Writer: Garth Ennis
Artists: Steve Dillon, John McCrea
Colorist: Panel Rambo
Letterer: Clem Robins
Single issue
Published by DC Vertigo 1999
$5.95

Reviewed by Antony Johnston

All good things must come to an end, and PREACHER will very soon be one of those things. So for this PREACHER special, Garth Ennis has gone the other way. We're taken back to Jesse and Tulip's life pre-Genesis, when they were young, foolish, in love... and car thieves. Along the way we also get to see just a little more concerning Amy's past involvement with them.

This special is very much in keeping with the other one-offs of PREACHER. It tells us very little we need to know, while still managing to entertain the hell out of us. Ennis must by now know these characters better than his own family, and could probably rattle off stories like this for a good few years yet. If they were all as enjoyable as this, that would be no bad thing.

'Tall in the Saddle' is a short and pithy tale of horse rustling, grand theft auto and extreme violence (some of it disturbingly funny), all wrapped up in the snappy dialogue and movie-like pacing we've come to expect from Ennis. Frankly, he makes it look easy - always a sure sign that it isn't.

 

"Ennis could probably rattle off stories like this for a good few years yet"

There's not much of a plot - essentially Jesse, Tulip and Amy are recruited by a Texas Ranger to recover some stolen horses - but there's a lot of character, which is definitely the forte of books like this. We already know how things turn out after this story. What we want is to either know how they got there, as we did in 'One man's War' and 'Saint of Killers', or gain more insight into the motivations and backgrounds of the characters. This comic mainly delivers the latter, though with the Amy-Jesse "love thang" it makes a small nod to the former, too.

Steve Dillon, again, makes it all look effortless, with his layout and character studies as economical and well paced as ever. John McCrea's inks jar a little at times, as his style is much looser than Dillon's, but those times are few. For the most part, this is a successful team-up. Maybe it's something they put in the Irish water.

The price is a little steep for 48 pages, but at least for that you get a spine, and everything else in this format is at least as expensive, so I guess we can't complain too much.

All in all, it's a lovely package. It's hardly essential PREACHER reading, but hey, it's entertaining, well written, well drawn and in places funny as hell. Which is more than can be said for a lot of other books you might spend that money on.

Recommended

Antony Johnston is Reviews Editor of PopImage.

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