Comic Books
THE GOON #39
In order to try to compete with the gimmicks and rehashes of the Big Two superhero companies, Eric Powell has decided to completely sell out and relaunch the Goon in this super-epic, brand new, first-ever first edition of the 39th issue of The Goon! Not only do the Goon and Franky get new costumes, but we also discover there are different-colored versions of the Goon! Green Goon! Red Goon! Blue Goon! Purple Goon! WHAT A PLOT!
Writer: Eric PowellArtist: Eric Powell
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Eric Powell
Price: $3.50
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 3.9%
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| User | Added | Spoilers | |
| akamuu | 04/24/12 | No | Read Review |
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I don’t buy this book, but this cover makes me want to!
Love it!
Ya It really is a great series! You sit and read it, and sometimes you can’t stop laughing.
This joke has ran it’s course. He needs knew material.
Yea. This has been a topic in The Goon since…help me a little. What issues actually?
His contempt for everything is getting old for me.
That’s the best cover I’ve ever seen. Nothing else even comes close. So much respect for Eric Powell.
Ehh, this read like a bad mad magazine strip. Nothing clever aside from one or two franky lines, and the editorial in the back became out of date before the issue even came out. Fatale. Manhattan Projects. Saga. Hopefully a return to Goon goodness next issue.
Yeah, when I read it, I couldn’t help buy think of all the cool new Image books. I’m sure comics companies would be fine with making westerns or romance or fantasy or mystery, but if they don’t sell, they are just wasting their time and losing money. So the editorial was really just saying “Hey dummies quite buying superhero books” which rubbed me the wrong way. I like superheroes, and a bunch of non-super hero stuff. Why do we have to hate one to like the other?
It’s amazing how people read what Eric Powell wrote in the back and see it as him saying you need to hate superheroes in order to like creator-owned comics. Why are you so quick to find something to be offended by?
As for recent Image titles, yes they’ve been on fire, but guess how many comics from Image made the top 50 list of best selling comics in March this year? One. And it was Saga #1. The Walking Dead didn’t even make the top 50. Seriously, how many superhero comics do you need? Fatale #3 made it to number 89 on the list and the very first issue of Manhattan Projects didn’t even make the top 100. These are meant to be the huge indie books by big name creators. Indie books by lesser known creators, even when on Image, are lucky to make the top 300. That’s ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong, Saga et al have been, as to be expected, amazingly successful for a creator owned book. But the whole problem is that I had to say “for a creator owned book” or even “for a non-superhero book”. Can you imagine that in any other medium?
A big point that Eric made (I cant remember if it was in this issue or on his blog) is that DC and Marvel keep selling superhero comics to superhero comic fans over and over and over, and this isn’t particularly successful in attracting new comic readers. When people find out I read comics they immediately think I read spider-man or something, when the truth is i’d rather shit in my hands and clap, than read spider-man. There is a whole world out there of people who, while not interested in superheroes, love good stories, love reading, yet have absolutely no clue at all that this exists in the comic form. To them, comics are either for kids, or for weird comic book shop guy obsessed with superheroes. For anyone who is passionate about not just comics but great stories in general, that’s a really sad situation.
No one, not me, not Eric Powell is suggesting superhero comics should die, rather, that there should be much more variety in the top selling 100 books each month. When every single comic in (at least) the top 30 each month is a superhero book it’s just… alienating to any new readers. Even if joe public was to stumble upon a comic shelf, all they would see is capes.
Why do amazing books like Rachel Rising and Locke & Key sell less than some shitty superhero comic that everyone is complaining about but still buying?
Basically, Eric is saying he thinks things need to change .
I agree with you to some extent, but it’s easier said than done.
Comics companies are having a hard enough time holding onto old readers, much less bringing in new ones. You think the industry doesn’t want a Harry Potter breakout hit bringing new readers flooding into comic shops? They would love it. But how do you do it? How do you get non-comics readers reading comics, superhero or non-superhero? There are a lot of non-superhero books out there, but they don’t sell as well.
I love comics and want them to thrive, and would welcome more diversity. But it seems like blaming superhero books in an industry that needs all the help it can get (pretty much any print industry these days 🙁 ) is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
And maybe a book like Rachel Rising isn’t for everybody. I flipped through it and didn’t see what was so great about it. Maybe your shitty superhero comics is a book I enjoy.
The top 50 is not the barometer of good comics, nor even succesful comics in a contracting market. Walking Dead is (like many others) a trade hit. and a massive hit at that. and on the subject of diversifying content, DC did just that with books like Swamp Thing, a title that can only be described as a horror book.
also in my view the march top 100 had 12 titles i would call non-superhero books:
Swamp Thing, The Walking Dead, Animal Man Fatale (horror)
Saga, Star Wars dawn of the jedi (science fiction)
Fairest, Magic the Gathering, Demon Knights (fantasy)
All-star Western (western)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (‘other’)
(i’ve left off books that i felt were borderline like Journey into Mystery & Legion of Superheroes)
with a lot more non-superhero titles directly below the top 100 (Manhattan Projects, Thief of Thieves, Conan, etc)
this is a vast improvment over just a year ago. the last thing the comic reading community needs is another big dumb rift. i like superhero books. i also like non-supers books. as do a great many readers of this site. if you like a particular book, then evangelise it. share it on facebook & twitter, comment on message boards, write reviews about it and pass the book on to your friends.hell, start a podcast. be positive about what you love, not negative about what you hate. i write mini reviews of my week’s worth of books on FB (this week including Goon & BPRD), where only a handful of my friends read comics.
and the opinions of ignorant people should not bother you, if you don’t respect the’re opinion, then that opinion is meaningless. superhero does not equel bad storytelling, again that’s just ignorant. things need to change, and they are changing, and being constructive, pro-active & positive is the way to help.