About Heroes

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer/Artist/Creator: Eric Powell

Eric Powell’s The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker is the perfect straight to hardcover example of how to hit the nail on the head. This book is the best example I have found in the last few years to both please long time diehard fans and at the same time entice potential readers into giving the Goon it’s much deserved shot.

Powell started the Goon back in 1999 as both the writer and artist on the bi-monthly book. And in that time the rough around the edges muscle known only as Goon has sprung on the Eisner awards with three wins “Best Single Issue,” “Best Continuing Story,” and “Best Humor Publication.” Through five volumes of trade paperbacks readers have followed Goon, his best pal and right hand man Franky, and a slew of oddball characters as they thwart evil in all its alien-squid-goblin-werewolf-vampire-hag-zombie forms. Along the way readers have been treated to the truth about the Goon’s childhood and how he came to work for the crime boss Labrazio.

Shadows and barflies at Norton’s pub, the local watering hole in the Goon’s “berg,” first whispered the word “Chinatown” to explain away the reason for the Goon’s bad attitude. But none of the events that took place in Chinatown were revealed. Slowly images started to haunt the Goon, and Powell gradually introduced the woman known only as “Bella” into the fold. Bella through the bi-monthly comic appeared to be the Goon’s one long lost love, but her connection to Chinatown, and the way in which the Goon got his disfigured face remained unexplained…

Until Powell announced that all would be revealed in the straight to hardcover edition of the last remaining origins of the Goon. To reveal all the details of the Goon’s past would be as shameful as revealing the Nameless Priest’s name, or the true boss of the Labrazio name, suffice it to say this book delivers everything a fan could hope for. Powell has numerous art styles that he usually intertwines on a regular bases in his bi-monthly series, but for this book he uses colored wash for almost everything. The book is actually made up of two stories, one taking place in the present “The Mystery of Mr. Wicker,” and the other taking place in the past “Chinatown.” The single colored washes for the Chinatown story give the reader a perfect sense of the Casablanca/Maltese Falcon time period of cinema with the blurred/drugged scenes in black and white. The subtle colored scenes of the present story offer a simple change without being too contrasting.

The artwork might strike some as simplistic but I read this book in one sitting only because it was so light on dialogue I got to sit back and gaze at the panels that told the story without the need of a narrator. The panels are timed and flow so well that there may only be 3 to 5 to a page but they describe an entire chain of events. When I look closely at the page I don’t see black and white I easily see 50 different shades of gray and done with such clarity it can only be natural instinctive talent on Powell’s part.

Powell’s writing is superb in this book, and I really think he has a shot at another award with this book. The relationships focused on between the Goon and Bella or the Goon and Mirna are undeniably true to real life, which is a step in a new direction for the Goon, but the first page does warn, “This ain’t funny,” and all too often fans respond negatively when they read something out of their realm of the norm but I can’t see how this book could be chastised for what it attempts, and surely succeeds at. As fans finally get to see the Goon and Bella’s relationship we know it ends badly by the Goon’s current state, but you really have no idea until you read Chinatown and understand how bad it can really be, I mean it is really really bad, really, and Powell delivers it without missing a beat. I really wish that when a girl just up and walked out on me for no damn reason I could go down to the street and bash a street peddlers head in, guys and girls, we’ve all felt like that before. The other key relationship is between the Goon and Franky which we get to see tested in both the past and present story lines and yet Franky never fails to be there for the Goon when he needs him like only a true best friend can, and when Bella leaves the Goon, we all know who will be there for his pal saying “Dames come and go, but pals stick!” Or later when Mr. Wicker seems to have taken everything the Goon once had who is there to say “Knife to the eye!”

Needless to say The Goon takes one hell of a stomping in this story, and its to be expected since the only scar he seems to have on his body is the one on his face that is of course physical but is only a scratch compared to the emotional scar. As each page for me was awesome after awesome, the best scene is probably the end, because it proves my point that this is an award worthy piece of work. At the end of the present line story the Goon goes to the bar, in the background is a ton of locals, who also seem like ghosts on the wallpaper. And the Goon just sits down with his beer and stares at the two people he misses the most in life, with Franky by his side. The last page shows how timeless these stories are. The mystery of Mr. Wicker doesn’t disrupt continuity or change the Goon’s life forever, and Chinatown fills in a gap. The last page explains exactly why this story came out separate from the bi-monthly series, it doesn’t have a single place in the Goon’s timeline it exists outside of it. Chinatown is a story that weighs on the Goon’s mind throughout every issue of the series so far. This book isn’t just a must-read, to not have read this book is a disservice to yourself, as you’ll be missing one of the best stories to come out this year.