Preacher: Ancient History

One-sentence summary: This collection of the Preacher specials is solid, if probably unnecessary.

I haven't read Preacher in years, so I've been going through it again recently. It holds up pretty well as a series -- definitely Ennis's magnum opus.

A big part of Preacher, though, is the fascinating long-form narrative. Another equally important part is Steve Dillon, whose art is key to the story's tone. What's interesting, though, is how well these three stories work despite that. They're a reprieve from the main Preacher -- a side-road to travel -- but they're still a good read.

Well, the Saint of Killers 4-parter is a good read. Arseface's origin and a story featuring Jody and T.C. are pretty lackluster. They're a bit of cotton candy; sort of enjoyable, but there's nothing to it.

The Saint of Killers story -- there's some amazing Preacher work. Firmly entrenched in the bizarre theology of the Preacher universe, while a complete embrace-and-rejection-of the old Westerns that Ennis loves so much, it just works. It's a story that's simultaneously awesome and terrifying, over-the-top but creepy. It serves its purpose as a legend w/in the Preacher world, giving us an interesting background on the Saint of Killers that we can choose to believe or not, while giving us an interesting amoral tale. It's the key to the collection, and really what makes the book worthwhile.

That being said, I do wonder about the placement of this trade within the series. As I said, it's been awhile since I read Preacher, so I'm not entirely sure if what comes immediately after this has any relevance to the going-ons of this book, of if it just so happened that some of these issues were published during the issues in trades 3 & 5, so they threw them in here. I don't know. If they end up not having any relevance, I sort of question making them a numbered part of the set, and not just their own separate trade -- but, meh, it was worth it for the Saint of Killers story.