I cannot be the only one!
Check back every Monday for a new SNG comic!
Alex is our resident Webcomic creator. He grew up in Puerto Rico, but didn’t reach true Nerdom until he came state side when he was in middle school. He’s been drawing since he was five, but has only started posting Webcomics in the past year. You can check out his amazing and original work at tapastic.com/gomezalexj.
‘Going Rogue’ is part of a multi-post series where the writers of Some Nerd Girl share their Origin Stories – in other words, when and how did the nerdening happen?!
This is where I tell you how I became a Nerd Girl.
Some people are born great and some have greatness thrust upon them. But I truly believe becoming a nerd was my destiny. It was unavoidable.
I was fossil hunting with my father since I was old enough to walk, learning about crystals, sediment layers, and geology. I also learned to love plants and nature from my father’s gardening obsessions. And I have always loved space, dinosaurs, time travel, robots and diseases. Even as a very young child.
I learned to read before I ever even started kindergarten. Do you know what kindergarten is like when you can read a novel and the rest of the class is still learning letters? It is boring as f*ck.
Thankfully, I liked to read and spent my class time occupying myself with books. I quickly found that as long as I completed the work, answered when called upon, and didn’t disrupt the class, nobody really cared what I did. So I read. All day. Everyday. For 13 years of school.
It was only a matter of time until I read every book in the children’s section of our public library and moved up to the adult books. I was 10 when that happened. It was a glorious day.
Maybe I would have just been your average book worm had I not discovered comics. Maybe I would not have become the nerd I am now. But, I did discover them. I did a post about getting into comics here. But after consulting with my brother, I’ve gotten the deeper story.
Once upon a time in 1992, there was a kick ass cartoon called X-Men. I was never a kid that liked TV. I always preferred reading. TV was loud and obnoxious. Books were quiet and imaginative.
I watched a few shows. Fraggle Rock. Chip and Dale. Pinwheel. That kind of thing. But my brother T and sister J were all about TV. They watched almost every kids’ show that we could get on our antennae. One day I walked in on them watching X Men. It was another loud cartoon that had people fighting in skin tight outfits.
But for some reason it captured my attention and I sat down to watch it. What I remember most about that episode was Rogue. And I loved her.
She had amazing hair, a strong southern accent, and a sarcastic attitude. I immediately wanted to know more about her. I mean, she was super strong, and pretty, and could freaking fly!
The more I watched the show, the more I learned about her. She came from a broken home and had shitty parents. I could relate. She didn’t like being touched, which I could relate to even more. Never mind that her touching people caused them pain or death. I could relate!
We happened to live a few blocks from a comic book store at that time and one block from the library. I began spending nearly all my free time at one of those two places.
My love of Rogue quickly turned into an obsession with the X-Men. I started collecting their trading cards. And then bought the aforementioned hat. I already loved to read and comics were an easy transition.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is my love for Rogue. She was a fantastic character. She was interesting in a way that so few female characters are allowed to be, even nowadays.
I mean, she started out bad. She puts the first boy she kisses into a coma then runs away from her abusive father and joins the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. During that time she kills Ms. Marvel and absorbs all her power. Horrified by her actions (and battling Ms. Marvel’s personality) she runs away from the second abusive home in her life and finds Professor X and the X-Men.
She still can’t touch anyone. She still feels guilt at the things she has done. She spends the rest of her life using Ms. Marvel’s powers to do good in the world. And she tries very hard to avoid using her own natural powers.
People like to talk about how Jean Grey has so little control over her powers. And that is true. But Rogue? She cannot utilize her original powers at all. She keeps herself fully covered. She cannot even kiss someone for fear of permanently hurting them. Jean Grey has poor control. Rogue has zero control.
Now I haven’t read her comics in many years and I am sure a lot has happened since then. But I am talking about the original character that I loved all those years ago.
She is complex and interesting and sometimes her good intentions go awry. She messes up, she hurts people. She has an attitude that is not all sugar and spice. She has a love interest in Gambit that she can never be with. How can I not love a character like that?
I outgrew my love for X-Men and Marvel in general. Don’t get me wrong; I watch the movies. But I have issues with Marvel and Stan Lee specifically. I moved on to other things in the comic book world. And I am sure I will be sharing those loves with you all soon enough.That is one of the overarching wonderful things about being a nerd – there is so much out there to love!
Maurnas is the barely anonymous alias of a reclusive Floridian fangirl. She has an alleged humor blog at cursitivity.WordPress.com and can also be found at maurnas@cursitivity on Twitter. She writes almost as much as she reads but has done nothing with her debatable talents thus far other than all the blogging and tweeting and writing.
Photograph by Brian Malfant
‘Con Job’ is part of a multi-post series where the writers of Some Nerd Girl share their convention stories – whether they be good, bad, or ugly!
Monster Mania is a horror convention in New Jersey that introduced me in to the world of conventions – in a less than conventional way. My first con experience was as a model in an attempt to recruit extras for an independent zombie flick that never actually happened. Back in 2006, cosplay wasn’t quite the culture it is today, so seeing zombies wandering abut in 50s garb was a pretty unique treat. A startling number of people wanted pictures of being bitten.
