Customer Reviews

The Goon: Rough Stuff (Goon (Unnumbered))

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This volume of the Goon isn't the Goon proper; it's the preceding issues released independently while Eric Powell was still small-time before he got picked up by Dark Horse.
Everyone, including Powell himself in the introduction to this book, will tell you it's not that great, that it isn't quite up to snuff, or that it just wasn't getting it right. I disagree. Maybe it's just that Powell himself admitted it wasn't his best work, and the hordes of loyal fanboys followed obediently in slandering the work in this book. Actually, the book isn't half bad. The art is different, but still great. Although Powell says it was still rough and amateurish, you'd be hard pressed to find better art in the indie community. The art is great, actually more detailed than the art on display in the Goon series proper, it just doesn't have as much of the cartoony stylization.
There's really nothing wrong with this book. It still has a lot of the charisma of the Goon, only a bit less polish. It's well worth $12, and anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.

Perhaps worth picking up for novelty value alone, The Goon is a comic about the hugely overmuscled, eponymous mob enforcer, who is a one-man last line of defense against the new, undead organized crime threatening some nameless dive of a town in some nameless, misbegotten part of the world. The Goon has to bludgeon back the forces of zombiism, vampirism (of a decidely effeminate sort), giant fish monsters and corrupt G-Men, and does it all with decidely simple-minded mayhem.

The book itself is drawn to reflect, and obviously tips its hat to, a sort of idealized Great Depression style of storytelling. Times are tough, men are men (except when they're rotting corpses), and you'd rather side with the mobsters than the cops, because you can trust the mob.

Some interesting humor here, gobs of violence, and a bit of nice character development and storytelling at the end. It's not my favorite comic ever, but definitely a nice introduction to a series I might want to explore further down the road.

As with most writers, the first stuff is not necessarily the best, and please, take this into consideration when reading The Goon. This book was first published prior to Dark Horse picking it up.

When it was finally picked up DH went back, and colorized and touched up, and this is the product of that. This is what started it all, and I insist you continue to read this series if you haven't.

Powell, I feel, is one of the best writers on the market today, and this book is a testament to what someone who is dteremined and has a dream can do.

I think people, and Powell, unfairly attack this book. Maybe I'm weird, but i actually rather prefer the the art found in Rough Stuff to the art from further down the road. It's more appropriate to the series. It has a serious EC Tales From the Crypt feel to it. It's a great deal more detailed than the rather simple work found in later volumes. Don't get me wrong, i love the Goon, and Powell is an amazing artist. Chinatown in particular has wonderful art work, but there's something about these gritty, fine lined drawings that i just love. I wish the series still looked this way.

As far as content - it's the logical starting point for those just jumping into The Goon. This isn't complex storytelling by any means, so you won't be lost without it, but some of these things get referenced later on and it seems only right to read this first. If you like the Goon, you'll like this. It's that simple. It isn't so far removed from the rest of the series to feel out of place, awkward or not worth reading.

If you aren't offended by senseless violence, this may be one of the funniest books you'll ever read. This is Eric Powell's earliest work on his signature masterpiece, The Goon, and I can hardly recommend it highly enough. The violence is far too cartoonish (and funny) to be taken too seriously -- imagine a real-life Popeye unleashed in the classic EC Tales of the Crypt universe, and you get some inkling of what I'm talking about. Popeye. Forget Olive Oyl and all that nonsense -- I'm talking about the powerhouse swings and other mayhem he unleashed when high on a can of spinach. And the Goon's little sidekick, Frankie, can best be compared to a human chihuahua on crack cocaine. Or crystal meth. With hands and explosive weaponry. We're talkin' zombies, vampires, and giant spiders who run the local bar. Oh, and the spider is a *good* guy.

Do yourself a favor and buy it. Even I love it, and I'm a forty-six year old woman. But then again, I'm a disappointment to my mother, and hang around comic book stores too much.

I picked up Nothin' But Misery and My Murderous Childhood as my intro to the Goon not long ago and bought pretty much everything else immediately after.
This is the rougher cuts, the older independent stuff, true enough, but is well worth a look if you have check out any of the other Goon books or if you are just starting to examine this muscle bound mobster with (sorta) a heart of gold.
The art is still good here and I love the twisted way Eric Powell's mind works. The characters are hilarious and though this all has a Noirish feel to it the world the Goon inhabits is pretty far afield of anything you might expect from 30s and 40s.