Eric Powell's The Goon, that is.
If you somehow snagged your nuts on this post, and have never read a single issue of The Goon (which I find hard to believe), please visit the official link below... at some stage.
BTW any Goon characters or artwork appearing on this post are obviously copyright Eric Powell / Darkhorse Comics... respect.
Darkhorse's Goon Zone
Still, I keep bumping into people who don't know Powell's work, whereas I can't imagine a world without it.
Then again, I live in a country where about 1% of people regularly read comics. That's compared to 99% in Japan. Some very general stats there but you get the sketch.
Like a decent chunk of Powell's readers, I was attacked by issue no. 7 of his regular Darkhorse run. Like a pitbull from the stand, to the eye, to the brain. And it's locked jaws.
Honestly, I don't wanna' mecka habit o' throwing up a bunch of comic art belonging to other creators on this blog, so some lazy cover snaps and toy shots will suffice... to entice.
No true review, just blab for the purpose of a blab - to promote, and hopefully allure the uninitiated.
Clever clever man. Getting Mike Mignola on yer cover creds is gonna' work wonders... being a MM fan since the mid-late '90s, I could be shown a Mignola piece portraying mouse feces drawn on a sanitary pad with pond scum and I'd still lap it up like crazy.
I'd been onna' Will Eisner Spirit quest in 2004, reading '80s Kitchen Sink reprints of The Spirit, when I first picked up The Goon #7. My store had sold me every classic KS Spirit issue they had. Seriously, timing couldn't have been better! When read, it was a beautiful, seamless transition somehow and I actually kissed the freakin' comic at the end.
(ok the two beers halfway through prob'ly helped, but I ain't done it before or since)
Man, I dunno' what kinda' hallucinogenics Darkhorse were lacing their print with back then, but the 'Nothing But Misery' trade was in my hands the next day and 'Roughstuff' shortly after.
Deceptively simple or simply deceptive? Don't know, but Powell's stuff, The Goon in particular, appeals on so many levels to so many readers. I think writer/artists (and insane self-publishers in this case) kick ass because they release what they as readers would like to recieve.
Ooh, pretty.
Pulp fiction robots, monsters for monsters sake, demons, zombies, magic, six-shooters, whiskey, dames, gangsters, and the dismantling of phoney contemporary vampire mythos. Powell throws, pulls and pummels you into the atmosphere of Goon's world with such ease, but doesn't patronize the reader with heavy handed explanations for the paranormal.
The fact that it frequently focuses on one street, one bar, one small town proves the quality of the stories.
Providing more comedy and tragedy than some funny books can whip up spanning an entire universe or multiverse even.
With pure love o' the DHorse, I'm still gon' say some o' the Dark Horse Deluxe range are, well ... something less than deluxy-licious. Bit tinny outta' China maybe? But that's the world o' pop merch right? Don't ever get me started on Todd McFarlane.
These however... things o' beauty. DH deluxe wins for once.
Y'know somehow I get the feelin' if Goon or Franky ever saw a grown man 'playing with dolls', they'd feed him his own unsalted skull, suppository style.
Yes, watch, good reader.
Guffaw. Giamatti, interesting choice to voice.
So, another comic to flick adaption. That sentence usually has the tendency to make me cringe it up.
Yeah, I'm the one that's biting his tongue off, letting me fellows enjoy a movie.
Afterwards I'll inevitably be asked how it compared to the books, being the resident comic geek or summin', then I plain vent.
Yeah, I'm the one that's biting his tongue off, letting me fellows enjoy a movie.
Afterwards I'll inevitably be asked how it compared to the books, being the resident comic geek or summin', then I plain vent.
Very promising, The Goon, very promising. Promising for the CGI, promising on the voice acting. Surely no bail-out kissy-wissy love interest ending either. Thank #$*! for that!
Rather than fill fans and newcomers heads alike with '?'s (Hellboy, The Spirit, Jonah Hex).Reckon this'll be consumed in an instant-classic sense (Sin City, 300, Watchmen).
Moment o' truth remains, but Powell's smart and I trust 'im with his own property so far.
"Not everything a wise man says has to be wise" - Rihia2k.
