Alice the Goon

Alice the Goon is a fictional character in E. C. Segar's comic strip Thimble Theatre and in the Popeye cartoon series derived from it.

History

Alice made her debut in the Sunday, December 10, 1933, Thimble Theatre strip, part of the "Plunder Island" storyline. As yet unnamed (and her sex unspecified), she worked as a guard for the Sea Hag, a vicious pirate and the last sorceress on Earth. She is portrayed as an Amazonian giantess (her height is eight feet), bald, with a large nose (reminiscent of a Proboscis Monkey, or of Rastapopoulos from The Adventures of Tintin), no visible mouth and extremely hairy forearms and legs. Her name and sex were given in the January 14, 1934, strip, after she had captured Wimpy.

Alice first appeared when the Sea Hag returned to Sweethaven searching for a former slave of hers named Cringly, as he is the only one who knows the location of Plunder Island, the Sea Hag's lair. At this time, Alice was nameless and sexless, but when Wimpy is captured and locked in the deck of the Black Barnacle, the Hag's ship, the Sea Hag orders "Keep an eye on him, Alice!" And from this moment on, the characters and the readers realize Alice is female. Upon arriving at Plunder Island, Popeye and Alice fought violently and Popeye threatened to throw Alice off a cliff, until Alice's own child (its sex also unspecified) appeared and shouted, "Mama!" Realizing that he is fighting a woman, which goes against his principles, Popeye released Alice and discovered that Alice was an unwilling slave to the Sea Hag (who had threatened Alice's own baby if Alice did not become her servant) then the sailor helped Alice gain her freedom. In fact, Alice was just one of a race of goons (though apparently their leader) enslaved by the Sea Hag; Popeye and Alice together raised them up in a successful Spartacus-like slave rebellion.

The Goon

The Goon is a comic book series written and drawn by Eric Powell (with colors often by Dave Stewart, Eric or Eric's brother, Robin). The series mixes both a comical and violent atmosphere with a supernatural slant, which pit the titular character against undead creatures/zombies, ghosts, ghouls, mutants, skunk-apes with an unnatural hunger for pies, giant squids, mob/gang leaders, extra-dimensional aliens, mad scientists and robots.

Publication history

An early prototype of The Goon was first published in 1995, in a book called Best Cellars #1 from Out of the Cellar Comics. This prototype was called Monster Boy, and the story was written and illustrated by Eric Powell.

The Goon debuted in Dreamwalker #0 (March 1998, Avatar Press) in a 4-page Preview, which is the true first appearance of the character (later reprinted as the third story in the Goon #1). Powell was unhappy with the quality of the Avatar Press comics after just 3 issues, so he stopped handing in new material and waited for his contract to expire. Once that happened, he was unable to find another publisher, so he moved into self-publishing in 2002 with Albatross Exploding Funny Books. These self-published issues caught the eye of Dark Horse Comics, which approached Powell by telling him that they didn't know why they passed on the book, and in 2003 publication of The Goon moved to Dark Horse.

Alice

Alice may refer to:

Literature

Books

Manga

Computers