One of the most celebrated writers in the comic book medium is Garth Ennis and this year has seen two adaptations of Ennis' acclaimed works, The Boys and Preacher, air on television, with the former premiering on Amazon Prime Video this past July and the latter ending its four-season run on AMC. Additionally, the fan-favorite writer has crafted the continuing adventures of Frank Castle since 2000, and is now returning to helm two different Punisher miniseries for Marvel, starting with Punisher: Soviet next month.

In an exclusive email interview with CBR, Ennis discussed the success of Amazon's adaptation of The Boys and its continued relevance seven years since the end of the Dynamite Entertainment comic book series, offered an epitaph to the Eisner Award-winning legacy of Preacher and its television adaptation and talks about why he keeps returning to write new stories starring the Punisher 20 years on.

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CBR: The Boys is the most-watched original series through Amazon Prime Video. What do you think makes it especially resonate with audiences seven years since the comic series' end?

Garth Ennis: The sheer degree of wrongdoing, something that’s rife in the world at present. The sense that everyone’s dirty, and the only question is whether you want a fairly corrupt status quo or a dangerously insane new world. Whether you want pre- or post-2016, in other words.

To expand on that, the story was first conceived 15 years ago as a meditation on [corporate] corruption entering politics. If you had to revisit the story today, how would you approach it thematically?

The big difference would be the rise of social media, which I’d portray as making things 90-percent worse.

You've previously described Billy Butcher as your all-time favorite character. What is his appeal to you as a storyteller and what made him the perfect P.O.V. into this dark world?

I like his accent and his sense of humor, but more importantly he fulfills one of my ongoing suspicions about the world -- that good people are only so much use, and that when real trouble comes along you need a bad guy to save the day. Or, as Horace Walpole put it, “No great country was ever saved by good men, because good men may not go to the lengths that may be necessary.” Butcher himself supplies the answer to that one: “It’s what we get up to in our spare time that you have to worry about.”

The trouble is, I don’t know where we find the bad man we need right now.

What do you think of Karl Urban's portrayal as Billy and the rest of the cast?

Very good indeed, they’re all spot on. The new or altered characters all work very well, the established ones are great -- highlights among the latter would be the Homelander and Annie January.

Homelander is possibly the most twisted antagonist you've created. What was your inspiration there and what do you think makes him particularly sinister?

I think it’s the sense that lurking behind those good manners and old-fashioned, down-home sincerity is the ever-present threat that he could cut you in half just by looking at you. Something Anthony Starr nails perfectly, by the way.

RELATED: How Preacher's TV Finale Differs from the Comic

Your other television adaptation, Preacher, has just come to an end. Do you have any parting thoughts on the comic and AMC series?

I think the show had its moments. I’d be the first to admit it didn’t particularly set the world on fire -- but on the other hand, four seasons is not bad nowadays. Great cast, great direction, great design. Writing was a bit up and down, but that’s the nature of the beast even on better TV shows.

As for the book, I’m happy to say I’m as fond of it as I ever was. I took another look at it a couple of years ago and thought -- you know, [co-creator Steve Dillon] and I did something pretty good here. If that’s the one I’m always known for, that my name will be associated with, then that’s fine by me.

I’m glad a whole new audience has had a chance to check out the book off the back of the show. Next year's new omnibus editions (or “omniboo,” as my pal Jen Grunwald says) should be pretty special.

Finally, you have Punisher: Soviet from Marvel next month and another Punisher miniseries in 2020. After all this time writing Frank Castle, what keeps you coming back to the character and finding fresh stories to put him in?

I think it’s the brilliant simplicity of the character. He reminds me so much of the characters I grew up on -- I’ve said before that he sometimes seems like a British comics character accidentally born on the wrong side of The Pond -- and indeed he should, because Frank and a lot of my childhood comics heroes were based on TV and film of the era (rather than other comics, as is the way in the US).

Essentially he’s a gunfighter rather than a superhero -- and being one step closer to the real world as a result, he’s just the character you want when you’re exploring the nastier side of human existence.

The Boys stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as the Female, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Chace Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander and Simon Pegg as Hughie's dad. A Season 2 premiere date has not yet been announced.

NEXT: Garth Ennis Returns to Marvel for Two New Punisher Series