I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Goon yet. I mean, this cartoon character was definitely one of Dave's favorites pastimes when I knew him, and for me was an extension of his personality, both happy and fun.
Who was Goon? I don't have any pictures (maybe Kevin or Don do?), and I certainly don't have enough skill to draw him (yeah, I suck that bad), but he was this green cucumber shaped alien with yellow lips, who was always the source of some bizarre antics in comic strips coming from Kevin or Dave. Goon had a song ("doopy-doopy-doopy doo, doopy-doopy-doopy doo!" - got a link for that one?) and even hosted a web site for a short time.
Thanks for Goon, Dave!
Update by Kevin:
Here's a (old and therefore really bad) recording of Goon's theme song, written by Dave and myself: Goon's Circus
I should mention, that I may be factually incorrect about the origin of Goon, and if I am, I apologize. That said, it was Dave that really made Goon known to me.
ReplyDeleteGee-oh-oh-oon!
ReplyDeleteDave and Kevin had their own Goon skit in Scouts as well. I remember Moriarity was mixed up in it and Kevin had some comic strips centered on Goon.
I wish I remembered more, "Sorry Morey."
Okay, I guess I'd better chime in here. This...is...the HISTORY of GOOOOOooN:
ReplyDeleteGoon actually originated in a campfire skit. I first saw it performed by Don and another scout at a campout before Dave joined the troop. It involved a magician performing a trick in which he was to magically teleport a bandana from a volunteer's pocket into his hat. Goon was the "volunteer". Of course, Goon, being a hopeless dunderhead, mistook "banana" for "bandana" (and pronounced the two more or less the same way, anyway). I think you can guess what happened next. Anyway, I told Dave about that skit after the campout (arbitrarily using the name "Professor Moriarty" for the magician), and he just about busted his gut laughing.
After that, I drew a few single-frame cartoons depicting "Goon" as a sort of short, roly-poly kid dressed the way Don had been when he portrayed him in the skit (i.e. in a jacket and stocking cap). I also drew Professor "Morey Artey" as a typical Brit in jungle explorer gear with a monocle and a walrus mustache. But then Dave suddenly handed me a comic rendition he'd drawn of the original skit. In his vision, the Professor looked like a typical magician. Goon, on the other hand...
I believe my first reaction was to say, "What...the [expletive]...is THAT?"
Dave said, "Well, when you think of a 'Goon', you think of a blob. So I drew a blob!"
[Trivia note: In that first comic Goon was white! He became green later.]
I don't know why, but Dave and I both went with his Goon and my Morey Artey, though Morey lost the monocle and trimmed his mustache. Each of us came up with his own idea as to the origin of Goon, but they were so similar that we pooled them together. Basically, Goon was the accidental by-product of a biological weapon experiment gone awry. Apparently the British government had stolen one of Professor Moriarty (descended from a long line of criminal masterminds, but not a criminal himself, just a bungler)'s inventions, an instant plant growth formula that he hadn't gotten quite right yet. The formula had a bad habit of not only making plants grow larger, but mutating them into dangerous life forms. A secret branch of MI-5 hoped to test it in the jungles of Zimbabwe to see if they could turn plants into killer botanical zombies. Something went horribly wrong. The gas containing the formula leaked out inside the hidden base, melted the staff members, and made contact with a pickle in one soldier's lunch...
Professor Moriarty was summoned (to his immense chagrin, not to mention outrage). Armed with the antidote to his formula, he was sent to Zimbabwe to find and destroy the "dangerously destructive" lifeform that had been created. He found Goon. In the end, however, he didn't have the heart to destroy the odd creature, so he took it home...and soon discovered that MI-5 wanted to remove all trace of the disastrous experiment...and the formula. Moriarty changed his face and his name (to "Morey Artey"), fled the UK, and relocated to Oregon with Goon. The rest, as they say, is history.
Dave and I both made a lot of comics either starring or including Goon. I have several of them with me here. I'll see if I have any that would be good for scanning and posting. Meanwhile, I continue to use Goon in the classes that I teach, since he's easy to draw, easy to recognize, and has a name that Japanese can pronounce.
Awesome! Thanks for the history (I don't believe I had ever heard the whole thing, now that I think about it...) The song is exactly as I remember - I think I had that on tape at one point. :-)
ReplyDelete