Garth Ennis: an appreciation (?)

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Ah yes, that troubling question mark.

Anyone care to discuss the good, the bad and the downright weird of the man's work?

His Indy publisher stuff in recent years hasn't done much for me. It's a shame Steve Dillon is gone but jacen barrows was a great fit for his punisher and crossed work...

Your views and opinions?

[InfamousBG]

Ah yes, that troubling question mark.

Anyone care to discuss the good, the bad and the downright weird of the man's work?

His Indy publisher stuff in recent years hasn't done much for me. It's a shame Steve Dillon is gone but jacen barrows was a great fit for his punisher and crossed work...

Your views and opinions?

The Punisher. Love it. Amazing.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Yeah. His punisher work is some of his best and I wish he'd get back to it. His Indy stuff doesn't seem very well edited. Would love him and jacen on more stories maybe some set in the seventies.

A train called love and that time travelling girl story I just don't find interesting or funny..

[K7P5V]

The Punisher. Love it. Amazing.

Ditto! Couldn't agree more with your critical assessment of his work

[The PhantomDreamlander]

Garth ennis was involved in creating the section 8 characters of dc which i do weirdly like the ideas of them and how utterly insane they are especially sixpack

[K7P5V]

^^^Yeah! Ennis at DC Comics!! No matter what, I'll always love his version of Superman (T^T)

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Would love to see Garth write a Supes maxi-series with maybe Ivan reis, Gary frank or some other great artist. It could have him tested greatly by humanity's cruelty and a new breed of reckless, violent heroes. Supes could show us what being a hero ISN"T about...

[Tendrin]

Ennis' edge-lordyness wore thin a *long* time ago and the dude seems like he is largely repeating himself at this point. A shame, 'coz when he's good, he can be quite good. Seems like one of those authors who needs some guard rails and a strong editor who can tell him 'no'.

[JackDaw]

One of my favourite authors.

Hitman (my logo no coincidence), Preacher, his war stories, both versions of Punisher (Marvel Knight series as well as Max), and the Fury Max series all tremendous in my opinion.

I was initially a bit disappointed with the Boys…but enjoyed a re-read much more, and actually think the subsequent TV series is very good. (Unusually for me think the tv series a bit better than the source material.)


Yes he can be a bit off form, and when he is is he can seem very formulaic. But…for me…he’s up there with John Ostrander for comic book writers that have written the most series that I really, really like.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Thanks. Yes, Ennis seems to be repeating himself a lot lately. He keeps beating his tired old atheist drum (people with faith are stupid and awful coz Garth said they were) and the sexual references, oddball characters and violent splash panels get a bit tiresome.

Hellblazer heartland, pride and joy and Jesse's reunion with his mother were great though...

[Username taken]

I think the problem with Ennis' work was his "new atheism" POV.

It really, REALLY permeated his work and I would argue that The Preacher was borne almost entirely out of that particular ideology. That plus his "edge lord" writing did get a bit old after a while (The Boys was just edge lord and frankly poorly constructed, the TV series is a quadrillion times better).

That's not to say he didn't write some very good stuff, his Hellblazer and Punisher work was amazing and, in some ways, definitive. But his "shtick" did get a bit old after a while.

[Iron Maiden]

Never been a fan of his. Too violent at times and he seems to hate the stuff I like....traditional superhero comics.

[Catlady in training]

I'm not sure if I've read anything else besides his Hellblazer run, but I have some idea what some of his other work is about. Dangerous Habits was one of my favorite stories, but otherwise I'm not a fan. Too violent (and disgustingly violent at that) and way too macho for me, especially as a contrast to the previous run. I never noticed any anti-religion stuff, so that was probably in his other work, but IMO there can never be too much of that, so I probably wouldn't mind that specifically, but I wasn't into his writing style in general.

[numberthirty]

While it is a bit heavy handed, his Vertigo "Unknown Soldier..." limited series is something that I feel like still holds up.

[numberthirty]

Thanks. Yes, Ennis seems to be repeating himself a lot lately. He keeps beating his tired old atheist drum (people with faith are stupid and awful coz Garth said they were) and the sexual references, oddball characters and violent splash panels get a bit tiresome.

Hellblazer heartland, pride and joy and Jesse's reunion with his mother were great though...

While it tends to get overshadowed by some other aspects of that run, there are a few moments along the lines of that throughout the run that are seriously solid.