It makes sense now

[trinityvixen]

I just finished Preacher--liked it less towards the end. Not to be punny or nothing, but it felt like it was slouching towards Gomorrah rather than running at the end, teeth bared and bloody, like it had been up until, oh, say the middle-to-late issues. I still liked it on the whole, mind you. I was amazed that, for a series about a guy with the ability to command anyone to do anything, very little of that sort of thing happened. Similarly, Cassidy is the least bloody-and-gutty vampire I ever met in fiction. I liked him immensely up until the story went soft around him. It was a nice change of pace from all the goddamned modern vampires. I love me some six feet of Eric Northman, mind you, but give it a bloody rest. (Ew, pun again.) I even liked Tulip, though she was a tad pathetic at times. Wish more could have been done with her, like what was done.

Anyway, I went to look up Garth Ennis to see what all else he's written. Apparently, some Hellblazer, which figures--his sense of humor and John Constantine's are nearly a perfect match. He also wrote the first six issues of The Darkness, as well as another corker of a miniseries, "Heart of Darkness," which !!!! I have the trades and I re-read 'em not infrequently. Say what you will about other Top Cow series--hell, say what you want about The Darkness--but they at least had style. And Garth Ennis literally wrote the best stories of that entire franchise, far as I'm concerned. Jackie worked best as the literal and figurative bastard he was before he was re-written to be more, I dunno, gritty or sympathetic. Ennis' Jackie was never a hero. He wasn't even saintly enough to be an antihero. He was an absolute asshole, with a streak of violence a mile wide with only his scant-few but bone-deep loyalties to redeem him as a character. He was also whip-smart and creative, which you should be, if you can help it, when you control a power that allows anything you dream to be. If they ever do get a Darkness movie off the ground, I'd love to see them go with Ennis' take on it.

But hot damn! He writes really well. I've got to check out more of his stuff!

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Ennis' run on Hellblazer was some of the best and most iconic. He also did a fun run on the short-lived Midnighter book. (I have both in trade if you want to borrow them.) I found a lot of his other recent stuff to be gory without much purpose--his standalone trade Goddess was basically "What If Garth Ennis write Alan Moore's Promethea?"

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of the WildStorm stuff (that's where Midnighter comes from, right?), so I dunno if that would make any sense to me. But I'd totally read more Hellblazer, any time, any story, especially a good story.

I have the sense that the longer you stay in comic writing, if you're really talented, the more warped you seem to get by it. Someone who starts off pretty twisted must hit that warp point pretty hard. Obviously, this is only true for some people, but it's true for a lot of the writers I would have heard of. I'm sure there are many a work-a-day writer on comics who've managed to stay sane.

[onefishonly.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed by The Boys, his current long-running original series, but I know people who really like it, and it's vaguely entertaining for a while. Actually, Preacher's the only thing I've read of his I've really liked, but I haven't checked out his Hellblazer stint, which I suspect I'd like.

Wonder how he was on Midnighter. As far as specific comics writers go, I think I like Warren Ellis more consistently over Ennis (and *sometimes*, when he's not completely out-of-it, I like Grant Morrison better, too), but Ellis has definitely put out some very fun stuff. I think I remember liking some Punisher comics he did, too.

I am not sure why I bothered with all those italics tags in a livejournal comment : )

[onefishonly.livejournal.com]

To clarify: Ellis has put out fun stuff, but even the fun stuff I've been disappointed by, because Preacher was significantly *better* - more fun, more satisfying, less annoying-in-certain-ways (sex-and-gore-for-the-sake-of-sex-and-gore is an Ellis staple now, it seems, whereas it felt part and parcel of the story in Preacher).

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

It's more like, you really need a good editor to be a good writer. Comics tends to have the "protection from editors" problem in spades, where writers who are big names just don't get edited. I liked Grant Morrison before he was cool, because there was somebody reining him in. Same with Ennis, Frank Miller, or John Byrne.

The workaday writers are the ones who didn't start with the ego or the insanity necessary to be superstars. Gail Simone writes tight, character-focused stories that aren't world-shattering--she doesn't have the insanity. Giffen and DeMattis are the same way, for the most part. Mike Carey really hasn't been pushed as a big-name writer despite the success of Lucifer; apparently he doesn't have the ego to go properly power-mad. Chuck Dixon has never had either, but I'll take him as a fill-in writer on any superhero title you can name.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I will admit a tendency to get Ennis and Ellis mixed up.

That Ellis tendency towards sex-and-gore-because-he-can has really turned me off to a lot of his later stuff. Goddess was especially appalling. I don't object to either in the service of story, but it feels more and more like his writing is being guided by a 16-year-old boy playing "you can't top this". No, having the main character squish people's eyes out with his thumbs for being slightly annoying doesn't make him badass, it just makes him psychotic and not particularly interesting.

