Adam Gallardo: Seems like a lot is happening with The Goon right now.
Eric Powell: Oh, yeah.
AG: My first question is, where did The Goon came from?
EP: It's kind of a hard question to answer. I just wanted to do something that had, you know, monsters in it and a big main character. A big thuggish guy, fighting monsters. And how it became a comedy, I really don't know. But I had a couple of different characters and things, incarnations of it, and then it eventually turned into The Goon. So it was kind of a long process.
AG: Where did it start, then, if it ended up as The Goon?
EP: Actually, the Rough Stuff trade (Eric's self-published collection of the original Avatar Press series) that I just published in January has a big sketch section in it that shows the character's development. It was, I don't know, it was really stupid. It was something like, you know, a monster kid who was living in the real world, or something like that, and then I dropped that idea and it became something else. Then I dropped that idea, and it became something else, you know, and it just kept going until I pretty much completely abandoned everything else other than having a big guy as the main character. And that's pretty much the only link between The Goon and these other concepts. The idea that I wanted the main character to be a big, ugly guy. With monsters in it.
AG: That's funny, when I interviewed Mike Mignola, he said his whole motivation, all his life, was all he wanted to do was draw monsters. And he tried to find a way to do that. So, I guess there is something to be said for doing exactly what you want to be doing.
EP: Yeah!
AG: So, are you using the fact that Dark Horse is starting to publish The Goon with the number one as a way to introduce people to The Goon or are you just--
EP: Yeah, yeah. The first issue is definitely an introduction issue. It sort of recaps some stuff that has happened and sort of mingles things that you didn't know happened with it. Yeah. But it's definitely a good jumping on point. I think it has a lot of information in it that will help people understand what's going on.
AG: So people won't have to necessarily go back and buy Rough Stuff to keep up?
EP: Nah. But that would be nice. They can go ahead and do that, too.
AG: Right [Laughs].
EP: They should be encouraged to do that.
AG: Looking at your art, I am guessing that you are influenced by old EC comics, is that right?
EP: Yeah, Jack Davis especially. I seem more and more to be influenced by him subconsciously, I think. I mean, not that I have a huge collection of Jack Davis material but this stuff that I do have, it just seems to subliminally be coming into the work that I'm doing.
AG: Do you look at other artists like Wally Wood, and, you know --?
EP: Yeah, definitely. Wally Wood is a big one. Wally Wood, Jack Davis, you know -- I'm drawing a blank now. But, yeah, definitely the older science fiction EC guys are influences. Science fiction/horror comics is definitely, definitely where I draw all this stuff from. Especially because I'm trying to do it, you know, a kind of a throw back in the story and the art style. It's, like, The Goon takes place in what could be the 1930's. I'm definitely trying to get a throw-back feel to it.
AG: Right. So beyond EC comics, what kind of comics influenced you, or what kind of comics were you reading when you were starting out?
EP: Well, I mean, like everybody, I guess you have to read a lot of superhero stuff. `Cause that's 90 percent of the stuff out there, but I like anything that is geared towards being fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. Although, I mean, I think Alan Moore is one of my favorite writers, and Watchman takes itself seriously as it should, you know? But things like Hellboy are what I like now. I like -- I love Tom Strong. I think that is a great comic. And I think it's done in a great way where you can get pretty much a story an issue, and it helps to know what Tom Strong is about, but you don't necessarily have to know that to get what is going on in each issue. And that is the way I try to do The Goon. Each issue is self-contained. So, even if you haven't read a Goon issue before, you at least get the gist of the story that I am telling in that issue.
AG: Right, right. OK. How about outside comics, like what kind of things do you read, or watch that make it into The Goon?
EP: I don't watch a lot of TV. Not because I'm like, you know, snobbish and loathe TV; it's just that I don't really have a chance to keep up with the shows that much. But I watch The Simpsons, and I like that Iron Chef show.
AG: [Laughs] I was going to say, I see a big Iron Chef influence.
EP: Yeah, big Iron Chef influence. You know, this sounds really weird, but my favorite TV shows are The Twilight Zone and Andy Griffith. That's kind of odd . . .
AG: You know, that makes a little sense because there almost is this sense that you are poking fun at some of this stuff that you might see in the Andy Griffith Show in The Goon.
EP: Yeah, yeah. I think the whole horror and comedy thing -- I mean, that goes hand in hand with the whole Twilight Zone and Andy Griffith. I mean, a horror show and a comedy show. When VCRs were the new big thing, my sister and I would -- we had this local Dairy Queen that was renting videos out of the back, so we would go down there and rent videos. And we always rented a funny movie and a scary movie. No matter what. That was what we rented. A comedy and a horror movie. And I think that's just sort of, you know, how I'm geared. I like comedies and horror, so it just sort of came together, I don't know why.
