Nerd Resume

A tour of the comics, manga, games, and books that have shaped me, and the ones I can’t stop recommending.

Where It All Began

It all began in 1980, when I was in first grade and saw Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated The Lord of the Rings at a neighborhood sleepover at the community center. I was spellbound. I begged my mom to buy me the books and read them to me, and by second grade I was reading them on my own. Nearly 50 years later, Bilbo and Frodo are still two of my all-time favorite characters, and I own every film adaptation, including Peter Jackson’s extended editions.

Comics

I’m an indie reader at heart. I love the creator-owned side of the medium, where writers and artists get to tell exactly the story they want. Image is my favorite publisher. It’s also where I found my favorite series of all time.

My Top Ten

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image) No comic has ever floored me like Saga’s first page, which opens mid-labor with the funniest, most unfiltered line of dialogue I’ve ever read in a comic. From there, it gave me the same feeling as watching Star Wars for the first time. I sum it up as “Star Wars for grown-ups”: a sprawling space opera about two soldiers from warring races who fall in love and spend years on the run from both sides, and a story about love and family overcoming prejudice against impossible odds.

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra (DC/Vertigo) A breakneck thriller about Yorick Brown, an aspiring escape artist who wakes up as the only man left alive after a mysterious plague wipes out every other male on Earth. With his troublemaking pet monkey Ampersand in tow, he’s suddenly the most important person on the planet, and the journey to figure out why he survived never lets up.

Spectators by Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon (Image, hardcover) When I see Vaughan’s name on a book, I buy it, and this one proved why. In the prologue, he explains that he wanted to deliver exactly what the format promises: a true graphic novel, one complete story rather than a collection of episodes. The result is set hundreds of years in the future, in a New York City haunted by ghosts, including a voyeuristic woman who died in our present day and a mysterious gun-toting man from the distant past, who meet just in time to witness what might be the end of the living world. It’s a bold, mature-readers meditation on why we’re drawn to watching sex and violence, lavishly hand-painted by Henrichon across 344 pages.

Chew by John Layman & Rob Guillory (Image, complete 60-issue series) Tony Chu is a cibopath: he gets psychic impressions from anything he eats, which makes him a uniquely effective (and uniquely nauseated) detective, since taking a bite of a murder victim shows him who did it. Set in a world where chicken has been outlawed and the FDA is the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, it’s morbid, fascinating, and in many places laugh-out-loud funny.

Locke & Key by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodríguez (IDW; I own the core series and many of the spinoffs) After a family tragedy, the Locke kids move into their ancestral home, Keyhouse, a New England mansion hiding magical keys that do impossible things, and a well holding a sinister presence that wants them. The brilliant hook is that only children can truly grasp the keys’ magic; adults forget it as they grow up. My favorite is the Head Key, which opens the top of your skull so you can literally put memories in or take them out.

The Boys by Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson (Wildstorm/Dynamite) The TV series pulled me in, and I was hooked from the moment A-Train, a Flash-style speedster, runs straight through Hughie’s girlfriend, leaving Hughie standing there holding her severed hands. From there, I went back and read every Boys comic I could find, including the side stories on Butcher and his wife Becky, Hughie, and others. It’s raw, gritty superhero storytelling where the capes are celebrities one bad day from being villains, and a small, vicious crew called The Boys is the only thing keeping them in check. It’s also a fun comparison study: the comic goes darker than the show, and even how Compound V works is different between them.

Bug Wars by Jason Aaron & Mahmud Asrar (Image, ongoing, caught up) I grabbed a #1 off the shelf a couple of months back, and E***n asked whether I’d enjoyed the first series. Turns out that #1 was kicking off the next chapter, so she tracked down the entire first run for me and now I’m fully caught up. It follows Slade Slaymaker, a kid from Alabama suddenly lost in a vicious world beyond his imagining, a world of marauding ant armies, spellcasting spider witches, and beetle-riding barbarians, all hidden in his own backyard. I never knew an entomologist’s fever dream of the bug ecosystem could be so raw and exciting.

D’Orc by Brett Bean (Image, ongoing) A hilarious and gleefully violent fantasy romp. The D’Orc is a half light-dwarf, half dark-orc outcast who just wants to stay out of the endless war between Light and Dark, but a doomsday prophecy has both sides hunting him, and his bloodthirsty, wisecracking magic shield keeps nudging him toward violence. Tagging along is the ghost of a chicken he accidentally killed, who has a knack for pulling out the trick that saves the day. Funny, violent, and surprisingly big-hearted. Matt Dinniman, author of Dungeon Crawler Carl, is a fan too, which makes this an easy recommendation for anyone who loves those books.

