Matt Miner’s new comic Toe Tag Riot has some truly scary villains in its first few issues. The comic follows a punk band that turns into zombies when they perform live, but in this story, the undead are the good guys. (Or girls.)
Two of the bandmates in Toe Tag Riot are women and (bonus!) girlfriends. The drummer and bassist, Evie and Annie, are in a relationship, and they are major characters who take on the negativity of antagonists like the Westboro Baptist Church and other bigots, racists and homophobes (aka the villains I was talking about above.)
In the first issue, out today, Toe Tag Riot take on skinheads that come to their show. Then they hit the road on a tour, while also looking to find out how to get the zombie curse off of them so they can play music as humans.
Toe Tag Riot was fully funded by a Kickstarter campaign last June, and during their push for donations, the Westboro Baptist Church even endorsed the comic, saying their being included in its pages was “preaching the Gospel of Christ.” Creator Matt Miner said his ultimate hope is to create more tolerance in the world of comics, even if that includes drawing the WBC’s hate-speech into his zombie world. He told The Montreal Gazette:
“My goal is to put these books into the hands of people who don’t think twice before calling someone a ‘fag’ or a ‘slut’ and maybe make them think. The world of comics fandom – and the greater world in general – is pretty intolerant. There is a lot of sexism and homophobia in the comic book community.”
You can get your hands on Issue #1 of Toe Tag Riot from Matt’s website now.
