"Preacher" is a graphic novel series that follows the footseps of the three very different characters - Jesse Custer (a former Reverend and vassal of the mysterious entity Genesis, which may be more powerful than God), Tulip (once a flame of Custer's), and Cassidy (a vampire), as they get into adventures in Jesse's search to find God.

Volume Four of this series is a compilation of back stories for several characters who have appeared in the series. We have The Saint of Killers, Arseface (does LibraryThing have a swear block or not?) and Jody and TC, who were bodyguards of Jesse Custer's mother. However, the preludes are best appreciated with the background knowledge of the first three stories.

The first two stories (the Saint of Killers and Arseface) are both quite well-done, and are well-worth reading. They both expand upon the characters of the series, they change our understanding of the characters. They also feature much of what is enjoyable of the previous books of Ennis's gaphic novel series - the dark humour, and the explicit violence. Both of these are worth five out of five stars.

However, the third story, "Good Old Boys" is something of an anomaly here. The two characters of the third story are dead, so their back story (particularly since it does not involve any other novel characters) is irrelevant to the current progression of the story. Another major contrast to the first two stories is that there is no character development - Jody is a cunning and vicious thug at the start of the book, T. C. is still a depraved sadist, and nothing has changed at the end of the book. And, although "Good Old Boys" seems to be a satire, it doesn't say anything particularly interesting or insightful about the type of story it satires, nor is a satire fitting with the rest of the stories that have occured in the series. The story that is told here is quite different to the rest of the stories in this series, but the difference is not of any interest.

Unfortunately, the third story in this comic brings down the rating of this book when the first two comics were both quite worthy reading. ( )

Again - awesome. ( )

unescesarily horrible and depressing. ( )

http://malaysianatheist.blogspot.com ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/815165.htm...

The second half of Volume 3 in this series was devoted to the reminiscences of one of the main characters; Volume Four gives us three backstories about some of the background characters - the Saint of Killers, Arseface and Jesse's redneck relatives Jody and T.C. - altogether more enjoyable than any of the previous volumes, I thought, and in fact I would recommend readers wanting to get to know the series to start with this volume rather than any of the previous three. ( )