4 out of 5

Not my favorite issue, but a successful tribute to artist Jack Davis.

Goon and Franky help a sailor track down one of his buddies to drag him back to the ship before they both get in trouble, and on the way we run into various pastiches of characters / bits from EC / Mad comics artist Jack Davis.  It’s cool that Powell did his own style instead of trying to mock Davis’, and though the Mad-esque celebrity cameos are pretty random, the Tales from the Crypt crones and haunted army vet are slipped in surprisingly well, and give you a smile when you realize what Eric’s doing.  And even the cameos purposefully percolate their randomness into a 2-page splash chase scene (being chased by a man-eating gorilla, of course).  The only things that don’t end up fitting as well are the Goon and Franky jokes; something has still been seemingly irreparably changed with the way Powell pursues punchlines.  The tributes work because they’re well-done, but the home grown humor falls a little flat.