The Goon, Volume 8: Those That Is Damned

The Goon #8

by Eric Powell (Writer / Artist), Dave Stewart (Colorist), Fillbach Brothers (Writer / Artist)

The town on the edge of Horse-Eater's Wood is permeated by all manner of dark things - hatred, fear, unhappiness, demons, and the undead (to name a few) - brought on by a curse that has festered within the forest for many years. The Goon himself was drawn by the power of the curse, but his soul is not consumed by this bleak place, and he discovers that he is the only hope for his town. Goon's greatest foe, the dead mobster Labrazio, mounts his assault from a macabre burlesque house, using the Zombie Priest and his demonic kitty to put on the squeeze. It's up to the Goon, Franky, and all their pals to fight for the life their town deserves!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy, Comedy

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2005

About the author

Eric Powell has contributed work on such comics titles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Hellboy: Weird Tales, Star Wars Tales, The Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, The Avengers, The Hood, MAD Magazine, Devil Dinosaur, Swamp Thing, the Avengers, She-Hulk, the Simpsons, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and Action Comics.

Although eking out a meager living in the comics field since 1995, Eric didn't find true success until he launched his critically acclaimed dark comedy series The Goon. The Goon was subsequently picked up by Dark Horse Comics and boasts a diehard cult following.

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Goon and his crew doing what they do!

[Jonathan Schildbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because Volume 9 starts in the middle of the whole Labrazio-back-from-the-dead saga, and I couldn't quite remember what had happened or what the little baby-monsters had to do with it. The parts of this book that Powell wrote and illustrated are more of my favorite kind of work from him--the more somber and disturbing stuff. There's a sort of 'origin story' for Horse-Eater's Wood and why the town is cursed, and then the first parts of the Labrazio resurrection story. A big portion of the book, though, is dedicated to guest stories involving The Goon. And while it's kind of fun to see other artists' takes on the characters, the stories are basically throwaways.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh no! The Mudd Brothers! Oh no! Merle! The first half of this volume is kind of bonkers with revelations, the second half? Full of bullshit, but it was fun bullshit!

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short arc that gets padded out with a bunch of guest stories (that I wasn't very interested in).

Labrazio has returned from the dead and is battling Goon. Mr Wicker has also made a return from his Chinatown days and its unclear who's inside the monster. We learn a bit more about Buzzard and how the Lonely Street curse began.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Goon is a pretty big deal these days, and with good reason. The first four or five Goon collections are aces. But starting with Chinatown and moving forward, my interest in the series has waned pretty sharply.

I missed a volume in-between Chinatown and this one, but the storyline is pretty easy to pick up. The problem is, while everyone's tragic backstories work pretty well when they're parceled out amidst all the usual hoopla of a Goon comic, when they take center stage and start to become the ongoing storyline I start to lose interest. Plus, only about half this volume is actually by Eric Powell. The other half is various fillers and back-up stories by other writers and artists. Some of them are pretty good, but mostly they're just forgettable, and they make the book feel awfully slight.

That said, there are some good points in the main story, and the art is fantastic as always. Powell is at the top of the heap of comic artists, and his stuff never fails to look great. I'm especially fond of the old lobby card-style spread that they did for the title page.

This is really probably better than a two-star book, but it loses points due to high expectations and how much of it feels like filler.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powell's part was good but short stories from other authors where just dull.I think it's been proven by now that Goon is only good when done by Powell himself.

Powell's part(continuation of Labrazio storyline): 4 stars
Short stories: 2 stars

[Václav · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4,0 of 5 for this pretty action-packed Goon with some hosted short stories)
The Goon books are a collection of fours issues. FOUR. That's short. So the story is chopped like meat for goulash. I'm in binge-reading now, so this is not actually a problem, but if I would be "to date" reader that would annoy the hell out of me. But still, you got a cliffhanger every 80-100 pages. And this time is the lower number because of short stories of hosting artist. They're not that good his time, but I liked how they chained all except first ones to one story. That was cool and fun.
The main Powell's story is fun and mostly because it's that part of the "bigger story" packed with action. I still enjoy Powell's art, and I love his covers resembling old movie posters. But I feel I need a small break from Goon now to not lose the reader's appetite.

[Dax · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty great in the fact that we learn why so many evil things are attracted to Horse-Eater's Wood and the town. I also really appreciated the short stories in the back for their ability to uplift the mood of the readers; especially with how bleak everything has become. It was a much needed reprieve from the darkness of this tale.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half of this book continues the main Goon story with Labrazio returned somehow from the dead and waging war on Goon and co. with Mr Wicker and a host of former baddies Goon's tangled with in tow. The second half is made of short stories from other artists and writers about Goon and his world.

First half is excellent with Eric Powell's writing becoming as brilliant as his artwork. There's a wonderful, if tragic, story of how Horse-Eater's Woods came to be and the war for Lonely Street begins in earnest with the killing of one of Goon's buddies (albeit a call back from a few books ago) and Goon's retaliation. The story is ended quickly at the halfway point in this book and teases out the story for the next volume.

The short stories bring comedy back to the book after the flat out bloody seriousness of the main story. So here we have Goon fighting shaved gorillas, portals to Hell, and a multi-part story about Zombie Willy's stolen pecker. They're some fun little vignettes from artists like Bob Fingerman and John Arcudi.

