While we Americans were either in a post-Thanksgiving torpor or a state of exhaustion brought on by retail excess (actually, I was in neither; mostly, I was wondering why I persist in buying the Metroid series even though I find the games incredibly frustrating and then persist in playing them), in Halifax, authentic Canadians, some of them zombies, were attending Faith Erin Hicks's signing of her new graphic novel Zombies Calling at Strange Adventures.

Faith has an account of her signing at her blog, and Strange Adventures has a page of photos here. Big thanks to Strange Horizons for supporting Zombies Calling and Faith! Brendan Peveril was there and has a picture of his signed and sketched-on book at his blog, with a short review: "there’s clever dialogue, asskicking, and the story skips along effortlessly when it needs to without getting mired in details or labourious fight scenes. The books reads a lot like Max Brooks’ zombie stuff, only without his eerie humourless affect. It’s exactly what it needs to be."

Speaking of reviews, I especially like this one by blogger Matt Brown  (who notes in his bio that he has a tattoo of Serenity Rose on his inside left arm) at tederick.com: "Well this thing just fucking rocks. I mean I had high expectations but god-DAMN, Zombies Calling doesn't do a single thing wrong. It's sweet undead comic awesomehood from chimpan-A to chimpan-Zombie."

So what the hell are you waiting for? Zombies Calling is available at comic stores, Amazon.com and slgcomic.com! And it probably should be in bookstores this week. For some reason, bookstores get comics a week or so after their official release date.

Faith is reportedly doing a signing at The Beguiling in Toronto next. I'll post details when I get them.

UPDATE: The Zombies Calling linkage endeth not!

There's a write-up about Faith and her book at The Coast. I'm so amused that "kick-ass" has become an acceptable adjective in the legitimate media. Well, at least in Canada.

And another blogger, this time Norm Wilner at Wilnervision, reviews Zombies Calling: "It’s just about perfect, really — a zombie adventure with a distinctly Scott Pilgrimish (Pilgrimian?) undercurrent of chaotic, self-aware wit."