DC Comics Teams Up with Kentucky Fried Chicken for a Second Colonel Sanders Comic Book Adventure

Last year Kentucky Fried Chicken partnered with DC Comics to promote their restaurant chain at 2015's New York Comic Con by distributing a free comic book featuring Colonel Sanders that was available as a one shot collectible print edition that could be picked up at the event and a digital download from the online store Comixology.com that was available for a limited time.  In "The Colonel of Two Worlds" which is a parody of a classic DC Comics' FLASH story, the Colonel Sanders of our planet faces off against an evil Colonel Sunder from an alternate dimension.  Well Harland Sanders hasn't seen the last of his evil doppelganger as Colonel Sunder is back in an all new comic book adventure just in time for 2016's San Diego Comic Con.

In "Colonel Corps," Harland Sanders blacks out and awakens to realize he can remember only one of his 11 secret ingredients for "finger lickin good chicken."  Suddenly Arla Sanders, a version of the Colonel from one of the multitude of alternate dimensions in the DC comics fictional multi-verse where in her world all the people are the reverse gender of those living in Harland's reality, warning him that someone has stolen the KFC recipe from the minds of all the Colonels that exist on all the variations of Earth and erased their memories off all but one ingredient just like him.  Harland Sanders joins with the female versions of himself and the Flash to search out enough Colonels with unique memories of different ingredients to put the recipe back together again.

Arla, Harland and the Flash visit a variety of realities in the DC multi-verse including Bizarro, Steampunk, and Teen Titans Go! worlds plus a dimension where the inhabitants are all animals and KFC is run by a charming yet cannibalistic chicken.  All these variations join together to create the Colonel Corps.  Together they put the KFC secret recipe back together and track down the perpetrators of this dastardly scheme  ... Colonel Sunders along with a new diabolical version of the Colonel with mind control powers who makes every member of the Colonel Corps face their most dreaded fear during the comic book's big confrontation segment.

This comic book works because it doesn't take itself more seriously than the promotional piece it is supposed to be.  Filled with tongue-in-cheek one liners and humorous imagery it really is a fun read.  The partnership with the DC Comics creative team provides the polish needed though to make the comic book an enjoyable gimmick rather than en eye rolling bad KFC ad.  I personally really liked the big battle scene in the comic book and the letter to the editor section at the end with Colonel Sanders answering questions from fans of "Colonel of Two Worlds" made me chuckle.  I'm also intrigued by the teaser in the Colonel's MailBucket section promoting a potential next installment in this comic book saga "The Chicken That Time Forgot" -- we'll have to keep an eye out for that!

If you are lucky enough to be going to Comic Con in San Diego this month keep an eye out for people passing these out at the exhibition hall.  For the rest of us, "Colonel Corps" is available to download for FREE on Comixology.  Just CLICK HERE to grab it for yourself to read.

Make a Zoo-flake

When our family went to see the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, this week we saw a trailer for the next Disney animated feature film that will be arriving soon in theaters, ZOOTOPIA.  My kids excitedly asked if we could see this movie next week while they are out from school on Winter Break, but unfortunately we are going to have to wait a bit longer than that as ZOOTOPIA isn't being released in the United States until March 4, 2016.



To provide a bit of winter fun for my kids and our A Geek Daddy blog readers while we wait for the arrival of the film in theaters, our friends at Walt Disney Studies have provided some ZOOTOPIA themed activity sheets that let you create snow flakes incorporating the characters featured in the movie's trailer.  Make your own Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, or Flash Zoo-flake with these fun cut-out activity sheets.




About the movie:

The modern mammal metropolis of Zootopia is a city like no other.  Comprised of habitat neighborhoods like ritzy Sahara Square and frigid Tundratown, it's a melting pot where animals from every environment live together -- a place where no matter what you are, from the biggest elephant to the smallest shrew, you can be anything.  But when rookie police officer Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) arrives, she discovers that being the first bunny on a force of big tough animals isn't so easy.  Determined to prove herself, she jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with fast talking, scam artist fox Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) to solve the mystery.

Colonel Sanders Featured In Free Comic Book From Kentucky Fried Chicken

Demonstrating that geek is the new chic, Kentucky Fried Chicken has partnered with DC Comics to promote their restaurant chain at this week's 2015 New York Comic Con event by distributing a special one shot collectible comic book featuring Colonel Sanders.  In "The Colonel of Two Worlds" which is a parody of a classic FLASH story, the Colonel Sanders of our planet faces off against an evil Colonel Sanders from an alternate dimension.  When the evil doppelganger dressed in black attempts to both set up a criminal empire and market inferior fried chicken to KFC's, Colonel Sanders enlists the help of superheroes The Green Lantern and The Flash to help save the day and restore his tarnished image.  It's a comic book face off between a good and evil Colonel Sanders!  Who will prevail?  You'll have to read the comic book to find out!

