December 29 marks the 11th anniversary of this nerdy blog, beginning all the way back on this day in 2011 with the obligatory introductory blog post. So, Happy Birthday Geeky Nerfherder!

The aim has always been to showcase inspiring, cool art and pop culture geekery, whether it's poster art, comic art, book and magazine cover art or art from the latest new contemporary exhibitions, and the artists that create them.

Even after over 10 years, it's still a lot of fun to curate; discovering the latest cool art, cover art, print releases and gallery shows, showcasing art from some of my favourite artists in my long running 'Artist Spotlight' series, and starting each day with #ArtOfTheDay - something random from the Geeky Nerfherder image archives. I'm also trying to add more reviews of the books and movies I read and watch over the year too.

I'm active on the socials and also sometimes post bonus content there, such as the #OnThisDay feature where I post some of my favourite films, books, comics and shows that were first released or published on a particular date, and any nerdy #NewSwag that I add to my collection as well. The socials continue to gain new followers, especially Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram, and especially since a certain person bought a certain micro blogging company, with the number of followers now in the thousands! WOW! Thank you so much!! It's humbling and amazing to know that other people are also enjoying the artworks I'm posting and hopefully discovering new favourite artists along the way as well. But if you’re not already following, here are the links to my social profiles:

on Twitter (@GeekyNerfherder)
on Instagram (@geekynerfherder)
on Tumblr (GeekyNerfherder)
on Pinterest
on YouTube
on Goodreads

Stores:
on Threadless (GeekyNerfherder)

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So that's another year almost done and dusted! There's still been enough good stuff to escape into a geeky and nerdy bubble with, despite everything 2022 has conjured up, and here are a few of my favourites from the past year below.

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GeekCons:

Nerdy days out are definitely back here in the UK! Days out to the various Geek Cons and events this year were a lot of fun, meeting guests from my favourite shows, games and movies as well as some of my favourite authors too, plus sitting on some cool Q&A panels and catching up with familiar faces once again.

Click the logo to go to the 'GeekCon VI: 2022' video playlist.

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TV & Movies:

Haven't been to the cinema as much as I did pre-Covid, but I still ventured out to the big screen for the likes of 'The Batman' and 'The Northman', and a few more that I wanted to see but missed at the cinema but caught on streaming like 'Prey', 'Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio', 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' and 'Glass Onion'.

I'm kind of getting tired of the superhero movie these days. