This month, Multiversity Comics is celebrating Dark Horse during their 30th anniversary. You’ll see plenty of interviews, podcasts and articles discussing some of the legacy that Dark Horse has blazed during these last 3 decades. Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to read a lot of Dark Horse books and I even write the Dark Horse part of our Soliciting Multiversity column. I’ve read “Hellboy,” “Buffy,” “Usagi Yojimbo” and more, but one series that always evaded me was Eric Powell’s “The Goon.” “The Goon” is one of the stranger series I’ve read thanks to it’s blend of the supernatural, ultra violence and comedy, but it’s impact on Dark Horse as a publisher is apparent.
“The Goon” tells the story of (you guessed it) The Goon. He lives on Lonely Street and “works” as an enforcer for Labrazio, a gangster who has a lot of power in this world. The Goon is partnered with Franky, the physical opposite of him in almost every way, but still very capable. The two of them met when they were kids and have been inseparable since. The Goon exists in a world where magic, ghouls, ghosts, witches, zombies and more are real, and often times finds himself coming up against them in the most violent ways. As the series goes on, we learn more about The Goon and Franky’s relationship, we see his saga against his nemesis The Priest and we see that in this world, violence isn’t an option, it’s the only way to go.
Coming into this, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I had only heard of the series in passing, and I was aware of how much acclaim Powell had garnered for the series. Thankfully, this is a book right up my alley. “The Goon” in a word is absurd, and I mean that in the best way possible. It combines a lot of different genres for a mashup that genuinely works because Powell doesn’t do anything without purpose, even if it’s just to shock you. Powell takes old detective tropes, big supernatural concepts and crime noir and creates a saga that keeps you guessing at every turn. Powell will deliver a truly emotional moment and follow it up with The Goon riding a werewolf or throwing a mailbox down the block to hit someone. It’s that absurdity that makes “The Goon” such a unique read.
That’s not to say that Powell is going only for shock value. There’s some of that, but “The Goon” is very much a character driven drama. Throughout the series, Powell puts character development first, using it propels the story forward. This is very obvious in the “Chinatown” arc. It’s a story that is teased from the very beginning, and when we get to it the payoff is tremendous. “Chinatown” shows us how The Goon really became the guy he is now. How he got his scars, how he was hurt and why he’s still haunted. It’s this arc that really displays all the great things about “The Goon” and it’s this arc that can be pointed to as evidence that this series is much more substance than style.
Powell’s writing almost has a song like quality to it. It’s a strange thing to say, but it does. This quality isn’t found so much in the structure of the events but in the dialogue. There are a lot of dark jokes written into the script, and it’s all within the way the characters talk to each other. There’s a beautiful back and forth that happens between the characters that’s snarky, sarcastic and seamlessly sewn into the events surrounding them. This isn’t something that’s just written into The Goon, each character features this quick witted snark that sets the atmosphere the series became known for.
The Goon is one of the most visually known characters in comic books. A lot of people can identify him even if they’ve never read the series. This is because of Powell’s very unique character designs. The Goon’s got a distinct look: he’s an ugly guy with a hunch, scars and a cabbie hat pulled down to his brow. Frankie is short and slight, with extraordinarily cartoonish dots for eyes and a pot-belly. Every character in this series is physically shaped by the horrible world that they live in, which often betrays their sensitive natures. The Goon’s tough-looking appearance is actually a total betrayal of the sensitive, quick-to-love guy he really is. Powell’s art goes through an amazing transformation over the series run. He begins rough and unpolished but blossoms into an artist with a clearly defined aesthetic. “The Goon” isn’t always what you’d call pretty, but that’s exactly why it works. Powell’s approach to comic art is exactly what this series needs it to be. Sometimes he’s slick and bombastic like Jack Kirby, other times he’s rough and monstrous like Jack Davis, it’s all a matter of what the story needs at that exact moment. As the series goes on, Powell gets more and more comfortable with this approach, at a few points even switching between polished inking and tight pencils mid-page. He lets loose with these big concepts, and there’s often times something tongue in cheek about what he draws. As with the dialogue in the series, there’s a dark humor that runs through the art as well. That’s not to say that he can’t visually bring the drama when he needs to, because as good as he is with the jokes, he’s got this way of using his art to make the reader feel a character’s heartbreak. “The Goon” is such an expressive comic book and that’s a huge draw for the series.
“The Goon” has left it’s mark on Dark Horse in a big way because it opened the doors for lots of other creator owned series at the publisher. Dark Horse is known for pushing boundaries and publishing titles that don’t really fit in with what you’d see at Marvel or DC. Powell’s series (along with older series like “Hellboy,” “Concrete” and “Sin City”) paved the way for Dark Horse to take chances on recent books books like “Lady Killer” and even a quirkier series like “Zodiac Starforce.” A series like “The Goon” proved that readers were looking for something different, and it’s part of why it’s stood the test of time and it helped make Dark Horse the publisher that it is today.
