Comic Nerds Face Off at National Poetry Slam

If you've been following my reports in and around the comic blogosphere for more than a year, you know just how much I admire Austin Books and Comics, hands down one of the best comic book stores you'll find in America, not only for their deep selection, fun extracurricular activities they sponsor like the recent Manga Melee II but their considerable expertise about the history of comics from the Golden Age to the current "steroid" era of oversized, overpriced Absolute editions. That's pretty impressive to this picky comics consumer, especially since nobody on their staff looks a day over 29...

So, when the cool folks at ABC give me the heads-up on something I should check out, chances are good that you should too. Case in point is the 2007 National Poetry Slam, convening this week in Austin. Granted, poetry slams (even national ones) aren't at the top of my to-do list, but ABC is sponsoring the Nerd Slam portion of the event, meaning geeks competing against other geeks in the realm of performance poetry with an emphasis on comics, video games, sci-fi, movies and anything else you can geek out about, of course, in rhyme.

If you're living in or near Austin with nothing to do Friday afternoon, check out the free Nerd Slam events. And, just in case you need a bit more convincing, watch this short, sweet and thoroughly fanboy-style Haiku video, gently pitting Marvelites against DCers entitled The Milky Way's Haiku to Andromeda.