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Just a Pilgrim #1-2

Just a Pilgrim

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From acclaimed writer Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher, The Punisher) and artist Carlos Ezquerra comes this post-apocalyptic tale!
It's eight years after the Burn - when the Sun began to die and boiled the Earth's oceans dry. The Earth is now a desolate wasteland, ruled by pirates who terrorize and murder the remaining pockets of humanity. Out of this desolation come a vicious but mysterious killer called "The Pilgrim".

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 2001

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About the author

Garth Ennis

2,623 books3,174 followers
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).

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis

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5 stars
101 (16%)
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242 (40%)
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209 (34%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
January 9, 2020
Originally published by Wizard Magazine's short lived Black Bull imprint in 2001, Just a Pilgrim was Garth Ennis's first stab at dystopian futures. A solar flare has burnt most of the Earth leaving a group of travellers crossing the dried up floor of the Atlantic Ocean in search of a safe place to live. The Pilgrim acts as their guide and protector from a bloodthirsty group of marauders. This is full of all the Garth Ennis trademarks, gross-out humor, digs at God and goofball characters like a pirate king with every appendage ending in a hook or a pegleg. Carlos Ezquerra's gritty art is a good match for the setting.

The second miniseries was much more my speed. Ennis gets rid of the zany characters and juvenile humor for a straight up horror story. The Pilgrim has travelled to the last bastion of humanity, located in the Marianas Trench. This Garden of Eden in the midst of a ravaged Earth is beset by a new threat, creatures that animates the dead, using us as puppets. Much better than the first volume.
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,811 reviews13.4k followers
December 6, 2016
In this dystopian future the sun has expanded and burned off the water from the face of the Earth… but somehow not wiped out humanity at the same time. A band of survivors sets out to cross the vast desert formerly known as the Atlantic Ocean only to encounter land pirates. Their only hope to live? Just a pilgrim.

This is one of Garth Ennis’ lesser efforts. All of his usual storytelling features are here: gory violence, juvenile humour, post-Apocalyptic setting, a gleeful mocking of the Bible, a Western flavour, and an unstoppable gun-toting anti-hero, and he’s done it all better elsewhere. Here it just feels like he’s spinning his wheels predictably and it’s not interesting to see.

The one variation is that Ennis gives us a morally complex character in Pilgrim, a man with a chequered past who is, in his eyes, doing the Lord’s work now - but can he make up for what he’s done and is he really doing good? His backstory was compelling though that was the only part of the book that was. The main story is just one-dimensional villain pirates vs Pilgrim and the group he’s protecting. Pew-pew shooting ensues, who do you think survives? The end.

I always enjoy seeing Carlos Ezquerra’s art and parts of Ennis’ story are somewhat entertaining but mostly Just A Pilgrim is unfortunately just a bit too crappy.
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
January 9, 2020
Originally published by Wizard Magazine's short lived Black Bull imprint in 2001, Just a Pilgrim was Garth Ennis's first stab at dystopian futures. A solar flare has burnt most of the Earth leaving a group of travellers crossing the dried up floor of the Atlantic Ocean in search of a safe place to live. The Pilgrim acts as their guide and protector from a bloodthirsty group of marauders. This is full of all the Garth Ennis trademarks, gross-out humor, digs at God and goofball characters like a pirate king with every appendage ending in a hook or a pegleg. Carlos Ezquerra's gritty art is a good match for the setting.
Profile Image for L. McCoy.
742 reviews9 followers
April 15, 2020
Ennis’ post-apocalyptic western. What part of that discourages anyone from reading this?

What’s it about?
A catastrophic event occurs when Earth accidentally ends up too close to the sun for a day, killing almost everything and forever changing the world. Years later a group of survivors is in real trouble, almost guaranteed to die until a lone wanderer saves them. The lone wanderer? Just a pilgrim... (well that’s what he says, he’s actually an uber-religious killer of bad guys)

Pros:
The story is pretty good. It’s a Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic world but with some western and sci-fi horror elements all done in a very Ennis way so yeah, it’s pretty damn good.
The artwork by Carlos Ezquerra (RIP) is great as his art usually was.
The characters are very interesting and well written. Pilgrim’s quite the bad-ass post apocalyptic warrior.
There’s a lot of great action scenes throughout. Ezquerra’s art and Ennis’ writing always makes a sweet mix for action.
There’s a few scenes with horror elements and while I don’t know if I’d necessarily call this book a horror comic (though maybe slightly?) it works very well in those scenes.
There’s a religion related element throughout the story. So first of all, the story uses fitting Bible verses and it’s interesting the way it’s done. Second, while I don’t 100% agree with it’s logic, it is well written. It’s Ennis so obviously don’t expect wholesome Christian entertainment or anything, the ending of this is actually quite anti-religion but it’s written in a way that doesn’t feel immature like many anti-religion stories often feel IMO. It’s commentary while a bit biased truly feels like a mature writing of thoughts regarding theology and not always overly one-sided.

