iFanboy Video Podcast

iFanboy #51 – Preacher

Show Notes

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon collaborated on the legendary Vertigo series, Preacher, a comic book unlike any that came before. But is it worth your time? Josh, Ron, and Conor spend a good, long while discussing the epic tale of a man on a mission to find God, and iFanboy will let you know if it lives up to all the hype.

You’d be hard pressed to find another book like Ennis and Dillon’s Preacher. There’s literally nothing like it before or since. But at the heart of all that, are we just looking at an old fashioned western, or is it some new synthesis of graphic fiction. Along with Sandman, there’s hardly been a series from Vertigo to generate so much buzz and love among people who wouldn’t normally pick of a comic book. This episode tries to solve the strange alchemy making up this most excellent comic book series.

Running Time: 00:28:08

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Comments

  1. I just wanna know if there’s a spoiler warning attached to this episode? I’m on trade #5 right now, and I’d love to watch this one, but not if anything gets spoiled.

  2. Great show!

    Preacher appears to be a very compelling work.

    I’m adding it to my “must-read” queue.

  3. I just wanna know if there’s a spoiler warning attached to this episode? I’m on trade #5 right now, and I’d love to watch this one, but not if anything gets spoiled.

    Very mild spoilers. We explain it in the beginning of the show. I don’t think you have much to worry about.

  4. I was always reluctant to get into Preacher, because I assumed it was some sort of anti-religion screed. After seeing this, I’m glad to hear I was wrong. I’ll be grabbing the first trade this week.

    Thanks for straightening me out!

  5. Well, it’s not anti-religion. But it’s not pro-religion either.

    Figures from religion and The Bible exist as characters in this book and they are not always nice.

  6. Well, I guess its time to finally read it all. I went down the path of Fables before (read trades 1-3 in a sitting, immediately ordered 4-7 on amazon the next day) That was iFanboy’s fault too.

    Will Conor’s copies come signed by all of iFanboy?

  7. Hey, love the show! Preacher is definitely one of my favorite comic books. I loved the ending, I thought it was perfect! 🙂

  8. I picked up the first trade on the recommendation of the show about a year ago – and ended up reading all nine within a month 🙂

    In fact, I enjoyed it so much that it led me to pick up Wolverine: Origins to get me some more Steve Dillon art. So far that’s been, uhm……..yeah.

    It’s not been going so great.

  9. One thing you guys barely touched in the show was just how similar Preacher is to the Da Vinci code. If Preacher becomes and HBO show, how Ennis treats the descendants of Christ will be very controversial. Religious shows like the 700 Club and probably the mainstream media are going to love condemning this as blasphemous.

    They got pissed at the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and the Golden Compass for Christ

  10. you guys never once mentioned the Glen Fabry covers. Any opinion on those? Did any of you buy the book of all the covers?

  11. Y’know it never came up. I’ve got to say, I’m not a huge fan of those covers. They feel a little like overblown Garbage Paul Kid drawings. So no, I didn’t bother with the books.

    But we also all read the series in trades, so the covers would of course have less impact on us.

  12. Well, I’m convinced now! I honestly didn’t know a lot about this book, except what it was called and it was meant to be great.

    I’ve just ordered the first trade as it sounds fantastic. But the selfish side of me almost hopes I don’t like it, because if I like it I’ve got 8 more trades to order. Curse you, iFanboy!!! 😉

  13. The first trade is quite good, but it’s in the second trade where it becomes great.

    Can’t wait to hear what you think!

  14. I totally agree with you about the covers Josh. And the over-rendered muscles on EVERYONE including the morbidly obese and geriatrics really bugs the hell out of me.

  15. The first trade is quite good, but it’s in the second trade where it becomes great.

    Most certainly. Angelville is probably the best arc I’ve ever read in any comic – can’t imagine reading that on a monthly basis. I would have gone nuts. Not that things went downhill after the second trade – there were some missteps along the way, but everything about the series was top notch.

    If you haven’t read it, give it a try – actually, it’d probably be OK to start on that second trade – if it doesn’t get it’s hooks into you, then it’s just not your cup of tea.

  16. I just finished them all about a week and half ago. really powerful stuff.

    But I felt there was a lull in the middle about trade number five that didn’t seem like it needed to be there.

    so if i was to buy these i think i would just buy 2,3,6,7,8, and 9. But i would buy 7 last as it is kinda just an interlude.

  17. I read the entire series one weekend in 2001 while staying at a friend’s house. It was a marathon reading session that took all of Saturday and went into Sunday morning. As soon as my student loan came in the next semester I was online getting my own damn copies. I’ve read it three or four times since and, coincidentally, had just started rereading it last week without knowing it was an upcoming episode.

