Written by Garth Ennis, Illustrated by Steve Dillon.
A 66 issue comic series collected into 9 Trade Paperbacks.

Sample Page (scanned)

This 90s comic tells the tale of a preacher, Jesse Custer, possessed by a being from heaven. The being is in fact the child of an angel and a demon and its power is said to rival that of God himself, something reinforced by his disappearance at the time of the birth. Custer carries the entity, named Genesis, within him and gathers the power of "the word". This means that anyone who hears him speak in that voice must obey his words. The story of Preacher begins with the escape of Genesis from heaven and the possession of Custer and begins a rollercoaster ride unlike any told in any other medium. Custer, an Irish vampire named Cassidy and Custer's ex-girlfriend Tulip begin a search for God on earth with the intention of questioning him on just what the hell he's doing.

The initial premise I have just described perhaps sounds little more than some odd religious tale. I can assure you it's not. Just to clarify something before we go on, I am not in any way religious and this is a not a story directed at those who are. The tale of Preacher is violent, it is funny and most importantly it is very well written and illustrated. The dialogue is excellent, coming across quite real and often very funny. It's a very dark comic but with plenty of dark comedy to boot. A lot of the humour lies also in the situations the characters find themselves in and the people they meet on their long trip.

Preacher will make you feel happy, it will make you feel sad. It draws you in and makes you feel very attached to the characters, subsequently pulling you through the same ups and downs they experience. There are feel good moments in the series and times when you just cannot believe the twist of events. The story, whilst proceeding along the initial premise, develops into something much larger with the introduction of other parties interested in Jesse Custer. It becomes quite epic with a large cast of constant characters. I would love to explain further but I hope that someone will read this and buy the trade paperbacks (the series is complete from start to end in TPB form) to discover for themselves.

The art is different from what you may have come across in super-hero comics or manga but it's excellent for the style of comic that Preacher is. The depiction of violence is more graphic, and often very funny, than you'd get in a film. The characters faces are equally excellent, portraying their emotions very well. As I have already mentioned the tale is complete and forms one long, planned out story across 9 books (or 66 comics). I recommend this to anyone who likes excellent stories full of dark humour, violence and three dimensional characters. Before Preacher I had been reading only super hero comics and was fast outgrowing them. Preacher is something for the older reader and spurred me on to find more equally adult tales in comic form. My review doesn't do it justice, it's really one of the best stories ever told.

Written to Offspring - Pay The Man