Writer Brad McGinty
Art Brian “Smitty” Smith
Published by Lion Forge Comics, Roar imprint
Okay, kids, ask your parents about the Madballs. These toys came out when I was in elementary school in the mid-eighties, a collection of foam balls with gross faces and silly pun names. Your dad would buy them for you hoping it might make you like sports, and your mom would roll her eyes about how disgusting these toys were. Because man, there are few things better suited to preteen boys than a head that drips plastic snot, except maybe throwing that head at your friend at the bus stop.
Because the kids who loved Madballs are old enough to buy lots of comics, the Balls are back in a four-issue miniseries from Roar Comics. In the first issue, the Balls are sorted into two teams to play Bizarro Ball, a strange game where people talk about points or something but mostly, balls bounce around and drip pus and gore on a football field and make puns and play with props and get destroyed in a frenzy of cartoony violence. In a backup sequence by Dan Zettwoch, the Balls travel to an alternate universe where they meet sophisticated version of themselves.
This is not a comic for most grownups. But for people who fondly remember this property, we’ll chuckle and remember Mom’s eye-rolling and ask ourselves what Dad was thinking giving us this. And then we will grab a stack of these comics for our friends’ sons. Because Cool Uncle is a pretty great thing to be.
-MATT CONNER for Ultimate Comics