The Goon is a comic book series written and drawn by Eric Powell (with colors often by Dave Stewart, Eric or Eric's brother, Robin). The series mixes both a comical and violent atmosphere with a supernatural slant, which pit the titular character against undead creatures/zombies, ghosts, ghouls, mutants, skunk-apes with an unnatural hunger for pies, giant squids, mob/gang leaders, extra-dimensional aliens, mad scientists and robots.
Publication history
An early prototype of The Goon was first published in 1995, in a book called Best Cellars #1 from Out of the Cellar Comics. This prototype was called Monster Boy, and the story was written and illustrated by Eric Powell.
The Goon debuted in Avatar Illustrated (June 1998, Avatar Press) in a 1-page Preview, which is the true first cameo appearance of the character. Powell was unhappy with the quality of the Avatar Press comics after just 3 issues, so he stopped handing in new material and waited for his contract to expire. Once that happened, he was unable to find another publisher, so he moved into self-publishing in 2002 with Albatross Exploding Funny Books. These self-published issues caught the eye of Dark Horse Comics, which approached Powell by telling him that they didn't know why they passed on the book, and in 2003 publication of The Goon moved to Dark Horse.
The book also received a release that would never be reprinted in trade format, Satan's Sodomy Baby.
After Dark Horse Comics published issue #18, The Goon went on hiatus to allow Eric Powell to work on Chinatown, a graphic novel exploring the Goon's backstory, and which was released as Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker in 2007. The series returned with issue #19 on July 11, 2007.
A one-shot comic was released titled Dethklok vs. The Goon on July 22, 2009. Both Eric Powell and Brendon Small co-wrote the comic.
Another one-shot comic was released titled "When Freaks Collide" in July 2011. It was a collaboration between the Criminal Macabre comic series and The Goon by Steve Niles, Christopher Mitten, and Eric Powell.
In 2019 Eric Powell's Albatross Funnybooks began publishing a new ongoing Goon series.