graphic novels

Hard as it is to believe, this second installment to the Preacher series is even better than the first. While "Until the End of the World" again relies on the formula that made "Gone to Texas" so unique - intriguing story-lines, extreme and disturbing violence mixed-in with equally in-your-face humour, a fascination with language- it manages to juice the volume to 10 on all of these elements. The first half of the book dealing with Jesse Custer's childhood rates as some of the most gripping (and horrifying) reading I've done in years: my eyes were literally glued to the pages well into the wee hours of the night. The second half was equally enjoyable, with Ennis building on the story arc and introducing the shadowy international organization, "The Grail." Only someone as twisted as Mr. Ennis could make sodomy so darned hilarious, and provoke us with such difficult issues as child (sex) abuse, drug addiction, and mental illness. Kudos to Steve Dillon for keenly depicting the cruelty of child abuse and the evilness of some of the darker characters e.g. the freaky looking Gran'ma, who Glenn Fabry also has a hand in illustrating. Ennis never takes the easy way out, preferring to discard the boring cookie-cutter superhero protagonist we all intrinsically root for, challenging us with a 'hero' who is a recidivist criminal, violent and cruel towards people (and a particularly curmudgeonly feline), and subject to bouts of insanity. Ennis' keen take on the human condition enables him to create such a character that we nevertheless care about.

As funny as "Until the End of the World" can be at times, the truth is, at its heart, the book is actually quite poignant. If Ennis can be said to be conveying anything as hokey as a "central message" here, my interpretation is that while our worlds are constantly intruded by loss and loneliness and death, our only chance is to have faith in ourselves and be lucky enough to have those who reinforce that faith. Otherwise, we'll wind up like the umpteen discarded and tortured souls that grace the pages of this masterful series.

This, the second Preacher collection is vile, depraved, revolting, disgusting and morally dubious. Up to the usual Ennis standards, then. The general plot, for those who don't know, is this: Jesse Custer, a small town Texas Preacher, has his soul bonded with Genesis, a creature born of a demon and an angel, giving him the power to command people to do his bidding. He meets up with his hit-woman ex-girlfriend, Tulip and an Irish (that's IRISH, not AUSTRALIAN) alcoholic vampire called Cassidy. Soon, this trio find themselves on the run from the FBI, the Texas state police, a super-secret conspiracy known as the Grail, an immortal cowboy and a hideously disfigured (yet strangely upbeat) teenager. If you thought that Reservoir Dogs needed a bit more blood and that Pulp Fiction was wholesome family entertainment, then you really need to buy this book, I can't reccommend it enough. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a brainless shoot-em-up suerhero comic,however, - it is a carefully characterised well written story which deserves to be read from start to finish and then over again. In it's time, Preacher has presented moral stories on alcoholism, drug-abuse, child-abuse, love, friendship and what to do when everything you belive in has fallen down around you. BE WARNED, though - this comic don't pull any punches.

What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said? It's violent? Yes. Is there a whole lot of cussing? Oh yeah. But is the violence and language really that gratuitous? Well the language is pretty much how people talk, like when the characters are just talking a f-word might slip occasionally but isn't that how normal conversations are? The language gets pretty rough but think of what the characters are going through. I'd be cussing just as much if someone just kidnapped me or just shot a roomful of people. And about the violence being gratuitous? Hell do you know what it looks like when someones head is blown off? Well let me tell you it's much worse in real life than in the book. So yeah it's a violent book but that justs shows how sick some of the characters are. The main characters resort to violence but never cold blooded murder. But beyond the gore and language there lies one of my favorite stories ever. The first story in this book about Jesse's family is my favorite story in the whole series. But the series as a whole is the reason I read graphic novels again. Best book ever, go pick it up.