Preacher, Book 4 - Peter Snejbjerg, Carlos Ezquerra, Richard Case, Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon
On first picking up this collection, one thing is certain that differentiates it from the previous collection, and that is that the cover art for this collection is a vast and drastic improvement over the last collection.

A different tone than the last collection, the cover art here also signifies a change in the tone of the story, as we slide into three detours on the road down and through the story - two of which are worth reading and one that, well, doesn't quite hold up the weight in terms of what it explains and how much entertainment value it provides.

The first of the detours begins as soon as the first page begins, with Starr's "origin" story. In my opinion, this interlude from the main story holds its weight better than the other two, more than making up from its straying from the main story and how it holds up the main action through its entertainment value and what it explains of both Starr's background as well as some of the Grail's, by proxy.

After this interlude, we get what constitutes less than 1/3 of the book's girth, what is uspposed to be the main plot - Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy - that begins too slowly, in my opinion, but gets into a high gear as soon as the action truly starts. Unfortunately, almost as soon as it feels as though it gets going, in terms of the drama, we reach the last part of the book - comprised of not just one, but two interludes from the main story.

The next interlude is called You-Know-Who's Story, and if you've read enough in the series and you have read the bizarre newscasts of You Know Who throughout this collection, you know who it is that they are referring to. Everything that has to do with him seems to be a chuckle at first, then overstays its welcome rather quickly, degenerating into boring and unfunny almost as quickly as the novelty of his name loses its humor. Everything that has to do with this character seems, to me, to be a miscalculated mistake on Ennis' part.

The next (and last) interlude is clled, "The Good Old Boys", and provides a fun diversion, after the nonsense involving You Know Who in this collection. The only ways that I can describe it is funny, strange and unexpected. It seems to be a parody of action movie tropes, specifically, and it runs in a very similar vein as scathingly funny and brutal super hero parody that Jhonen Vasquez included in his collector's edition of [b:Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut|96908|Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Director's Cut|Jhonen Vasquez|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347488137s/96908.jpg|93408].

I only wish that I could have wrung more of the main plot out from this collection.