AG: So, what lead to your decision to stop self-publishing The Goon and start publishing with Dark Horse?
EP: Dark Horse asked. [Laughs]
AG: [Laughs] OK.
EP: I had tried almost everywhere, all the decent sized companies, to publish The Goon. Nobody really wanted it. I had a series (from Avatar), but it ended with three issues. Then I had to wait out my contract to do anything else with it. After that, I went and shopped it around and I didn't shop it around hard. I mentioned it to guys I knew from Sirius and Oni, and neither one of those seemed to show any interest, so I didn't really pursue it any further with those guys. I put together a pretty good package for Image, and they rejected it, and you guys (Dark Horse editor Scott Allie) actually tried to get it through a couple of times, but it didn't make it through costing, which I understand. And so it came down to, "Well, am I going to try this or am I just going to keep, you know, hacking away in the trenches and try to get on a book at Marvel or something?" And I just kind of got fed up with, you know: "Will you look at my portfolio?" So I said, "Screw it, I am just going to borrow some money and I am gonna do this." So I self-published it. It started coming out, and Scott Allie and Dave Land saw it, and saw what I was trying to do with it, and it was starting to get some attention at that point. I mean Wizard had done an article. And when Scott emailed me and said, "Hey, let's try and get this through again", I said "OK."
AG: So you're willing to take the trade off of having complete freedom on the book versus not having to do the --?
EP: Well, yeah. The benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. The only real benefit to self-publishing is having the complete control, and I can do whatever I want on the book. But then it's not like you guys are hindering me in any way, you know? I can still do pretty much whatever I want on the book. And I pretty much have final say over what happens in it. Self publishing, I can be reaching five thousand people or through Dark Horse, I can be reaching ten to fifteen thousand people.
AG: And now you can concentrate just on creating the book, as opposed to the day-to-day of publishing.
EP: Yeah, I can concentrate just on working on the book, I don't have to handle any of the printing or the production or the advertising, or anything. Which is a lot better.
AG: I wanted to ask you a little bit about the process you go through with The Goon. I have seen the material that we are going to be collecting in our first trade - which is the first four issues of The Goon plus the Christmas Special and it's all in color. It's already in color, right?
EP: Yeah.
AG: So, you do the book in color and then produce it grayscale. I was just wondering what the thinking was behind that?
EP: Yeah. I was just trying to look ahead a little bit and think, "Well, if this is successful, it would be nice to print it in color." And maybe get it out there to a bigger audience. My intention the entire time was to do the book in gray. Just for the cost and I didn't want people to pick it up and go, "Oh, its a black and white book!" I wanted to put the gray in there to give it an extra dimension so they wouldn't feel like they were getting ripped off. 'Cause I think that's what keeps a lot of the black and white books down a little bit is people feel like they are getting ripped off when they see just line art.
I don't believe that, but some people do, I guess. So my intention was to do it in gray and I thought, "Well, it could be a possibility that I could do it in color some time if it takes off." So I went ahead and colored everything CMYK and then just turned it into gray scale. So it actually paid off, because now that you guys are doing a trade, I don't have to go back and color everything.
AG: I wanted to ask you about -- I read this article that you wrote for New Observations about comics.
EP: Yeah!
AG: And it was like this serious issue about "comics as art" and you couldn't resist being a smart-ass.
EP: Yeah, I have a really hard time with pretentiousness, especially in comics -- pretentiousness in comics especially. I agree with everyone who says comics are an art form. And, you know, I have the utmost respect for comics, I love comics, but for people to get on a high horse and think they are hot shit because they do a comic book? It kind of pisses me off because -- think of the most famous person in comics and then go to the average person on the street and ask them who that person is. They won't know! So you are famous in a bubble.
AG: Right!
EP: So I really don't think that's any reason to get a big head. But, yeah, with that article I couldn't resist taking a little jab here and there.
AG: So I am guessing that this must be a pattern in your life. That you were probably the kind of kid who was always getting in trouble because he couldn't keep his mouth shut?
EP: No, I was the one getting everyone else in trouble! I would come up with these schemes and then talk everyone else into doing them. I was always the one that just sort of sat in the back quietly and got everyone else in trouble. I remember one of my biggest regrets in my childhood: I actually got a fight started between two of my best friends. Just completely for no reason, you know, I just egged it on. It still haunts me that I did that thing. [Laughs]
AG: Do you still - you're not still getting people in fights any more probably, but do you still do that in your life?
