Toronto Thumbs

Who Buys This Shit?
Jesus Hates Zombies, Lincoln Hates Werewolves

I know I was a little harsh on our friend Abraham Lincoln and his star-turn in Time Lincoln a few weeks back.

Recently, during my travels around the Internet, I came across a Lincoln-related comic that I could definitely see myself getting behind. It is perhaps the most interesting historical figure crossover comic ever produced: Jesus Hates Zombies featuring Lincoln Hates Werewolves. Here’s the publisher’s description:

“The zombie plague has swept across the Earth, and Jesus has been sent down to take care of it. Along with Laz, his loyal zombie sidekick, Jesus must unite the remaining humans to stand up and defeat the zombie menace. With a time-traveling Abraham Lincoln at his side, and a zombified Angel hot on their heels, can this mish-mash of heroes save humanity - or themselves?!”

I am concerned, however, with the historical inaccuracies of this book. Everyone knows that Jesus loves zombies. In fact, Jesus was a zombie himself! I was taught as much during my youth as a part of the Church of Zombie Christ. We learned all about the importance of feeding on the body, blood, and brains of our saviour so that we could unify as one large zombified army against the forces of evil. Of course, we didn’t have any of Jesus’ actual brains, so we substituted animal brains most of the time.

Before the RCMP burned our compound to the ground and seized all of our assets, we were quite busy preparing for the joy of the upcoming rapture and zombie apocalypse. Ah, those were the days!

Jesus Hates Zombies is the creation of writer Stephen Lindsay and artist Steve Cobb. From the preview pages I saw online, it looks like it would be a funny and entertaining read. Jesus has quite the chip on his shoulder and he is not afraid to show it! I will be ordering the book into my comic store, and you can do the same at your local shop.

Why does Lincoln always end up being a time traveler in comics? Is there something in his genetic makeup that makes him an ideal candidate? Personally, if I were Jesus and facing an army of zombies I would choose to partner with a dead president who had a little more combat experience, such as Ulysses S. Grant or Dwight Eisenhower.

In any event, I believe this book has definite “cool shit” potential. What do you think?

Posted in Awesome, Comics, Who Buys This Shit? | 4 Comments »

ART
General Bauhaus

Meet General Bauhaus. Kick-ass name, isn’t it? As expected, he’s quite the baddie in Guerrilla Gardening, the upcoming PC strategy game being developed by Toronto’s own Spooky Squid.

The colouring is by Miguel Sternberg of Spooky Squid, and the character design is by comic book illustrator and homegrown hero Eric Kim. Great to see this game’s progressing nicely, because I’m looking forward to playing it.

Check out the full-size artwork over at the Guerrilla Gardening dev blog.

Posted in Art, Awesome, Comics, Indie, TORONTO | No Comments »

Who Buys This Shit?
Time Lincoln

With practically every publisher on the planet putting out a comic with Obama on the cover, someone needed to come along and do something fresh, and outside of the box. Thankfully the fine folks at Antarctic Press have answered our prayers. Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you: Time Lincoln.

Taken out of time on the night of his assassination by H.G. Wells’ Time machine, Abraham Lincoln finds himself waging war on the forces of evil in the past, present, and future!

I think Time Lincoln is poised to be one of the greatest superheroes to ever grace the printed page. I haven’t been this excited for ‘Honest Abe’ since he appeared in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and uttered those now infamous words, “Party on, dudes!”

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Posted in Comics, Who Buys This Shit? | 14 Comments »

Mad With Power Ring Power
Jim Squires

Not long ago we held a Blackest Night contest with Sidekick Comics providing the goods: A set of Lantern power rings, one for each colour of the rainbow. Jim Squires won them, and upon receiving them, snapped a photo of himself and did some great work superimposing himself onto the cover of this Green Lantern comic book. Bonus points for the Green Lantern shirt!

Jim, I’m glad you’re enjoying the rings. In other DC Universe news, their next ring promotion will be for the Brightest Day event, and they’ll be giving away Flash and Green Lantern rings. I wrote a bit about it for 4 Color Rebellion yesterday, so check it out. Given the rather close relationship between Toronto Thumbs and Sidekick Comics, I’d say there’s a good chance we might have a giveaway for those rings, too.

Posted in Awesome, Comics, Contests | No Comments »

Who Buys This Shit?
Atari Joystick Gum!

Welcome to this first installment of Who Buys This Shit?, a column where I report regularly on some of the really cool, as well as some of the incredibly awful, merchandise that’s available to me as a comic shop owner¹.

You may be asking yourself, “What right does a guy who owns a comic book store have posting his thoughts on a gaming website?”

It’s a legitimate question, and if I were asked it in person my immediate response would be, “When are you going to stop asking stupid questions and go to hell?” Seriously. There’s a lot of crossover right now between the comic and gaming worlds. Comic-based videogames are more successful than ever (ever hear of Batman: Arkham Asylum?), and it seems every major videogame release also has a comic series associated with it.

That said, let’s be positive here, and take a look at some really cool shit that we received this week: Atari Joystick Gum!