Gun Honey: Doubles Down by Charles Ardai & Ang Hor Kheng (Titan Comics / Hard Case Crime, 4-issue series, read to the finale) Joanna Tan is a femme fatale weapons smuggler whose job is getting the right gun into the right hands at the right moment, so someone else can pull the trigger. In Doubles Down, a botched attack on Russia’s dictator sends three identical-looking men fleeing in different directions, and Joanna is offered $10 million to separate the real target from his doubles and make sure the right one dies. It’s a stylish, fast-moving throwback to classic pulp crime, strictly for mature readers, with a heroine who does whatever the mission demands.

The Absolute Universe (DC, subscribed to every title in single issues and hardcover) My favorite modern storytelling happening in comics right now. I started with a late reprint of Absolute Batman #1 and was hooked by how radically it reimagines everything: Bruce comes from a modest family and works construction, Alfred is a former assassin who ends up working alongside him, and his relationship with Selina is unlike any version I’d seen before. From there I dove into Superman, Wonder Woman, and every Absolute title that’s followed, including Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Catwoman, and even the recent Cassandra Cain one-shot. I pick up the single issues because I can’t wait for the collections, and grab the hardcovers when they drop too. It’s the best jumping-on point DC has offered in years, and I’ve been recommending it to anyone who thinks they’ve “seen every version of Batman.”

Also on My Pull List

Newer series I’m following issue by issue: Barbara Gordon: Breakout, The Nice House on the Lake and The Nice House by the Sea, W0rldtr33, Safiya, The Smart Division, Black Tower, Black Star, Yumi, Regicide, Gastronominique, and Junk Punch.

Manga

New to manga as of 2026 and fully hooked. I jumped in this year and have been collecting ever since, with subscriptions to most of the ongoing series below. A big part of that is E***n, my personal Sherpa for the manga wall. She’s the first person I look for when I want to talk about “something new,” and she’s a real asset to the shop. Being a recent convert myself, I know firsthand how much a good recommendation helps someone standing in front of that wall for the first time.

Billy Bat by Naoki Urasawa & Takashi Nagasaki (own vols. 1–2, caught up with the English release) My current favorite. It opens as a playful story about Kevin Yamagata, a Japanese-American comic artist whose hit character, a detective bat, turns out to have been drawn by someone else in Japan first. When Kevin travels there to track down the original creator and ask permission, the story spirals into a sprawling occult conspiracy, and I’m anxiously awaiting every new volume.

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui (completed series) A gleefully practical dungeon-survival story that starts with “how do we cook this slime?” and slowly reveals itself as a genuinely sinister demonic plot. I love how Kui hides the stakes inside the comedy until the whole thing turns. A party delves into a dungeon after ever-rarer treasure, so it’s an easy recommendation for tabletop RPG players. It’s also a good pick for anyone who came in through the anime.

Death Note: Black Edition by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata (own the full set, completed) A cat-and-mouse thriller that never stops pulling the rug out. What hooked me was watching Light slide from “cleaning up the world” into outright evil, justifying every step as necessary to protect his identity. The Black Edition is also the format I’d point people to, since it collects the series in fewer, bigger volumes.

Dandadan by Yukinobu Tatsu (own vols. 1–20, ongoing; one in the queue) Had me laughing from the first chapter, when Turbo Granny’s shamelessly unhinged introduction set the tone for everything after. It’s a wild mashup of aliens, yokai, and occult action that doesn’t feel like anything else on the shelf, and Momo is an absolute delight as a lead. Currently collecting and keeping up with new volumes.

Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto (own vols. 1–21 plus Buddy Stories; read through vol. 12) Picked it up on a friend’s recommendation and was hooked by how strange it is. Denji isn’t a typical shonen hero; he just wants a full stomach and someone to notice him, and that childlike hunger makes it easy for everyone around him to use him as a weapon. Read all of Part 1 and into Part 2 before other series pulled me away, and I’m keeping the collection current so it’s ready when I dive back in.

Gachiakuta by Kei Urana (with graffiti art by Hideyoshi Andou) (own vols. 1–13, ongoing; read through vol. 11) A world built out of trash, where the people who get thrown away are dumped below with everything else, and powers come from ordinary objects that someone once truly valued. That spin on “focus items” is what hooked me. I also love that Rudo’s temper is both his biggest flaw and his secret weapon; it gets him into trouble and pulls him out of it just as often.