EP: No, no. I never did anything outgoing as far as, like, speaking out in class, but I always would do stuff just to irk people, you know? Like, stick it to them a little bit and they wouldn't know who it was, you know. Just to mess with them.
AG: I don't know how real this is, but I heard a rumor that the Cartoon Network might be approaching you about doing a --?
EP: Oh, no. No. No, the Cartoon Network hasn't approached me. A couple of people, supposedly Hollywood people, have approached me, but nothing has come of that.
AG: Is that something that you would be up for?
EP: Oh, yeah. I'd take Hollywood's money. I have no qualms about it. The more money they give me, the longer I can draw comic books. So, yeah.
AG: I saw recently that you're painting the covers to the Batman: Arkham Asylum series.
EP: Yeah.
AG: How did that gig come around?
EP: Again, everything has been going well just because I self-published. Mark Chiarello, the art director at DC saw some of The Goon comics and just emailed me out of the blue one day and said, "Hey - do you want to do a Batman cover?" And I was like, "Yeah!" I mean, I'm going to say no? So that's how that all came about.
AG: I wanted to ask you about getting work at more mainstream publishers, because you've inked Kyle Hotz on some titles for Marvel.
EP: Yeah, I've done a lot of inking for - well not a lot, but quite a few issues for Marvel, just inking. I'd send Marvel some stuff from time to time, but they don't seem real interested, so I'm not beating myself up trying to get work from them. Although it would be real cool to do Spiderman or The Hulk.
AG: But you do some inking, which is interesting, because you don't see a lot pencillers taking inking jobs. Do you think keeping yourself open to those kinds of jobs, has led to more work for you?
EP: It would depend on what it is. You know, the stuff from Marvel was a paycheck. At that point I didn't have anything else coming in, so I had to take something. But it was fun to ink Kyle. If someone I idolized came up and said, "Hey, can you ink me an issue of this?" I would do it just for the hell of it. But, you know, it's not something I am pursuing.
AG: Looking through all your work, from the Avatar stuff through your self published work, you see Kyle's name and Tom Sniegoski's name cropping up a lot. Are these guys that you've worked with for a lot of years?
EP: Yeah, I think I have known Kyle maybe four or five years, and I think I have known Tom about seven, at least. They are both buddies of mine. I actually did my first paid comic book work with Tom on a Razor Comic.
AG: What was that?
EP: A little four-issue story arc about werewolves or something.
AG: I didn't know you had done work before The Goon.
EP: Oh, yeah, I had done bits and pieces everywhere. I think I have done work now for every company except for Image.
AG: Really?
EP: I've done work for companies that aren't even around any more. I mean, just little bits and pieces of stuff that you wouldn't even remember. I know I did something for Antarctic at some point. I can't remember what it is, but I know I did something for them.
AG: Right.
EP: And I did I did some work for Crusade. I inked one creator-owned book that they were publishing, I painted a cover for it. And inked a few pages or something. And, you know, just stuff here and there and everywhere.
AG: But that seems to be pretty common for freelancers to do. They work everywhere and it's not stuff that's too memorable.
EP: Yeah, yeah. But that's definitely my case. None of that stuff is too memorable. That's probably for the best.
AG: Besides The Goon and the Batman covers coming out, is there anything else we can be looking for in the future?
EP: I did a Hellboy story for the Hellboy Weird Tales. I think its going to be in Issue #2. I think that was what they were telling me.
AG: Was it fun working on that?
EP: Oh, that was great. That was great. Getting to actually draw Hellboy.
AG: Actually, I may have seen some sketches you did of Hellboy Junior.
EP: Actually, it's not Hellboy Junior, not the Bill Wray character. Remember that story Mike did called "Pancakes" where Hellboy is a kid growing up on the Army base? That's the version of Hellboy I did.
AG: To bring this back to The Goon: what do you have planned for the title, now that it's at Dark Horse? Are you following the same plan you had?
EP: Yeah, pretty much more of the same. I don't plan on changing anything. My whole point is to be able to say, "I think it would be fun to do this this issue! Or it would be funny to do this." I am pretty much following the same game plan that I had when I was self-publishing. I think there is a little bit of a factor going on that all the Dark Horse guys are looking at this so maybe it should be better or something like that. But, no; I am pretty much trying to do what I had done before. Keep it fun.
The Goon #1, written and drawn by Eric Powell, will be available from comics shops June 18th. And make sure and look for the trade paperback collecting his four issue self-published series, Nothing but Misery, July 23.