Preacher: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis

ISBN: 1563892618

I bought this book.

Preacher graphic novel #1

You’d think it wouldn’t get much weirder than a faithless Texas preacher possessed by a half-angel, half-demon. Or his friend, who happens to be a hardcore Irish vampire. And his girlfriend, Tulip? Well, let’s just say she can keep up.

I don’t remember who recommended this series to me, or when, but I remember picking the first two up through the Science Fiction Book Club and to this day I look at that as one of the indicators that I’d become an adult. The series starts hard, with Tulip failing a hit and landing in Cassidy’s car in a nearly-failed getaway. But readers figure out something is up right away when Cassidy takes a bullet to the head and doesn’t even flinch. The pair flee until the sun rises and Cassidy has to take refuse in the back of his truck. Meanwhile Tulip borrows his vehicle to investigate an explosion in the distance. In the shattered remains of a church she finds one survivor—the man who left her, Jesse Custer.

Freshly possessed by Genesis (the spawn of an affair between an angel and a demon, and inheritor of both race’s power) Jesse discovers he now has—literally–the Word of God at his disposal, and the angels responsible for recapturing Genesis have unleashed the Saint of Killers to take him down.

Jesse, always being one for the impossible, decides to take the fight right up to God’s door and hold him responsible for all the everything in the world.

This volume also includes the hilarious and killer side quest wherein the gang lands in New York. Cassidy runs into an old friend and some seriously bloody hijinks ensue.

Preacher: Gone to Texas, is definitely adults only, and only gore lovers (or toleraters) at that. It’s batter dipped violence deep fried in a spicy version of Christian mythology and utterly unique. And no matter how wild the ride is, if you keep reading it’ll get even crazier, straight into “Who thinks of this?” territory.