Unlike other titles on Image’s run this year, “Goners” debuts in October with revelry and chilling YA fun. Distinguishing itself from the rest of Image’s world-ending pack, “Goners” offers a lightness to the post-apocalyptic genre that’s been missing for some time. Join us as we take a spoiler-free advance look at the upcoming book.
Written by Jacob Semahn
Illustrated by Jorge CoronaGoners is a story of a world where one, yes, ONE, family for all of time has been left to the duties of protecting the human realms from the things that creep beneath the spine-tingling surface of our world since the beginning of time. But now, the family is being killed off one by one. We are left with the youngest pair of Latimers running through and from the wreckage
Most Image titles out right now (“Low,” “The Wicked + The Divine,” “Supreme: Blue Rose,” “The Walking Dead”, etc.) are trending towards a story in which the world is drastically falling apart being ripped from our character’s hands, or a story that is ripping their hands off literally. The switch to a tale in which the main focus is a small family running away from bloodthirsty demons, avenging ghouls and possible werewolf beasts is a welcomed turn. “Goners” is a macabre fairy-tale.
“Goners” #1 roars into their decaying world with no pause or long, winding setup to invite you into their troubles. Its setup bursts through the opening pages with non-stop action. Rain pounds, blood pours, and the lives of all the Latimers are lost. While I admit that the sudden jump to jump from panel to glass crashing panel (leading us country to country to see the targeted Latimers being killed off by supernatural forces) felt disorienting at first, but its brazenness is impressive.
Semahn’s writing sweeps the reader into its unfolding action, without giving us too much time to start questioning the setup — which is good, considering the story’s first panel starts at “the beginning of time” before quickly throwing us into upheaval. The only downside to Semahn’s running start is that at times we are left missing the Latimers characters. We are left clinging to the panels, wondering more about who the young Latimers are, as we are faced to watch them suffer and run away. I do not doubt that this vital information will be revealed, but it does make the blood-soaked walls and corpses come across more as scenic details to a chilling setting than a plot twist and turn bent on having us connect deeper to the characters involved.
“Goners” #2 slightly steers us closer to the hearts of its main characters. We are graced with some prime, insightful flashbacks and magic-tricks to sharpen the reader’s sense of what kind of family we are dealing with, who the parents were to their children, and how they used to live. We find pieces of what we should miss about them, but are currently still searching the panels for clues (perhaps hidden in golden necklaces; perhaps this is a story of hints too) to what we need to know of them. But like “Goners” #1, its premise hinges on pushing the reader into his sound-effect heavy, copse-lined walls introduction.
Jorge Corona’s illustrations are playful and whimsical, creating a chilling and joyful balance between thriller and mystery (a balance that is no doubt kept in check by Gabriel Cassata’s bright colored palette unfolding between bites of action and intrigue). There’s an unexpected warmth to these faces juxtaposed with heavily angled features that brings a sense of middle-class suburban “normalcy” to the terror. The choices on Cassata and Corona’s parts to make the faces and people appear cartoonish with a slight edge and bent to their frames adds an extra layer of grotesqueness to the story as the characters look almost too real and almost too playful in a world that is being ripped to shred and grated through the teeth of beasts.
While I hope that the later issues do provide more of a background to this “beginning of time” family of protectors, it is not a poor start. If anything, it is a loud, and engaging start to a tale, raising an important question: how can families stick together when and if they are really the only family that’s ever kept the rest of the world together and therefore the only people capable of fixing our hellbent world? It’s one that has me dying to know how the creators will tackle it its upcoming issues.
Final Rating: 6.5 – a fun start on a post-apocalyptic tale that teases us more than it tells. “Goners” #1 debuts October 22nd.
