Over the course of five issues since last October, writer Matt Bors and artist Fred Harper have taken readers on a wild ride through Tromaville in The Toxic Avenger comic book series from AHOY Comics! And if you're looking to catch up then you're in luck, because a new trade paperback of The Toxic Avenger comic book series is now available from AHOY, and Daily Dead had the pleasure of catching up with Matt and Fred in a new Q&A feature to "embrace the gore" and discuss their delightfully shocking series as well as the upcoming "Toxic Mess Summer" that will feature Toxic-Team Up, The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special, and more!
Thanks for taking the time to answer questions, Matt and Fred, and congratulations on the success and continued expansion of The Toxic Avenger comic book series, with the trade paperback coming out in bookstores on April 1st and comic shops on April 2nd, The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special hitting shelves on May 14th, and The Toxie Team-Up miniseries debuting on June 11th. What has been your reaction to how readers have embraced these latest adventures of the Toxic Avenger?
Fred Harper: My mother and all of my friends of course love it. But total strangers that don't owe me money or anything seem to like the Toxic Avenger very much. That tells me two things: I have awesome friends who support everything I do. And now I have awesome strangers who have said very nice things about TA that could be totally honest good or bad about it and still gave it praise!
Matt Bors: I’m noticing two important things. First, Troma-obsessed Toxie heads are telling me they love it and that means a lot. I’m not trying to run afoul of these sweet, refined intellectuals. Second, the cultural troglodytes who have no previous experience with Toxie are picking this up and getting what we’re doing, even if they didn’t happen to catch the briefly-aired 1991 Toxic Crusaders cartoon and toy line. Basically the whole of humanity is on board.
It feels like we need Toxie now more than ever. How important has it been to you to bring this beloved character into the modern era for readers both old and new to experience?
Fred Harper: It has been great to be on a project with Matt, who I seem to share much the same views on the world as I get to know him better. He has been able to create a narrative that has some teeth and I am glad to help give it the visuals to (hopefully) complement his words.
Matt Bors: Mutual admiration society: Fred was really the right artist for this book with his gritty inks and particularly affecting character work. But to answer your question, as best I can, it’s time for Toxie because gross, weird, violent satire that doesn’t take itself too seriously, while also containing those teeth Fred mentioned, is more needed than ever.
Fred, The Toxic Avenger trade paperback includes black-and-white character studies with written insights on how you approached illustrating the characters in this series. How did you select which character studies to include, and did you find it enjoyable to reflect on your creative process on this series?
Fred Harper: It's been very collaborative. I enjoy talking to Matt on the phone and when we finally met in person at NYCC last year, so I pick up on things in our conversations that inform how I interpret his loose descriptions of characters. He's so respectful of my end of the visuals that he tries not to say too much so I can wail away at it. I show him my ideas and I try to incorporate all his feedback because I want him to enjoy the character and know them enough that he can write the character with fluidity.
The Toxic Avenger trade paperback also includes trading cards (including your take on “Absolute Toxie,” Matt) and a look at the incredible handmade bust of Toxie that you molded, Fred! How much fun was it to include these gooey goodies for readers at the end of the trade paperback?
Matt Bors: The trading cards weren’t my idea, but I’d love to pretend they were. They fit the series so well and I demanded to draw more of them in the future.
Fred Harper: I have enjoyed all the interpretations all the other artists have given on this. I haven't worked in clay that extensively for almost 40 years so it was fun to rediscover old techniques and really figuring out the possibilities or failures of my first drawings. The asymmetrical face is such a challenge when trying to do dramatic up or down-shots, profile and 3 quarter shots, etc. Making a physical head in 3-D just made things a little easier and it's fun to point at when you have friends visiting the studio.
Fred, I absolutely love your splash page artwork in the climactic fight between Toxie and Bonehead, which spills the violence of that moment right off the page. How much fun did you have bringing that iconic (and very bloody) moment to life?
