If Amazon‘s sales are any indication, long-running Vertigo comic Preacher got a huge boost from last night’s debut of the trailer for AMC‘s upcoming gritty, Seth Rogen-scripted adaptation.
Following the trailer premiere, the first volume of the famed series promptly grabbed the top spot on Amazon’s bestseller list, booting pre-order sales of Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman prequel, Overtures. The ebook edition also climbed into the top 10, while the hardcover edition had nearly sold out as of press time.
Amazon
Preacher, written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillon, has long haunted bestseller lists and comics industry best-of lists. Both Ennis and Dillon are co-producing the new series. The story is a dark and supernatural postmodern reimagining of the Southern Gothic and the Western; its central figure, the disillusioned and violent former preacher Jesse (played by Dominic Cooper, best known to geeks as Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), is a kind of wandering Samurai for the end of the millennium.
In January, Rogen, who co-wrote the pilot script with frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, tweeted a literal stack of influences that went into the concept for the TV adaptation.
https://twitter.com/Sethrogen/status/555864769333166081
The combination of sleek Asian revenge thrillers, violent Westerns, and Terence Malick suggested that Preacher will be stylish, bloody, and beautiful—and last night’s trailer validated those hunches, showing Jesse cautioning a young boy about the inexorable destruction that results from starting down a path of vengeance. It’s hardly surprising that Walking Dead viewers unfamiliar with the story are rushing to read it before it hits their screens in early 2016.
Screengrab via AMC/YouTube
