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1[[quoteright:400:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apocalypse_nerd_1.jpg]]
2 %%[[caption-width-right:400:some caption text]]
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4''Apocalypse Nerd'' is a story written and illustrated by Peter Bagge, and published and distributed by Dark Horse Comics.
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6The series tells the story of Perry and his friend Gordo, who is returning to Seattle after camping in a cabin belonging to Gordo's friend in the [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Cascade mountains.]] On their way back they have to steer clear of high-speed traffic and find out that North Korea nuked Seatle, and law and order has collapsed as bands of refugees do what they can to stay alive. Perry and Gordo decide to go back to the cabin to wait until things get better. When they decide to venture out from their mountain hideout, they find numerous survivors who tell them that things are nowhere near being restored to normal, and when they stumble into some survivalist communes, [[HopeSpot things seem to get better, but they don't.]]
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8In the introduction, Bagge says that he wrote this story because then-president George W. Bush had lumped North Korea with Iraq and Iran as the "Axis of Evil," and Kim Jong Il responded by saying that North Korea has the capability to launch a nuclear-tipped missile as far as Seattle. He also states that while everyone has fantasies of being a kick-ass survivalist, this story tackles that fantasy by placing an average WhiteCollarWorker in [[IDidWhatIHadToDo a situation where he has to stay alive by any means necessary.]]
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11!!''Apocalypse Nerd'' contains the following tropes:
12* ActionGirl: Midge, [[spoiler: after Gordo, Dylan, and two rednecks kill the women of the feminist camp.]]
13* ActionSurvivor: Considering that he had to deal with roving gangs, starvation, and other horrors, Perry becomes an experienced, jaded survivalist by the end of the story.
14** Midge goes from an insecure college student to ActionGirl.
15* ApocalypseAnarchy: As survivors fled Seattle, they stopped along the way to loot any building, unoccupied or not. Gangs comprised of stranded farm workers, white supremacists, and Native Americans are said to be rampaging across the countryside.[[spoiler: Perry thinks [=McNeelyville=] is perfectly safe but is looted and burned to the ground by a local Indigenous tribe.]]
16* ApocalypseHow: Level 0, the story takes place in the forests of the Cascade mountains, Seattle is said to be a radioactive wasteland and the U.S. government has quarantined the area to prevent any radioactive survivors from contaminating the rest of the country, which is said to have been unaffected.
17* ApocalypticLogistics: Deep in the woods, [=McNeelyville=] has clean water, and orchard, a chicken farm, electricity, and internet via wifi. Justified as it is occupied by engineers who set it up as an experiment to create a self-sufficient commune before North Korea launched that missile.
18* BigEater: Perry accuses Midge of eating more of the rations than him. [[spoiler: It's because she's pregnant]]
19* BuryYourGays:
20** [[spoiler: [=McNeely=] and Ernest]] were gunned down during the [[spoiler: Native American invasion.]]
21** In what seems like a more mass-attack and accepted version of a homophobic hate crime, Dylan and Gordo's [[spoiler: raiding party goes to a feminist camp with the intent of killing lesbians and kill everyone, save for Midge who snuck out.]]
22* ButchLesbian: Lynn, leader of the women's commune, and several other women staying there. Perry even mentions she wishes she were a man.
23* BookEnds: The story starts and ends with Perry and Gordo going back to the cabin for one reason or another.
24* BrickJoke: While staying in the cabin, Perry's PottyEmergency results in him farting a storm. When he and Midge reach the cabin, she comments that it smells like old farts.
25* BringMyBrownPants: When Perry runs from the cabin to the outhouse, he's held at gunpoint by the cabin's owner. Perry lets lose his diarrhea when Gordo shoots the owner in the head.
26* CarFu: After leaving the cabin, Gordo was about to accidentally run over Perry. Later, as they drove further down the road, they hit a young woman who was looking for a ride [[TooDumbToLive while standing in the middle of the road.]]
27* ChekhovsGun: When Perry is being held up at gunpoint by the cabin's owner, Gordon wanted to keep the deceased owner's gun, but Perry wanted to dispose of it due to possible radiation. Later, [[spoiler: Gordo gives the gun after the Native American gang burns down [=McNeelyville=]. Later Perry tries to use the gun to [[DrivenToSuicide stop being Midge's "pet".]]]]
28** Midge herself uses the gun [[spoiler: to kill Dylan and the two rednecks who killed the other women, and who thought were going to kill Perry.]]
29** At the end of the story,[[spoiler: it turned out that keeping the gun hidden on himself for several weeks gave Gordo radiation poisoning.]]
30* CrazySurvivalist: By the end of the story, [[spoiler: Perry becomes an avid hunter able to support himself, Midge, and their incoming baby, and even murders a cop who may be looking for him.]]
31* DeathOfAChild: After [[spoiler: the raid on the women's commune, Midge kills Dylan, a teenaged boy, thinking he was going to kill Perry]]; later [[spoiler: she kills a baby after she told Perry to go into a well supplied house and steal their supplies, and he killed the parents when they attacked him.]]
32* TheDeterminator: Midge tells Perry, that despite the women's commune being a failed experiment, Lynn is determined to see it succeed one way or another.
33* DisappearedDad / MissingMom: When Perry asks Midge her backstory, she mentions her mom was in Seattle when it was nuked, and she didn't know or wanted to know where her father was.
