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Hey everybody, I'm David Marcel and this is my comic book obsession!
today we're looking at one-and-a-half books.
we're looking at “the Goon”
volume 0 "rough stuff" and vol.1 "nothin' but misery".
Powell is pretty clear in his release notes of
rough stuff that the book is named so
for a reason, and he makes it pretty clear that he is only releasing it for
completions sake. and for cash.
Mustn’t forget the cash.
vol.1 isn't actually vol.1, but vol. 2.
The real vol. 1 is actually vol. 0.
and volume 0 is more of a proto-goon, with all the elements
we know and love mostly in place, but there are some changes in artwork,
and most notably in storytelling.
Vol. 0 is a lot more cartoony than later episodes are.
characters like
Mickey the Saw wouldn’t really happen in Later volumes.
Me, I like having this book in my Collection.
It's not the greatest that Powell has done for the goon yet, but it's
still a pretty awesome book.
also a lot of the story threads that
get picked up in Vol. 1 start in Vol. 0.
You understand why nobody talks about Labrazio, you understand who that weird
fish guy is that attacks the Goon and Frankie. all those things start in volume 0.
you don't necessarily need to read vol.0 to understand what's going on in
Vol. 1, but it helps.
So what is “The Goon”?
The Goon is a dark comedy series about an enforcer for the Labrazio mob
who, together with his buddy Franky, runs things in town, while waging a war
against the nameless priest, who showed up with a zombie army to take over the
city.
but Zombies aren’t the only weird
things running around in the city.
Werewolves, fishmen, cannibal gunslingers,
Ghosts, child-eating elves, psychic seals, there's a ton of weird stuff in these
books and it all fits together very very well.
You could say the Goon is like the love child of a James Cagney
Gangster movie, Lovecraftian literature and some Tex Avery shorts mixed with Chinatown.
it sounds a little weird, but it's a genius mix.
so let's get to:
I think some of the major changes you see between vol.0 and vol.1
where Powell went from self-publishing to being published by dark horse comics
is that in Volume one, he's got an editor.
things become clearer, everything feels a
little more streamlined, he's not on his own anymore, he's got somebody helping
him, maybe also putting some restrictions on him, and honestly, with some of his ideas
like say “baseball with babies” that's probably a good thing.
I mean he didn't go totally over-the-top, totally into a bad taste in volume 0, but
some of the stuff is very on the limit and I think things just works
a whole lot better as a whole in vol.1.
the whole story feels a lot more coherent.
now don't get me wrong, there's plenty of politically incorrect mayhem
continuing throughout the series, But it's more focused,
it's not just random stuff which just kind of happens, you can tell everything
has kinda got a purpose.
so if you're overly sensitive,
you should Proooobably steer clear of this.
on the other hand, if you like zany, violent, politically incorrect mayhem,
then this is the book for you!
It’s certainly the book for me!
I give it five stars!
it takes a ton of digs at pop culture and other comic books and at
itself, and that's very important, it's got that tongue-in-cheek humor.
Artwork: the artwork was perfectly fine
to begin with in my opinion in vol. 0,
and it's gotten a lot better in vol. 1 so I give the artwork five stars as well.
digital enjoyability: the usual a little bit of artifacting when
you zoom too much, but nothing that ruins the experience for you.
value for money: These volumes came out 2011 and
they're still going for eleven dollars.
which to me is very expensive.
Other older volumes are going for three dollars from other publishers,
I picked up vol.1 because I naively assumed Vol. 1 meant
this was the first volume in the series and that kind of spoiled vol. 0
for me, because I already knew all the twists that happened in that volume.
so it's not that RUINED it for me per se, but there weren't any surprises and
part of the fun of reading the Goon is finding out what happens, because nothing
is what it seems, so that was kind of a downer.
Also again, the price of eleven dollars per volume - there's this great collection
out now of the goon: the library edition.
it's in hardcover, it's about yay big, and you get four volumes-
vol.0 – vol. 3 for $29 on amazon,
so if you still read print books and you live in a region where shipping wouldn't
come to 50 bucks for a book, really consider getting the print version, it's
really worth it.
so value for money because of the high price and because the confusing numbering
I’m going to give it three stars.
so, there you have it, that's my review of the goon volume 0 and volume 1.
Please like and subscribe, leave your own Goon stories down in the comments below,
Did you like the books?
what was your first experience with them?
Also, be sure to share this video with your friends and check in next week!
I’m David Marcel, thanks for watching My comic book obsession!
See you around!