I was at a bar last night with some classmates to celebrate the end of the semester. One of the guys looked at me and said, “You know, I always wanted to know what a girl who reads comics looks like.”

There’s no deep, dark secret to what girls who read comics look like. We look like all sorts of things, and are quite often quite cute. (/ego.) But more important, I think, is what girls who read comics LIKE. Aside from comics, of course.

I’m a self-proclaimed nerd girl (nrrd grrl) and I get geeked out about many, many things, from classic film noir to Shakespeare’s language to the perfect rock song to, of course, good comics. And lots of comics folks are into many other things, too.

So “Talk Nerdy to Me” will be a sort of regular feature for me. I’ll post it when I feel like it, but what I aim to do is give you all a bit of insight into things that give me geek-gasms. I’m pulling quotes from comics folks or related pop-culturey types that made me go “oooh” and get a wee bit of a brain-crush.

Because we all know brain-crushes are the best kind.

I make no promises that anything I say in this column will help you pick up nerd girls (or guys). And I hope no one will be offended by the use of the word “nerd.” I mean it in only the best way. For real.

Anyway! To the point, woman!

This episode of “Talk Nerdy To Me” comes from the Annotations in the back of Phonogram: The Singles Club #1. Phonogram is a comic for people who get as excited about music as they do about new comics. And it’s excellent.

So. The backmatter for Phonogram contains many things, including a rundown on the musical references for the issue. I’m going to make you buy the comic yourselves, but I am going to quote the annotation on Nick Cave, a longstanding geek-crush of mine.

Cave, Nick: Okay, more seriously: One of the towering figures in leftfield popular music of the last thirty years. From the Birthday Party, through the sinful Southern Gothic of his early work with the Bad Seeds, to the spiritual versus romantic transcendence of albums like The Boatman’s Call, that’s a hell of a body of work. And there’s still another fifteen or so years after that. Still-he does have a tendency to off a lot of ladies. She Who Bleeds… references, in order, “She’s Hit” by the Birthday Party, “From Her to Eternity,” “The Mercy Seat” and the whole of Murder Ballads. Her “revenge” Comment is referencing things like his PJ Harvey duet “Henry Lee” when PJ gets to do the slaying.

Nick Cave explication plus comics plus feminist deconstruction? It’s triple-layer bliss. Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, and guest artist Laurenn McCubbin: I kind of love you.

Plus, the comic is about as much sheer  joy as can be packed into sequential format. Go buy it already.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Comic Books, Image, Pop Culture, Talk Nerdy to Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.