Goodbye to the Goon?

The Goon: Once Upon a Hard Time #4

The Goon dispatches the monstrous Longfingers, but the Arab has brought his ultimate monster — a cruel woman and her jilted ghost lover, twisted by hate and guilt and anger and desire into a twisted horror too powerful to be fought. The Arab reveals that the Goon might’ve had a chance if he hadn’t murdered Kid Gargantuan — but it turns out that the Goon didn’t kill the Kid, and he’s come back to help in the fight. Can he make a difference? Can the Goon survive, and will he have a place on Lonely Street anymore?

Verdict: Thumbs up. This looks like it’s basically Eric Powell’s farewell — maybe not to the Goon and Franky, since a new series is teased with them — but to the mythology and background that’ve built up around the character over the past 17 or so years. If you’ve loved this series the way every sensible comics fan has loved this series, you’ll want to pick this one up.

Survivors’ Club #1

This is a pretty interesting concept — what happens to the people who survive the ends of horror movies? When you’re the sole survivor of an attack by a psycho killer or a vampire or a ghost, what’s the psychological cost that comes out of that experience? The story here kicks off as six survivors of horror events are called together to explore what terrible things happened to them, why their names are all on a mysterious list on the Internet, what’s the connection between them all — and why a seemingly light-hearted platformer video game offers up nightmarish visions of past horrors for all of them.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Like I said, a very interesting concept — that alone is able to carry most of the first issue all by itself. I expect we’ll learn more about the characters and the terrors they faced over the next half-dozen issues — but I don’t know if I’ll stick with it. I like this first issue, but horror of this style doesn’t always seem to work well in monthly comics or with so many characters to have to sift through…