Preacher airs in 5 days.

5 fucking days.

I’m terrified.

A lot of folks have written of their love of the source material and plenty of reviews admit the show deviates, and honestly, fine, I can live with that. We all saw what being TOO faithful can do to a new property based on a comic *coughWatchmencough*.

So, I’m not going to whine about changes. That’s what social media is for. Instead, I’m just going to share a little something about what makes Preacher so deeply personal to me.

When I was 3 my parents divorced. I have no memory of it, so I’m spared that trauma, but in many ways it fostered a deep sense of abandonment. For the years I couldn’t understand divorce or how people can fall out of love, I was pretty much convinced my dad up and ditched. Blown to the motherfucking wind.

Bonus fun fact: I was born in San Antonio, Texas…

Maybe you see where this is going, but I’ll make it even clearer.

My mom, in the throes of guilt only single motherhood could bring, decided to give me the best she could. This meant all sorts of cool toys, constant attention (when she actually had a day off), and a private school education.

13 years.

13 fucking years of Catholic school.

And then Preacher happened. A story deeply rooted in Christian myth and ultimately, about sons searching for their fathers.

Boom.

Holy fucking shit. It was a western. It was violent. It was blasphemous. It was funny.

And somehow, it was about me.

I decided I wanted to be a writer by the last issue of the UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD arc. That something could be conveyed in writing and art that was so deeply emotional, raw, funny, and potent blew my goddamn mind.

Yes, I’ll always have my trades – they’re literally to my left as I write this, all 9, but I really hope the show manages to do what the books did for me to others. I really do want folks to get the heart of this story. Past the humor and violence. Past the iconography and insanity; there’s something incredibly sentimental to this story.

Hopefully folks will get to understand what it means to try acting like a man.

Be easy,

Angel