I'm Writing a New Toxic Avenger Comic

Plus another new editorial cartoon!

As first announced by Hollywood Reporter, I will be writing a new Toxic Avenger comic book for Ahoy based on the cult classic Troma movies, debuting this Fall. I’m collaborating with artist Fred Harper, whose great and grotesque take on Toxie you can see below. We are combining elements of the movies with the 1991 cartoon Toxic Crusaders to create an entirely new story that blends mutant gore and environmental satire. You can read a little more about the details at the Hollywood Reporter.

This is the first of three or four big projects I will announce this year and one I’m neck deep in writing at the moment. If you liked my mutant-laden political cartoons or the satire of Justice Warriors, then you will like the direction I’m heading in with this project. I have a lot planned for Melvin Junko, the 98-pound weakling who is transformed into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength.

This will be the first Toxic Avenger comic book since a Marvel run in 1991 and we are having gobs of fun with this series. There is also brand-new movie starring Peter Dinklage that is expected to get a wide release this year, so the Toxic Avenger is back and all superheroes who aren’t from New Jersey are over. Sorry.

Whether you love Troma films, know nothing about the character, or I have just unlocked deep memories of watching the cartoon on Saturday mornings in the early 90s, there will be something here for you to enjoy. Much love to Ahoy and Troma for letting me try something new with the character.

Art by Fred Harper

It’s going to be a bit of a wait until you can read our take on Toxie—the first issue will be released in October—but I’ll keep you filled in here as time goes on, with new art, some background on how this project came to be, and most importantly when and where you can get your hands on a copy.

Art by Fred Harper

I drew another political cartoon

Just when I thought I was out… In These Times pulled me back in. After last month’s comic I ended getting another idea about Alan Dershowitz. Go read it at In These Times along with comics from Mattie Lubchansky, Jen Sorensen, and Tom Tomorrow!

Project: Cryptid #6 in stores now

I have a short story about a chupacabra and a tech tycoon looking to live forever in Project: Cryptid #6—out this week in comic shops. There’s a five page preview of the finished comic over at Geek Vibes Nation with art by Daniel Irizarri. It’s only a ten page story, so you get half for free here, but it stops at just the right spot not to give too much away.

We share the issue with Mattie Lubchansky and Maki Naro, who have a story about Sasquatch influencers, so you absolutely cannot go wrong walking into your local comic shop this week and picking up Project: Cryptid #6.

New drawings

I’ve been revising my wasteland character designs the last few months. Here’s some Gorm and Tinsel…

Panel of the month

Lot of uses for this one. From Uncanny X-Men #180 by Chris Claremont and John Romita, Jr.

It’s podcastin’ time!

Ben Clarkson and I appeared on Cartoon Dumpster Dive to talk about C.O.P.S, the 1988 cartoon that has some lasting influence on both of our work. For the uninitiated, this short lived (but 65 episode) show featured cybernetically enhanced cops and criminals battling it out in Empire City in the futuristic year of 2020.

It was, of course, a toy commercial and part of a televised animation/action figure onslaught in the late-80s (See the aforementioned Toxic Crusaders). The character designs were maybe the only worthwhile aspect of the show—courtesy of Bart Sears, who was on a roll developing G.I. Joe and X-Men toys for Hasbro in between his “Brutes & Babes” how-to feature in Wizard magazine.

The (what I consider) iconic introduction was created by friend-of-Justice-Warriors Peter Chung, which is why it is a couple touches above the actual content of the show. Do you remember this? A bass line that commands you leave the breakfast table and glue yourself to the television. I wanted this show to hold up as well as, say, the 90s X-Men cartoon but sadly it’s all downhill after that fire opener.

See you at the party, Richter!

More podcasting with Ben Clarkson about our mutual influences—Total Recall (1990) directed by Paul Verhoeven! This was for Hit Factory, though it is a Patreon episode only available for their subscribers. There are great insights on this film from Ben and the hosts, Aaron and Carlee, but here is mine in brief. 

First of all, this movie rules and is packed with so many Arnold one-liners and memorable moments it’s insane. Maybe some forgotten ones too—it seems to contain the first reference to a “red pill” that wakes you up from a false reality.

Much debate about the film’s meaning centers around the question of “was this real or all a dream?” While it’s purposefully left open-ended, I believe this is beside the point. The movie, much like the Recall vacation Quaid pays for in the film, is a little vacation that we take as the audience—plunking down a little hard-earned money to have exciting memories and experiences implanted in our minds without having to go through them, take risk, or, crucially, take time off work. Movies are dreams! This one is aware of what casting Arnold Schwarzenegger means to the audience’s action fantasy.

So what’s in this dream? The suspicion that something is deeply wrong with the world and your role in it. Quaid, if you’ll (ahem) recall, is actually Carl Hauser and working for Cohaagen, the tyrannical mining magnate who is brutally oppressing Mars.

The mutant resistance leader Kuato tells Quaid,"You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory.” Up until this point, Quaid has been searching for his memories, for the truth. But those alone won’t set him free. Quaid rejects his former life, even his former name, and becomes a new person—one who supports a Free Mars with oxygen for all. As should we all!

So save the world from extractive capitalism, activate the cool alien device for free energy, and get the girl. The End. Maybe it is a fantasy after all, but a welcome one.

I also drew this, which I can envision as a reaction post to so many things.