Fred Harper: Whoa! Just the fact you are asking me this makes my day! I spent way too long designing and drawing that page out. It also came just after a visit to my local comic book store, Desert Island Comics here in Brooklyn. I had just visually ingested some insane/beautiful/sick/and amazing Japanese comics. Matt had previously fed me some sick manga stuff so when I dove into that spread I didn't care too much how long it was going to take. I imagined what would be the ultimate upper cut we had foreshadowed on a previous page. Connecting on the chin and splitting that in two and smooshing the teeth, tongue, and nose area up and in between the eye sockets. Ultimately squishing it all into the brain chamber even as the skull fractures around the intruding fist. Yeah, it was really fun!
Matt Bors: That spread was easy enough to write. Just a few sentences, really, but it was one of the most important shots of the entire story. I held out hopes it would be just as dramatic as I imagined in my head—and Fred knocked me out with it.
Matt, you previously mentioned that you had pitched “a multi-volume pollution saga for Toxic Avenger,” and as Toxie promises in the fifth issue, “this town is never going back to the way things were.” Do you plan to continue the adventures of the Toxic Avenger and his mutated friends beyond the five issues included in the trade paperback?
Matt Bors: I do and while I am under strict threat of legal action from revealing too much, I’ve made no secret that we plan to keep going. The Toxie Team-Up series will kick us off, but don’t think we are going to stop there. I want to create Toxie comics for years to come.
The Toxie Team-Up will follow the Toxic Avenger as he teams up with iconic comic book characters from other series, including Jesus Christ from Second Coming, the Jersey Devil from Project: Cryptid, Acid Chimp from My Bad, Dragonflyman and Stinger from The Wrong Earth, and Swamp Cop and Schitt from Justice Warriors. Matt, how much fun has it been for you to see characters from your Justice Warriors series (by you and Ben Clarkson) cross paths with Toxie?
Matt Bors: A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed it would happen. Now I’m uniting my creator-owned mutants with a mutant icon. I’ve seen the pages coming in from Ben and it’s going to be fantastic.
AHOY Comics has declared this upcoming summer to be a “Toxic Mess Summer” with the respective debuts of The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special and The Toxie Team-Up, and on top of that, we also have a new Toxic Avenger film to look forward to this August. As both fans and creators in the Tromaville sandbox, what are you the most excited for Toxie fans to experience this summer?
Fred Harper: Embrace the gore!
Matt Bors: AHOY is probably not going to clear me for this. What I’m most excited for Toxie fans to experience this summer is [REDACTED] with Fred there with me, which will feature a few new surprises including the appearance of [REDACTED].
Through five issues, the trade paperback, and additional comic books, AHOY Comics has really championed the Toxic Avenger this past year and into the future. What has it been like to continue to work with the team at AHOY as you journey deeper into Tromaville’s radioactive depths?
Fred Harper: I've enjoyed watching people react to the story and the way people have interpreted the story and characters. One fellow seemed to like the butt shots of Toxie and I found that very funny so I tend to lean in to them when I find that I have shots of him from behind. They can be subtle and you have to look for them but they're there.
Matt Bors: I work with AHOY because I have to. The tyrant Tom Peyer has kompromat on me that he will release to the public unless I produce scripts. You have to feed the beast and comics are like printing money--worth a little less each time you do it.
In addition to The Toxic Avenger trade paperback coming out in bookstores on April Fool’s Day (and that’s no joke!) followed by an April 2nd release in comic shops, do you both have any other projects coming up that you can tease?
Fred Harper: I'll be working on making the perfect espresso and hopefully more Toxic projects!
Matt Bors: I am writing some stories for EC Comics and have work that just came out in Cruel Kingdom and upcoming in Catacombs of Torment. Beyond that, I’m working on getting the world more Toxic Avenger and Justice Warriors.
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The Toxic Avenger Trade Paperback: This is no prank: on April Fool’s Day, the acclaimed 21st-century reinvention of the classic movie/animated series will land in bookstores everywhere as THE TOXIC AVENGER (tpb). Written by Pulitzer finalist and founder of The Nib Matt Bors, with art by acclaimed artist Fred Harper, the hit revival featuring the satirical hero of the Troma Films cult classic films stars Melvin Junko, a teenager on the run from bullies who lands straight into a massive chemical waste spill that transforms him into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength—the Toxic Avenger! Featuring violent action, gross mutations, bursting pustules, and plenty of trenchant satire, THE TOXIC AVENGER (tpb) will land in bookstores on April 1, 2025 and in comic shops on April 2, 2025.
“Our story combines elements of the beloved Troma movies with the Toxic Crusaders cartoon for an updated and skin-melting environmental splatterfest,” said writer Matt Bors. “We've reinvented Toxie for the modern era of government failures and social media toxicity. A mutant hero with a heart, saving a society in meltdown!”
“Embrace the mutation… let it breathe… inhale… feel it… exhale… vomit. Enjoy the story,” said artist Fred Harper.
The Toxic Avenger first appeared in the 1984 cult classic film about a mutated weakling mopping up a corporate mess, directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz and starring Mitchell Cohen. Having already spawned five films, a cartoon, action figures, a musical, and a Marvel comic book series, the Toxic Avenger is a pop culture icon—and he is also perfect for AHOY Comics, a Syracuse-based publisher dedicated to satirizing horror, space opera, social satire, sword & sorcery, and superhero stories. TOXIC AVENGER is the second AHOY comic book series from Bors, following the release of JUSTICE WARRIORS, his critically-acclaimed comic with artist Ben Clarkson which follows two police officers, Swamp Cop and Schitt, stationed in the world's first perfect city.
THE TOXIC AVENGER (tpb) will land in bookstores on April 1, 2025 and in comic shops on April 2, 2025.
For more updates on AHOY Comics, visit them on X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.
Toxie Team-Up and The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special: This summer the Toxic Avenger will team-up with Jesus Christ in the pages of an all-new comic book written by Mark Russell, drawn by Richard Pace, and published by upstart comic publisher AHOY Comics. The sure-to-be-controversial debut issue of THE TOXIE TEAM-UP is the latest comic book adventure for the legendary hero from the Troma Films cult classic films, following Matt Bors and Fred Harper’s acclaimed revival of the character in 2024.
Now AHOY Comics is ushering in a Toxic Mess Summer as they partner with a slew of incredible artists and writers for THE TOXIC AVENGER PINUP SPECIAL — followed by an ambitious mini-series that will find Toxie rubbing elbows with characters from a number of other fan-favorite AHOY titles, including Jesus Christ (from the pages of Russell and Pace’s controversial SECOND COMING), the Jersey Devil (from the creature-packed anthology PROJECT: CRYPTID), Acid Chimp (from Russell, Bryce Ingman and Peter Krause’s absurdly hilarious MY BAD), Dragonflyman and Stinger (from Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle’s multiversal saga THE WRONG EARTH), and Swamp Cop and Schitt (from Bors’ and Ben Clarkson’s satirical smash hit JUSTICE WARRIORS).
“Toxic Avenger and Jesus Christ is the team-up that everybody has been clamoring for and I am not one to stand in the way,” said Mark Russell. “Just as in Second Coming, Christ shows that there are more tools in the box than just violence and that Tromaville, as strange as it is, is still a place that someone who grew up bullied by the jocks in the Roman Empire would recognize.”
“When I started writing the new Toxic Avenger series, I knew we could build this into some audacious comic crossovers,” said Matt Bors. “Toxie’s mutant gore and subversive charm make him the perfect foil to face off with the police of the polluted world of Justice Warriors.”
“Having already spawned five films, a cartoon, action figures, a musical, and a Marvel comic book series, the Toxic Avenger is a pop culture icon,” said AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “The only question is: why doesn’t he have a church of his own?”
“Scrappy, messy, and a little chaotic…am I talking about Toxie or AHOY?” asked AHOY Comics Senior Editor Sarah Litt. “Either way, two great tastes that taste better together.” The Syracuse-based AHOY COMICS publishes comics with a (dark) sense of humor with titles like the religious satire SECOND COMING, the sword and sorcery satire BABS, and superhero parodies THE WRONG EARTH and MY BAD.
THE TOXIC AVENGER PINUP SPECIAL will land in stores on May 14, 2025, followed by issue #1 of THE TOXIE TEAM-UP series on June 11, 2025. The TOXIC AVENGER graphic novel, publishing the acclaimed comic book mini-series by writer Matt Bors and artist Fred Harper, will be published on April Fool’s Day.
For more updates on AHOY Comics, visit them on X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.
The Toxic Avenger Trade Paperback:
Toxie Team-Up #1:
The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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