News Flash! - Garth Ennis can write... and water is wet.

I mentioned previously that I recently purchased the first three hardcover volumes of The Punisher (MAX) at my local used bookstore for about 45 dollars. I had not read a punisher comic intentionally since the first mini series when I was in high school. 

Garth Ennis is one of a handfull of writers who I assume is going to give me a good book to read, and I have trouble passing up a good buy on relatively cheap, beautiful hardcover. I understood the basics of the character and I had a pretty good idea what to expect going into reading the books. I have read a number of Ennis's works before, I was aware of the MAX line being a mature imprint. I expected gritty and violent with lots of  crime and lots of punishing. I say these things, just to separate comics that you go into knowing what you, as an adult, reading a comic geared toward adults, can expect and accept, versus comics that surprise you with overly violent and cruel takes on characters that you do NOT expect to see in such a light, nestled inside of titles that you don't expect to showcase such things.

The Punisher is spectacularly violent, gritty, and bloody. There is an understanding between the book and it's readers. The blood and vengeance and it's unblinking execution are really just the setting in this title. Once you start reading it, you are drawn right into the world in which the Punishers actions almost seem like the most honest and sensible things going on in the world that is portrayed there. He has a very rigid set of rules that he lives within, and within which he metes out not Judgement, not justice, but punishment. He punishes... It's in his name you know. 

The books are more than violence, though. That would get almost immediately tired. The stories that are told have many varied and real characters moving about inside them, and the Punisher is like a force of nature. He's the self appointed grim reaper for bad people that do bad things and make the world unsafe for the good people who need someone like him out there if they are to have even a remote chance of happily living out their lives. The supporting characters, and the plots that run through the various story arcs, and don't go away just because a new arc has started really make this the best sort of book. 

To me, this reads like a series of excellent 'thinking person's action movies' First Blood mixed with Unforgiven, mixed with some really good crime dramas I can't think of right now.  The art is just perfect throughout the entire run I read. It works well with the stories and doesn't get in the way.  I am now faced with a strong urge to read more. Once I started reading, I really was driven to keep going until I ran out of story. 

You Sir, are no library.

I went to the used bookstore yesterday, as I often do on Mondays. My daughter takes violin lessons, and there is a used bookstore next to the music store. Normally I can get away without too much trouble, but sometimes things are dangled in front of me that I just can't pass up. I guess I could have passed it up, except for my whole crazy addiction to buying stuff. (not really an addiction, I am just weak willed and love buying things as much as I love having things.

I have never been a fan of the Punisher. What this means is that when the Punisher first arrived on the scene he just wasn't my bag. Because of that, I have always been able to avoid buying Punisher titles. I am a fan of Garth Ennis, but I came to that sort of reluctantly as well. I have a natural inclination to like things that are nice and fun and not overly acidic or dark or heavy, or whatever. There are a lot of things that I did not read when they first came out for that reason. Once I got sufficiently older and started having friends recommend things to me, I rediscovered a lot of things I had avoided initially, including Preacher. So these days, I am a fan, and I can handle almost anything if it is written well and makes sense. I have enjoyed the Ennis I have read.

Yesterday the bookstore had the Punisher(MAX) v1, v2, v3 hardcovers for 15 dollars each in perfect condition. Yes they are available new on Amazon for about twenty bucks each, but fifteen and available right now is even better. They also had trade paperbacks of The Punisher: Born, Daredevil: Marked for Death, and The Elektra Saga. I had to pick up the Two Daredevil books because they cover runs that I have always been nostalgic about. I have the floppies from when they came out, but I am happy to have the trades to keep on the shelf and read.

I read Punisher: Born, and really enjoyed it. That was my first introduction to Garth Ennis's Punisher. I know it is different from the main series, but it was very well written. It was dark like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket, but well written and an enjoyable enough read for me. War comics are not a genre I have ever really read before. I am hoping the series is good as well. All told, I spent less than 70 bucks and got 3 decent trades and 3 big hardbacks.

I kind of love having hardbacks, but I will almost never buy them. There are a few titles that merit my having them in hardback. Batman Year One is the main one. If I can get them for the price of a trade, or close to it, then I will pick up the hardcover. It makes me feel fancy...