MADBALLS #1
by Brad McGinty, illo. by Brian Smith, backup stories by Scarecrowoven & Dan Zettwoch
Pages: 32
Format: Comic Book
SRP: $2.99
Publisher: Roar Comics (an imprint of Lion Forge)
Distributor: Diamond Comic Distributors
Pub Date: April 20, 2016
Item Code: FEB161633
Freaky fun for everyone — if that rings a bell then you’re a fellow fan of those disgusting heads from the ‘80s, the Madballs. And if you’re still a little foggy, here’s the scoop: Madballs were sculpted rubber balls sporting outrageously gross faces, each with their own names and personalities, and what you did is . . . well, nobody really knew what to do with them. You just wanted them, and thus one of the earliest modern collectible toy crazes was born. Madballs combined the “gotta have it” impulse of trading cards with the fun of a toy you could hold and display, and the always great side benefit of earning your parents’ eternal disdain.
That cultural confluence is exactly where Roar Comics comes in with our new Madballs comic book series, a collection of gross-out gags from a curated lineup of today’s most cutting edge artists. And that’s not just me saying stuff. Seriously, here’s the whole list: on top of a main story by Brad McGinty (Adventure Time) and Brian Smith (Stuff of Legend), each issue features backups by Scarecrowoven, Gunsho, Dan Zettwoch, Jenny Zych, Sean Dove, Jesse Balmer, Jimmy Giegerich, and Matt Crabe. We crammed as much degeneracy into this as we could before we ran out of pages.
The first of four issues lands in comic shops next week with three variant covers, hot on the heels of new designer toys from Mondo and a crazy-looking apparel collection from Jeremy Scott. Madballs the comic book flows right along with this nostalgic resurgence for older fans (and precocious kids), bringing an art comics A-game that we rarely see in media tie-ins.