Cons:
This book is mostly predictable. There was one thing towards the end I didn’t expect but most of it, I saw coming.
While Ennis is often funny this book was not. It attempts humor a few times and only made me chuckle once so yeah, the comic relief didn’t work for me this time around.
There’s 2 times Pilgrim kills a pet (one of those times it’s a pupper) and it’s never avenged. It only felt necessary to the plot once and even then barely.

Overall:
This book is pretty good. I know some people love post-apocalyptic stuff (I sometimes enjoy it though it’s not necessarily a favorite), I would definitely recommend it to that crowd.
I had a few problems with this book but it’s mostly pretty good. An interesting story with fantastic art, well written characters and lots of great action.
Fans of Ennis and/or post-apocalyptic stories will like this.

4/5
Profile Image for Zedsdead.
1,376 reviews83 followers
May 12, 2024
The sun has expanded, scorching the Earth and burning off the oceans. In the Mad Max landscape that remains, a reformed-cannibal preacher leads a wagon train across the Atlantic floor, where they run afoul of a gang led by a pirate with two peglegs, two hookhands, two eyepatches, and no parrots.

An outlet for Ennis to channel his characteristic shocky instincts (a man inflated like a giant testicle by an enormous parasite, the casual random shooting of a puppy (what? it had a demon), etc).

The Pilgrim is basically a clone of the Saint of Killers transplanted to a thinly-built postapocalyptic setting. His moral journey is interesting, if rushed: All in the space of a single issue.

It's a perfectly adequate though uninspired story. Don't mind having read it but I certainly wasn't missing out by being unaware of its existence all these years.
Profile Image for Gavin.
1,265 reviews89 followers
August 14, 2013
A Post-Apocalyptic world, where the Sun has dried up all the oceans and burnt 97% of the population. 8 years later, a band of survivors is attacked by pirates, only to be saved by a mysterious stranger who's "Just a Pilgrim".
What follows is a very good story about sin, redemption, faith, God, religion, and some good ole' Mad Max style bad guys against a sort of Book of Eli type religious lone "hero".
The story is a great examination of what we put our faith in and why we do it.
This version also includes the second collection, which in story time line, takes place 4 yrs later, so 12 yrs after "The Burn".
An interesting continuation and by the end of this collection things have come full circle in some ways...very well done.

Strongly recommended.
Profile Image for Tomás.
271 reviews24 followers
March 27, 2015
Este comic lo conseguí hace bastante, cuando recién me metía nuevamente en los comics. Creo que debe estar descatalogado porque la mayoría de los comics editados por Norma que tengo en mi colección actualmente lo están. Quizás me equivoque pero creo, CREO, que está descatalogado.

La primer miniserie incluída en este tomo es interesante, Ennis parece estar más calmado que de costumbre, más allá de que su cuota de blasfemia contra el cristianismo es bastante alta y, perdón por la apreciación personal, correcta. El dibujo de Ezquerra también mantiene un nivel alto.

La segunda miniserie, Garden Of Eden, me pareció un poco tirada de los pelos pero se resuelve de manera muy efectiva y el final es excelente.

Para completistas y fanáticos del autor (como yo ja)
Profile Image for Gav451.
749 reviews5 followers
April 8, 2020
Wonderfully written dark adventure that hits on so many levels.

The art of Carlos Ezquerra is wonderful, he is on top form here and he is perfect for this job.

The story is sublime. It is full of darkness and surprises and humour but mainly darkness to be fair.

There are 2 tales in this volume and the best thing about this is the story properly ends in a way I was not expecting. What you have here is a proper narrative arc with characters who make bad decisions and who do awful things.

