History ComicBook / Preacher

* ArmoredClosetGay: [[spoiler: Detective Bridges.]]

* BungledSuicide: Arseface's origin story.

* DeepSouth: Where a lot of the story takes place.

** Jesus De Sade. Actually, he's a depraved ''everything''.

* HaveYouSeenMyGod: ''The'' key plot element.

* NeckLift: Cassidy does this during a BarBrawl.

* OneManArmy: The Saint.

* PermaStubble: Jesse usually has some.

* {{Mondegreen}}: When Jesse, Tulip, and Cass sing along to "What a Feeling" by Irene Cara in "Dixie Fried," they sing the line "got me reelin'" instead of "bein's believin'"

* ShoutOut:
** Jesse's spiritual guide "the Duke" is obviously Creator/JohnWayne.
** Jesus [=DeSade=] quotes and name-drops Creator/OscarWilde, which is apparently supposed to add to his DepravedHomosexual characterization, though of course Wilde himself was not depraved.
** Comedian Creator/BillHicks is discussed and even makes an appearance in a flashback.
** Cassidy name-drops a variety of famous people he's known.
*** He claims to have partied with "[[Creator/WilliamSBurroughs Bill Burroughs]]" and that a character in ''Literature/{{Junky}}'' was based on him.
*** He was there when poet Creator/DylanThomas died.
*** He hung around Creator/BrendanBehan, but disliked the poet's friends.
*** He implies being familiar with Creator/NormanMailer.
** In Arseface's special, his teacher has "Film/TheDeclineOfWesternCivilization" written on the chalkboard. This is the name of a very famous documentary about the LA punk scene in 1979/80.
** As Jesse's {{Lancer}}, Cassidy is compared to [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]] a few times. When he mentions that he had a falling-out with one of his old friends, Jesse jokingly asks if he won the ''Millennium Falcon'' from him in a card game. Notably, the third volume involves Jesse and Tulip hatching a daring plan [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi to storm a desert fortress and rescue him from a morbidly obese villain]].
** Cassidy says that when he first became a vampire in 1916, there weren't movies like ''Film/FrightNight1985'' to tell him what he was.
** Cassidy says he figured out what he is by reading ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''
** While Jesse is picking up hitchhikers, he jokes about picking up a "Mr. Hauer." This is a reference to ''Film/TheHitcher'', starring Creator/RutgerHauer.
** Jesse quotes ''Theatre/KingLear'' while standing by the ocean.
** In the final issues, Cassidy has a long monologue relating the plot of ''Film/BreakerMorant'' and likening himself to its antiheroes.
** In Cassidy's side issue, he looks at a fellow vampire's bookshelf, which contains, among other titles, ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'' and ''[[Creator/HPLovecraft Necronomicon]]''.

** In Cassidy's flashback sequence from "Proud Americans", which chronicles the failed 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Patrick Pearse is shown dramatically quoting the famous refrain from Creator/WilliamButlerYeats' poem "Easter 1916," which was written ''about'' the Easter Rising a month after it happened.

* ArmoredClosetGay: [[spoiler: Detective Bridges]].

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The L'Angelles. Jesse remarks that the L'Angelles must have the "Devil's own piss" running in their veins instead of blood. It was something of a miracle that Jesse's own mother turned out as well as she did -- which is probably why she fled in the first place. (And taken even further when it's revealed that [[spoiler:the L'Angelles and D'Aroniques are related]].)

** Jesse [[PunchCatch catches]] a blow thrown by Cassidy, who is a supernaturally strong ''vampire'' in case you were somehow unaware, and stands there [[ImplacableMan emotionless and unmoving]] until Cassidy meekly backs off and leaves. [[RealityEnsues Then he asks to be taken to the hospital immediately, because he thinks he just broke every bone in his hand.]]

* RealityEnsues: Jesse is every bit the accomplished technical fighter Cassidy isn't, but when the two engage in their showdown brawl, [[spoiler: all it takes is one solid hit from the vastly more powerful vampire to disable Custer and end the fight]].
** After yet another vicious beating courtesy of his father, Arseface takes up his friend Pube's offer and moves in to live with him. However, because he is not yet 18 (he's 17) he's still a minor and hence his father has every right to come and literally drag him back home.

* VampiresSleepInCoffins: Averted: Cassidy has never slept in a coffin, as vampires here have no connection to religion (they burn in sunlight and need to drink blood, but animal blood is fine). He later runs into a fellow vampire who invokes as many of the ClassicalMovieVampire traits as he can despite none of them being actually necessary (and them of them aren't possible, like turning into a bat).

* WarIsHell / [[ArmiesAreEvil Hate The War, Love The Soldier]]: Billy Baker, AKA "Space", a [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam Veteran]] who owes Jesse's father his life. He shows up in "Texas and the Spaceman" and "The Land of Bad Things" - both times he waxes poetic on the horrors of war and the humanity of solders.

** Odin Quincannon: So monomaniacally racist, other KKK members think he's exaggerating.

** This ends up working against Starr when he orders all Grail agents for the final assault on Jeese only to have barely a dozen show up. Hoover states that these agents are just so happy with being among the rich and powerful that they refuse to give it up.

** The Grail intends to use the powerless, inbred and mentally-retarded descendant of Jesus Christ's children as the Second Coming. Starr's main reason for taking over the Grail is that he's just about the only to see that the kid is not and will never be a credible Messiah.

** There are more than a few shots taken at the music industry, media commentators, media watchdogs, political correctness, psychiatrists and psychology buzzwords, liberal and conservative extremists, Goths, Anne Rice, racists, child molesters, self-loathing homophobes, and hypocrites of every variety.

