3 out of 5

As a standalone issue, ‘Satan’s Sodomy Baby’ – sanitized on the comic-shop cover as listed in the post title – is very okay.  The spectacle surrounding its spectacle is more amusing than the book itself, but it does also deserve note for serving as the marker of when The Goon transitioned into a different kind of book; ‘Sodomy’ is a wave goodbye to the nonsense of yore.

So supposedly this was meant to be book #18 in the ongoing series, when Powell was somehow contacted by a Margaret Snodgrass who planned some anti-Goon campaign (based, I guess, on solicitations featuring the book’s… subtitle?) to have the book banned from stores.  Snodgrass was Bible-thumpin’ a oppression-rhetoric-slingin’, and designed to be all things Goon fans would hate.  Because of course she was a concoction, from the same man who’d created a fake publisher – Dwight T. Albatross – for his self-published efforts, and Powell would later plainly state in the letter pages of the Goon ongoing that Snodgrass was all about getting some publicity for the book.  Whether or not he’d actually gotten any push-back from Dark Horse on the title I can’t say, but I can also personally attest that it worked… since the ‘WARNING’ cover is what made me pick it up.  More importantly, though, it was a very clear indication of the growth of Powell as entertainer (doing things for his audience instead of strictly for the book), heralding in the uncomfortable (to me) split of silly vs. serious that would start to happen from here on out.

The book itself is sort of what you’d expect and maybe a little bit more or less: a hillbilly gets ass-raped by Satan (not shown) and gives birth to a ‘cute’ demon baby with a gigantical uncircumcised cock (shown).  Powell runs some Benny Hill circles around things, with a lot more shit and blood involved, and then tosses in some extra two page gags about gay sex and boobies.  It’s all reeks of overkill – and isn’t as funny or offensive as perhaps it could be because of that – but I can’t really discredit the book for that because… what else could it have been, especially given the build-up.  Any since it’s done up in Powell’s professional water colors and pulpy charm and there are some giggles (“Red is right low on the chart of acceptable skin pigments!”), it’s by no means a throwaway.  But it’s just okay.

If you’re a reader of gross-out comix already,  ‘Satan’s Sodomy Baby’ will seem pretty tame.  But to those sticking more to the top shelves of their comics shop, with titles like Goon fulfilling the ‘fringe’ needs of their collection, I can imagine the purposefully offensive gags and art, here, maintained some of their intended shock.  In both cases, cute devil baby’s with enormous wieners are probably worth a smile.