Chats Should Be Good - Eric Powell
I think the Goon is a really great comic book. Eric Powell's stories generally have at least one or two laugh out loud moments an issue, and plenty of other really good jokes. At the same time, he manages to have a cool style of art. His recent covers for the Marvel Monsters Month were truly amazing. His Swamp Thing covers are so good that the story inside just doesn't deserve covers THAT good! So I am quite pleased to note that he will be chatting with fans this Tuesday, December 6th, at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern at Comic Book Resources.
You have have to register at CBR to chat, but, whatever, it's just a free registration. Click here to register.
Once you have registered, just click on "Comic Chat," then vbchat room change, and enter the room marked "Eric Powell Chat."
Hope to see you there!
You have have to register at CBR to chat, but, whatever, it's just a free registration. Click here to register.
Once you have registered, just click on "Comic Chat," then vbchat room change, and enter the room marked "Eric Powell Chat."
Hope to see you there!
posted by Brian Cronin at 12/03/2005 04:50:00 AM
4 Comments:
I agree that Eric Powell's art is a great breath of fresh air on the comics scene. His artwork is inspired and he always manages to mix a good cartoonish and realistic look for his characters. The recent Marvel Monster covers were fantastic eye-cathing gems.
That being said, I think the Goon is not a very good comic. I read it up to issue 12 but ultimately I ended up dropping the title. Some of the characters were original, the artwork (again) was good and the plotlines were wacky and original enough to entertain to a certain degree. What then, you may ask, was the problem? To me, the humor and much of the dialogue was very sophmoric. I kept thinking that I was reading something by a kid in a college fraternity who still giggles at the word penis and who thinks falling asleep in his own vomit is hysterical. I picture Mr. Powell slapping his knee, crying at how clever and funny his book is to readers. Humor is something that should come out naturally through the story and I felt it was very forced in this book. Sure, there were moments where I snickered, but I couldn't embrace the overall juvenille humor I feel slightly embarassed when I read writings from grown men that try to appeal to the "baseball shot to the groin", primitive type of laugh. I never felt attached to any of the characters and couldn't have cared less what happened to any of them. This is just my humble opinion and if The Goon brings joy to people's lives, then so be it. I'm curious if Mr. Powell is a 3 Stooges fan because the humor seemed to be a lot of the unfunny, "Why I ought ta..." moments from that show.
You should come by the chat, greyglobe.
Greyglobe, while your opinion of Powell's humor makes sense, for some of us that "why i oughtta" humor is great. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. I love The Goon's simplicity (both in the character of the Goon himself and the book overall). But yeh, it's all about taste when it comes to that. Although, I haven't found anyone yet that doesn't find his art fantastic.
By the by, I would describe Powell's humor as absurdist myself (which I absolutely LOVE).
But I get the "why I oughta" reference as well, but I think The Goon is a good deal more absurd than the Stooges, which tended to be pretty straightforward with their humor (I like the Stooges, too, though!).
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