Overview

== STORY == Geeks & Greeks is Good Will Hunting meets Animal House in graphic novel format. In this high-tech battle royale two of MIT's smartest students square off in an escalating war of pranks and egos. Jim Walden is an underachieving freshman with a knack for mischief and a secret that could end his career before it begins. Luke Bardolf is a gruff alpha-nerd senior on a mission to pull the ultimate prank and maintain dominance over his fraternity. When their rivalry comes to a head, it will take all of Jim's creativity and resourcefulness to save his scholarship, his friendships, his girlfriend, and his dream of becoming an astronaut. == INSPIRED BY ACTUAL EVENTS == Geeks & Greeks was written by humorist Steve Altes and is based on MIT's world-famous hacking culture and real-life hazing incidents Altes witnessed as an MIT student. At MIT a hack is a clever, humorous, technically sophisticated prank, such as building a life-size campus police car replica atop the Institute's 150-foot-high ""Great Dome"" under the cover of night. This extensively researched 184-page coming-of-age story includes over 100 endnotes providing colorful background details on true aspects of the story as well as revealing numerous Easter eggs which will delight readers of all stripes. These endnotes divulge the many scientific, literary, and pop cultural allusions the creators have embedded in the graphic novel. == SMART HUMOR == How many graphic novels can make jokes out of Schubert's last symphony, Archimedes' Principle, supernovas, cryogenics, kinematic viscosity, Shakespearean characters, and Einstein's theory of relativity and still keep things fully accessible to the general public? According to Steve Altes, ""You don't need to be a genius to understand Geeks & Greeks, but you'll feel like a genius after you read it."" == THEMES == Geeks & Greeks explores many themes that are relevant to techies, college students, and fans of young adult literature: geek as hero, hazing, college pranks as a form of civil disobedience or performance art, Emersonian notions of self-reliance and non-conformism (""imitation is suicide""), role of mischief-making in male bonding, and credentialism (raw talent vs. institutional pedigree). == REVIEWS == Reviewers are hailing Geeks & Greeks. Jon B. Cooke, editor of Comic Book Artist magazine says, ""Geeks & Greeks is a gonzo-brilliant visual feast that reads like a blizzard of engrossing frenetic activity, offering an ethnographic deep-dive into MIT hacking and hazing subcultures. Geeks & Greeks combines the high-brow intelligence of Good Will Hunting with the rowdy frat antics of Animal House and the heart of Dead Poets Society. There is barely a moment to breathe as this roller coaster careens through the worlds of high-tech hazing, devilishly original pranks, and swaggering intellectual one-upmanship. Fish's masterful illustrations leap off the page with their inspired perspectives and vibrant colors."" MIT insiders praise the story's realism and authenticity. Karl Iagnemma, MIT research scientist and author of On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, says, ""As someone who's been walking MIT's hallways for the past 20 years, I can attest that Steve Altes has tuned into the Institute's quirky frequency, the raucous and rigorous spirit of the place. Read Geeks & Greeks for its hot fusion of wit, narrative, and imagery.""

