Dark Horse has released Evan Dorkin’s complete Eltingville Club comics, 1994-2015, in hard copy and on Kindle. It’s savage, brutal, hilarious, and probably something every fan should read.

Some people (understandably, especially after the first couple of seasons) complain that The Big Bang Theory invites its audience to laugh at, not with, the nerds. Compared to Eltingville, Big Bang is tame. Dorkin satirically slashes at the worst of nerddom with Swift, Juvenalian anger. I make no assumptions about the author’s feelings and motivations here; he names it anger in the book’s introduction. The saving grace is that Dorkin, something of a nerd icon, attacks from within; these characters don’t represent all nerds; they represent the worst excesses, the people who foul up fandom.

Of course, even less crazed fans may see something of ourselves in Dorkin’s funhouse mirror.

Either way, a fannish Valentine this ain’t.

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