3 out of 5

Right, this is when we really start to enter shaky ground.  It’s not that The Goon becomes a bad comic around this time – I’m still gettin’ me some entertainments and chuckles, and the art is solid, especially on #34, which is a classic Powell doing-it-all ish – but the inspired nature of it has dissipated.  I feel like you know what you’re going to get in a Goon book now, whether it’s a sillier or serious.  And to be fair, yes, the writing was a lot more spotty during ‘Goon Year,’ when Powell had to struggle to tie a lot of plotlines together, versus the next couple years of books which find him doing one-off gags or stories for the most part.  Just, again, the magic ain’t so impressive anymore.  Maybe we’re used to the tricks, but I also think the showmanship felt more eager the first time around, hence it still reading fresh when you revisit the start of this series.

…Digressing.

Book 34 has a cover of Goon saying “Sparkly vampires?  Are you —- —–‘ me?!” and starts off with some pretty boys turning into vampires and then getting beaten up by Goon.  But Powell sets himself straight and says it’d be too easy to take the piss outta’ Twilight, so instead, he’ll take the piss outta’ tweens.  …Which he ends up not really getting around to doing so until the last couple of pages, and it’s still pretty easy overall, but we’re still free-wheelin’ after Goon Year, so it’s a breezy book o’ chuckles and that’s okay.

35 is a tipping point: guest writer.  It’s actually a pretty hilarious issue about a mysterious circus full of crazies scripted by Evan Dorkin, but it’s still pretty interesting to see this creator-owned series suddenly jump into cameo territory.

A trend which continues in a different fashion in book 36, into which Powell writes one of the Burlesque performers with whom he’s become acquainted during the years he’s worked on the book.  Again, not an unfunny issue – said Burlesque performer lands in Goon-town, woos Franky, causes hi-jinx – but it really, really starts to feel like it’s just playing to its crowd, now.

And completing this totally unconnected group of issues that Dark Horse, for whatever reason, decided to bundle as a trade (ish #38 could’ve been in here, but I suppose the slow publishing schedule makes them want to churn out the collections more quickly) is a serious issue about Sweat Shop labor back in the day, based on a true story that caught Powell’s eye… and a story into which he pointlessly inserts Goon and Franky and a possessed ape.  That might sound funny but it’s not; they really don’t belong, and you can tell it’s just tossed in there to justify this issue being called a Goon book.  I know there would’ve been no cause to do this as a separate one-shot (though people would’ve bought it due to Powell’s name being on it), but it still was rather questionable doing the tale as presented.  Either synchronize it more with the Goon world or work in the themes over a couple of issues.