The PopCulteer
May 22, 2026

The PopCult Comix Bookshelf

Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin
by Evan Dorkin
Dark Horse Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1506753058
$34.99

I have been a fan of cartoonist/writer, Evan Dorkin, for nearly forty years, which is amazing, considering that he doesn’t have the decency to be older than I am. Even more amazing…and something I consider a huge failing on my part, is that I have only mentioned him three times before this in the twenty-plus years of PopCult.

I mean, he checks off all the boxes: He’s a terrific cartoonist with a cult following; He brilliantly lampoons nerd culture; He’s written for Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Crayon Shin-Chan: On top of all that, when Adult Swim produced a pilot for a series based on his Eltingville Club stories, he got The Aquabats to do the opening and closting themes.

Now, I get the chance to make up for lost time by telling you about this fairly comprehensive collection of his solo works. Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin collects just about every bit of creator-owned work that he’s produced over the last four decades.

It’s almost 650 pages of biting satire, brilliant cartooning, snark, adventure, more snark, hilarity and a touch more snark.

In this thick collection you get nearly every issue of Milk and Cheese (Gone Bad), Dork and The Eltingville Club, along with several stray comic strips done for other magazines over the years.

These mature-readers comics mine the rich pop culture landfill for gut-busting takes on everything from Ska to Punk to Comic Book Stores, Sitcoms, Action Movies and anything else that has happened in the last sixty years or so.

In addition to the adventures of Milk and Cheese, we also get to read about the extremely nerdy adventures of The Eltingville Club, and sitcom antics of The Murder Family plus the arcane wisdom of The Invisible College of Secret Knowledge. Plus there are hundreds of one-page gag strips and other gems.

This is all done with top-flight cartooning and a skill for riffing on pop culture that rivals the best of the MST3K crew.

This book is filled with hilarious takes on things like the surprising fates of Goofy Grape and The Cruchberry Beast, and side references to how Del Shannon almost became a Traveling Wilbury. This is a book that will evoke howls of recognition with its rich tapestry of all things nerdy, along with some very dark humor, biting satire and pure silliness.

Let me quote the publisher’s blurb:

Collecting the Milk and Cheese, Eltingville Club, and Dork by Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning comics creator Evan Dorkin. Collected for the first time in an affordable omnibus edition.

The entire Eltingville Club saga. Every Milk and Cheese comic. All the fun strips, gag panels and stories from Dork.

The entire shebang is now available in one big-ass Omnibus edition, a staggering display of satire, silliness, and stupidity featuring all the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning humor comics by semi-esteemed and somewhat-beloved cartoonist Evan Dorkin. It’s going to sell out and you will cry if you don’t get a copy, so get to it, kids (This message was approved by Evan’s therapist).

Nerd Inferno is an epic collection of Dorkin’s best solo works, and it belongs in every home, even those where the people inside won’t read it. It’s really thick and heavy and has many uses beyond simply containing hysterical comic strips.

I also need to mention the contributions of Sarah Dyer, Dorkin’s wife, colorist and sometime collaborator, and also a great cartoonist in her own right. Hopefully we get an omnibus of her work soon.

You can find Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin at particularly hip comic book stores and booksellers, or you can have any bookseller order it, using the ISBN code…or take the lazy way out and get it from Amazon, who don’t even have the humanity to have a discount on it as I write this.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content and all our regular features.