

•Preacher: Until the End of the World (1997). Collects issues 8-17. Features the characters of Marie L’Angelle and Herr Starr, who serve as past and future antagonists for Jesse.

•Preacher: Proud Americans (1997). Collects issues 18-26. Debates the nature of true faith, vis-à-vis the inbred descendent of Christ in the care of the Grail.

•Preacher: Ancient History (1998). Collects Preacher: Saint of Killers, issues 1-4; Preacher: The Story of You-Know-Who; and Preacher: The Good Old Boys. Details the gruesome history of the Saint of Killers and the tragedy that begat Arseface. Features a send-up of 1980’s action movies, with Jody and T. C. as unlikely heroes.

•Preacher: Dixie Fried (1998). Collects issues 27-33 and Preacher: Cassidy—Blood and Whiskey. Contains a surprisingly warm view (from noted atheist Ennis) of voodoo, as well as a Cassidy-centered story that skewers the romantic view of vampires.

•Preacher: War in the Sun (1999). Collects issues 34-40 and Preacher: One Man’s War. Features a chilling background story for Herr Starr, which continues his moral dilemma concerning the Christ child and furthers the plot.

•Preacher: Salvation (1999). Collects issues 41-50. Discusses the nature of forgiveness, redemption, and second chances, as Jesse becomes the sheriff of a Texas town.

•Preacher: All Hell’s A-Coming (2000). Collects issues 51-58 and Preacher: Tall in the Saddle. Explores the nature of Cassidy’s past as an addict as well as Tulip’s nonheteronormative childhood.

•Preacher: Alamo (2000). Collects issues 59-66. In the conclusion to the series, Jesse battles all his enemies at a final showdown at the Alamo.

Characters

•The Reverend Jesse Custer, the protagonist, is the son of John Custer, a Marine who served in Vietnam, and Christina L’Angelle, the daughter of Marie L’Angelle, matriarch of Angelville. Like the Western heroes he was taught to emulate, he is stoic, intensely loyal, and chivalrous, and his sense of morality is rigid. He often resorts to violence as a means of punishing amoral behavior.

•Tulip O’Hare, Jesse’s love interest, was raised by a single father with no distinct gender boundaries; her mother died during childbirth. As a result of being raised by her father, she was exposed to masculine fare: action films, hunting trips, and sports—even after a tragic accident took her father’s arm. She is progressive, loving, and dedicated to Jesse; she takes offense when he tries to protect her.

•Proinsias Cassidy, an Irish vampire, is a fun and loyal but highly unreliable individual. He has a close friendship with Jesse but, on multiple occasions, shows that his predatory nature, poor judgment, fits of extreme violence, and lack of self-control make him untrustworthy. As the series develops, more doubt is placed on him, and the consequences of his past drug use become evident.

•God is the primary antagonist. He influenced the war among the angels, the creation of the human race, Genesis, and the Saint of Killers, all to the end of fostering love and adoration for himself. When he does take form, often it is because he is seeking adoration or creating fear; he brings back Tulip because of the former, and with the latter, threatens Cassidy and outright attacks Jesse—an image contrary to the detached, judging God one might expect.

•Herr Starr is a secondary antagonist, but he causes the most direct frustration to the core protagonists. A former member of GSG 9 (the special-operations branch of the German national police) and a senior officer in the Grail, he plans to use Jesse’s power of command to establish a new world order. As he is foiled, he grows increasingly psychotic, to the point where his sole goal is to annihilate Jesse Custer. His progressive bodily mutilation, fixation on severe masochistic sex acts, and inappropriate abuses of power provide a sordid levity to the character.

•The Saint of Killers, described by Dillon and Ennis as a cross between actors Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood, is a former Confederate soldier who becomes God’s Angel of Death in the mid-nineteenth century. He is shown as a force of nature that can never be beaten but can only be bargained with or delayed. Because God’s influence led to the death of his family and Satan gifted him with two Colt Walker revolvers that can kill anything, he becomes the means by which Jesse is able to eliminate God.

Artistic Style

Steve Dillon handled a sizable amount of the art for Preacher, and his distinctive character work helped set the series apart in both tone and presentation. By inking his own work, Dillon was able to make the comic visually fluid and dynamic. His style is characterized by juxtaposing realistic characters with exaggerated features (such as longer and wider faces and jawlines), and exaggerated characters with outlandish features; he also has a particular savvy for unrealistic violence. Because of this style, he is able to bring a wide, easily identifiable range of emotion to the work and to do justice to the unrealistically excessive amount of violence involved. His line work is accessible and rugged in a way that suits the series.