Ennis has some similar tendencies from time to time. But I've really been enjoying Freak Angels.

[onefishonly.livejournal.com]

Agghgh. I messed up my clarification. I ment to be talking about Ennis, not Ellis. Warren Ellis is the dude who did Freakangels (in addition to classics like Transmetropolitan and some runs on Planetary/The Authority, and a great one-shot trade called Orbiter), and a guy who seems slightly less all about sex and violence than Garth Ennis. Garth Ennis is the one whose Punisher (and Preacher, clearly) I liked, but who I now often find boringly over-the-top gory. Grant Morrison is another writer kinda talked about in the same paragraphs as those two, but I've never read the Invisibles, so I don't actually remember what of his I've read, other than the other excellent single volume trade WE3.

But yeah, I mix them all up occasionally.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

...aaaand you've got them backwards.

[onefishonly.livejournal.com]

yeeeeeaahh. To be fair, I'm hardly the first. And I'm tiiiiired.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Dammit!

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Grant Morrison, I've written off completely. After Seaguy, I've refused to read any of his independent books, and I only suffered through his Batman atrocity because I wanted to stay up to date on continuity. I don't know why I bothered, it didn't make any sense anyway.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the old "I don't need an editor, I'm JK Rowling" issue. I'm betting that's accounts for 99% of why some of those blockbuster authors tend to go to pot. Very good point.

You know, I haven't read any of Gail Simone's work. I feel like a bad feminist. What titles has she written on besides Wonder Woman? I don't even know those other two you mention. Durn it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I approve of the italics. I am a stickler for them myself. If they ought to be there, they should be there!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh no, what did he do to Batman? And can't you just google it and skip over?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Remind me what Ellis wrote again? Because now I have him thoroughly mixed up with Ennis. I don't blame you for this at all--I understand your confusion all too well. In fact, writing this, I stated to type out "Grant Morrison" in place of "Garth Ennis" because of the G-names, to say nothing of the closeness of "Ellis" to "Ennis." Sheesh.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Look it up on Wikipedia. I've already messed it up enough as it is, I don't want to make it worse. :P

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I should have, oh, I should have.

He did a lot of the Crisis/RIP Batman/Batman Inc nonsense.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Gail Simone has done very nice work on Birds of Prey, Secret Six, the most recent reboot of Gen13 and the Wildstorm side-book Welcome to Tranquility.

Keith Giffen and JM DeMattis are currently writing Justice League: Generation Lost and Doom Patrol, and are mostly know for their teamwork on the "Justice League International" era of JLA books.

Mike Carey wrote Lucifer and Crossing Midnight, and is currently writing Unwritten.

All of these things are generally worth the time.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

Absolute must-reads:

Transmetropolitan (amazing, if a tad, er, scatalogical)
Planetary (also amazing, tied somewhat, but not totally to WildStorm)
Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. (hysterical send-up of the Marvel universe)
Global Frequency (standalone comic; Fringe wishes it was this)

Highly recommended:
the Authority (invented them, was amazing while he wrote them, tied closely to WildStorm)
Hellblazer mini-series (pretty good, if a little out-of-character)

Generally Fun:
Desolation Jones
Mek
Ocean
FreakAngels

There's quite a lot more, but those are the standouts, IMHO.

Wrote the plot for the video game Dead Space. Wrote the comic that became the movie Red. Currently writing Astonish X-Men (and it's good)

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

In case you didn't notice, he's probably my favorite comic writer. :P

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I keep meaning to read Preacher. I even had a friend's copies of the first two volumes for a while and never got around to them. One day, Gadget! Of course, I should probably finish Sandman too...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You didn't finish Sandman? Wow, I thought I was the last hold out. You should, of course. I can give you the digital Preacher stuff, too.

It's funny: as convenient as digital comics and trade paperbacks are--and as reliant as I am on them, I'd never go back--I still miss comics by the issue. It hits me as I read all these trades and digital comics how much I miss out on the weekly trips we used to make and the thumbing through issues on the stand. Sadness.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Transmet. I don't think I ever got past book one. It was so full of itself.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

It really is, but I would recommend finishing book 2, at least. That's the point where the real plot starts and Spider's worldview starts to actually get challenged.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

And then you look at the sticker price and say, "!@#$ that!"?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I haven't got that money.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I got through the first three volumes and liked it, but then had to return the comics to a friend. Years later I started buying my own copies and re-read them and made it about as far before I stopped for whatever reason. So now I have copies of vols. 1-6, and feiran has the whole set of the original release, and I can't decide if I should bother completing my collection :)

I still buy a few monthly comics, but I should probably stop because I'm behind on reading most of them. I'm only current on Darkwing Duck, but I am still getting Fables, and The Unwritten, and Buffy just finished.