Goners #1

by Jacob Semahn, Jorge Corona & Gabriel Cassata

Image Comics debuted the first issue of Goners this week. The Latimer family has been guarding the mortal world from the mystic world for many years. The series of Goners picks up when the latest generation of the Latimer family might just be the last.

Most first issues spend most of their time setting up their story, introducing characters and world building. This is not the case with Goners’ first issue. The reader is immediately thrust into this world filled with ghosts and monsters. Yet you don’t necessarily feel lost, you can still easily follow the action. Jacob Semahn’s way of introducing the Goners story is risky, but it actually helped enhance the Latimer family history and give the feeling of this being their end. Very interesting way to start that leaves the reader’s interest piqued.

Jorge Corona has a uniquely playful art style that works really well for Goners. When telling a dark story like this, you might not think that Corona’s cartoon method would be a proper fit. However, this wild art is the ying to the story’s yang, and combined with Gabriel Cassata’s animated color palette made Goners stand out and feel different. This book’s art style might not work for every reader but no one can argue that it isn’t eye-catching.

Goners’ first issue was an intense but fun read. It was nice to get a first issue that didn’t feel like a typical set up but also wasn’t a confusing mess. Because of that, it is hard to judge The Goners by just this first issue. Yes, it’s hard and unfair to judge an series off of the first issue, but Goners is harder than most. It certainly made a big enough impact to make me want to check on the next issue.