Time Lincoln#1: Fists of Furher
(Antarctic Press, 2010)
Story and Art – Fred Perry
Coloring – Robby Bevard and Wes Hartman
Front Cover Art – Kelsey Shannon
Greetings from the Wasteland!
Since the early days of my film-viewing life, when I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, I have been firm in the knowledge that the good guy, when he really wanted terrible odds that he was certain to overcome, fought Nazis. The evil was always ultimate, the ending dramatic, and always worth the price of admission. Just so with this little gem, dug out of a dollar box with two of its’ wayward kin.
The cover alone is a thing of beauty. Time Lincoln: Fist of Furher…what else can be said about such a name? Not to mention that one of the others I picked up had the subtitle “Apocalypse Mao”, I could tell from the start that these would be something I would search out in the future.
The premise is this; at the moment of his assassination, Abraham Lincoln was pulled into a time vortex called the “void” by his assassin, Jozef Stalin, (not Booth) who had discovered the void’s secret through Rasputin. Even though he was indeed killed at Ford Theater, in his final moment Honest Abe lived another lifetime, traveling through time with a cast of historical heroes to thwart Void Stalin at every time-twisty turn. Time Lincoln was born.
In this issue we have the great emancipator fighting the worst of the worst, Adolf Hitler, but a Hitler that has been changed by the void. As a student of the occult, Adolf has seen into the void and gained secrets from it. He has become Mephitler, an SS uniform clad demon.
Albert Einstein, one of the group of historical scientists who aid Time Lincoln, calls through the void for help, and receives it in the form of Benjamin Franklin and the aforementioned Lincoln, who arrive in the nick to drop a can of star-spangled whoop-ass onto the Nazi Demons. (The others, Isaac Newton and Washington Carver make appearances in other issues.)
The greatest thing about using time travel as a premise in any story is exactly what Dr. Who discovered all those years ago. The possibilities are literally endless. Time Lincoln can call on anyone through the use of the void, and Void Stalin can use his power to bring any historical fiend to bear on his enemies.
The art is great, calling on a little bit of a manga style, but not enough that I would call it a manga book. Just an influence here and there that bleeds though into the writing, such as when Lincoln uses a “rising void punch” to take Mephitler out. (This, I must admit, was an extremely satisfying way to end the book, enjoyable on every level.)
Time Lincoln is a great book, easily worth the sale price, and worth the time it takes to find it.
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