A great read, I loved it.
Profile Image for Alex Sarll.
7,082 reviews364 followers
Read
January 26, 2013
There's a rare gift Garth Ennis has - he can start a story with scabrous jokes, ultraviolence and similar blackly light-hearted fare, and then evolve it into something utterly heartrending, all without ever feeling like he's twisted the tone or made it inconsistent. He did it with Nick Fury, and The Boys, and he also does it here. The initial miniseries is set after the sun has burned the Earth's sea's away, on the deserts of the Atlantic seabed, and perhaps the Ezquerra art adds to this feeling, but it wouldn't be out of place in 2000AD; it's the same sort of comically bleak setting as Judge Dredd's world. But the tale grows bleaker in the telling, and by the end, you're slightly shellshocked.
And then, four years on, the sequel (also included here), Garden of Eden. Which is a bleak and brutal poem about the end of everything - humanity, faith, hope. It remains one of the bleakest apocalyptic tales I've ever read, and I've read a few. One for fans of The Road.
Profile Image for Václav.
1,131 reviews44 followers
May 2, 2018
Ennis, master of gritty humour. More or less in Every his opus. And Just a Pilgrim is not an exception. Post-apo theme is popular now as it was in 2002. An it is popular since dawn of humankind and I believe it will be until last one of us, the last pilgrim on Earth.
Ennis pick one of the real ends of our society, the expanding sun. The land is burning, the oceans are sand-dry, the 97% of humans are wiped off and the rest must be wary of abominations created by extreme high levels of UV and other sun radiation. And between that, the lone Pilgrim with dark past and no future roams, trying to restore rest of god fearing humanity. This piece is awesome, dark, funny, thrilling. With some moral lessons and critique of religion. With good, catching story. With decent art (there are few pages/panels which I do not like, but overall fitting the story and works well as whole.
Two hundred pages (plus 33 of art bonuses) of very good, closed post apocalyptic story, is good way to spend your Sunday evening (or skip church, because you'll get as many Bible quotes here as in regular church).
Profile Image for Joni.
818 reviews46 followers
January 14, 2025
El peregrino es una mezcla de Mad Max y Judge Dredd. Juez y verdugo con la biblia como estandarte.
Este libro contiene dos historias publicadas originalmente en sagas de cuatro números cada una.
Un evento solar arrasa la tierra sobreviviendo un tres por ciento de la humanidad.
En la primer historia se enfrenta al jefe de un clan, una suerte de pirata con ciego, con patas de palo y garfios por manos.
La segunda historia le agrega un toque fantástico al cruzarse con un campamento donde viven personas que se la rebuscaron para rearmar un cohete y huir del planeta a colonizar un mundo más habitable.
Como todo lo proveniente de la mano de Ennis, abunda la violencia y no le tiembla el pulso para matar niños o mascotas.
Los diálogos son buenos y el arte de Ezquerra acompaña a la perfección.
Lamento la cantidad de páginas extras con pinups y sketchs que bien podrían ser una historia corta o un libro más económico.
Profile Image for El Cuaderno de Chris.
366 reviews99 followers
September 17, 2016
Préstamo Biblioteca.

Este cómic es sumamente interesante, el título no es nada llamativo, sin embargo el personaje me sorprendió al ser un fanático religioso y un asesino serial, una mezcla de por si perturbadora. Contado a través del diario de Billy, un niño que sobrevivió al apocalipsis, ya que el sol quemó la tierra y secó el mar, además de crear criaturas horripilantes. El Peregrino salva a Billy y a su comunidad de una muerte segura en su primer encuentro. El enemigo de esta primera parte no me generó ningún tipo de sentimiento. Me gustó el final, me pareció inesperado pero lógico.

En la segunda parte (otro cómic del peregrino llamado el jardín del edén) está me encantó, el cambio del personaje, lo que sucede aunque un poco más inverosímil, me gustó más. El final es brillante.
Profile Image for Wes.
462 reviews14 followers
October 15, 2019
Fun, but what Ennis isn't? Not the best Ennis, but a pretty good Ennis story. Not much else to say here. If you've read Ennis before, you know what you're in for. If not, this actually isn't a bad place to start. It is pretty light, not tied to anything else, and gives you a pretty good taste for some of Ennis' classics.
Profile Image for Timo.
Author 3 books17 followers
October 5, 2011
Too much bible references, which was annoying. But truly brilliant art by Esquerra. That man really can bring Garth's visions to life.
By the way. This comic is the only comic I have written to. And I got published. And I won the script. I'm, like, so famous.
Profile Image for Lavell.
184 reviews1 follower
December 18, 2020
Artwork: Gritty, but great. Story: Great. Written by my all-time favorite writer Garth Ennis. So you know it is going to be great. Drawn by the all-time great artist, Carlos Ezquerra known for drawing Judge Dredd. It is funny and violent and a little too short, but great all the same.
Profile Image for Lanko.
350 reviews30 followers
July 1, 2016
Was just searching for some old stuff and actually found this, which I read almost a decade ago. Read it again and was just as awesome as it was back then.

Garth Ennis is simply a master.
Profile Image for Jordan Anderson.
1,749 reviews46 followers
July 14, 2019
Technically Just a Pilgrim is a lot more restrained than say Preacher or The Boys, but regardless, this is typical Garth Ennis, through and through.

That’s not necessarily bad, since Ennis is never afraid to push the envelope and write some really...different storylines. However, when it comes to this particular comic, there’s a lot left to be desired.

Unlike those precious 2 comic series I mentioned, Pilgrim suffers from lack of a strong backstory. Readers are thrown into the thick of it with hardly any explanation or description. There are a few times where Pilgrim discusses his past, but that’s about the only time we get any history. I get this was supposed to be a limited series, and wasn’t meant to be a long running arc, although a short prologue or a single issue with explanation could have really helped the story resonate more with me.