Board, Card & Dice Games

Panda Royale (dice game, up to 10 players) The main game on my shelf and my go-to whenever the kids visit or a holiday gathering outgrows the usual 4–6 player games. Quick rounds of about 15 minutes, simple enough for anyone to jump in, and it handles a crowd without anyone sitting around waiting for a turn.

Abducktion (expanded edition, up to 6 players) My pick for smaller, more intimate game nights. You shift ducks around the board to form patterns and score points, and the expanded edition adds a third dimension to the board plus room for up to six players, which turns a clever puzzle into a genuinely spatial one.

PARKS and PARKS: Roll & Hike (full board game and quick roll-and-write) Two takes on the same great premise: hike through national park landscapes, spot mountains, plains, and wildlife, and manage your water and daylight to finish with the most points. The full board game offers the deeper, more strategic version, while Roll & Hike is small and fast enough to play anywhere. Owning both means I can point someone to whichever fits their table and their time.

Four Doors (cooperative card game, up to 4 players) A tense co-op where the team has to break into four doors, grab their treasures before each one closes for good, and haul everything up to the beacon at the top of the tower. I’ve played it half a dozen times and the tower is still undefeated, which is exactly why I keep coming back to it.

Turing Machine (logical deduction game, 1–4 players) A brilliant deduction puzzle where you crack a secret three-digit code by questioning the machine: is the middle digit higher than the first? Does any digit repeat? Each answer narrows the possibilities until the logic clicks into place. It plays great solo or competitively, and it scratches the same itch as a good logic puzzle.

Delicious in Dungeon (card battler based on the manga) A clever spin-off that turns the manga’s core idea into a resource loop: you need energy to fight and cook monsters, and the only way to get energy is to eat what you’ve cooked. Each player runs a whole adventuring party rather than a single character, and every monster forces a choice: defeat it for your next meal, or send it deeper into the labyrinth to cause trouble for your opponents. Balancing your team’s hunger against sabotaging everyone else is what makes it click.

Dragons of Etchinstone (microgame, just 16 cards) An absolute banger built from only 16 cards, played entirely in your hands. Your left hand holds the whole game: a region card on top setting where you fight and under what conditions, your draw deck beneath it, then the dragon you’re ultimately trying to defeat, with your discards tucked behind. Your right hand is your turn: you arrange four cards in order as a reserve for next turn, the element you’ll fight with, the spell you’ll cast in that element, and a boost. It’s an incredibly clever design, and proof that a great game doesn’t need a big box.

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth (cooperative campaign game) One of my newer additions, and the one I’m most excited to get to the table with a regular group. It’s a massive kit paired with a companion app that builds a unique map for every adventure, narrates fully voice-acted scenarios, and saves your campaign in detail, so you can pack it all up and pick up exactly where you left off the next time the fellowship reconvenes.

On Deck: Heat: Pedal to the Metal and Terraforming Mars (base games) Picked up both after seeing them again and again on “best board games of all time” lists. Still looking for the right table to break them out, and I’m hoping this winter is the season.

Solo Gaming

I also enjoy solo games for nights when there’s no table to gather. 20 Strong came recommended by C**h at the shop, and it’s become a favorite: a clever solo dice-and-card system where you take on a challenge with a single hero. I’ve played through Solar Sentinels and have Tanglewoods waiting in the wings. For something deeper, Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne is a solo dungeon crawl I run with a digital companion I set up to track where I am and what comes next. And Turing Machine doubles as a great solo puzzle.

Still Leveling Up

TCGs and Gunpla are my two blind spots, but I know the product basics well enough to help a gift shopper at the counter, and I know when to hand them off to the shop’s experts. Both are high on my list to learn.

Fantasy & Sci-Fi Novels

Tolkien started it all, but the shelf has grown a lot since. Over the years, the standouts have been Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, starting with Wizard’s First Rule, and Dan Simmons’s Endymion books from the Hyperion Cantos. My current obsession is Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series: a hilarious, surprisingly clever take on dungeon crawling that plays out like a deadly alien game show, starring a guy who faces the apocalypse in his boxer shorts and bare feet, alongside his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut. Fans of the books should keep an eye out for Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Crocodile, a new comic drawn by Brett Bean, the creator of D’Orc.

Video Games

Not something the shop sells, but a huge part of my nerd DNA. My Steam library alone is over 1,200 titles, not counting other launchers. I own every Spider-Man and Batman game ever released, from the Arkham series to Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, and I’ve played every entry in The Witcher series. That one spills over into my shelves, too: I own a Dark Horse Witcher comic omnibus and the first couple of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels the games are based on. So many game universes cross over into comics, manga, and novels (and vice versa) that it helps me connect customers with tie-ins and adaptations they might not know exist.