Themes

Several major themes are addressed in the series, including religion, second chances, the myth of the American Dream, and modern gender roles. Religion is perhaps the strongest. Ennis rarely portrays piety in a positive light. Instead, he fills the series with examples of people who succeed wholly by virtue of their own efforts (rather than relying on their faith) and ends by creating a peaceful world—without God.

Additionally, many characters find their moral inspiration elsewhere; Jesse routinely receives help and moral guidance from an ethereal manifestation of John Wayne, in a case of “Duke ex machina.” Ennis is critical of organizations that act on faith and assumed authority, as the Grail does, rather than through action. As such, Herr Starr is portrayed as an almost sympathetic character within the Grail. Interestingly, many characters give Jesse respect because of his clerical collar, but another priest, who appears in issue 59, is severely disrespected by Cassidy.

Ennis writes with a great reverence for the concept of the American myth—that the United States is a place where anyone can do anything, or rather, that anyone has the opportunity to do anything. Though Preacher is anchored in the morality and derring-do of modern American myth, it is also a story about second chances. At various points, all of the primary and secondary characters either experience or discuss the benefits of a second chance. The most visible second chances are the resurrections of the three main characters, but also notable are the chances afforded to the characters Arseface and Christina L’Angelle. After surviving a failed suicide attempt, Arseface becomes a better son and lives a (brief) life of accomplishment; Christina L’Angelle survives her old life and arrives at the town of Salvation with a clean slate. Also, Gunther Hahn, initially depicted as a German defector from World War II, espouses the virtues of the American Dream and second chances; his story of emigration is also echoed in Cassidy’s own narrative, as they escaped a troubled land to find one of opportunity, pursuing their American Dream.

Gender parity is not so much discussed as it is shown. Tulip is often depicted charging into action alongside Jesse, and she throws Jesse’s overprotective chivalric attitude back in his face. The main rift in their relationship is a result of this protective patriarchal attitude, which she takes as an insult to her capability and her love for him. Furthermore, she is a better shot with a gun, has as much invested in the adventure as he does, and by being present, can ensure that he is safe.

Jesse sees how he treats Tulip as inherent to both his code of ethics and his love for her; after losing her once, he is willing to go to any lengths, including sacrificing himself, to make sure he does not lose her again. When Jesse leaves her behind the first time, she takes it as a direct insult not only to her strength but also to the relationship they have, which is a modern “partnership,” with equal contribution on both ends. After the fallout after their confrontation at the Alamo (wherein he drugged her to keep her out of the firefight) and his resurrection, it takes a tremendous gesture of love, commitment, and emotion on his part to win her back.

Tulip is also one of the finest examples of a “strong” female character ever portrayed in comics. This is not only because she saves others—as opposed to being saved—or because of her grace under fire but also because of her actions after being drugged by Cassidy; once she recovers, she shoots Cassidy and extricates herself from the situation, taking responsibility for being the hero.

Impact

Preacher’s impact on the comics market helped buoy the Vertigo line throughout the mid-1990’s and beyond after the end of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (1989-1996). Along with Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s Transmetropolitan (1997-2002), Preacher helped push the boundaries of what was acceptable in comics, catering heavily to adult tastes in violence, sex, and mature discussion of such themes. Ennis’s influence is directly felt in comics such as Robert Kirkman’s Battle Pope (2006-2007), Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s Y: The Last Man (2002-2008), and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born (2007).

Further Reading

Aaron, Jason, and Steve Dillon. Punisher Max: Kingpin (2010).

Aaron, Jason, and Cameron Stewart. The Other Side (2007).

Burrows, Jacen, and Garth Ennis. Chronicles of Wormwood (2007).

Ennis, Garth, and Steve Dillon. Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank (2005).

Ennis, Garth, and Darick Robertson. The Boys (2006- ).

Bibliography

Ennis, Garth, and Steve Dillon. “Drinking with the Boys: An Evening with Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.” Interview by S. L. Osborne. Sequential Tart, September 27, 1998. http://www.sequentialtart.com/sept98/ennisdillon.html.

Gullotta, Daniel N. “The God of Preacher.” Sequart Literacy and Research Organization, January 11, 2011. http://www.sequart.org/magazine/442/the-god-of-preacher.

Kitson, Niall. “Rebel Yells: Genre Hybridity and Irishness in Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher.” Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies 2 (March, 2007). http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/PreacherEnnisDillon.html.

Round, Julia. “Mutilation and Monsters: Transcending the Human in Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon’s Preacher.” The Human Body in Contemporary Literatures in English. Salzburg Studies in English Literature 5. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 2009.