I like to pick and choose my daily webcomics.  There are about a million out there and over 70% are self-serving odes to one's in-jokes and delusion that they can actually draw.  But this is fine; we all need our own little release.  I write nonsensical gibberish and try and pass it off as though provoking and insightful prose, and it makes me feel good at the end of the day.  But there are those select few comics that despite the flaws, and everyone has flaws, is just so good and revealing that you just can't stop reading it.

Devil's Panties is one such comic.  I honestly cannot recall how I first found this gem, but it was probably linked from Something Positive, which I will review later when I am up to the massive amount of censoring that comic would require.  Though the name is problematic and best not left in your browser's history file, the comic skitters between PG and a light M.  Scattered bits of swearing and occasionally the crude reference.

I do remember after reading about a year's worth of comics asking myself, "Why can't I stop reading this?" Then I forgot the question and kept reading.  The question has popped back into my mind from time to time and I have started to form an answer.  When I approach anything remotely interesting or problematic, I first look at a thing then I mentally like to step two feet to the left and look again.  I like to see a target from a slightly different view, granting me a better overall perspective.

This is what Devil's Panties does for me.  Jennie Breeden takes the nerd comic, and shifts the perspective to a distinctly female view.  Still nerd, but also very feminine.  She demonstraites that nerd is a genderless state of mind, and our gender just guides how the nerdyness manifests.  Through this we are allowed a glimpse of the female mind that the average nerd is not usually privy to.

Example One:  This is a recent one that was a prime example of how the geek mind works independent of the X or Y chromosome.  I have a friend that would participate in long drawn out conversations via IM about how he would take over the world with his squirrel army, and how I would counter with my hamster shock troopers.  I wonder if there is a geek alive that hasn't considered harnessing the potential power of fluffy rodents?

Example Two: Going back to 2003 when she was she was getting her pace down and was exploring her power as a woman.  And they do have immense amounts of raw power.  Being a man interacting with a woman I feel like my Level 2 bard just got matched up to party with a level 18 Ranger, not hard to feel outmatched.  But then we are all reminded that our awkwardness will probably win out in the end.

Example Three:  Then we are reminded of the large canyon the divides the sexes and is so rarely spanned, like a Indiana Jones style bridge willing to imperil any who dare make the journey, lest they be labeled.  This comic shows that such gaps exist, like the likelihood of finding a female in a LAN party.  It is about as rare as... well finding a female in a LAN party, there are few things more rare.

Example Four:  This pretty much says it all.  I had this one as a desktop background for a while.

 I was trying to find the "definitive comic" to best sum up Devil's Panties as a concept.  A lot of comics can be shoehorned into such a defining statement; sometimes that is what makes them good.  If a comic is consistently snarky, artsy, irreverent, l33t or any of the other adectives that one could use to summate if they do it right it is a hit.  But Devil's Panties is so many things and quite multi-dimensional.  Quite like the many types of nerds blended with the deep personalities of most women.  I cannot find that one comic in the hundreds she has created that can encapsulate the entire body of work, as well as the creator.

I know this comic isn't for everyone; some folks just want to hear the newest titles lambasted and the glories of their favorite franchise put on a pedestal.  Women, and more specifically nerdesses, will most likely enjoy this offering.  But I challenge you flip the coin over and look at your world from a different angle and give this one a try.  If you are wary, start around 2005; she really hits her stride around there.