Streets Of Glory Hardcover [Hardcover]

Garth Ennis (Author), Mike Wolfer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2009

At the tail end of a lifetime of violence, Joseph R. Dunn arrives in the little town of Gladback, Montana, in search of one last chance at peace. Soldier, lawman, gunfighter, bounty hunter, he has seen America grow from the wilderness, and done more than his fair share of killing to make it so. Now he meets friends old and new, and finds a long-lost love in whose arms he hopes to end his days. But the worst of the frontier has not quite disappeared. Dunn's past returns to haunt him in the shape of Red Crow, an Apache renegade with a thirst for blood. Hunting down this murderous fiend proves difficult enough, but there are forces at work that bullets cannot harm, and foes lurking in the shadows that cannot be fought with Army Colt of Henry Rifle. A living legend rides out for one last battle, in a tale by Garth Ennis (Preacher).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Garth Ennis, a critically acclaimed writer from Northern Ireland, has been working in the comic book industry for over 20 years, and is most easily recognized as the creator of Preacher, and long-time contributor to Marvel's Punisher. Perhaps his greatest success in recent years has been CROSSED, a horror survival series published by Avatar Press, in which the world has been overrun by sadistic homicidal maniacs. The CROSSED property has been optioned for film by Kevin Spacey’ s Trigger Street Productions. Other Avatar publications by Ennis include STREETS OF GLORY, CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD, and 303.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Avatar Press; Limited ed edition (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592910653
• ISBN-13: 978-1592910656
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Well Written Western with Depth and Character, July 26, 2011

By 

Jam - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streets Of Glory Hardcover (Hardcover)

Garth Ennis' penchant for good character writing shows plainly in this graphic novel. While not a new story, every possible Western having been put to page long ago, Garth Ennis' wonderful take on classic Westerns is well worth a read.

The story follows the recounting of a man's reminiscence of the time he spent with Joe Dunn, a former COL in the U.S. Army. It includes the gut-wrenching visuals interpreted excellently by Mike Wolfer, a fantastic illustrator who doesn't get enough work in my opinion and as I said before, Garth Ennis' great character development and design.

Every character in this story which has a name also has a personality which is distinct and important. One grows to care about them as one reads on and knowing Ennis' tendency to allow reality to impact a story in a very "no one is safe" way makes you think it's entirely possible that when one of them is imperiled as soon as you turn the page you could witness their death. Without offering any spoilers, I'll simply say the character writing is top-notch.

While the character writing is very good, the story itself is very truncated. It is enjoyable, but I believe it should have been at least 1/3rd longer than it was. If it were a movie I'd say I thought it was the victim of overly aggressive editing. I wish the relationships in the stories had more time to flesh themselves out, from the first page to the last. I wish we knew more about the narrator's life after Joe Dunn. Even though the story was about Joe Dunn, a page or two devoted to the narrator's life would have been both enjoyable and immersive. The story's main angle seems to be the way the visions men and women fight for rarely come to be when stacked up against the ambitions of unscrupulous, intelligent and wealthy men and women. It would have been nice to truly nail down the futility of Joe Dunn's efforts if Ennis had spent a few moments showing how unscrupulous, rich men and women were still running roughshod over "average townsfolk" long after Dunn had died.

Maybe Ennis was trying to say there need to be more spiritual successors to Joe Dunn and that's why he didn't paint the story in that light. If that were the case, I with he'd spent more time on the heroism of the average people than just two or three pages at the very end of the yarn.

Even accounting for the flaws, Ennis' good writing makes a somewhat formulaic Western fresh and enjoyable.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor rehash of Lonesome Dove, October 9, 2009

By 

Christopher Hayes "Safety-Man" (Hartford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Streets Of Glory (Paperback)

I was really looking forward to this book. Garth Ennis has long had Western motifs and images in his books, and finally he was going to write an actual Western. Unfortunately, like a lot of his work lately, this is just a mishmash of movies or books that Ennis has read recently. This book takes the characters from Lonesome Dove, puts them in the plot from Joe Kidd, then just lets the story ride for a hundred pages or so. There is nothing original here. The big mystery is (this can hardly be called a spoiler) about chasing settlers off their land so a rich easterner can buy it up and sell it to the railroad, the same plot that is in practically every bad western ever written.

I would recommend reading the Saint of Killers story from Preacher Vol. 4: Ancient History instead.