History ComicBook / Preacher

* AmbiguousDisorder: Many characters in this comic 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.

* RedemptionFailure: Since he's something of an {{Expy}} of Creator/ClintEastwood's characters, Saint of Killers' gets a backstory about his life as a retired outlaw and gunslinger. Things rapidly go awry in fashion very similar to what befalls Eastwood's character in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}''.

** Jesse's mother comes from L'Angelles, a line of evil French-Americans. She tried to escape from them by running away, but his evil maternal grandmother dragged her whole family back.

** In the prequel issue on Jody and T.C., [[FamousNamedForeigner Napoleon]] [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys Vichy]]. "I 'ave come to eat your horses". So absurd that in any other series it would qualify as a parody of the trope.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: As an old fashioned kind of hero, Jesse prefers to solve his problems with his fists.
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Jesse and Tulip who after some initial tension reignite their teen romance with gusto. In contrast, her eventual fling with Cassidy following Jesse's apparent death is regarded as being synonymous with rape due to how Cassidy was willing to supply a grieving Tulip with both alcohol and drugs. There's also Herr Starr who is a complete degenerate always seeking new and more sordid activities to sate himself with. And don't even ask about Jesus [=DeSade=]'s parties and the things that go on there.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Herr Starr's scar is ''evil'', especially since it makes him into a walking GagPenis. His "star for Starr" scar is what turned him into a bald, gruff voiced calculating killer in the first place.

Their quest takes them across the dark heart of America, from the streets of New York to the Louisiana swamps, and along the way they meet inbred hicks, serial killers, Creator/JohnWayne's ghost, The Saint of Killers, the retarded descendants of Jesus, an ancient religious conspiracy, a pair of perverted Sexual Investigators, Creator/BillHicks, the anti-Pope, fallen angels, voodoo children, psycho goths, TheKlan, and a kid with a face like an arse.

* 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]] [[RabidCop Hugo]].

* TheSheriff: Hugo Root is massively the CorruptHick variety of this trope, as well as a supreme {{Jerkass}}. Jim Bewley of Salvation is also a CorruptHick, but a nicer one. Jesse becomes the CowboyCop version of this in Salvation.

* CorruptHick: Odin Quincannon in "Salvation". Also known as the Meat King, he is a corrupt hick who operates an inhumane meat plant, orders the death of a local sheriff, is a card-carrying member of TheKlan, tries to blow up a nearby village with napalm, employs a Hitler fetishist as his PA and repeatedly has sex with a giant female figure made out of sides of ham. Seriously. He was so corrupt his fellow Klansmen started wondering if he was taking the whole racism thing a bit too far.
** The L'Angelles are a BigScrewedUpFamily like you would not believe.

** Jody and T.C. T.C. in particular will screw anything whether it moves or not, including dogs, chickens, and a ''birthday cake'' (he claims the cake was just asking for it with that frosting).

** Near the end of the series, Herr Starr holds a gun and looks in the mirror while chanting "DOOM cock, DOOM cock"

* IdealizedSex: Sexual perversion is a major theme in the series, so anything that strays a bit from the norm is ratcheted UpToEleven and made into a characteristic of a psychotic villain.

* TheJuggernaut: The Saint of Killers. A [[CarFu pickup truck to the face]] won't stop him, an [[RedShirtArmy entire base full of soldiers]] won't stop him, a battalion of tanks won't stop him, a [[UpToEleven direct nuclear strike]] won't stop him. All this is overshadowed by [[spoiler: the entire angelic host of Heaven being mobilized against him]], which of course fails to stop him.

** Most notably, Grail Allfather D'Aronique who, as a VillainousGlutton taken UpToEleven, is often shown making himself vomit, in front of his inferiors.

*** This can partially be explained by Cassidy's [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe fluctuating power level]], which changes so much during the series that at times it's like not even the authors know what his powers are. However, even with this in mind, such behaviour makes very little sense. Though Cassidy's tendency to ignore his vamire powers and instead behave like a humble man does get [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by another vampire.

** At one point Jesse and Tulip's friend Amy chats with a pleasant elderly bartender in an otherwise empty bar, and he mentions that he underwent chemical castration at a hospital by mistake on the staff's part. The problem is that the bartender consistently talks about it like it was a permanent and irreversible procedure without outright stating so. Chemical castration is a continuous treatment where the patient is given a drug which alters the body's hormone balance, with the most common method being an injection every three months. Plus, the bartender says he sued the city, got reparations and went through a divorce since this happened, which should have taken months in itself.

* SirSwearsAlot: If The Devil had a swear jar, Hell would soon be put on mortgage!

* AintTooProudToBeg: After the Saint of Killers gains his guns, everybody starts beging him for mercy, including the Devil and the Saint's predecessor, who realized that they were HoistByTheirOwnPetard. Also, pretty much the entire town of Ratwater begs him for mercy, except for Macready (who lost touch with reality) and one old man. One of the most extreme cases of this is when one random man in Ratwater even offers to sacrifice his own screaming daughter to the Saint in exchange for his life.

* MoralDissonance: Neither Jesse nor anyone else ever seems to consider that, for example, after his "bank robbery" the teller who gave him the money probably went to prison. For that matter, Jesse's supposedly high moral standards seem to clash with his constant criminality. And at no point does anyone criticize him for his ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer solution to ''everything''. Cindy eventually calls him out on this by pointing out that ''the sheriff'' really ought to observe the law a little more often.

-->-- '''John Custer''', to his son Jesse.

** Right after his HappilyFailedSuicide, Arseface’s best friend’s sister asked him why he and her brother were DrivenToSuicide. Arseface answers (writes) [[{{Wangst}} ''Nobody cared'']]. To the only person who cared enough to visit him in the hospital. She angrily screams before leaving in tears:
--> ''What do you mean, nobody cared? You mean nobody coddled you and wiped your asses for you? Your lives didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to? Well, FUCK YOU, you and my asshole brother both! You self-obsessed whining little shits, I bet you never gave a good goddamn about the pain you’d cause! You say nobody cared about you, but I’ll tell you one thing: If you´re enough of a prick to take a gun and try to blow your own head off… YOU DIDN´T FUCKING CARE EITHER!''

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** One of the first obstacles faced by Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy in the series is Sherrif Hugo Root, a racist and homophobic conspiracy theorist who especially lies to ramble about the threat of "Martian niggers".

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

* EyepatchOfPower: Jesse.

** "DOOM cock, DOOM cock"

* StrawFeminist: Lampshaded, with Martha Moore.
* StrawmanPolitical: Ulysses Gett, a hilariously offensive conservative who is openly critical of the feminists and liberals.

* TheUnintelligible: Arseface needs little yellow boxes to translate what he's saying, but no one seems to have any difficulty understanding what he's saying.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Odin Quincannon.

* ToHellAndBack: The Saint's empowerment.

** Arseface. He has translations provided in text boxes beside his dialogue.
** One of Quincannon's subordinates becomes this after Jesse breaks some of his teeth up.

** "So I got kind of a question. 'Proinsias'?"

* ArmoredClosetGay: [[spoiler: Detective Bridges in the "Naked City" arc is vocally homophobic, but at the conclusion of the arc is found engaging in foreplay at a bondage club with two other men.]]

** "Smear the cheese, smear the cheese... Pluck the hairs, pluck the hairs... Say the name, say the name..."
* MagicAIsMagicA: The rules of the Voice of God.

* {{Mooning}}: After Cassidy loosens up fellow vampire Eccharius with a night of drinking and fun, they both moon Eccharius's followers, yell "Wankeerrrrs!!" and run away. The Enfants Du Sang are understandably confused.