The Goon Volume 5: Wicked Inclinations (The Goons) (v. 5)
There's a certain joy knowing that a cartoonist of great skill is  filling his or her own comic with the elements they love. Powell clearly loves  drawing big tough guys, zombies, ghouls, men in fedoras and various  combinations of the above. The fifth Goon trade paperback has all that and a  Hitchcock reference to boot, a treat for fans but still accessible to new  readers. The appeal is how Powell conveys that enthusiasm by drawing every  creature and monster so darned well. His style continues to evolve as the book  now has a lush painted look to it. This only adds to the well-rounded depth  that all of Powell's figures possess and to the spooky atmosphere that the  stories demand. The main story relates how the Goon's nemesis the Zombie Priest  is coming up with a new kind of menace for our hero and his town. That plot  often takes second place to the humor, which is so cheerfully rude and crude  that it's positively endearing. At this point all the characters of Norton's  Pub gel so well that their interactions are chummy enough to be entertaining no  matter what chaotic destruction might be headed their way.(Dec.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.