Priest

The manwha Priest is based around Father Isaacs a once faithful priest who turned his back on God after a God turned his back on him. The storyline, based in the west with a slice of the occult added to it to give it that extra bit of greatness is good, confusing at times, but as events unfold and history is revealed the story be comes intriguing and leaves you wanting more after each volume. Priest itself brings up religious questions that may seem blasphemous and dark, but to be fair, without it the manwha wouldn't be as good.

The art and characters are good, where as the art is sketchy and rough looking the characters have a very sad and hurtful past, which i think brings the manwha up to the standard it's at.

personally i enjoy reading priest and can't wait for the next installment, if you like westerns and the idea of a gun - slinging priest trying best to hold onto his soul as well as his humanity, Priest is for you.

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 the end of the third volume, the writer realizes that there should probably be some sort of structure to the story, so we find out that this is all just a flashback and the protagonist is given a goal to achieve. This was really sloppy on the writer's part but at least they tried to fix their mistake. Unfortunately, the only mistake here is that this was even published. Sure, somebody out there likes this, but somebody out there that likes moe too.

After getting back into anime, manga and comics in general a few years back, Priest was one of the first titles I picked up. Even though this is a Manwha title, don't let this put you off, as we are lucky to have this translated and released in the west.

It is easy to dismiss Priest as a generic action title, with a cool gun slinging anti hero battling the undead. I nearly did. However the story goes much deeper after the volume 3 where we start to see the back story to why things are so screwed up in the old west!

As you would imagine from the title, the story is a very religious orientated affair, questioning the existence of God, faith and purpose of man. If you are easily offended by blasphemous comments then I would not recommend Priest at all. The concept of a fallen angel and his mission to prove to God that his creation of man is an inferior race is both compelling and understandable. Understandable in the sense when you see what happens to the lead characters, you can understand the reasoning behind his actions.

With the story going back and forth in time, keeps the story fresh and exciting. The action scenes play out like a storyboard for a movie, while remaining very clear due to the distinct art work. Stark, straight lines, sometimes minimalistic, but very effective in conveying emotion. Hyung Min-woo depicts some great symbolism in his work, for example, when a Father holds onto his prayer beads too tight they snap and fall, signifying that if you hold onto your faith too tightly, it will break - sometimes faith is not enough. There are some horific images which stay with you but also make you fill with rage and question your own faith. With the story panning over centuries right to present day, there is an epic feeling to Priest which makes it an appealing read.

As someone who believes in angels, demons and God, each volume was a heavy and intense read, but also made me want to read the next volume. If you like horror, action and the old west, with heavy dose of religious doubt then this series is highly recommended. Although ongoing - currently 16 volumes are out, with no news of volume 17 yet, it is still worth the investment.

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 just alternating between slow, moody gothic tea time breaks and fast-paced guns blazing bloody rage against the devil battles doesn't make for a good story.

I'd say it's worth reading a couple volumes for the art alone, but don't hesitate to let it go if you're not getting much out of it. It managed to hold my curiosity for 16 volumes so it's not all bad, and it's a smooth read, hence the 6/10. If you can manage to shut off your brain while reading, it might even feel deep and emotional.

Conclusion: Berserk + The Crow = Hellsing with cooler art = Priest
Great art, shallow story.
Incomplete!

A fallen priest as the main character in a story can most definitely mean only one thing when it comes to a manhwa... badass. With a title like Priest and an average score of 7. 68 from MAL readers DO NOT let this fool you!
This is a gritty, dark, deep and amazing read if you are looking for a fantasy, action, horror or supernatural comic that is nothing like a shounen manga that you may or may not be taking a break from.
It does not bore you with a story right from the start instead if tosses blood filled action at you for the first few volumes that will instantly pull you in with slight hints at the story that is already underway. At this point it is put on hold and goes off from the main characters narrative(Father Ivan Isaacs) as if a journal entry being read from another character to unfold the deep and rich story filled with blood gore, betrayal.
This is my first review ever so please I am sorry if I have said to much but I tried, hopefully it helps and i assure you this manga is well worth the read!

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.