The Goon beats up people who sparkle and use "jazz hands," then he helps out some poor orphans by beating up some creepy looking beast, while drunk.
The Good
By far, one of my favorite intros to any comic I've ever read. The Goon beats up a bunch of glittery vampires. Simple as that, and it was awesome. Not only that, the scene, along with the rest of the issue was incredibly funny. I did have a good "laugh out loud" moment when one of the vampires shouted, "sparkle!" I know there's lot of parodies of Twilight going around, but this one was actually funny, and it only lasted five pages.
The main story itself, while not as hilarious (but still funny), was a ton of fun. I will always approve of heroes getting drunk and saving the day. The character design for the creepy beast thing was really interesting. It's lanky and sharp. I think that's the best way to describe it. It's some original, and creepy stuff.
This was my first time reading The Goon, a book I've been telling myself for a couple years that I need to read. The first thing you notice in this book is the art style. It's very distinct and eye catching. The art, as well as the writing, are by Eric Powell, and this book seems to be very kind to new readers. I'm not sure if each issue is an individual story or I caught the book at the beginning of an arc, but I never was confused and everything I wanted to know about the Goon I got from the dialogue and his actions... and drinking.
The Bad
I think every single Goon fan knows what I'm going to write here... This book takes a heck of a long time to come out. Issue 33 came out a year and a half ago. The book was coming out every two months, pretty regularly, but it took a while for this one to come out, which is a huge bummer because this book is so darn good.
The Verdict
My first venture into the world of The Goon was awesome. The art is amazing, the writing is hilarious, and the only real problem I have with the book is that it doesn't come out on a regular basis. Maybe it's just too awesome to be released on a monthly basis. Yeah, that makes sense. Obviously, I highly recommend this book to anyone. It's a ton of fun and you really don't need to know anything about the series before reading. Sure, you may not know some of the characters, but you'll forget about that by the end of page one.