Originating in Norway back in 1997, Nemi is a weekly comic strip creation of writer and artist Lise Myhre. Focusing on the pop goth Hot Topic mentality of the turn of the millennium, Nemi follows the title character in her exploits in her chocolate eating, boy chasing and alcohol binging unemployed life. UK publisher Titan Books, who brought us the collected volumes of Tank Girl, has begun compiling these weekly strips in to fantastically done hardcover formats.
Because of the nature of the weekly strip format, Nemi Volume III doesn’t have a particular story to speak of. It instead is a series of brilliantly done short character pieces, usually contained to just three or four panels each with the occasional multipage story, but those are few and far between. The best part about Nemi is how relatable a character she actually is.
Whether or not you fell in to a Hot Topic phase during your high school years (which if you had you have hopefully finally grown out of or you have become a Twilight fan), you knew someone who did. This comic does a great job of reminding why even though we thought that person was weird, we were still their friend.
Nemi falls in to that category of the female friend every guy has thought about going for once in a while but didn’t because he couldn’t see past the abrasive, sarcastic shell. Nemi actually gives some insight in to what is going on under that rough, confrontational exterior and ends up being a somewhat useful tool for guys in better understanding what women think, since it is written by woman.
At the same time, there is the much needed nerd humor to keep males drawn in as Nemi declares her love for many geeky things like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and PlayStation. Also having a female lead character who loves drinking and sex as well doesn’t hurt the male appeal of the strip either.
Nemi is what could be a great introduction in to comics for a female non-comics reader. Especially if she has a little bit of a geeky side that she has yet to embrace, Nemi is the comic for her. After Nemi, moving on to other titles like Lenore or Strangers in Paradise would be a much more attainable goal.
The short format and non-superhero formula works well for a newbie to our comics world. If a girl ever asks what a good non-superhero comic for her to try out to see what she thinks about comics, this collection may fit that bill.