* PretenderDiss: Cassidy to [[VampireVannabe ''Les enfants du sang'']] and various badass characters to {{Heroic Wannabe}}s.

* VampireEpisode:While one of the main characters is a vampire (an Irish one), other vampires are only encountered once, when Cassidy runs into a ClassicalMovieVampire ([[spoiler:all an act, as OurVampiresAreDifferent and he had no idea he wasn't supposed to act differently, but]] Cassidy kills him when it turns out he needlessly kills his [[VampireVannabe fans instead of drinking animal blood like Cassidy]]).

* ThoseTwoBadGuys:
** Featuring NightmareFuel on legs Jody, and {{Squick}} on legs T.C.
** Also, Quincannon's two subordinates.
** Played with with the sexual investigators, who are just too ButtMonkey to ever really qualify as bad guys no matter how much sleazy shit they're mixed up in.

* DomesticAbuse: Both Jesse and Arseface are victims of this; Jesse was subjected to this by his [[EvilMatriarch grandmother]] and her henchman Jody, while Arseface was abused by his [[CorruptHick father]] [[CorruptCop Hugo]].

** Jesse is taken out in a bar fight rather easily in the first book. As the series progresses, he basically become unbeatable in bar brawls and the like.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Sheriff Hugo Root is feared and loathed by everyone in Annville, his wife left him and it's heavily implied that even his deputies despise him. Seeing as the man was basically just a thug with a badge, this comes as no surprise. Ironically, the one person who doesn't hate him at the start of the series is his biggest victim: Arseface, his own son, whom he mercilessly abused until the latter's failed suicide attempt.

** Jody also seems genuinely fond of T.C., in spite of the former's... quirks. He immediately steps in when someone threatens or hurts T.C., and seemed distressed (if only momentarily), when Jesse announced that he'd beaten T.C.'s brains out.

** Sheriff Jim Bewley of Salvation is also one, being on the take from Quincannon before he hands his badge to Jesse, but he is also a considerably nicer version compared to Hugo Root, demonstrated by him sitting in the same car as his black female deputy Cindy Daggett without any problems (which would be unthinkable in Root's case). He's also racist and sexist, however, though in a milder, more laid-back way, as exemplified by referring to black people as "nigras" (which is just one step above the n-word), hiring Cindy as a deputy purely out of tokenism, and treating her like a glorified secretary rather than an officer of the law, which is a source of considerable resentment for her.

** Sheriff Jim Bewley of Salvation is also one, being on the take from Quincannon before he hands his badge to Jesse, but he is also a considerably nicer version compared to Hugo Root, demonstrated by him sitting in the same car as his black female deputy Cindy Daggett without any problems (which would be unthinkable in Root's case). He's also racist and sexist, however, though in a milder way, as exemplified by referring to black people as "nigras" (which is just one step above the n-word), hiring Cindy as a deputy purely out of tokenism, and treating her like a glorified secretary rather than an officer of the law, which is a source of considerable resentment for her.

* PureIsNotGood: The Grail is filled with this. Whether they realize it or not. (Honestly, they look at their captive lineage of Jesus's badly atavistic descendants, and they still think that because the line has never had new blood, it's automatically good?!)

** Herr Starr got his scar, voice, and baldness from a childhood incident where a gang of schoolboys cut his eye out with a piece of glass. They ended up dead before his tenth birthday. This incident got him the job as the Chief Executioner of the Grail.

* TrampolineTummy: Disgustingly subverted. The handicapped kid who is the last surviving descendant of Jesus apparently amuses himself by taking flying leaps into the copious fat-rolls of the evil Cardinal who rules The Grail. Rather than just bouncing hilariously off of it, however, it also makes the cardinal puke by the bucketload, which suits him fine since he's bulimic...
* TyrannicalTownTycoon: A late arc involves Jesse living in a small backwoods town, where the corrupt owner of the large meat processing plant that is the backbone of the town acts in this manner. Jesse becomes the town sheriff and acts to counter the would be petty tyrant.

* WeHaveReserves: How the Grail attempted to deal with the Saint.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Many characters in this movie suffer from various mental disorders, but most of them clearly fall into an established cathegory such as psychopathy (and other personality disorders), substance abuse, or mental retardation; although the depiction of these disorders does show some ArtisticLicence (as described below). However, a straight example of this trope would be Odin Quincannon – though at first he seems like a regular SmugSnake, it soon becomes obvious that he has many severe mental problems, [[spoiler: especially since he often has sex with a grotesque statue made out of meat, and eventually he completely loses touch with reality and turns into a rambling lunatic.]] Even compared to other lunatics, Odin's "lunacy" is most unusual and manifests in various ways.

** Sheriff Jim Bewley of Salvation is also one, being on the take from Quincannon before he hands his badge to Jesse, but he is also a considerably nicer version compared to Hugo Root, demonstrated by him willingly sitting in the same car as his black female deputy Cindy Daggett (which would be unthinkable in Root's case). He's also racist and sexist, however, though in a milder way, as exemplified by referring to black people as "nigras" (which is just one step above the n-word), hiring Cindy as a deputy purely out of tokenism, and treating her like a glorified secretary rather than an officer of the law, which is a source of considerable resentment for her.

** Undoubtedly the L'Angelles' Grail connections (Allfather D'Aronique, the most powerful man in the world, was Marie's nephew) kept their multitude of crimes - such as kidnapping John Custer and his family, his murder and all the other crap that Jody and T.C. pulled - from being investigated.