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 | Preacher (Volumes 1-3) Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon 200pp/256pp/232pp, Vertigo  Whenever you talk to comic nerds there are certain modern classics that inevitably come up. Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman', for example. Alan Moore's 'Watchmen'. Frank Miller's 'Sin City'. Garth Ennis' 'Preacher'. I'm gradually working my way through them, but I think it'll be a while before I move on to the next title: I made the mistake of grabbing the first three collections of 'Preacher', and now there's no way I can stop before seeing how it ends.It's a storming religious allegory set in Texas, which begins with the titular Preacher - Jesse Custer - killing his entire congregation in an almighty explosion. Actually, that should be an Almighty explosion since it's caused by a creature called Genesis (the unholy spawn of an angel and a demon) which has escaped from Heaven and joined with Custer to combine its infinite power with his human will. Heaven's terrified of what this power could do, especially since - it seems - God has abdicated from His throne and no-one knows where He actually is. Custer, however, is determined to find Him and hold Him to account for what He's put mankind through - but, of course, it's not nearly so simple. There are human authorities who want to catch this multiple murderer (no sooner has the masonry settled than the police and FBI are on his trail), as do a shadowy church organization known as The Grail who have been protecting Christ's secret and sacred bloodline (shades of 'The Da Vinci Code') in preparation for Armageddon and see Custer as both a threat and a possible figurehead. There's also The Saint Of Killers, an unstoppable gunslinger with an uncanny resemblance to Jack Palance who has been awoken by the seraphim to destroy Custer. And to top it all off, there's Custer's family: a bunch of batshit insane Deep South yokels that make the hillbillies in 'Deliverance' seem like the elegantly genteel scions of the noblest of houses - and who haven't forgiven Jesse for running out on them and his destiny all those years ago. Fortunately Custer has a few aces up his sleeve. For one thing, Genesis is The Word Of God, meaning that Custer can pretty much make anyone do what he wants. Secondly, Custer's not alone: he has his extremely capable ex-girlfriend Tulip along for the ride, as well as a mad Irishman named Cassidy, who never takes off his shades and is unexpectedly difficult to kill... Since Ennis is British there are times that his grasp of the downhome Texan idiom slips a little, but that's more than made up for with Cass's hilariously filthy brougue. It's also a surprisingly vast universe: within the first three volumes alone we're introduced to over fifty reasonably major characters, from the demented hedonist Jesus de Sade to the beautifully - and appropriately - named Arseface (a teenage victim of a self-inflicted shotgun wound). As you might guess, there's a lot of humour mixed up in this extensive religious parable, with Ennis and Dillon reaping a potent crop from what I'm guessing is the fertile soil of religious, most likely Catholic, childhoods. I'm guessing that edgier believers would find a lot to enjoy here (one volume has a breathless introduction from the ultra-irritating Kevin Smith, who is more Catholic guilt than man), but even damned, committed atheists like Penn Gilliette (who writes another introduction) and myself can thoroughly enjoy the rich, detailed storylines and usually deft use of religious iconography; even if some of it, like Custer's initials, seem a little heavy-handed at times. So now I guess I have to read the remaining six volumes - but after that, I promise to get straight on to 'Sandman'. Then 'Swamp Thing'. Then 'The Dark Knight Returns'... Um, you might want to start without me. I could be a while.  | |
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