I decided to give Preacher a third or fourth chance, having recently come round to liking Ennis current stiuff. Nope, I still don't get it. I re-read Dixie Fried over lunch. I thought it was badly paced and unfunny. Even though it only took me half an hour to finish, I was actualy bored by the end. Apart from their comedy accents all the characters sound the same, to-wit, they all sound like fecking arseholes. Pages upon pages of characters laughing at Arseface, oh ha-ha-ha. And that Bill Hicks hagiography was so clumsy as to be insulting. Somebody explain the appeal, I've really tried.
I did like the the Neil Gaiman character though.
Interesting take. I'm a huge fan of Preacher. I do think it's a book that works best the first time around - if you find you like it, as I did when I first saw it in the meg reprints, then it works well on an episode-by-episode basis, as I was always keen to find out what happens next. I've also re-read most of it in GNs from the library (did The Meg reprint all of it? If not, I went on to read the rest), and enjoyed those, but it was a while ago. I must admit, the last time I picked one up though, I was much less impressed, but this is true of about 95% of all American comics I read. (there's a whole other discussion there)
True it's indulgent, as all Ennis' stuff is. He creates characters who proceed to indulge in various levels of danger and deviancy whilst spouting off endlessly about the author's particular obsessions and fascinations. The same could be said of most writers! The thing is, I get off on the stuff he talks about. I often quote the bit about Chaplin vs Laurel & Hardy, as it really struck a chord with me (and is absolutely true).
I can't be arsed googling to find out when Preacher was written, but I suspect that so much other stuff has been influenced by it that to someone approaching it now, it may look like a poor knockoff, whereas it was actually the ground-breaking original influence.
but if it don't float your boat, what the hey! Plenty more comics in the Sea. I don't rate 100 bullets as much as most people seem to. Loved the first couple of books, as I got off on the total mystery and the fact that within this mysterious context, they were incredibly moving individual stories; but once the backstory and explanations started appearing, it just killed it and I never enjoyed them much after that. And walking dead is another *yawn* zombie story. Chacun a son gout, mon ami!
PS - who was the 'Neil Gaiman character'? As I said, it's been a while!
