Priest

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 프리스트

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Information

Type: Manhwa

Volumes: 16

Chapters: 160

Status: Finished

Published: 1998 to 2007

Genres: Action, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural

Theme: Psychological

Serialization: None

Authors: Hyung, Min-Woo (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.37¹ (scored by 1,609 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4050²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3175

Members: 6,994

Favorites: 126

Resources

Wikipedia

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Synopsis

In the frontier of the American West, a veil of evil threatens to engulf humanity. Servants of the fallen archangel Temozarela are paving the way for their dark lord's resurrection. One man stands in the way of the apocalypse: Ivan Isaacs, a fallen priest who sold his soul to the devil Belial for the power to fight evil. Armed with a wicked blade and silver bullets, Ivan will give the heretics a baptism of blood in his pilgrimage for humanity's redemption.

(Source: Tokyopop)

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Background

Priest was first published in English by Tokyopop from July 23, 2002 to April 10, 2007. The first volume of a 3-in-1 omnibus edition was additionally published under the title Priest: Genesis on April 5, 2011. Tokyopop also published the title digitally January 21, 2015.

More characters
Characters

Isaacs, Ivan

Main

Gavarre, Betheal

Main

Lizzie

Main

Temozarela

Main

Coburn

Supporting

Cairo

Supporting

Issacs, Gena

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 7, 2011

old_boy22

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/160 eps)

Demographic: Seinen
Genre: Action adventure, Weird West
Length: Nine Volumes

Artwork: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Storyline: 10/10

Overall Rating: Hall of Fame
...
Synopsis

A revenge story that follows the former priest Ivan Isaacs, a man who made a deal with the devil Belial in order to seek vengeance against the fallen angel Temozarella and his twelve disciples. Ivan's deal has turned him undead (by resurrecting him from the dead), granting him inhuman strength and durability. Unfortunately the deal cost Ivan half of his soul and throughout the story the half he still possesses is slowly eroding until inevitably he will completely lose all grasp on his consciousness. Unfortunately the series is halted at volume 16 (which is probably less than the halfway mark of the story) and has been for a long time with no sign of continuing.

Review

The story's concept even to a guy selling his soul to the devil and becoming undead to seek revenge against a supernatural force at this point is hardly original. However, the artwork is quite unique even from what I've seen of other manwa. Sometimes the artwork can look kinda cartoony within its own style sometimes, but it can also become unnaturally disturbing which is good if it's your thing.
There are more than a handful of main characters in the story, though only Ivan, Belial and Vascar De Guillon (who eventually becomes the avatar of Temozarela) enjoy in depth coloring. The brunt of the story is set in the frontier west, though it has portions involving The Crusades and Inquisitions as well as the present day. Being a western sets it apart from the vast majority of manga and anime out there, which is part of what drew me to it personally. Also different are the strong plot ties to theology, also missing from the majority of series which I found interesting. Finally, being set outside of Japan was a fresh take to me. As stated previously I don't have Japan or anything but it's nice to have a different setting once in a while.
A take on revenge at any cost as well as portraying what damnation really is like, mostly absent in manga and anime. Though I found the story sometimes gruesome and despondant, Priest was very intriguing to me particularly when speaking of its visual style of storytelling.

Recommendation

Originally I recorded my review of Priest for the second episode of D.R.E.A.M.cast with Donwun on the fly, but was unhappy with the result. What I discovered from that recording though is especially after the world was introduced (horrendously) to "Priest" by the flop of the movie that had nothing to do with the manhwa was that regardless, Priest is a hard sell. If you don't mind that the story is stuck partway through with no definite date to continue, then we're past the first major hurdle. The second would be that seriously, that movie had nothing to do with the manhwa other than the looks (marginally). The story is a western, so let's start there with recommendations. If you want to see an eastern artist's take on a western, Priest is one of the few titles that comes to my mind. If you want to see one man's epic struggle against an overwhelming, unholy organization, Priest is that story. If you're not into overly happy go lucky bullshit in your stories, something more gritty and rough; Priest.

Fun Trivia

For some reason in the film they decided to make the main antagonist have the look and feel (minus vampirism) of Ivan Isaacs rather than the protagonist (Paul Bethany's character). In fact, if they had just made that guy the main character with that outfit the movie may have moved up an entire notch just by making the main character look awesome. Why they didn't do that? Got me.

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Aug 22, 2020

YesterdaysJoe

Mixed Feelings

Short review: great unique art. Definitely one of the better Korean manhwa I've read by far. But I've never liked Korean comics to begin with.

In terms of story: don't expect anything more than guns, gore and seemingly profound but very skippable biblical gibberish interludes. There's alot of intense stuff going on, but at the end I feel like I just read 16 volumes of flashbacks and an introduction to a story that would never actually kick off. And by the time an actual storyline seems to be set up and about to pay off the publication stops. That said, there's no shortage on action. But ...

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Dec 13, 2009

Tuskus

Not Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/160 eps)

Priest is what you would get if you took Helsing, set it in the wild west, and replaced the vampires with zombies. If this sounds interesting to you then you might want to check it out. If you're a normal human being, then you should stay far away from this Korean comic. The art is definitely one of Priest's better aspects. I liked the more simplified character designs, maybe because they look so different from the norm. There isn't much good I can say about the story. There's this guy with the classic evil grin that goes around the American frontier shooting up zombies. At ...

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