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Zombie Chimp Axe Fight – Eric Powell And Kickstarting Goon At San Diego Comic Con

Published Fri, 19 Jul 2013 12:00:28 -0500

Devin T Quin writes from San Diego Comic Con for Bleeding Cool;

The line for the Goon panel snaked around itself five times, and the Con staff had to squish all in attendance to the wall to prevent breaking fire codes. I've been going to Goon panels since they started having them, back when Dark Horse picked up the quirky title.

The Goon is a cult hit in which a scarred mafia thug shakes down locals for protection money, but the threat he's protecting them from is a hoard of gibbering zombies on the other side of town. Fans love the Good for its off-ball humor, real pathos and the gorgeous art of writer/artist Eric Powell.

Like the comic book itself, The Goon panels are unpredictable. Sometimes it's a mob, like it was on Thursday of the San Diego Comic Con. Sometimes you're in a room with five other unwashed blokes, uncomfortably wondering where everybody went. Eric Powell, the good ole' backwoods American genius behind the Goon can be a wildman or a pussy cat. Fans may remember the infamous panel where he smashed a prop chair on a conspirator, or the panel where he brought a cake.

Once everybody was in and relaxed, Eric Powell, the owner of LA SFX house Blur Studios Tim White and effects guru/editor Jeff Fowler began the panel by cracking open "beverages" from Goon emblazoned drink cozies before announcing that technical difficulties prevent them from showing too much new material.

A fan notes from the audience that Eric is looking slimmer, and Eric jokingly attributes the recent weight loss to cocaine.

Everybody on the panel takes the time to thank the fans who supported the Goon Kickstarter. Tim explains his passion for the Goon comic, and his early attempts to get a CGI animated film based on it made. Though a successful effects studio, Tim states that his early calls to Dark Horse went unanswered…that is until he got director David Fincher onboard.

The Goon Kickstarter was an early crowd funded project to complete a story boarded animatic of the entire feature film in order to give investors an idea of its marketability.

The first video shown was the original animation, or proof of concept video, which features the Goon's pupil-challenged side-kick Franky drinking in a bar with a trussed up zombie before being interrupted by a zombie attack. The clip, available on youtube, does feature some fine vocal work from Ron Pearlman (Goon) and Paul Giomatti as Franky.

Eric talks about being in the recording booth with Paul during this session, and recording on his phone the string of profanities that Paul uttered as he flips up a poker table. Eric says he had about 10 minutes of Paul swearing his brains out, which he used, for a time, as a ring tone.

"Until it went off in public." bemuses Eric.

So, Goon kickstarter update! Blur has a team working on the animatic now, with a hoped completion date of November. The Kickstarter packer prize packs are getting ready to mail out, including t-shirts, posters and statues, as well as the gorgeous art asset book containing all of the promotional art from the kickstarter campaign.

"Eric signed so many posters he couldn't masturbate for a week." jokes Tim.

"That's how much I love you guys," said Eric.

We saw two beautiful, storyboarded animatics from the project, both of which were premiers. Eric himself was seeing them for the first time.

The first featured the Zombie Priest unleashing a giant, zombie chimp on the Goon and Franky. Set amongst a battle with smaller, regular zombies (including a zombie santa) in an abandoned factory, Franky lays into the undead with his Thompson machine gun, while the Goon gets up close and personal with his axe!

In the second clip, The Goon tries to leave town before being confronted by familiar Goon character, The Buzzard. In the clip, the Goon states that he wouldn't be in this situation if the zombie priest hadn't killed his Aunt, a plot point that differs slightly from the comics.

Familiar characters that appeared in the clips included The Goon, Franky, Buzzard, the Zombie Priest, and the Zombie Priest's henchman Lazlo. Based on comments, Labrazio and Fishy Pete might also make appearances.

A story unfolds on how Powell handed them a script containing three minutes of Peaches Valentine, The Goon's resident "village idiot," inundating his diaper with diarrhea, which Eric said he put it in to "Set the tone," and give the sensors something to edit out.

Questions were taken from the crowd, mostly about characters and process. No plans are afoot to include Lagarto, the giant lizard with a poor Mexican vocabulary. They learned a lot from the Kickstarter process, but do not believe the system could fund the whole picture. Southern Culture on the Skids, the rockabilly band whose music features so prominently in the trailer, gave permission to use their music as they were fans.

Once completed, the storyboard animatic will be an essential part of the pitch to get someone in Hollywood to make a Goon feature. Until someone ponies up the $35 million required, the hard working, hard drinking lads and lasses of Blur Studios will keep on plugging.

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