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Posted in Awesome, Comics, Who Buys This Shit? | 6 Comments »

CONTEST WINNER
Lantern Power Ring Giveaway

All right! All right! I’m awake. Jeez. Who knew that 54-40 could rock so hard till the wee hours of the morning despite it being well below zero degrees Celsius? I did, of course; as a huge fan of the band (they are, in fact, my fave band ever) it was a real treat to see them usher in 2010 on the 29th anniversary of their first-ever show, even though I might have ended up with some form of frostbite. But enough about that!

We just drew a winner for our Lantern Power Ring Giveaway. Mr. Jim Squires was the lucky random winner. We asked all entrants to state their comic heroes, be they fictional characters or the people behind them, and Jim’s response was quite heartfelt:

In my heart of hearts, my #1 comic book hero right now has to be Toronto’s own Bryan Lee O’Malley. I’m a late-comer to the Scott Pilgrim party, but as a writer he’s an inspiration. A shining example that comics don’t all have to be about men in tights. A close runner up for the same reason would be Gene Luen Yang.

Jim’s also let us know that this win will be the kick in the pants he needs to get back into the DC Universe. We recommend checking in with our sponsors, Sidekick Comics, for any comic book needs you may have (including back issues!). Jim also mentioned he’s going to be wearing these rings in place of his real wedding ring, which is currently inside of a turtle (though not really). Although this is really geeky and cool I hope he finds his real ring soon. Congrats to Jim, thanks to all the entrants for sharing their fond comic love, and Happy New Year to all!

Posted in Awesome, Comics, Contests | No Comments »

Happy Holidays From DMF Comics!
Gonna Get Wasted

Here’s how the BEAR from The Bear Stories rolls when it’s the holidays. Actually, I’m pretty sure he rolls like this regardless of the time of year. The gang at DMF Comics sent this special e-card to its mailing list subscribers. This is actually the second card we’ve received from the people behind The Bear Stories; the first one was a hand-drawn olde-tyme signed card from the comic’s creators. Considering they have a lot of people to send cards to, that’s a lot of bears/messages to draw/write!

DMF’s e-card, however, also contains a link to Reindeertase with a bit of a spoiler: The game marks the first time the BEAR has appeared in a videogame. I’m hoping it won’t be the last. I’ll remain tight-lipped regarding where he is, but I will say that he tosses fireballs like a regular Ryu.

Posted in Art, Awesome, Canada, Comics | No Comments »

CONTEST
Lantern Power Ring Giveaway

Over a month ago, we teased about an upcoming contest. It took a while to get to, but now it’s finally here. If you’re a fan of comics, then you might be familiar with DC’s Blackest Night event. As part of the promotion for it, the comics giant offered retailers the opportunity to give away different-coloured lantern power rings with select comics throughout the month of November.

Our friends at Sidekick Comics have given us a full set of these awesome rings to give away to one lucky winner of this contest. The rings are solidly constructed and are sized for adult fingers, unlike previous promotional Green Lantern rings. These rings all feature great metallic finishes and, since they come in every colour of the rainbow, are great for accessorizing.

All you need to do if you want to enter this contest is: A) have a Canadian (UPDATE: Or US) mailing address and B) leave a comment on this post with the name of your favourite comic book hero in it. “Hero” in this context can be a fictional character, an artist, writer, or even creator.

The contest closes January 1, 2010. We’ll draw a winner at random* when we wake up that day. Keep in mind due to festivities, this might not be until rather late in the day. We’ll contact the winner at the email address used to leave the comment for some follow-up information, so be sure to use a real one.

UPDATE: Check out the WINNER’S ANNOUNCEMENT to see who won!

Posted in Awesome, Comics, Contests | 10 Comments »

Arkham Has Moved
Batman: Arkham Asylum Sequel in Development

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has released a teaser trailer for its follow-up to Batman: Arkham Asylum and launched a site for the game at arkhamhasmoved.com. The video depicts mayhem in the streets of Gotham and features an appearance by both The Joker and Harley Quinn. Consider me officially excited!

Via Dork Shelf

Posted in Awesome, Comics, News Bytes, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 1 Comment »

FASHIONABLY LATE REVIEW
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

The all-star comic cast in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 features some impressive talent and a gamut of super powers. My two favourite characters to play as, however, are Wolverine and Deadpool. It’s not that I don’t think the rest of Marvel’s superstars are cool – It’s just that once you have Wolverine and Deadpool on your team, you don’t quite need anyone else. So the other two dudes you choose to round out your team of four? Who cares who they might be?

Beat-’em-ups are meant to be just that – good, old-fashioned beat downs at the touch of a button (or in most cases, at the repeated mashing of a button – but that’s just semantics). So my preference for these short-range characters has some sort of sense to it. Apart from allowing for some up close and personal fisticuffs, Wolverine and Deadpool have some of the best banter found in the game. Because the banter can get repetitive during extended play sessions, it’s a good idea to pick characters you can stand.

Comic fans and those that respect the medium know that it’s capable of some excellent storytelling. Games derived from comics, however, don’t always come through in this regard. It’s not something to hold against comics-related games so much as it’s something to hold against games in general. While in recent years games with narrative have become a big movement for the industry, not all of them have great stories. It’s a forgivable offense, as games themselves are a) still a very new medium and b) much more than just a story anyway and can be appreciated on many levels.

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Posted in Comics, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »