All-new oversized Dust-Jacketed Hardcover printing collecting 31 amazing issues of the critically acclaimed series, currently running on Amazon Prime!
Contains the Proper Preparation and Planning, Barbary Coast, The Big Ride, Butcher, Baker and Candlestickmaker, Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, The Bloody Doors Off, and You Found Me. Also includes all covers and bonus materials, including script pages, special introductions, alternate covers and more!
Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
If you go back to my review of the first volume of this, I gave it a low score and said things like it “lacking character development” and the storyline being…not up to par.
How dare I ever question Garth Ennis? Seriously, how dare I?
As the issues went on, the pages flowed and you start to develop deep ties and care for the characters. Especially as their background story lines come into play. The ending is a bit disappointing but only because you’re emotionally invested and the outcomes courtesy of Billy, really strike a nerve. But then, you also understand Billy The Butchers point of view in some very sick way as well.
Reading this and actually having it end kind of upsets me because I wanted more. I yearned for it. I didn’t think I was going to like this, let alone love it as much as I do. How do I ever go back to reading Marvel or DC knowing what I now know about Supes? Lol
While the story is absolutely sci-fi, the storylines regarding Vought-American & the Government are absolutely very similar to what we see in todays day and age. Everything entirely for profit with no regard for human life.
I guess I’ll have to go look for a copy of “Dear Becky” so I can finish my thirst for more of “The Boys.”
Damn you, Garth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is not a real review, just some thoughts I like to write down. Das ist keine richtige Bewertung, nur ein paar Gedanken, die ich aufschreiben wollte.
Es ist hart und tut mir auch ein wenig weh es so zu sagen, aber am Ende hat mir The Boys einfach nicht gefallen. Der Artstyle wäre an sich ansprechend, aber zu oft fand ich Gesichter nicht konsistent genug, teilweise war es schwer, gerade bei Annie, von Bild zu Bild die gleiche Person erkennen zu wollen. Die Geschichte an sich hat mir zu viele Arcs, die kaum Bedeutung haben für das grosse Ganze, die Charaktere kaum weiterentwickelt und teils nicht wirklich reinpassen. Dagegen wirkt das Ende gehetzt und für mich unbefriedigend - gerade die Auflösung verbunden mit der Motivation der Charaktere ist nicht natürlich nachvollziehbar und fühlt sich konstruiert an. Die gewollt heftigen Gewaltdarstellungen sowie die hart diskriminierenden Szenen kommen oft so übertrieben daher, dass sie dem Ganzen einen komischen Anstrich geben, wobei die Ernsthaftigkeit leidet - gerade die sehr tollen und innovativen Prämissen hätte ich gerne in einem düstereren und ernsteren Rahmen gesehen. Die Adaption als Fernsehserie gefällt mir deutlich besser.
A story about the loss of innocence, the story of the Boys begins with two people; one from a conservative Scottish family the other a superhuman who has always dreamed of being a model citizen using her powers for the betterment of society. As we progress through the story we quite quickly see these characters' fantasies about what's good and right in the world come crashing down as both become more and more exposed to the immoral and unethical acts of those around them.
As both characters try to adjust to the violent world they inhabit, they realize it has changed them both into something they can no longer look at within themselves or each other. The once deep meaningful and genuine love is put to the test. Will their good hearts and high moral standards be enough to save the world and their love for each other?
Filled with shocking scenes of depravity, grotesque displays of inhumanity, and ending plot twists that while not executed to perfection were indeed imaginative. The Boys will take you on a journey through what appears to be a who-watches-the-watchmen plot to a soul-searching examination of morality and honesty.
(Zero spoiler review) 4.5/5 Volume one was outstanding, volume two was meh at best, losing so much of what made the opening few arc's great, whilst throwing some bloody average AF art in there to boot. This downturn brought about a somewhat lengthier delay in finishing the series, afraid I was going to get another once excellent series slow fade into oblivion and disappointment. So, by my score, you can see volume three got its act together and gave me more of what I wanted from this series. Yes it did, but it wasn't all smooth sailing. The opening arc was excessively wordy and really needed condensing. It didn't help that this was the worst drawn few issues of the book to boot. Three or so expository issues with little of interest had me seriously doubting whether this ship would ever be righted. But as soon as that was over, it was a continual ascent towards really good Boys stories again. culminating in a final few issues that really, and I mean really surprised me. I sure as shit didn't see any of that coming. It might have stumbled here and there setting it up, but it was a fitting and fairly fantastic farewell to one of the most memorable and impactful indie comic series in recent memory. Art wise, I would obviously have liked Robertson to do more, although the other artists, excepting the issues mentioned above, were easily the best pairing, Robertson aside, and really should have done every issue of this book Robertson didn't do himself. It really would have helped that flailing middle few arcs. So yeah, I'm glad I read this. Any future re-read's will cut out a bit of the unnecessary and excessively aimless fluff in the middle, but it would be something I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone whose body composition isn't entirely compromised of tissues and snowflakes. It finished strong, it gave me some nice 'end of a long running series' feels and put a smile on my face when it was all said and done. Pretty good all round, I say. 4.5/5
The Boys Oversized Omnibus, Volume 3 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, collects 31 issues of the critically acclaimed series, currently running on Amazon Prime! It contains the stories: Proper Preparation and Planning, Barbary Coast, The Big Ride, Butcher, Baker and Candlestickmaker, Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, The Bloody Doors Off, and You Found Me. It also includes all covers and bonus materials, including script pages, special introductions, alternate covers and more!
I have mixed feelings about these books. On the one hand, I'm delighted "The Boys" is being re-released in a hardcover omnibus format, but I'm hugely disappointed the books don't have a sewn binding; inexcusable given the price. Realistically, there is a better-glued binding if you want a book to last for many years and through multiple readings. This was a cheap decision from Dynamite.
Not having Dear Becky in the 3rd volume is also a misstep. It was an epilogue miniseries divided between those who find it an exciting retrospective of the titular team and a slice of life about how characters are faring after the events of the story, or a completely unnecessary continuation and that the original comic's conclusion already provided a satisfactory ending.
I finished it ... barely. No one needs to read this. It really isn't worth anyone's time. The last volume is every bit as dumb as the first and even more boring than the second. What happened to "show it, don't tell it"? It felt like 50% of the volume was nothing but talking heads wasting my time. I still dig the base premise that if supers were real, they'd likely be completely useless or dangerous a.f. I just wish someone would rewrite that story and do it better ... oh wait, the TV series actually does that.