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9780996350440

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Reviews

A gonzo-brilliant visual feast that reads like a blizzard of engrossing frenetic activity, offering an ethnographic deep-dive into MIT hacking and hazing subcultures. Geeks & Greeks combines the high-brow intelligence of Good Will Hunting with the rowdy frat antics of Animal House and the heart of Dead Poets Society. There is barely a moment to breathe as this roller coaster careens through the worlds of high-tech hazing, devilishly original pranks, and swaggering intellectual one-upmanship. Fish's masterful illustrations leap off the page with their inspired perspectives and vibrant colors. -Jon B. Cooke editor, Comic Book Artist magazine As someone who's been walking MIT's hallways for the past 20 years, I can attest that Steve Altes has tuned into the Institute's quirky frequency, the raucous and rigorous spirit of the place. Altes speaks geek so fluently you'd mistake him for a jaded postdoc. Read Geeks & Greeks for its hot fusion of wit, narrative, and imagery. Awesomeness to the nth degree. -Karl Iagnemma MIT research scientist and author of On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction Geeks & Greeks is a crackling insider look into the world of MIT fraternities. If you've ever wanted to peek behind the doors where young geniuses hack and haze, let whip-smart Steve Altes be your guide. -Dottie Zicklin MIT alum and co-creator of Dharma & Greg and Caroline in the City A graphic novel replete with action sequences might seem an odd medium for a tale about one of the brainiest places on Earth, but after a few pages I was hooked. With Geeks & Greeks Altes and Fish have achieved something remarkable - they have captured the energy and quirkiness that are the hallmarks of MIT. Unless you're performing pediatric neurosurgery, stop whatever you're doing and read this book. -Louis Alexander Director of Alumni Education, MIT (retired) Andy Fish's meticulously faithful illustrations and Steve Altes's disarming humor bring to life a more-fact-than-fiction adventure. -Lewis Pinault MIT alum and author of Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting All the geekworthy one-liners, Easter eggs, and knowledge bombs you'd expect, plus tons of humor, a bit of romance, plenty of heart, and dazzling illustrations. -Melwheezy host, Geekly Podcast Mind-scorchingly mirthful! Who knew that the diabolically creative pranksters of MIT, those gestating geniuses of physics and engineering, could make the earth shake - with fear, laughter, and lust - when they put their 'big fat throbbing brains' to it? At last, the raw, kinky, wig-walloping wonder of these iconic hacks is revealed in a graphic novel so amped, so combustive, it'll fry your cranial circuits like a solar storm. -Arthur Plotnik author of The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts Into Words At its heart Geeks & Greeks is a love story, between Jim and Natalie sure, but also between Jim and his fellow students with MIT. How we loved to hate MIT, how terrifying some classes were, how much a real family our living group became. Geeks & Greeks brings it all back! -Oliver Smoot MIT alum and unit of measurement namesake In his ample and interesting notes to Geeks & Greeks Steve Altes lists four rules of hacking: (1) be witty and finesseful, (2) make it hard to bring off, (3) hurt neither people nor property, (4) don't get caught. The first three are a perfect description of the work itself. Everything from the story line to the artwork to the coloration reflects the heartbeat of MIT: excellence. Just as everything in Geeks reflects the great affection its makers have for that astonishing institution. In short the Geeks team has accomplished something that is, indeed, witty, and hard to bring off. They have hacked the hack. -Samuel Jay Keyser MIT professor emeritus and author of Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows

Author Information

Steve Altes is the author of the comedic graphic novel ""Geeks & Greeks,"" set at MIT and inspired by MIT's culture of hacking and Steve's own experiences with hazing. Known for his humorous essays, Steve's specialty is getting hired into unusual occupations and writing funny accounts of his misadventures. Some escapades he has written about include working as a hand model, a stand-in for Brad Pitt, a stunt man on Die Hard With A Vengeance, a bank robber at the FBI Academy, an aide to President-elect Bill Clinton, and applying to the CIA. His humor essays have been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including the Boston Phoenix, Capital Style, Funny Times, the Los Angeles Times, Penthouse, P.O.V., Salon, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and The Writer. He is the author of two humor books, ""The Little Book of Bad Business Advice"" (St. Martin's, 1997) and ""If You Jam the Copier, Bolt"" (Andrews McMeel, 2001). His work also appears in the humor anthologies, ""May Contain Nuts: A Very Loose Canon of American Humor"" (HarperCollins, 2004) and ""Joke Express: Instant Delivery of 1,424 Funny Bits from the Best Comedians,"" (Andrews McMeel, 2006). He has been a commentator for National Public Radio's ""All Things Considered"" and a member of Us Weekly magazine's ""Fashion Police"" (ironic if you knew how he dressed). Steve's career as a humorist actually began in college when he began selling absurd letters to the editor to National Lampoon. Steve holds three degrees from MIT: a bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering, a master's in Aerospace Engineering, and a master's in Technology and Policy. Steve's thesis on the U.S. space program was the only college thesis in history ever reviewed by The New York Review of Books. He was a co-recipient of the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest award for technological achievement, for his work on the Pegasus air-launched space booster. Legendary artist Andy Fish illustratated Geeks & Greeks. You could say that Andy wrote the book on graphic novels... because he has. Andy is the author and artist of five ""how to"" illustration books, including the classic text ""How To Draw Graphic Novel Style."" Andy studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. Andy trained under such legendary comic creators as Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. His current client list reads like a who's who of top businesses, as well as work for celebrities like Stan Lee and Adam West. He is the author and artist of seven graphic novels, including ""Dracula's Army: The Dead Travel Fast"" and ""Werewolves of Wisconsin."" His paintings, which mix his love of all things pop culture have been displayed in art galleries in Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Worcester and London. He even has a painting in the collection of the National Gallery in Washington, DC. In addition, Andy is an adjunct professor of art instruction at the Massachusetts College of Art and at the lead faculty member for the graphic novel illustration program at Emerson College in Boston. Andy's vibrant, kinetic style is informed by a strong pop sensibility and artfully employs the use of super-saturated colors to make panels vividly come to life.

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