Warning! AMC's "Preacher" Will Be TV's Next Big Thing

I have seen only the first episode of AMC’s blazing new thrill ride “Preacher” – first in a Pasadena movie theater at a private screening for Television Critics Association members in January, and more recently on my television in Connecticut – so I figure this is a good time to begin weighing in on what will certainly become yet another AMC series that demands perpetual attention in the press as it progresses, not unlike “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead.” “Preacher” should fit comfortably into that group, if only because it is not in any way similar to anything else we have ever seen on advertiser supported television with the possible exception of FX’s graphic “American Horror Story” franchise. But where “AHS” has from the start been a hot mess at best (and a stone cold one at worst), “Preacher,” if handled correctly, will quickly develop into a thing of scorching beauty and exquisitely orchestrated madness. How can it not, when its canvas includes an alcoholic vampire, a young man whose disfigured face resembles an anus (that would be Arseface, pictured below) and a man of the cloth possessed by an unspeakable being that is actually something spawned by an unholy celestial coupling? Also in the mix: The spirit of John Wayne, God at His wit’s end and a global covert operation charged with protecting the sacred bloodline of … Wait. That would be spoiling things.

I read each issue of Preacher the Comic Book as it was published from 1995-2000 – that was 66 issues in all, plus a four-part spin-off (The Saint of All Killers) and five special one-offs. Bingeing was not an option, and the month-to-month suspense was palpable. In other words, this story was a part of my life for the better part of six years. Few of the people busily writing about “Preacher” the Television Series will come at it from the same perspective, and many of them are already getting it all wrong, but don’t hold that against them. It takes time to figure this one out, but once that happens it can be enjoyed as an unprecedented indulgence in intellectual and spiritual lunacy – with lots of mind-bending violence and mind-blowing sex to keep its almost unwieldly plotlines at full fascinating boil.

I knew at the time I read it, and still believe to this day, that writer Garth Ennis (a man with one of the most fertile minds among all writers everywhere) and artists Steve Dillon and Glenn Fabry created one of the best comic book series in the history of publishing and one of the most compelling stories of any kind written for any medium in modern American history. With stunning aplomb, Ennis went on and equaled this feat with “The Boys,” another comic book series that ran from 2006 thru 2012 that was completely different from and yet every bit as profound as Preacher, and like Preacher would seem to utterly defy adaptation for television outside of the pay or streaming arenas. Also, it was even more twisted.

Thinking back, the dark and twisty tale of Preacher was the perfect story for the dreary and despairing 90s, the beginning of what turned out to be a period of perpetual economic oppression, a loss of faith in leadership and great violence in the name of “religion” that continues to this day. It’s as if Ennis knew what was coming! That assessment will become increasingly clear to all as “Preacher” the Television Series plays out over the course of what I am certain will be a very long run.

If the first episode is any indication, “Preacher” the Television Series won’t be quite the dark delight that Preacher the Comic Book established itself as with its very first issue. Then again, how could it be? Some things simply cannot be filmed for television. For a general sense of what the writers of this show are up against, check out

Warning! AMC's "Preacher" Will Be TV's Next Big Thing

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Ed Martin