Comics I Bought This Week: June 11, 2009
I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got four new comics plus two trade paperbacks and a hard cover collection. Quite a haul this week:
And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.
I read this series as it came out a couple of years ago but this is the first time I’ve sat down and read all the issues together.
“Apocalypse Nerd” has a fairly simple premise. A couple of buddies, one a computer guy (the nerd of the title) and the other a kind of fringe low level drug dealer loser, are coming home from camping in the mountains outside of Seattle when they find out the city has been nuked. The rest of the comic is them trying to survive out in the post apocalyptic woods.
This comic is the definition of dark comedy. It might, in fact, just be dark. Sure it’s drawn in Bagge’s comical style and there are jokes in it but some of the things our protagonists due to survive are downright disturbing.
This comic is filled with death, destruction, anarchy, and jokes. Reading it all together it reminded me a little of “The Walking Dead”. It had that same dramatic but depressing quality without the zombies. And more comedy.
These comics also have backup stories unrelated to the main stories. The backups are about the USA’s founding fathers and are played for comedy but Bagge is clearly a fan of history.
The stories are all about the personal and political differences between the various characters who formed our country. There is not much awe and reverence to be found here. I am also a history fan so I recognized most of the interpersonal conflicts he was writing about and he does a good job with them.
“Apocalypse Nerd” was definitely my favorite thing that Peter Bagge has done in a while. Not that he’s done a lot. The backups are a lot of fun if you’re a history buff but beware how dark the main story is. It’s good though.
Ahh… Stinky. How we miss you.
Apocalypse Nerd is the best thing Bagge's done since Hate… I, too, was surprised by the incredibly dark turn it took. Bagge has pulled stuff like that before. Remember Stinky's suicide?