January is The Goon month on MySpace Dark Horse Presents

January is The Goon month at MySpace Dark Horse Presents (MDHP), where four creative teams have contributed to a four-part story featuring the titular character in Eric Powell's ongoing and much beloved "The Goon" comic book. CBR News sat down with writer Rebecca Sugar and artist Frans Boukas to get the details on "The Goon, Part II: Bogged Down at Bush Street."

Sugar and Boukas have been a team for years, and the Boukas' one-time collaboration with Eric Powell led the Goon creator to introduce the duo to Dark Horse editor Scott Allie. "I showed Scott the work I had on me, which was my own book called 'Pumpkin-Man,'" Frans Boukas told CBR News. "Allie and [Mike] Mignola were supportive, and a month later Scott invited me on the all-Goon issue of 'MDHP.'"

"Then we found out I was that writer," Rebecca Sugar said. "That was pretty weird!" After bringing Boukas on board, Powell invited Sugar to pen the second installment of the 'MDHP' Goon story, based on the strength of her self-published work, which includes web comic "Pug Davis."

Page from "The Goon, Part II: Bogged Down at Bush Street"

Sugar admitted that writing the second part of a four-part story was creatively restrictive, but that the project was fulfilling nonetheless. "If I'd written that story alone, Franky probably would have passed out from blood loss, and Goon would have carried him around, and Peter Lorre would have shown up, and there would have been lots of crying," Sugar said.

She approached her collaboration with Boukas on "Bogged Down at Bush Street" in the same way the duo approach all of their projects: "We think up a bunch of visuals that Frans would love to draw and then build a story out of it!" Boukas confirmed that his guiding principle when drawing part II of the 'MDHP' Goon story was "drawing as much fun stuff as possible with it still making sense to the rest of the parts." Boukas, for instance, wanted to find a way to work the Buzzard (a recurring "The Goon") in to their installment, but ultimately it made more sense in the grand scheme of the story to include Sugar's favorite "The Goon" character, Dr. Alloy. "I'm really glad to have been able to draw ooze and body chunks," Boukas said.

Panel from "The Goon, Part II: Bogged Down at Bush Street"

Boukas is also currently working on his own project, which he describes as a cross between Kaiju and Lovecraft. "A cosmic space crab comes to Earth and inhabits an infant and grows in him like some hermit crab," Boukas said. "It takes place on Earth and is just another excuse to experiment while getting to draw some creatures and other fun stuff."

Sugar continues to work on her long-running web comic "Pug Davis." "It's about an astronaut with a Pug head and his gay sidekick," Sugar said. "It's all up online and I put up new pages as I go."

"The Goon, Part II: Bogged Down at Bush Street" is featured on MySpace Dark Horse Presents right now.

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