Preacher #1

A preacher with a voice from Heaven

Preacher #1 went on sale on March 2, 1995, under DC's Vertigo imprint, with Stuart Moore as editor and Karen Berger as executive editor. It ran 52 pages at $2.95, with a 40-page story and a painted cover by Glenn Fabry.

The premise is blunt. Genesis, the infant offspring of an unauthorized, unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon, breaks free from Heaven and lands in the Reverend Jesse Custer, a disillusioned preacher in Annville, Texas. Jesse's ex-girlfriend Tulip O'Hare is rescued by Cassidy, an Irish vampire, and the two travel to Annville, where they meet Custer. From there the series follows the three across America as Jesse searches for God.

In one issue Ennis and Dillon introduced most of the cast that carried the next five years: Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy, the Saint of Killers, DeBlanc and Fiore, and Sheriff Root. John Wayne makes a cameo.

Two veterans of British comics

Garth Ennis was born on January 16, 1970, in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland. He began his career on his 19th birthday in 1989 with Troubled Souls in the British anthology Crisis, a story about a young Protestant caught in the violence of the Troubles, and made his name writing Hellblazer for DC from 1991 to 1994. Ennis, an atheist raised without religion, has described his first encounters with it in primary school as bewildering and frightening.

Steve Dillon was born in London on March 22, 1962, and raised in Luton. He turned professional at 16, drawing for Marvel UK's Hulk Weekly, and in 1988 co-founded the magazine Deadline with Brett Ewins. He and Ennis had already worked together on Hellblazer before Preacher.

The partnership lasted. After Preacher, the two reunited on The Punisher at Marvel. Dillon died in New York City on October 22, 2016, at 54, from complications of a ruptured appendix; the AMC series, which credited him as a co-executive producer, dedicated its second season premiere to him.

Vertigo's mid-1990s run

Preacher ran for 66 monthly issues under the Vertigo banner, from April 1995 to October 2000, and became one of the imprint's best-known titles.

The series won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 1999. IGN later ranked it third among Vertigo comics, Empire named Jesse Custer the 11th greatest comic book character, and the filmmaker Kevin Smith called it "more fun than going to the movies."

Finding a 9.8

The first issue was reprinted in the collected volume Gone to Texas in 1996 and as a stand-alone Millennium Edition in October 2000, so check for those labels; a true first printing is the April 1995 comic with the $2.95 price.

CGC 9.8 copies trade often. Over 2025 and 2026, graded 9.8 copies sold online and at auction for roughly $125 to $275, with many results near $200.

Off the page

The series ran 66 monthly issues to October 2000, with five one-shot specials and a four-issue Preacher: Saint of Killers limited series. Ennis went on to Hitman, a long run on The Punisher, and The Boys with Darick Robertson.

Hollywood tried for years to adapt Preacher, with efforts involving Kevin Smith and HBO, before AMC succeeded. Developed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, with Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, the show ran from 2016 to 2019 across four seasons and 43 episodes.

The numbers

Pages

52; main story 40 pages

Cover price

$2.95 U.S., $4.25 Canada

Series length

66 issues plus five specials and a four-issue spinoff

On-sale date

March 2, 1995

Timeline

1. Mar 22, 1962

   Steve Dillon is born in London.

2. Jan 16, 1970

   Garth Ennis is born in Holywood, Northern Ireland.

3. 1989

   Ennis debuts with Troubled Souls in Crisis.

4. 1991

   Ennis begins writing Hellblazer.

5. Mar 2, 1995

   Preacher #1 goes on sale, cover-dated April 1995.

6. May 1996

   The opening arc is collected as Gone to Texas.

7. 1999

   Preacher wins the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series.

8. Oct 2000

   The series ends with issue #66; a Millennium Edition reprint of #1 is published.

9. 2016

   AMC's Preacher premieres, with Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer.

10. Oct 22, 2016

    Steve Dillon dies in New York City at 54.

11. 2019

    The AMC series ends after four seasons and 43 episodes.

The world in 1995

• Jan 29, 1995

  The San Francisco 49ers win Super Bowl XXIX, their fifth title.

• Apr 19, 1995

  The Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people.

• Aug 24, 1995

  Microsoft releases Windows 95.

• Sep 6, 1995

  Cal Ripken Jr. breaks baseball's consecutive games played record.

• Sep 9, 1995

  The PlayStation goes on sale in the United States.

• Oct 3, 1995

  O.J. Simpson is acquitted of murder.

• Nov 22, 1995

  Toy Story, the first full-length computer-animated feature, premieres.

• Dec 31, 1995

  The last original Calvin and Hobbes strip is published.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Preacher #1 is number 90 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (85 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Preacher #1 was a double-size debut: 52 pages for $2.95.
• John Wayne makes a cameo appearance in the first issue.
• Garth Ennis started his career on his 19th birthday.
• Steve Dillon was drawing professionally for Marvel UK at 16.
• Instead of a letters column, the first issue has a two-page introduction by Ennis titled "Gone to Texas."
• Dillon was credited as a co-executive producer of the AMC series, and its second season premiere was dedicated to him.