Review: The Goon-One For The Road- A mildly amusing diversion

Writer: Eric Powell
Artist: Eric Powell
Publisher: Dark Horse
Released: 25th June 2014


There’s not a lot you can say about this one really. It’s on my pull-list, and it comes out very infrequently, but when it does eventually arrive I always get a bit of a giggle out of it.

The previous book, about a Spanish critter, was a lot funnier than this one, but this was okay. It was a one-shot about a sailor losing his friend on shore leave, worrying that he was going to get in trouble, and going from bar to bar with the Goon and his buddy Franky in an attempt to find his friend.

Whilst doing so they run into the usually assortment of wacky Eric Powell characters that you would expect them to run into. The funniest character being a large man eating World World 1 era German army Gorilla and his two handlers in a Red Baron type aeroplane. If that sounds pretty wacky, then it’s because it is pretty wacky. That’s what you get in a Goon book. However, there was something about this book that was a bit too safe, a bit too formulaic, a bit too Eric Powell going through the motions for me to get all that excited about it. It was okay, but he’s done a lot better.

There’s nothing here for me to get my teeth into as everything is set in a safe comedy past of old Frank Sinatra movies about World War 1. There’s no contemporary socio-political commentary, and nothing for the liberal thought Police to get their knickers in a twist about.

That’s a shame, because I love it when the feminist liberals expose themselves by calling for censorship on something that doesn’t conform to what they think is allowable in comedy. That’s the best comedy. Something of its time, taking a much-needed swipe at contemporary concerns and hypocrisies. You get none of that here, so even with the wackiest of characters and funniest of lines it’s not going to be a top-notch comedy book.

Don’t listen to other reviewers telling you this comedy is in any way rebellious, dark or twisted, because it isn’t. This is very safe comedy. This is thought Police approved comedy that the liberal elite’s are quite happy for you to consume.

Eric Powell is a decent artist, so I have no complaints about his over the top funny and grotesque depictions. Like most artists who write their own books, it’s perfect for the tone of the writing. However, this issue of The Goon reads like something he could knock out in his sleep. It’s not a bad book; it just seems a bit, well irrelevant really. It’s a decent distraction, but as I’ve previously mentioned, because it’s comedy set in the safe cinematic past it’s never going to be anything more than a silly little distraction, designed to make you giggle.

I understand that the Goon is not supposed to represent life in 2014, but it’s written in 2014, so there should be something here that shows the writer is at least aware of contemporary concerns and issues. There is nothing here to suggest that Eric Powell is aware or even cares about anything that is happening now.

This book could have been written in 1960. I know a lot of people will be okay with that, but not me. I don’t live in 1960. I live in 2014, and lots of things are going on. I want to see the world reflected in my comic books. I don’t care if I disagree with the writer’s point of view, but when he doesn’t even have one I find it difficult to engage with the comic/book/movie/music. The world outside your window exists. Call me strange, but why not reflect some of it in your writing?

Back to this particular book. I had a couple of giggles with it, but not as many as usual. It was okay, but I’m not kidding myself. I’m a big Eric Powell fan, and he was quite obviously going through the motions a bit here. Something about sailors and a bar crawl? Yeah, that will do. Rating: 7/10