Madballs

Of all the '80s toy lines that you could adapt into fiction, it seems like Madballs would be the most difficult. They're just rubber balls that look like skulls or giant eyeballs or, you know, Satan. Visually striking, sure, but I mean, there's not really a narrative throughline, is there? And yet, this week, they're launching their third comic book series. Third! But maybe I'm judging too harshly. For all I know, Madballs has a deep and rich lore that's just waiting to be mined for epic adventure and fun --- and this week, we're all getting the chance to find out whether that's the case.

Madballs were one of the most ridiculous things to come about during the heyday of '80s toy craziness. Pound Puppies made sense. Police Academy: The Animated Series' action figures made sense, at least in the way that all R-rated movies that got animated shows and action figure lines in the '80s made sense. Madballs were just these gross, little balls with monstrous faces. You could throw them at your siblings/cousins/imaginary friends and they wouldn't hurt a whole lot because they were made of foam. You could squeeze them, and they'd return to form in seconds. That's it. Even today, I struggle to understand why I find them appealing, but I do. They speak to me. Apparently they speak to Mondo, too, because the Alamo art house is bringing Madballs back to fill that little screaming baseball-sized hole in your heart.