Creation Story
Jesse Custer is Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Vertigo masterpiece. Preacher #1 (April 1995) introduces three central characters in a single issue: Jesse Custer, a small-town Texas preacher having a crisis of faith; Tulip O’Hare, his ex-girlfriend who has become a contract assassin; and Cassidy, an Irish vampire who has been living in America for decades. The issue’s opening sequence has the celestial entity Genesis (a forbidden child of an angel and a demon, hidden by a faction of heaven, hunted by both sides) bond with Jesse and give him the power of the Word of God.
Garth Ennis writes; Steve Dillon pencils; Glenn Fabry provides the painted cover. The Fabry covers became one of the most-collected Vertigo cover-art series. Dillon’s interior art (clean line work, careful character acting, deliberate page composition) became the visual foundation that the AMC adaptation later drew from in its production design.
The book’s tonal register is distinctive: Western-coded American iconography, theological-philosophical commentary, brutally direct profanity, recurring extreme violence as moral instrument, and a willingness to commit to character relationships across the series’s full arc. The Ennis-Dillon collaboration is widely regarded as one of the most successful sustained writer-artist partnerships in Vertigo history.
The 66-issue arc
Preacher ran 66 issues plus several specials and a one-shot through October 2000. The arc was planned. Ennis and Dillon mapped the conclusion from early in the run, and the series ended in a deliberate way that is rare for indie creator-owned ongoings of the era. The narrative tracks Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy across America hunting God (literally; God has abandoned heaven and is hiding) while pursued by the Saint of Killers (the series’s recurring antagonist, debuting in Preacher #2) and the broader institutional conspiracy of the Grail (the Catholic Church’s secret political faction).
Preacher Special: Saint of Killers #1 (August 1996) by Garth Ennis and Steve Pugh tells the Saint’s full Western-supernatural origin. Widely regarded as one of the best Preacher tie-ins.
The AMC era
Preacher (AMC, 2016 to 2019) developed by Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg adapted the comics across four seasons. Dominic Cooper’s Jesse is widely regarded as a faithful tonal portrayal; the show restructured plot elements for the season-length television format but preserved the central character framework. The AMC adaptation reset the character’s cultural visibility at scale.
Collector context
Preacher #1 is the Jesse Custer Vertigo first-appearance key. High-grade CGC 9.8 copies have crossed $400 at auction. The book’s value accelerated with the 2016 AMC adaptation and has held.
Secondary keys: Preacher #2 (1995, first Saint of Killers). Preacher Special: Saint of Killers #1 (1996, Saint origin). Preacher #66 (2000, series finale). The Glenn Fabry cover-art Vertigo paintings carry additional collector framing as a complete cover series.
