Garth Ennis: Busiest Man in Comics

Garth Ennis has been very busy lately. The man who brought us Preacher has three new titles out, all of which are very different, but also very recognizably Ennis. My question is, can he keep up with everything he's writing? If so, he's quickly becoming one of the most prolific writers in comics today.

The most recent of the three new series is The Boys, the first issue of which was just relesed this past Wednesday. Ennis and illustrator Darick Roberrtson (Transmetropolitan) seem like some sort of super-team of dark humor and cynicism. Issue one demonstrates a ruthlessly cruel sense of humor, and has so much adult content packed into those few pages (gore, violence, partial nudity and very very bad language) that we begin to glimpse what Ennis meant when he promised this series will "out-Preacher Preacher". The plot seems to be a mixture of superheroes gone bad, government conspiracy, and what could shape up to be a genuine brute squad, so needless to say I'm excited to see where this goes.

The other series I've been reading by Ennis is A Man Called Kev, which is more or less a spin-off of The Authority. The art is by Carlos Ezquerra. It takes the Kevin Hawkins character from the Kev storylines from The Authority, and gives him his own series. Issues one and two were pretty fun, and you don't really have to be that familiar with the character to enjoy them, though it would probably help you appreciate some of the dialouge.

The third new title is 5 issue mini-series Battler Britton, which I confess I didn't even get through the first issue of. This isn't any reflection on Ennis; it seemed well-written. I just don't get that into war comics, and the story takes place during WWII, among British and American air force pilots. The original Battler Britton series was published by Thriller Picture Library in the 1950s. If you liked War Stories, this is probably more up your alley than Kev or The Boys.

-Elizabeth