{"id":35986,"date":"2026-07-18T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T08:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35986"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:21:01","slug":"pride-joy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/07\/18\/pride-joy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride & Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Garth Ennis<\/strong> & John Higgins<\/strong>, lettered by Annie Halfacree<\/strong> (Vertigo\/Image)
\nISBN: 978-1-84023-803-7 ( 2004 Vertigo TPB), 978-1-4012-0190-6 (2016 Image TPB\/ Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Garth Ennis has a well-deserved reputation for shocking, moving and wickedly funny storytelling, and is accomplished in blending genres for maximum effect, as his successes with The Boys<\/strong>, Battlefields<\/strong>, Ghost Rider<\/strong>, The Punisher<\/strong>, foundational runs on Preacher<\/strong> and Hellblazer<\/strong>, impious seminal shocker True Faith<\/a><\/strong> and a dozen other tales can attest.<\/p>\n

One of his least regarded or remembered – in my opinion unjustly so – is this ferocious family saga of a painfully mundane domestic world turned upside down by an unredeemed past. It is a story of pedestrianly ordinary folk with none of the baroque or flamboyant characters that populate regular fiction…<\/p>\n

There\u2019s this guy called Jimmy Kavanagh<\/em>. His wife is long-dead and son Patrick <\/em>is at that revolting sulky teen age, but at least his little daughter Rachel<\/em> is still the most beautiful girl in the whole world. Life is hard: his own dad, a war-hero, has just passed on, but the family are doing okay…\"\"
\nThat all changes in a moment after Jimmy\u2019s stupid past resurfaces. Back in 1972 he and a couple of his idiot pals reckoned they were going to be big-time hoods when they agreed to rip-off a gang boss. The gig had been planned by the boss\u2019 own bodyguard, Stein<\/em>, who promised them a million dollars…<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for everybody but Jimmy, his pals were real shmucks, and ballsed up the caper. Cops came, busted Stein before he could kill them all and took him away for twenty-to-life. Scared straight by the experience, Jimmy got on with his life… until now. One night he gets a call and his world starts to implode. Coming home to finds the babysitter gutted like a fish. Stein is out and he wants revenge…<\/p>\n

Gathering his kids and linking up with his old \u201ccolleagues\u201d they go on the run together, but the hunter can\u2019t be shaken and innocent people keep dying. Unable to bond with his son during their entire life together Jimmy finally, tragically connects with Patrick as the sorry saga comes to a small and dirty close…\"\"
\nWith chilling echoes of Cape Fear<\/strong> (the 1962 Gregory Peck\/Robert Mitchum release) this tale examines how ordinary people cope with ordinary evil: a cheap thug with a knife is just as deadly as a horde of vampires. You and yours can only die once – painfully, horribly; but just once. Pride & Joy<\/strong> is a tale about dreams and hopes and heritage, showing how mediocre people cope, illustrated with perfect subtle understatement by John Higgins. Nothing about this story is big or bold or bombastic: but it could really happen. It\u2019s that <\/em><\/strong>scary…
\n\u00a9 1997, 2004 Garth Ennis and John Higgins. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Born today in 1926 Mexican writer Yolanda Vargas Dulch\u00e9 de la Parra<\/strong> (Mem\u00edn Pingu\u00edn<\/em>), sharing the day with artist Phil Noto <\/strong>(Gen13<\/strong>, Spider-Man<\/strong>, Daredevil<\/strong>, Jonah Hex<\/strong>. Green Lantern<\/strong>, Indiana Jones<\/strong>, Captain America<\/strong>) in 1971 and writer\/musician\/attorney Charles Soule<\/strong> (Daredevil<\/strong>, Letter 44<\/strong>, Swamp Thing<\/strong>, Death of Wolverine<\/strong>) in 1974.<\/p>\n

This day in 1975 we lost revolutionary cartoonist Vaughn Bod\u00e9<\/strong> (Cheech Wizard<\/strong>, Cobalt-60<\/strong>, Deadbone<\/strong>,) and in 1990 French auteur Yves Chaland<\/strong> (Adventures of Freddy Lombard<\/strong>, Bob Fish<\/em>, Adolphus Claar<\/em>, Retro-Spirou<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garth Ennis & John Higgins, lettered by Annie Halfacree (Vertigo\/Image) ISBN: 978-1-84023-803-7 ( 2004 Vertigo TPB), 978-1-4012-0190-6 (2016 Image TPB\/ Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Garth Ennis has a well-deserved reputation for shocking, moving and wickedly funny storytelling, and is accomplished in blending genres for maximum effect, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Pride & Joy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[75,66,105,225,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-comics","category-horror-stories","category-mature-reading","category-mystery","category-vertigo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9mq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35991,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35986\/revisions\/35991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}