Clayton Lowe is headed back to his small Southern hometown. His new friends from grad school are about to meet his old friends from high school and discover that something may have finally changed in the town where nothing ever changes: Pine Cove is ground zero for an infestation of body-snatching alien-bugs. Time to bury the past.
From Cody Ziglar (Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Spider-Punk, Futurama) and Ryan Lees (Rick & Morty) comes a body-snatching splatter-fest of horror and humor!
Ziglar said in a statement:
“I grew up watching ’80s and ’90s B-horror films. I also grew up in a small country
town. Goobers is a love letter to both! I love being able to smash some of my favorite genres, movies, and comics together with my love of North Carolina. I also loved being able to voice the frustration of growing up in a small town and being self-conscious about what they thought of me and how I lived my life. Back in 2021 during peak Covid, I moved back home for six months to spend time with my parents and that’s where Goobers was truly born. I kept wondering what made certain towns feel the same, even if there are small changes, and landed on the obvious answer: alien worms must invade and body-snatch folks. Goobers, in many ways, is just my comedic look on processing those emotions while also paying homage to some of my favorite films like Shaun of the Dead, Night of the
Creeps, Get Out, and Revenge of the Living Dead.”
Lee said in a statement:
“Upon my first pass of Cody’s script for Goobers, I recognized our kindred creative sensibilities and knew this would be a riot to work on. This script was hilarious and heartfelt, but hardcore when it gets in the guts of the terror and action. Goobers squirmed its spiked larval body into that monster infatuation I’ve treasured since childhood. I was blessed to grow up in a golden era of mischievous little freaks: Gremlins, Ghoulies. Critters, Munchies. Trolls, Madballs. Garbage Pail Kids. Comics. Cracked Monster Parties. The monster books of Mercer Mayer. These were
my muses. There’s a magic in those freaks that buried their claws into my brain and jolted my imagination to draw and create my own beasties. Enter Goobers: the continuation of an obsession. Infesting the charming town of Pine Cove with voracious alien worms and transforming it into a hellish nightmare-scape has been good, not-so-clean fun. It’s been so rewarding to access my extensive horror vernacular from films like The Thing, The Stuff, Alien, Attack the Block,
Starship Troopers, etc. to infuse these stories with horrified expressions, gallows humor, and splattery violence and gore.As much fun as I’ve had drawing this delightfully obscene pandemonium, my main concern is telling Cody’s story with a high level of believability and craft to bring these fine folk to life. I love the rich friendship the main characters share in this story. There’s a familiarity and love in their interactions that I admire. Clay and his crew have similar dynamics to my own friend group; a culture of playful ribbing that only works because of their deep foundation of trust and loyalty. The stakes of the massacre in Pine Cove are high because you care so much about Clay, Laura, Andy, and Kyle. Also, good luck finding a more worthy group of space worm smashers.”
Ahead of the September release of Goobers #1, The Beat snagged an exclusive and extended preview of the comic. Check it out below!
