Preacher: I never walked the full walk

I have some hard emotional connections to Preacher - it was the first ongoing comic that I started getting monthly when I first left home, and the last issue came out the week my Nana Smith - who is more responsible for my undying obsession with comic books than any other human being - passed away. I took an issue with me when I stayed in Monument Valley; and whenever I think about how I could sell off my whole comic collection, Preacher is always the first to mind when I consider which one would go last.

It has Steve Dillon's art at its eternal best and Garth Ennis really poured his fuckin' soul into it, and while some of the vibe hasn't aged well - I genuinely think Hitman has held up a lot better over the years - I'll always roll hard for Preacher.

They started talking about a movie version as soon as it came out, but when it finally came to screens, it was as a TV series, and it was pretty good. It was very well cast - Ruth Negga is always top value; Dominic Cooper had the exact right shade of facial hair; Pip Torrens was an exceptionally sharp Starr; and I will literally watch Joe Gilgun in anything.

And while I happily watched the series, and generally thought most of the changes it made to the series were fine, I just realised that it ended four years ago and I still never watched the last season to see how it ends.

It's partly because there is just so much to fucking watch these days, and it's so easy to slip by on things, but I also never felt the compulsion to really hunt it out, so just never bothered. The TV show didn't really have the narrative thrust the comic had - it kept sticking to the same locations, giving it all a sense of inertia, and easier to fall behind on. And maybe it really was a story of its time and place, with some very 1990s storytelling going on, and that time has passed now.

I'll probably catch up one day, but it's been so long since I watched a new episode, I would be completely lost by something that is four seasons deep. Maybe I'll just leave it now, and assume it ends like the comic, with Jessie and Tulip riding off into the sunset. That's how Preacher should always end.

Now I just get my kicks with rabid fans of The Boys TV show going back to read the comics and declaring them THE WORST THING THEY'VE EVER READ, like they're a comic blogger form 2010 or something. New tune, same old song, still fucking funny.