‘The Goon: Death’s Greedy Comeuppance’ – Eric Powell (Dark Horse)

It’s my week off, with my daughters, this week which means that there are a number of half-finished books lying about the flat and precisely one comic book that has actually been finished. This has not been the best week for reading, what with one thing and another… ;o) I’ll be honest, I’ll probably end up recycling a couple of old reviews, from elsewhere, before the week is done. For now though, lets circle back to that comic book I mentioned…

My ‘Goon Re-Read’ has pretty much saved me this last week in particular, it’s been about the only thing I could concentrate on and it always comes up with the goods. You can’t ask for a lot more than that. With that said then, lets take a little wander down to Lonely Street and see what’s what…

After surviving the return of Labrazio, Goon wants nothing more than to settle onto a barstool with some whiskey, but a succession of cake-mad hobo gods, lascivious gorillas and black-clad assassins other ideas. Worse yet, Goon must endure his friends throwing him a birthday party. And somewhere on Lonely Street, a resurgent Zombie Priest plots his next attack…

Also collected in this volume is the first solo adventure of one of Goon’s allies, the immortal Buzzard, who wanders a desolate land after his own confrontation with the Priest.

All men toil and suffer, only to face Death’s Greedy Comeuppance…

Usually, a finale is exactly what it says it is. The story ends with a bang and nothing else to follow otherwise… It’s not really a finale, is it? Real life isn’t that simple though, the Goon’s life certainly isn’t. The big question we’re faced with then is, what happens next when the dust settles and the blood in the street dries up?

Powell answers answers this with his trademark mixture of irreverent humour and searing honesty as to what his main character is going through. I’ll be honest, the humour is a little hit and miss here (the Rape Gorilla just wasn’t funny but the Little Unholy Bastards never fail to make me chuckle) but how Powell presents Goon’s inner turmoil is just superb; particularly in Chapter 2 where there is no dialogue at all, just pictures in the speech bubbles. You’re left in no doubt as to how Goon is coping; he isn’t coping at all but all he do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and look out for his friends. The fact that Goon does this at all is real testament to the power in him and, despite his protestations, the fact that he is a good man after all.

We’re not just about the Goon here though, Buzzard also has to face the ‘What Next?’ question, after the events of ‘Calamity of Conscience’, and his answer takes him on a journey far stranger and weirder than Goon’s, which is really saying something when you think about it. This is Buzzard we’re talking about here so it’s no surprise then that this is about the journey rather than any destination. It’s no spoiler to say that it’s fairly certain that there will never be an ultimate destination so what’s a Buzzard to do in the meantime? The answer is simple, look after those that can’t look after themselves and make sure that your pistols are always loaded. Buzzard’s story is a familiar one then but set against some of Powell’s more outlandish, and downright haunting, artwork. If the Goon’s Burg was on the borderlands between reality and other realms, Buzzard’s journey takes us as far from reality as we’re likely to get, and it is just a sheer wonder to behold. The kind of stuff that sticks in your head and pops out in your dreams…

‘Death’s Greedy Comeuppance’ is another excellent instalment in the life of my favourite anti-hero, and his strangest ally. One of those books where you find yourself just sitting with one of the pages (any of them) and just being awe of Powell’s ability as a storyteller. He’s that good.