Jesus rises and wants your hugs at the 2009 Philly Zombie Crawl – photo by grendelsden on flickr
Easter Sunday is approaching — and that means it’s time to celebrate the famous undead prophet’s re-birthday at the Easter Philadelphia Zombie Crawl. You don’t even have to do your own make-up — you can attend a pre-game painting for just $10 (which we know from experience will save you time cleaning the gore stains off the bathroom sink.)
In other zombie walk news, we haven’t heard anything about another Easter zombie walk in Boston this year, after there was some controversy about last year’s Easter zombie event there. But you really never know when the hordes will strike, do you?
Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, that special day of the year when you can just walk into a comic book store and walk out with free comics. Legally, that is.
There are some fantastic-looking comics among this year’s free offerings, such as Attack Of The Alterna-Zombies!, which features Jesus Hates Zombies. FEARNet has a preview of several pages of Jesus Hates Zombies — here’s a nice snippet with Jesus, Abraham Lincoln and a zombie horde:
The organizers are responding by saying they meant no offense, and to please have tolerance on all sides. In a secularizing country (where 15% of Americans have no religion at all) their satirical date choice is far from shocking. But is it offensive?
Comments left on the event’s Facebook page include harsh (and sometimes trolling) criticism such as “Having this on easter will be perceived as being anti christian and mocking jesus,” and “the timing on Easter is clearly offensive.” Are these comments coming from actual zombie walk participants, or from roving bands of Christian e-soldiers? Easter zombie walks aren’t unprecedented. And considering that the Easter Bunny is more iconic of Easter to many Americans than Jesus’ resurrection, the zombie walk’s timing is unlikely to offend the mainstream.
What’s the point of a zombie walk? They’re intended to be provocative. This Easter, Boston is taking the bait.
Zombie Jesus! (2007) is a short film that explores the Jesus zombie lore (as we explored in a previous post) in a typical Midwestern US B-movie setting. The main character returns to her tiny hometown and teams up with a local Jew named Isaac to save the town from the cold, dead hands of Zombie Jesus.
These vividly drawn black-and-white comics feature multiple short stories about Jesus’ zombie slashing adventures. Later stories feature “Laz”, Jesus’ zombie sidekick. The second installment in Jesus Hates Zombies (2008) features even more sacrilicious gore with the bonus story, Lincoln Hates Warewolves.
