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Let the Madmania Begin – Pushing Mike Allred's Madmaniverse Into Even More Fancentric Swag

Christopher Irving writes,

One of the things I dig about Mike Allred's Madman is the trickling in of really cool merchandise and goodies, things that made Frank Einstein and company feel like they've always been part of the pop culture fabric that inspired them.

I've been really lucky to have successfully funded Madman in the Madman Comin' Atcha 3D trading card set (with my dear pal, Christian LeBlanc at the 3D helm) and the Madman 25! Waxpack of trading cards. Mike, Christian and I have been talking for a few years about creating a BIG Madman product; we're finally getting the logistics down but, in the meantime, I wanted to treat Mike's fan base to something unique, quirky and cool–especially with his and Laura's new X-Ray Robot on its way from Dark Horse Comics.

Let the Madmania Begin – Pushing Mike Allred's Madmaniverse Into Even More Fancentric Swag

Enter the Madmaniverse Backstage Pass Fun Pack. The gag is that Madman and his pals The Atomics and Red Rocket 7 (amongst my favorite, if not most underrated, Allred creations) and putting on a rock show with new opening act X-Ray Robot, and only the die-hard fans can get early access to the cool band merch coming down the pike.

This also gives me an excuse to make new swag like patches, stickers, and temporary tattoos. It's a win-win.

I also discovered a cool new feature at Kickstarter: Landing pages. You're able to set up a preview banner page before launch, which Kickstarter folks can then choose to follow. It blasts a notification out at launch. This worked gangbusters! We funded a great deal within the first few hours of its launch at 7:30 AM Eastern time on a Friday.

And we continued to blow through the stretch goals. At this point, we've gone from a modest Fun Pack of a backstage pass (with advance notification of my next Madmaniverse Kickstarter campaign this year) and trading cards to include two stickers, an X-Ray Robot iron-on patch, a bumper sticker, postcard, and an X-Ray Robot preview card of the cover. At this writing, there are a few days and a few hundred dollars to reach a metallic foil Madman Adventures card (of the swank Hero Illustrated ashcan from years back, my personal intro to Frank and company) and exclamation bolt temporary tattoo.

Each Madman campaign I work on brings me back to that Hero Illustrated preview of Madman Adventures; bagged in with an issue of the long-defunct Wizard magazine competitor, this small ashcan flipped a switch in my teenage brain when it came out in 1994. Madman was an unashamedly pop culture-infused, vibrant superhero with retroistic leanings in a time of clenched teeth, steroid cases, and oversized guns in superhero comics. What's more, Madman Adventures featured both a sensitivity and trippy approach to existentialism.

It taught me that superhero comics can still be fun, but (more importantly) personal and thought-provoking. This has carried me through my career as a comics journalist and historian, and brought me in touch with both Mike and Laura while still in college. My first cover story (Comics Buyer's Guide) was on The Atomics, and a compilation of Mike's interviews led me to publish the first academic book on Mike's work and career for University of Mississippi.

Mike's son, Han, is creating a documentary on his father's existentialism and comics–the aptly titled Space Face –that we'll soon also be hearing more about. Mike and Laura have not only been my biggest cheerleaders through this crazy trip from college kid to publisher to college professor, but continue to inspire me to make cool stuff. I'd love for you to come along on this mission of making more cool Madmaniverse swag!

Let the Madmania Begin – Pushing Mike Allred's Madmaniverse Into Even More Fancentric Swag

So, dig this: I want to see this campaign hit the 100 backer mark and I also want to see how many backers I get from Bleeding Cool. The last time I did a piece on Bleeding Cool, it was for my trading card set of Will Eisner's The Spirit, and the exposure pushed it further through the stratosphere. I just added a Bleeding Cool Metal Backstage Pass Level to keep track of the Bleeding Cool visitors (though feel free to pay a few more bucks for the limited signed edition). If we can get my backers up to 100, I'll throw in a prestige trading card of Madman's first appearance in the Oddity Odyssey! Let's do it! Please spread the word: This campaign ends on Friday, January 31 at 7:50 AM.

Madmaniverse Campaign:  Christopher Irving is an Associate Professor of Comics and Media at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Communication Arts. As The Drawn Word, he publishes limited runs of comic book trading cards, original pulp novels, illustrated classic books, and more.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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