Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

So, getting hooked on Preacher and Transmetropolitan in less than 24 hours?   It's kind of surreal.  I feel so hopped on these: they're disgusting, obscene, perverse, subversive - and really smart and thought provoking at the same time.   They have characters that feel a little insane, or off, but that are fully realized, and that you like. 

I kind of feel that Preacher is more in your face, and while this makes it feel a little less subversive, I like them equally, at least so far.   There's something charming about how little Preacher holds back: it gets more violent, crosses more boundaries, and yet it's pure artistic vision.   It doesn't hurt that Ennis has something to say about the world we live in, and he cuts right to the heart of things. 

Ellis does as well, and both Jesse Custer and Spider Jerusalem swear up storms, bluntly tell people what they think, and are, in some ways, similar characters.   They see through the world's bullshit.   Of course, they are also vastly different: whereas Spider is a paranoid, drug-guzzling journalist, Jesse is far more sober, although he might hallucinate a little, and seems to have more solid connections to the world around him.   Of course, a great deal of Jesse's past has been revealed; not so much with Spider.    

The truth is that they have some core similarities, which are possibly explained by the forward to this volume in which Ennis explains that he and Ellis are quite alike in how they view the world.   And then they have differences that are explained by the fact that they are in different stories, meant to fill different roles, and Ellis and Ennis are far too creative to come up with mere copycat characters.   They are different people, after all, and both seem like very intelligent men, despite the immaturity in both these graphic novels.   (And the way that Spider man-childs about town, being the rebellious little shit that is more reminiscent of a teen than a full grown man, is juvenile to say the least.   So much so that his editor doesn't trust him to hold it together without sending him a live in assistant to babysit him all the time.)

That being said, a lot of the things he says do really cut straight to the truth.   No social niceties, no toning it down, no introductions.   Just a quick hit-and-run until he uncovers the truth.   If his unveiling of reality makes others miserable, so much the better, especially if he gets a front row seat to the tears.   After all, as he says, he's miserable, so why shouldn't other people be miserable?   

Then again, never has a drugged up paranoid misanthrope who really wants to be a crazy mountain man - complete with hair so thick and long it's very almost literally a pelt - who booby traps his house.   And toilet.    Never has he been so happy than during those five years up on that mountain!   

Never has he been so unproductive, however.   Never has his hair been so long, or so much the product of your worst nightmares.   (And, no, I'm going to spare you the trauma of Spider as a bear-man.   I refuse to post an image of that.)

So far, this is ambling along, forcing Spider to return to the city and write.   I can tell you each issue had a plot, but I'm not sure I see the purpose, or an arc, whereas I definitely saw one in Preacher.   Maybe I'm just not seeing it yet.   Maybe the point is that this is Spider pissing and shitting on everyone - sometimes literally - and gleefully ruining everyone's day as he bares the harsh truth to them all. 

I'm really not sure what it is, beyond incredibly entertaining.