The Goon: Once Upon a Hard Time fera directement suite à la mini-série Occasion of Revenge. Il s’agit de la deuxième mini-série depuis la relance du titre dans ce nouveau format choisi par le créateur Eric Powell.
Le premier numéro sortira le 4 février 2015.
Édition : à la surprise générale, l’artiste Eric Powell a révélé que Once Upon a Hard Time est la conclusion de l’aventure The Goon qui a débutée il y a plus de 16 ans :
[quote] On Wednesday October 7th, The Goon: Once Upon a Hard Time #4 hits the stands. When I first envisioned doing a large two part story (Occasion of Revenge & Once Upon a Hard Time) I didn’t foresee it as the series finale. But as the story took shape it was clear that’s what it was. So often, especially in the medium of comics and television, it seems that in the interest of keeping the profitable property going the more interesting story is forsaken. The more interesting story being… the end. Self parody and repetition take over until the flavor is lost and that filet mignon now tastes like a hotdog off a truck stop rotisserie. Shriveled, burned out, and old. So when the clear path of the better story presented itself, I felt that rather than leaving the plot open ended to continue the same old Goon, it was instead time to fuck shit up.
I’ve always tried to put my artistic money where my mouth is, even at times to the detriment of my own career, so as much as parts of Once Upon a Hard Time #4 hurt me to put on paper, I put them down. It was the better story. It would only be doing a disservice to myself as a cartoonist and you as the reader to do otherwise.
The Goon was a great artistic experiment for me. I grew in leaps and bounds as an artist and storyteller working on it for the last 16 years. I still have a long, long way to go on that front but I feel I’m continuing to grow. I still have ideas for stories set in the Goon’s universe, but I also have a notebook full of ideas that have accumulated over the years that need tending to. To say I’m excited for you guys to see this new stuff is putting it lightly. To give you a new book you enjoy as much as you did the Goon is my new goal. Maybe even a couple!
[/quote]
[quote]Really, « Once Upon A Hard Time » is the « Empire Strikes Back » of this story. « Occasion of Revenge » was the setup of everything, and when we step into this story it gets pretty dark pretty quick. The Goon is letting everyone feel his anger. He is not in a playing mood, and it gets pretty violent in that issue. I don’t want to give too much away, but it definitely sets up a lot. There’s a lot going on at the end of « Occasion of Revenge, » like you said, but those ideas continue in « Once Upon A Hard Time » to set up some new conflicts as this all evolves…]
I’m not going to tell anybody about where this story leaves off, because I don’t want it to be ruined for anybody. There are some significant changes, and some characters do die. I’ll say that, but I won’t say who dies. Whenever I kill off a character, it’s for a point. It’s not just some gimmick. It’s not like « The Death of Superman » or « The Death of Wolverine. » Those books might be well done or created by talented writers and artists, but when they get that together to sell it, it’s a gimmick. People are selling this thing to say, « If we kill off this character, it’ll boost sales. And then we’ll bring him back five months later. » That’s all it is. Every time I’ve killed a character in « The Goon, » it’s been for a purpose.[/quote]
[quote]Occasion of Revenge set up the framework for a tragic turn of events and it’s the events of that book that put the Goon in a dark place. Part of how I perceive real tragic storytelling, classical tragedy, is that we don’t always act in our best interest, especially when we’ve been pushed to the edge. Sometimes being pushed to the edge creates a great hero who rises above everything, but sometimes we get our heart torn out, and our friends get beaten down, and our judgment crumbles. In Occasion of Revenge, the Goon went to a violent, dark place and that’s where we find him in Once Upon a Hard Time.
The first issue of Once Upon a Hard Time ends on such a sour note, and there’s a fight bearing down on Goon that could change everything. What’s actually going on inside of Goon might be the darker truth to face. There’s a big panel on the last page of Once Upon a Hard Time, and it’s a close-up on Frankie, who’s of course this silly a riff on a Little Orphan Annie-like character. But the look on his face in that panel is so tragic and upsetting, you know readers are in store for something. This arc resolves everything that’s been hanging over Goon’s head since the series launched many years ago. It’s all coming down now. Eric said on Reddit recently that after this, the book that he does might not even be called The Goon.[/quote]