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AMC’s bombastic new drama Preacher is getting all kinds of attention for its thrilling action and divisive issues. The show might be being brought to the small screen by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Sam Catlin, but it owes its existence to graphic novelist Garth Ennis. Ennis created Preacher in the ‘90s, in a time before the proliferation of comic book culture and the rise of graphic novels.
When I sat down with Ennis last week, he told us that he’s excited about the way the adaptation has come together on AMC — even with all the changes from page to screen. “I think I did hand them a lot of problems with Preacher,” he joked. “I think Sam [Catlin] himself said the comic hits the ground running at a hundred miles per hour. So a direct adaptation of that is not going to work.”
Preacher is coming to life in a time when television and film are flush with comic book adaptations. I asked Ennis if he thought this comic book cultural boom was good or bad for his industry. His concern, though, was more for the affect the comic book world is having on TV and film audiences.
“I am seeing TV and film audiences — mainstream audiences — educated in the world of the comic book with crossovers and guest appearances. If you’re watching Deadpool, here’s an X-Man who pops up. If you’re watching the Green Arrow show, here’s the Flash. And mainstream audiences are being educated to expect that,” he said. “I’m not sure that’s a particularly healthy development for creativity and story, but it is unquestionably going on.”
Ennis isn’t just known for his own outrageously brilliant original work. He’s also responsible for some of the most beloved superhero storylines in comic book history. Ennis is particularly well-known for his work with Marvel’s Punisher. Many eagle-eyed comic book fans noticed that the most recent season of Daredevil paid homage to Ennis’s run on those books. In particular, the midseason arc seemed to be inspired by Punisher MAX, a story that puts Frank Castle in prison and pits him against all the criminals locked away. I asked Ennis if it was exciting for him to see so much of his work make the leap from page to screen.
He replied, “With Preacher in particular, seeing as it was so heavily influence by film and television in the first place and not comic books, which is perhaps what made it unusual 20 years ago. There is a nice sense of the thing coming home — because that’s where all its influences are from, the screen.”
“The others?” He mused. “I would take it on a case by case basis. The Punisher, as he appears in Daredevil, that’s work for hire and I understood that going in. My generation, we have no excuse taking on work for hire because previous generations warned us about it. That’s why we do so much creator-owned work.”
“I am much more interested in the adaptations of my creator-owned work. This one, The Boys, various others, couple of other dominos that may fall soon. Partially because they’re mine and also therefore I have more creative input and more creative investment in them,” he explained. “Where something like the Punisher material I wrote, well…The writers on that show are free to pull whatever they want from my work and I know that. I’m probably, well, considerably less invested.”
Ennis told us that the production team behind Preacher has given him a lot of input in every aspect of the series. Ironically, Ennis seems completely fine to let Rogen, Goldberg, and Catlin pursue their own interpretation of his material. After their initial meeting with Ennis, the writer told the producers, “‘I think you’re on the right track. Just keep the spirit of it.’ And it turned out I was right.”
[Photos: AMC, Netflix]