If Ennis had gone on to do more Just a Pilgrim or at least produced a prequel of sorts, I could have had more faith and interest in this short collection, but, as it stands, the 2 storylines here are the only 2 he ever did. Too bad, cuz Ennis could have been something good going with this idea...
24 reviews
June 28, 2020
Garth Ennis e Carlos Ezquerra produziram um história fascinante deste homem sem nome, ou melhor apenas um peregrino.

Em um mundo pós-apocalíptico, esse personagem fanático religioso segue fazendo, ao seu modo, o trabalho de Deus. Na primeira parte da obra, o peregrino guia um grupo de pessoas pelo oceano seco enquanto tentam sobrevir aos ataques dos salteadores e do chefe deles, Castenado. Posteriormente, na segunda parte (o jardim do Éden) o peregrino encontra um grupo de sobreviventes nas fossas mais profunda do mundo. Eles pretendem viajar até outro planeta para sobrevir ao descalabro humano na Terra.

Ennis é muito perspicaz ao elaborar sua ácida crítica ao fanatismo religioso e explorar as piores facetas da humanidade, fazem em meio a tudo isso um belo desenvolvimento de personagem.
Profile Image for David.
80 reviews3 followers
November 9, 2020
Fairly okay, wacky, over the top post apocalyptic series where a former convincted cannibal turned Christian vigilante tries to save a colony of survivors from when the Sun went mad and fried the entire Planet, from a band of vicious sand pirates lead by a sadistic bastard of a man who has Herr Starr from Preacher beat on every front: Castenado, the no eyed, no handed, no footed, no genitaled insane serial killer.

This is what you have when Garth actually gives it an effort, unlike say "Pride and Joy" or his 2000 run on The Punisher.
Profile Image for Laura Ruetz.
1,382 reviews75 followers
August 3, 2021
This was a blind buy. I was not familiar with this story but picked it up because of Ennis. This is very dark dystopian fiction, but it still has some of the dark humor Ennis is known for. It's dark and brutal, a man doing what he calls the Lord's work in a ruined world. I enjoyed this. It's got two series, and I really enjoyed the art work at the end. Solid read.
Profile Image for Adrian Bloxham.
1,313 reviews1 follower
May 13, 2020
Like a 2000AD story, almost throwaway but because of who it is the characters and black humour shine through
Profile Image for Jorge Schumacher.
Author 1 book32 followers
June 7, 2020
Uma obra bem típica do autor, criticando a religião. Boas histórias mas que não acrescentam nada ao gênero. A arte é boa.
Profile Image for Eric.
722 reviews6 followers
November 20, 2019
The character development, artwork, story, everything is top notch here. Ennis is an absolute beast.
Profile Image for arjuna.
485 reviews9 followers
August 17, 2012
Hmmm. A very great deal to like about this - premise, setting, main character, atmosphere, a surprisingly restrained (in some respects) attack on religion - but I'd have to agree with this review in the sense that there is something not quite satisfying about it. I can't really put my finger on what - it *should* work; beautifully bleak vision, wonderfully violent protagonist (with a brilliant backstory), excellently twitchy villain (the foreword is spot on about Ennis' ability to bring horror to life in the most extraordinary ways despite all the odds)... not sure where or how it falls down, but it does, somehow. I'm reminded of the old NA joke about "everything dies, even the sheep"... while I quite *like* that, something gets in the way of its integrity here. Possibly the Billy diary device - it verges on twee and is far too relentlessly present - possibly the 2D Billy Parents. The whole Shepherd thing is just that little bit too Hollywood Cutesy. I do like Billy's fate (and his Dad's!) though; it's the one redeeming thing about his presence - and perhaps that's the point.

This edition incorporates the follow-up, "Garden of Eden", which (again) is wonderfully deadpan and horrific and inventive and funny and brilliant in that Ennisy way, but much less powerful than the first - verging on mainstream "redemption" tropes. Not that it lapses entirely into the dreaded "hope and humanity" but it's a near thing. I'll take the first story over the second, even with the gorgeous nasty mutants (wonderful). Left me wanting more (and I'd love to see more Pilgrim stories were it possible).

In short, I liked it (them) a lot, but not as much as some of Ennis' other work. But because I'm not yet sure *why* I'm not keen, I'll give it an interim 4. It deserves more than a 3, objectively.
Profile Image for Alessandro Vicenzi.
Author 44 books21 followers
February 15, 2017
Solomon Kane reinventato in una storia post-apocalittica.
Uno degli Ennis migliori, tra ferocia, disillusione e l'immancabile umorismo grottesco.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews

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