34** Dylan states that the North Korean missile stranded him with father, [[spoiler: Ernest]] and his boyfriend, [[spoiler: [=McNeely=]]] while his mom was in California, which was unaffected.
35* DrivenToSuicide: Happens twice to Perry, first [[spoiler: after leaving the cabin following an argument with Gordo, Perry realizes he's screwed by himself and lies on the road hoping to get run over.]] When [[spoiler: Lynn forces Perry to sleep chained to a doghouse in the rain, he figures he might as well just end it.]]
36** At the very end, [[spoiler: Gordo tries to blackmail a pregnant Midge into letting him stay with her and Perry, she refuses after she notices he's dying of radiation sickness. He's about to put himself down when Perry kills him thinking he was about to attack Midge.]]
37* EvilIsPetty: After [[spoiler: the destruction of [=McNeelyville=],]] Dylan enacts brutal revenge against the women who beat him up [[spoiler: by leading Gordo and some rednecks they teamed up with to the women's camp where [[RapePillageAndBurn they rape the inhabitants and intend to steal their supplies and burn down the camp.]]]]
38* ExperimentedInCollege: Midge mentions that she was in college when she went through a bad break up, and someone suggested she go up to Lynn's commune. She was involved with another girl but has since broken up with her.
39* ForeShadowing: After going back to the cabin, the original owner and his family come back, Gordo shoots him dead, and Perry notices he was already dying of radiation sickness. In the end, [[spoiler: Gordo goes back to the cabin, hoping to live there, Midge refuses because of his radiation sickness, and Perry kills him. May count as DeathByIrony.]]
40** After being humiliated again, Perry mutters to Midge he wants to slash Lynn's throat. That night [[spoiler: Dylan and some rednecks break into the farmhouse where they rape and slash the throats of the residents.]]
41** Lynn tells Midge to not make babies with Perry, and later [[spoiler: Midge kills a baby because they can't afford to share the supplies. By the end of the story, she's pregnant.]]
42* GilliganCut: Gordo believes that [=McNeelyville=] is vulnerable to attack, Ernest and Perry reassure him them that although gangs are a problem, a weapons drill will be performed in a couple of days to make sure they are ready. Less than twenty-four hours later, [[spoiler: the camp is on fire, and the occupants are being systematically slaughtered by the marauding Native American tribe.]]
43* HeterosexualLifePartners: Perry and Gordo have been friends for years, and stick together to survive for most of the story.
44* IDidWhatIHadToDo: After going back to the cabin, Gordo shoots his friend thinking he was going to kill Perry in order to take back the cabin.
45** After venturing out of the cabin, Perry and Gordo stumble onto an abandoned trailer park, where they find a dead old man, and two guys fighting to the death over a 7up. The survivor tells Perry and Gordo he had to resolve to [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]] after a mob of refugees invaded the trailer park and stole all their food and supplies.
46** Perry tells Midge he stabbed the occupants of a house because they attacked him, [[spoiler: after she told him to venture inside to see if there was any food they could steal.]]
47* ICallItVera: Gordo refers to his rifle as "Betsy."
48* InvadingRefugees: The trailer park occupant who killed the other one tells Gordo and Perry that things became desperate when a large mob of survivors from Seattle descended on them and stole anything and everything that could be used to survive.
49* MercyKill: Done accidentally and on purpose:
50** Gordo kills the cabin's original owner, whom Gordo did not know was dying of radiation sickness. [[spoiler: Ironically, Perry kills Gordo under similar circumstances.]]
51** Midge kills [[spoiler: a baby whose parents were killed by Perry.]]
52** Perry also kills [[spoiler: a badly injured army truck driver that he forced to crash in order to steal the supplies.]]
53* ProperlyParanoid: While staying in the trailer park, Perry suspects that the lone occupant may not be satisfied with eating Billy, and could then bash their heads while they slept so he can steal Gordo's truck and gun.
54* RapePillageAndBurn: [=McNeelyville=] [[spoiler: is attacked by a gang of Native Americans, they kill everyone they can aim at, steal their food and supplies, and burn down the camp.]]
55** [[spoiler: After the destruction of [=McNeelyville=], Gordo, Dylan, and two rednecks descend on the feminist camp, and proceed to rape and kill the inhabitants of the farmhouse, and steal their supplies.]]
56* ShellShockedVeteran: Perry starts the story acting as TheLoad to Gordo, but after witnessing several massacres, and killing several people himself, [[spoiler: Perry barely hesitates to kill a state trooper who was looking for him. When he kills Gordo, Perry happily tells midge he caught the goose she wanted to eat.]]
57* Squick: The panels showing a bottomless Perry after he soiled himself after Gordo killed the man holding him up.
58** While Perry and Gordo, who are in their late twenties, leave the spy-hole overlooking the women's camp, Dylan, a teenaged boy, whips his out and start pleasuring himself.
59* TookALevelInBadAss: At the beginning of the story, Perry was griping about his ex-girlfriend, dreams of quitting his job as a programmer, and mentions he's jealous of Gordo's self-employment as a weed dealer. By the end, he is a [[CrazySurvivalist jaded survivalist]] who [[spoiler: thinks nothing of having accidentally killed Gordo.]]
60* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: After Perry kills a couple living in a well-stocked house, he suggests taking their baby and giving him to someone else. Midge tells him to leave the house while she [[MercyKill kills him.]]]]

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