My Favourite Comics of 2011

The best comics of 2011

I really cut back on comics this year, mostly because I simply don’t have room to store them, so only the best stuff makes its way into my house now. Then something wonderful happened. I got an iPad, and the ComiXology app really came into its own.

This led me to try a lot of new stuff. I’ve always liked indie movies, but I don’t necessarily want to own every one of them! The same with comics, and no surprise for the guy who’s favourite super hero is Starman, I dig some of the more obscure stuff.

Here’s the best stuff I read in 2011:
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My Favourite Books for 2011

This was the year that I bought, sold, and then re-bought a Kindle.  I have an iPad, which I really love, but the Kindle is absolutely the best way to read books.  I’d say this  year I’ve started to read more books than ever before, but when you’re only paying $.99 – $2.99, I find that you take more chances, and give up more easily.

With that said, there were a handful of books this year that I really loved, and that make my “Best of the year” list.
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New Years Resolution – 2010 The Year We Make Contact

My 2010 Resolutions

Well, since this is the year that our robot overlords come online and we make contact with alien life forms I guess I better shape up quickly.  As is the usual rigamarole, I’ll review what I resolved to do last year, and what I actually did.

2009 was a pretty big year for our little family. Maks went from being a bag of need to a real little boy, Kaylin has become a big girl in her own right and started school this year.  Somehow Char has done a great job of holding everything together. We got a start on our basement (it’s framed, wired, and drywalled, mudding happens this week, paint and carpet later in the month). At work we got our website redesign completed and started transforming the rest of the business, and I took on a new gig (Executive Producer…or a similar title to be named later).  Oh, and All New Comics pretty much doubled our business again in 2009.

Not a bad little run of a year.

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The Best Movies of 2009

Star Trek the Movie

I have loved movies since I was a kid, and in the summer of 1989 my buddy Ryan and I saw every flim that opened except Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Return of the Swamp Thing. That summer I decided I wanted to make films for a living. I went to school for TV production and did a brief stint in TV land, as a production assistant, editor, and graphic designer before discovering my true calling – the internet.

Since the arrival of Kaylin and Maks it’s been harder to get out and see movies, but since moving to London we have a combination of built-in babysitting (thanks Grandma), and Char and I go out some nights on our own to catch movies individually.

It turns out I saw a lot of movies in 2009! Good for me. We had a new theatre open up near us this year, the Westmount VIP is about a 5 minute drive from our house, and it’s a spectacular facility. I’d say I saw about 80% of my movies there. The VIP part is that you can pay about $5.00 more for a ticket with reserved seating in a theatre where they have plush leather seats, concession people come to your seat, and because it’s licensed it’s 19+ (which means no annoying kids!).

Here were my favourite movies of 2009 in alphabetical order (because ranking them 1-10 is kind of pointless).
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Top 5 Gadgets of 2008

This board isn't bored!

I forgot to post my favourite gadgets of last year with the preview of what I’m lusting after this year.  This is always the most closely read article in my house as it gives Charlene a glimpse into what I’m going to be wasting money on investing in this year.

I got a good number of toys in 2008, although I managed to mostly restrain myself, especially when it came to the iPhone, which I nearly bought on several occasions.  The key to this year has been keeping costs down, and while it may look like I bought a lot of stuff, I try to maintain a “revenue neutral” position when I buy stuff.  For example I sold stuff to buy the PS3 (my HD DVD player and movies).  This year there are things I covet which I doubt I’ll get (like the eBook reader), and others that I’ll get if I can get them cheap enough (iPod touch).
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Most Anticipated Movies of 2009

Dr Manhattan from Watchmen

I love movies, that’s one of the main reasons I went into TV and Film production.  The sad reality though was that making movies is really kind of glorified construction work, and I don’t have the patience for that stuff.  I love the pre and post work of movie making, but hate the chewy middle where you have to cut your teeth to make it anywhere.

2008 was a really good year for movies as you can see from my Movies Year in Review post, but already 2009 is shaping up to be even better with a few can’t miss blockbusters in the pipe, and a bunch of “maybe’s” and “possible big surprises” out there.  Plus we don’t even see the post Cannes, Sundance and Toronto Film Fest potentials on the horizon yet.
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The best comics of 2008

Best Comics of 2008

Over the holidays I sent off a Holiday Wish List to Sequential the Canadian Comix News and Culture blog, and while it’s a good list, it’s by no means comprehensive.

I didn’t think that 2008 was a spectacular year for comics.  There was some good stuff, but there wasn’t a whole lot of great stuff.  I think I summed up my experience with 2008 in my list:

2008 was an okay year for comics, not spectacular, not horrible, but just “okay”.

There wasn’t a great moment that made me really excited about the next issue. There wasn’t an event that I just couldn’t miss.

2008 was a great year for me. All New Comics continued to grow (growing about 100% year over year), but it came at a price. We are gaining customers because stores in smaller towns are shutting down. We also had to raise prices due to the massive drop in the dollar, and we’re struggling not to raise shipping prices (although that may not be a big deal if gas prices continue to stay where they are).

We’ve already seen effects of the recession with several customers cutting back significantly, and a couple having to cancel due to layoffs. I think this will continue to be the case, and it will be up to the publishers to create compelling entertainment which readers simply can’t live without.

With that said, there was some stuff I really enjoyed such as:
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The best game of 2008

The Games of 2008

I’ll be doing some “Best of” lists over the holidays as I do every year when I look back on the year that was, best comic, best website, best gadget, and best movie are still to come, but this one is an absolute no-brainer.  The best game for 2008 in my opinion totally ran away with it.

Let’s look at a few stats.

• It’s the only game that I’ve played OVER 80 hours on.
• It’s the only game that I continued to play regularly 10 months later
• It’s the only game that I’ve bought for both systems
• It’s the only game that had totally game-changing downloadable content.

The game of the year is…
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