I've heard good things about Vertigo comic Preacher, but I've never read it. I suspect, though, that the news it's being made into a TV series isn't going to please its fans immediately, given its adult nature and general incompatibility with mainstream tastes. However, back off, my friends: it's being made by HBO, the home of Deadwood. You can breathe a little better now, can't you?
Updates and related entries
December 1, 2006:
More news on HBO's Preacher
November 29, 2006 | Reply
Oooooh, you haven't read Preacher? You have to do that asap. It is wonderful. Brilliant characters and a fabulous gradual revealing of past histories and histories catching up with people. Beautiful continuities and a fabulous indictment of God. Written and drawn in such a way as to turn your stomach probably more than an acted version could manage.
HBO doing it? Works for me. As long as there are no compromises on the veil and flawed nature of the characters I'll be fine. i'd love to know who is going to play Cassidy.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
Au contraire, Mr Buckley. The fact that it's being made into a TV series rather than a film is very good news, as it's a huge, complicated story and shoehorning it into a film would have meant losing loads of good material. Ennis and Dillon's involvement is good news too.
The presence of the director of Daredevil, which I only bothered to watch when it was on telly a few months back and was bloody appalling, is less good news. Ah well, at least it isn't Rachel Talalay.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
I've never gotten on entirely well with Preacher, despite reading the series a few times. It just seems like a lad-mag-style action movie pretending really hard to be a 'serious' comic book. The accolades heaped upon it have always baffled me. Still, it should make decent TV fodder, assuming it's done right. But then the ratio of good to bad comic-book adaptations to the screen is something like 1:HUGE NUMBER. On the plus side, at least it won't be as bad as Bogie Man.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
"lad-mag-style action movie pretending really hard to be a 'serious' comic book"
In other words, it's written by Garth Ennis. He's gone even further towards the lad-mag style since, unfortunately. I preferred his run on Hellblazer, which was astoundingly good, because the laddishness worked as light relief against the grimness, but I still like Preacher.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
I preferred Jamie Delano's earlier work on Hellblazer to Ennis's stuff. And I preferred Alan Moore's take on JC in Swamp Thing to that. Not a trace of laddishness in either of them.
I'm a traditionalist, me.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
Ah, so you're the one who preferred Delano!
Moore and Gaiman write the best Constantines. But Ennis did better stories.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
There can be only one.
I forget exactly at which point he went off the boil - something like issue 20 - but his early stuff was great.
November 29, 2006 | Reply
Some people may have difficulty seeing past the sick humour and profanity, but I'd say Preacher contains some of the more mature -- and I don't mean in the sense according to Torchwood -- exploration of the nature of friendship and betrayal that I've seen in comics during the '90s. Ennis has fun blending genres and creates some of his best dialogue. I'd recommend it if you want to see him at his best (or at least, before he allowed himself to give in to later excess).
(I was going to question whether the source on this one was any good, but Warren Ellis happens to be mates with Ennis, so I won't.)
November 29, 2006 | Reply
I agree that the series has some good bits going for it, especially on the subject of betrayals, but it just kind of irked in so many ways. Also, I never got that suspension of disbelief. Even the anthropomorphic world of Usagi Yojimbo feels more 'real' to me, and for more 'grown up' stuff, Lucifer and Hellboy are series that I feel work really well.
Still, if Preacher works (and it's not as if I _dislike_ the series), then great. Maybe that'd kick-start a few more series-based comic adaptations (rather than sodding trilogies). Hey, maybe that Strontium Dog series might finally see the light of day. (Yeah, right...)