Week 13: Changing Landscape and Licensed characters

For this week’s comics I started reading some of the Preacher series. I have to say that this comic was different than what I was expecting and more than what I bargained for when choosing to read this selection. From the title and the cover image of the comic, I was expecting a man to walk around saving souls, or facing trail and error while teaching the people good of the Lords way. Instead I ended up seeing the devil fucking his demons in the dark fiery pits of hell. The Preacher series sets itself on an intense storyline. One could compare the style of preacher to a pulp magazine or modern day Grand Theft Auto video game.

The story of Preacher is set around the character Jessie Custer who is possessed by a supernatural creature genesis, who has to face the obstacles of defeating the gores of evil. Jessie is not you average preacher man. In fact in certain parts of the story, I couldn’t really tell if he was for good or evil. The aurora of Jessie is unpredictable including his consistent mood swings and his will to kick some demons ass!

The graphics in Preacher are very well detailed and accurate. There were some point of over exaggerations in the characters reaction which amped the dramatic intensity mood of the story. Artist Steve Dillon, illustrator of Preacher, did not hold back on the detailed blood and gore involved with in the context of death and fear of the underworld. I loved many of the optical illusion styles that were used to create the religious and internal self-awareness isolation by making the descriptions effective to the story.

Overall, I would not recommend this comic to a religious based audience. After looking at the title, I was thinking that this man was going to save souls, but instead there were themes of sex, violence, and slurs that could come off as potentially offensive to religions. There was several references that stated “I could tell that the Lord was using my prayers to wipe his ass”. When I read this, I found it humorous, but it was very uncommon to come across this subtext. I did enjoy reading the story and would recommend it to others with an open mind.