The next year, our friends were working on getting a production and prop replica business off the ground. While my friends were running around as Sexy Evil Ash and Zombie Wolverine and Spider-Man, I opted to keep to the booth running and sell the various replicas and curios we had brought with us. Pirate Aztec Gold, a bust of Leatherface, even a replica of the possessed phone from Nightmare on Elm Street were all yours for a price.
The Ghoul School had actually done a great job making these props – which were promptly sold and then autographed by people who had been in the movie. By Sunday, I was tired and Sexy Evil Ash (aka Peaches) was tired of running around. We’d hardly spent any time together that weekend, so when our “boss” announced he was going to take over the booth so we could actually enjoy the convention, we were delighted. We told him we were going to go over and check out the table with the guys from The Devil’s Rejects – Sid Haig and Bill Moseley. “Yea, well, go give ‘em backrubs and have fun,” he joked.
Peaches and I looked at each other, mulled over the thought, and, for some reason, concluded; “Yea, let’s totally do that!”
And so we did. First, we went to Bill Mosely. Because the guy who plays Otis Firefly is probably not terrifying at all, right? And he wasn’t. Actually, he was wearing a kimono-style silk robe.
How could we do this? We decided to go with Rule #1 of How To Do Things You Are Probably Not Allowed To Do – act legit. We grabbed a few of our friends’ flyers and headed towards the signing rooms. Admittedly, our execution was not perfect. It started with a hesitant and stumbled suggestion, complete with nervous head-scratching and foot shuffling. “We’re… uh… we’re with one of the vendors? We wanted to, y’know, offer the signers, a, uh… a back rub? To say thanks for coming.”
Bill Moseley shrugged and said “Cool, let’s do it.”
At first there was a totally panicked, wide-eyed moment of amazement. Did that just happen? Did he, this totally famous and terrifying monster, agree to a back rub? In a silk robe? In a second, Peaches was behind the table and going to town on his shoulders. There were a few attempts at chitchat, and the occasional person came up for an autograph and Peaches would duck out of the way. After a few minutes, Peaches announced she was done and that we appreciated meeting him. He held out a $20 bill and offered it to her. Blushing, she said she couldn’t accept it, we were doing it for free!
But she’d love if he gave her a signature, if that was ok?
Bill promptly picked up his sharpie, signed the $20, and handed it to her.
After that, we fled to the smoking area outside. Giddily puffing and smoking away the nervousness, we recapped the whole thing, looked at the pictures I had snapped, and completely geeked out. Once the nerves went away, we paused.
Could… could we do it again?
If one person was totally cool with it… would the others be as well?
Turns out, celebrities *love* back rubs. While waiting in line to talk to Sid Haig, I stared at an adjacent table. There, beside a very polite and bored assistant, was the one person I’d wanted to meet all week. Could I do this? I sidled up beside the assistant and slipped her a flyer. “We’re with the Ghoul School Production table. We’re offering back rubs to the signers? I didn’t want to interrupt…” I trailed off, looking at the line of eager folks waiting for autographs. The assistant assured me that she’d pass the flyer along.
A moment later I heard the most amazing, smoky, intrigued voice of Jason Mewes say, “Really? Where is she?”
In a flash, I was looking at Jay Mothaf*cking Mewes, explaining the free awesomeness we were providing. A moment later, I was touching one of my gods, and he liked it. By this point, Peaches was attacking the massive stature of Sid Haig, who was practically asleep at her touch, and we were gleefully snapping pictures of each other whenever we had to step aside so a fan could get a picture. Finally, I knew I had to be the best-best friend a gal could have, and help out my homie.
So I say, “Listen, Jay, I give good back rubs. But Peaches over there? She’s an artist.” Jason happily agreed to have her come show him her skills. By the time she was done, he was basically a puddle on the floor.
What was really interesting was the way different celebrities reacted. Many offered us free autographed pictures – even a few whom we had offered back rubs to but declined. Some acted as if us offering back rubs was the very height of rudeness. I even gave a back rub to a production manager, who had been feeling a little left out at the attention of the celebrity whom he had accompanied. It was a story for the ages – two college kids pretending to know what the hell they were doing when really it was all almost a total scam and a way to meet celebrities without having to wait in line.
The absolute best result of our mostly-unauthorized solicitations, however, was the one day at a comic convention 2 years later.
Peaches was wandering about, again in her Sexy Evil Ash costume, when out of nowhere a voice cries out, gravelly but urgent, “PEACHES!” Confused, she looked around for the originator of the ruckus. And there he was, was Jason Mewes, frantically waving at her. “I NEED A BACK RUB!”
Barbie O’Havoc has been considered a nerd since the first time she pissed someone off for having a weird opinion. Since then, she’s been spending her time indulging in the surprisingly expensive habits of reading trashy vampire novels and hitting people while playing roller derby. Both of her main hobbies have led to a love of terrible puns, much to everyone’s dismay.
Barbie O’ also loves coffee and local restaurants, and occasionally rambles about both on the Johnstown Food Blog.
Some Nerd Girl 
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