Kentucky Fried Chicken will be distributing print editions of "The Colonel of Two Worlds" for free to attendees at New York Comic Con from October 8 through the 11th.  Can't make it to New York City?  Beginning October 8th, you can also view a free digital version of the comic book on the KFC website or download it via Comixology.

Yes this comic book is going to be cheesy but you have to give KFC some credit for being original and creative in marketing themselves to fans of the comic book culture.  Take a few moments to not take life too seriously and enjoy the geeky side of life by flipping through the pages of "The Colonel of Two Worlds."  I'm sure it will probably put a smile on your face.  Hmmm....I wonder if this comic book will be finger lickin good?!

DC COMICS HAS DOUBLE SUCCESS WITH ITS VIDEO GAME & COMIC BOOK DYNAMIC DUO

My college years were filled with a lot of late evenings tackling my buddies in exhausting bouts of combat as we all strove to be the campus champion in Mortal Kombat.  This game had cutting edge graphics and features for the time and was a great way to release some of our scholarly anxieties and just have some youthful rambunctious fun.  I've wondered over the years why video game publishers have never made an exhilarating combat game that allows players to bash comic book super heroes and villains  against one another.  Well the waiting ended this year when the creators of Mortal Kombat took its game engine updated with today's graphics and processing technology to produce INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US.

INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US pits the DC Comics super heroes of "our universe" against their personalities from an alternate dimension on  Xbox and PlayStation consoles.  The game play is fun and full of special effects and feature moves that keeps the games interesting.  It's a brawling good time for fans of Superman, Batman and the like.  The weakness of the games is an odd ball plot and lacking script for the game's "story" but that is overcome by the sheer fun of the game's one-on-one battle sequences.

Don't fret though because DC has addressed the limitations of the game's script with an incredible new comic
book series with the same name as the video game but with its own stand alone in-depth story.   Often times these type of tie-in comics are just meant for marketing purposes and don't have a lot of effort put into them making them not worth a glance, but I have to say DC has embraced this effort and made this an extraordinary piece of work.  I was riveted to the pages while reading it and enthralled by the storyline of this comic book series.  The comic has decent artwork but it is the story that draws your interest and hooks you.  This was one of the best comic book reads I've had in a few years and highly recommend it whether or not you are interested in the video game.

While of course the story has super hero battles it also has a philosophical undertone exploring the balancing
act of giving up "freedom" to gain "security" that combined with good character plots and scripting makes this title a winner.  The comic book series revolves around how an injustice is done to Superman and how superheroes based upon that act as "gods" among mankind in response.  There really are some hard hitting sequences in this comic that go a lot darker than the "Smallville" type portrayal of the DC universe that many people associate with its super heroes.

The story starts with the Joker tricking Superman into killing his pregnant wife, Lois Lane as well as their unborn child, with his bare hands and in the process also causing a nuclear explosion that decimates his adopted home of Metropolis killings it entire population of 11 million people.  This pushes Superman to his breaking point.  He pledges to stop all violence in the world.  Instead of protecting humanity from threats so they have the freedom of self determination, the Man of Steel determines that he well  decide the rules by which mankind conducts itself and behaves.  This places Superman at odds with Batman who doesn't believe that super heroes should be acting like "gods among us" in determining how much freedom or control the people of Earth should have over their own behavior.

 The plot of INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US really places Superman who has been know for upholding "truth, justice, and the American way" into a grey area between good guy and bad guy which is highlighted in one scene where he tries to put down a citizen protest and is yelled down being told "you think you can come here and hover above us all with a scowl and some special powers and tell us what to do?"  This dynamic really makes the story an entertaining read that I couldn't put down.  So far I haven't figured out if the comic book story is taking place in an "alternate reality" like the video game and is explaining how the Superman Regime from the game began or is supposed to be taking place in the "main stream" DC universe.  While there are similarities between some things in the game script and the comic book story there are also lots of differences too. DC Comics does call the series a prequel to the video game though which has to make you think maybe this is the alternate reality setup.  I guess I'll have to just keep reading to find out.

Missed the monthly serial issues of the comic? Don't worry you can catch up with the first 5 issues all bundled together as a hardcover edition.  INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US - VOLUME 1 went on sale August 13, 2013.  Check it out!

Also if you are interested in the game console video game and/or the comic book there also is a great iPad game that I've downloaded and been playing quite a bit lately...it's become my favorite game beating out Angry Birds: Star Wars for my attention...and its FREE.  I just beat a number of challenges to add General Zod to my online cast of characters.  You can download the game from the iTunes store.

Kudos to DC Comics for making their INJUSTICE video game and comic book a great dynamic duo!

DISCLAIMER:  I was provided a complimentary digital advance readers edition pdf of INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US-VOLUME 1 from the publisher.  I was not compensated for this review and the thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.