2/6/07
Preacher
I bid you greetings, gentle (and not-so-gentle) readers. Welcome to the first "Bottom Line" column of 2007. One of my new year's resolutions is to try and crank out these columns on a more consistent basis, so I'm counting on you guys to keep me honest. Drop me a line at rmr8173@hotmail.com and leave feedback (positive or negative) so I have some more motivation, because at this point I need all the help I can get.
In my last column, "The Top 'Holy ****!' Moments of 2006", I made mention of a book called The Boys by Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson. I recently found out that the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics would no longer be publishing The Boys, largely due to its exceedingly explicit content. It's a damn shame in my opinion, but I'm not all that surprised. The premise of the story (superheroes being kept in line by force or through blackmail by a group of marginally sane black-ops spooks) was intriguing, but the pacing of the story was sluggish, and seemed to take a back seat to fitting as much violence & sex (often simultaneously) into each issue as possible.
That being said, it's still a shame. As flawed as the pacing was on The Boys, Garth Ennis is still an innovative storyteller. He has the ability to incorporate shock-value moments into his work and, for the most part, not have it overshadow the story he is trying to tell. And like Quentin Tarantino, who has also included quite a few shock-inducing moments in his films, Ennis can also tell a compelling, thought-provoking story using the most unlikely characters & plot devices.
The book that got me hooked on Ennis' work is Preacher, which was published by DC's Vertigo imprint from 1995-2000. The entire run has been collected in 9 trade paperbacks, which are listed here:Vol. 1 - Gone To Texas
Vol. 2 - Until The End Of The World
Vol. 3 - Proud Americans
Vol. 4 - Ancient History
Vol. 5 - Dixie Fried
Vol. 6 - War In The Sun
Vol. 7 - Salvation
Vol. 8 - All Hell's A-Comin'
Vol. 9 - Alamo
The story starts with Jesse Custer, a preacher in a small town in Texas that becomes bonded to Genesis, the bastard offspring of an angel and a demon, during a sermon. After the resulting energy surge obliterates the church and everyone in it, he is found by Tulip, his ex-girlfriend-turned-killer for hire on the lam, and Cassidy, a hard-partying Irish vampire.
He discovers shortly after that having Genesis bonded to him allows him the ability to command anyone with his voice, as well as access to the knowledge of Heaven & Hell. Of course, the heavenly host is worried about this so they tap the Saint of Killers, a gunslinger from the days of the old west so filled with hatred that he was tapped to replace the Angel of Death, to find him. Eventually Jesse finds out the reason they were so hot to cover things up: fearing what Genesis would be capable of, God abandoned Heaven to go into hiding on Earth. Jesse then makes it his mission to find where God is hiding and use Genesis' power to make Him explain Himself to his creations.
As if this premise weren't controversial enough, Ennis ups the ante with the introduction of the books main villain, Herr Starr. Starr works for an international organization called The Grail. The Grail came about when Jesus Christ faked his death and dropped out of sight. Christ took a wife and had children, and the Grail came into existence to protect the bloodline of Christ since then (a storyline element less-than-ceremoniously ripped off by Dan Brown in The DaVinci Code). The current incarnation of the Grail intends to use the most current descendant of Christ as a figurehead in its attempt to dominate the world. However, Starr is less than thrilled with the current descendant, as he is the product of almost 2000 years of inbreeding within the same bloodline ("I've seen the child. The masses will be lucky to get water into urine."). Once Starr learns of Custer's power of persuasion, he decides that he will make a much better messiah figurehead and makes it his mission to bend him to the will of the Grail.
This outside-the-box take on religion alone would make for an interesting read, but Ennis gives us a ton of interesting backstory on all the main players (as well as some of the peripheral ones) in the book with more detail than the flashback scenes on Lost. For example, "The Story Of You-Know-Who" tells the sad origin tale of Arseface, the son of a small-town sheriff that ends up attempting (and failing) to follow the example of Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun and ending up with what Cassidy would call "a face like an arse" as a result.
Ennis also used this story as a forum to expose readers to the comedy genius of the late comedian Bill Hicks, including verbatim material from his album "Rant In E-Minor". Personally speaking, I found it so hilarious and insightful that I went out and bought some of Bill Hicks' albums on CD.
The Bottom Line
Preacher is such a well-paced, well-thought out story that no description I could give in 3 pages or less could possibly do it justice, so I think I'll let Herr Starr sum it up: "...we had an angel, a whore, a eunuch, several dozen idiots, an unkillable mick, a one-man holocaust in a duster coat, the occasional twenty-course banquet for the mother of all fat fuckers, inbreeding, family feuds, bulimia, a retarded child…and we also had Jesse Custer." If this doesn't make you want to pick up this book you might just be a communist (just kidding).
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