All in all, a fine book for Goon fans that's fun and interesting to read.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for the main story; three stars for the filler stor(ies). Goon universe mythology is getting darker and more depressing each volume, but it totally draws me in. It makes more and more sense, and is like the best noir - a train wreck of inevitable sadness that you just can't stop watching.

I'm sad that Powell was so ga-ga about his heroes and fellow writers/illustrators that he'd let them soak up so much page count on stuff I could really care less about. Some of the writers don't have a clue what the "voices" are like; others do a passable job, but still aren't Powell.

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things are getting darker for Goon and his friends. Till now most problems he was able to solve by swinging of the fists, now some real bad ass enemies are appearing that will push him to the limit. Whole book is more gloomy than previous one, there is less humor and more sadness, but it works for me. And this is probably just setting for upcoming sh*tstorm...

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole town is cursed because of a dreadful event that happened long ago. The curse has brought all the powerful forces in town: the priest, twin shapeshifters, a wicker man, witches, even the Goon. The Goon considers leaving everything behind to try to find happiness somewhere else, but he can't leave his friends behind, even when one of them betrays him. He gets punished severely.

[Adam Šilhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tato kombinace vážného tématu prodaného velmi nevážně rozumně funguje. A to píši i přesto, že jsem měl hrozně rád toho čistě zábavného Goona.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff and a couple Goon stories written and drawn by people other than Powell included, but it seemed kind of strange to put them in the middle of a 3-part arch. Kind of distracting just when you want to find out what happens in the end.

[Hanussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goon si drží svůj temný tón a dělá to podle mě dost dobře. Atmosféra houstne a temné síly nabírají na síle. K hlavnímu příběhu jsou připojeny ještě krátké goonovské povídky od jiných autorů, které se vracejí k původní pošahanosti Goona a vcelku se vydařily.

[David Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main story is good enough - it's clever, it's mad, it's appropriately dark.

What killed the book for me were the "added stories" - really, that Shit should have never fone through an editor. Boring, trying too hard to do something they are not too able to do...bah, baaad.

[Walome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hlavní příběh mě bavil, i jsem se zasmál, ale závěrečné povídky jsou hloupý a ošklivě nakreslený :(

[David Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, c'mon: it's The Goon. If you don't love this series by now, you won't, and if you're trying to start here? Don't; go to the beginning.

[Dingle (Joker) McShimwad · Rating 4 out of 5]

rebecca sugar drew big titties in a guest comic in this one

[Szymon Dudziński · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another banger in the Goon series. The humour is top-notch as always

[Chris Lins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of book is guest spots from other artists and writers.
Kinda cute, but i want .y good old fashioned goon pls.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 2nd book of Labrazio's return remains very dark. The bad guys seem to be forming their own Legion of Doom against the Goon. This volume is a little smaller at 4 issues and then a bunch of backup stories by other creators. Some of them are fine but none of them are what I want to read. I want Powell all the time.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review is for 15 volumes binged over three days

I don't know how I missed this during it's initial run, but - small favors - now I got to enjoy it with no waiting.
For such a long run there is surprisingly little difference in quality, occasionally dipping to excellent from exceptional and dragging - as most tales do - when it moves away from the episodic and into an ongoing tale.

[Seb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some admirably nasty stuff in here but some of this can feel a little stakeless and repetitive. To be fair no one is supposed to read this much of the goon in such a compressed timeframe. Art still incredible too

[Jarlos]

while some books that start silly make a mistake in taking their own mythology too seriously, The Goon instead took a great book and made it brilliant in doing so. the story of the characters has become so rich and clever and brutally haunting, it rivals Hellboy in it's mystic history. Whe death of another enjoyable character and the first sense that there really is a cohesive and dangerous rogues gallery, the combination of vol. 7 and 8 made me realize The Goon should be ranked as one of the best comic book series ever.

[Uremawife Nowdave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish Powell was the sole writer for Goon. When he gets in his stride with a story arc his writing is dark, menacing and hilarious. If James Ellroy wrote L'il Abner while huffing ether it would be a lot like Goon. Unfortunately I feel that the other writers that fill this volume (and many of the previous collections) are actually a detriment to the overall quality. They read like what they are, padding. I understand how difficult a monthly deadline must be and the necessity to fill a comic, but I would happily see it drop to bimonthly if it meant shedding the dross.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing art, good story. The Will Eisner-inspired first issue giving more back story to The Buzzard is wonderful, as is the gruesome ending to the third issue. It's too bad there's only four issues in this volume--getting halfway through the book to see a slew of back-up stories was a letdown, but those stories are surprisingly fine, especially the connected stories at the end. They provide a lighthearted counter to the increasingly dour main story.

[The Ghost's Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Powell's "Goon" has become absolutely amazing.Since the "Chinatown" volume, the character is now fully developed and the mixture of humor, horror and pathos is pitch perfect.

The problem with this volume is the collection of stories from other comic writers who aren't able to combine all those elements as deftly as Powell has.

[Gabriel Wallis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Goon: Those That Is Damned was an entertaining graphic novel. The writing's great, the art's great, and the storyline is just fun to read. Looking forward to the next Goon graphic novel, The Goon: Calamity of Conscience. This graphic novel seemed like an intro into another storyline. The Goon declares war on Labrazio.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical great Goon--delves more into the history of Horse-Eaters Wood and more twists with Labrazio. Was not a fan of the other sections with various artists. Somehow, it doesn't translate as well in other hands.