    Gotta disagree on the covers. The Fabry covers are fantastic and well worth the price for a separate book (I picked up the hardcover, even). Yes, they can be a bit overworked (over rendered muscles or too many creases on certain faces) but they set a mood for each book that carries over into the story. I have the original-dress trades and the covers featured on Salvation and Until the End of the World are just perfect. Moreover, they complement Dillon’s interiors in that Fabry gives us an alternate view of what the characters should/could look like. When the Dillon characters start to look the same (and as much as I like the guy, it’s his big weak point) I go back to a cover and remind myself that Jesse is a good-looking, Johnny Depp type, or that Starr is (or was) a mean looking motherfucker (at first). They’re as essential as the Bradstreet Hellblazer and Punisher covers, I’d say.

  18. Hey guys, new listener here, awesome episode! I’m sceptical as to whether or not this will be suitable.

    I turn 15 on Friday and I’m hoping to pick up a heap of comics next time I’m in Forbidden Planet. I got the impression that it was pretty explicit. Would you say it’s suitable? From the episode I gathered that there is swearing (I hear that every day, not a problem with parents) and sex scenes/nudity in there. That’s not too bad, but does it get much worse?

    Thanks.

  19. Chris, I’ll be totally honest with you. There is not just swearing, there is a lot of swearing. There is not just nudity/sex there is a lot of nudity/sex and some of it is… abnormal?

    It’s very much an adult book. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble – maybe wait a few years?

  20. Chris: it’s worth getting in trouble for.

  21. Thanks.

    I’ll let my Dad take a look through it, if he’s happy with it, I’ll get it, if not, I’ll wait a few years.

  22. There are certainly worse things out there (anyone read that last issue of Brawl? WTF?). It’s not obscene by any stretch of the imagination. If you can handle your average high-action R-rated movie, you should be OK with this.

  23. Well, I got some good news. Anything with “sex” in the description, my Mum would dismiss it straight away. But on the amazon.co.uk description, it states “Explicit violence and black humour”. So to cut a long(ish) story short, volume 1 has been ordered!

    Looking forward to it.

  24. I love listening to you guys, and I especially enjoyed hearing you talk about my all-time favorite series. One thing, though; you guys should try not to interrupt each other so much. It’s very distracting and it seems like a lot of good ideas get forgotten before they are ever finished.

  25. James, I promise I’m not disagreeing for the sake of it, but I really like the interrupting as I think it makes for more of a natural flow, like a regular conversation.

    Sometimes being interrupted when you’re making a point by someone leads you to another point you’d maybe not have thought of before.

    But that’s just my opinion, and you have yours. Ain’t it great to have a place where we can all voice them?

  26. I have Preacher 1-12 in issues. I just finished issue 7. It’s good so far, but right now I don’t plan on buying the rest it trades. Does it get better from issue 8 onward?

  27. @Eric – From earlier in the thread:

    The first trade is quite good, but it’s in the second trade where it becomes great.

  28. Ok, the first trade hasn’t arrived yet but I’ve ordered the second one as well. From what you guys are saying about it really getting going in the second one (and you’ve never let me down so far) it’s worth gambling seven quid on.

  29. I remember hearing that one of the trades doesn’t really have a basis on the story, and can be read out of context. It isn’t the 4th one, is it? I started reading it, bought the first 3 and am getting a few more this week, but my comic shop doesn’t carry the 4th trade…

  30. Yeah, you can read the fourth one out of order, but read it before you get to the end, because it gives the Saint of Killers a lot of context, as well as Arseface, believe it or not.

  31. The first trade arrived today and I just finished it… Holy crap! That was great! If it only gets better from here on out I think I’m in for a treat!

    Is it me or is Cassidy possibly the coolest character in comics? Okay, I’m overstating because I’m still on a buzz from reading it, but he’s up there with the coolest, surely?… He’s also something of a Josh lookalike (with the right shades you’ve got this year’s Halloween sorted, buddy).

  32. Jesse, the damn best blue-collar hero ever. One of my favorite comics ever!

  33. thanks for the help. with ifanboys recommendation, i bought 1-4. just read one and it was pretty good.

  34. Oh shit! There is a Preacher show!!  Why didn’t I notice that before?  I’m actually about to finish volume eight today!!  I’m definitely gonna check this show out.  Then finish Preacher.  Then I might check out another Punisher MAX trade.  Then hopefully Astro City volume one will pop up, just ordered one on Ebay.  I need to start reading The Boys after that.  And of course, there’s always Batman.  I’m ramblin cuz I just smoked sum…

  35. puff puff pass

  36. Think I might watch this again cuz I’m thinking about reading all my Preacher books again.  Thank God I didn’t sell them like my Y The Last Man set!!

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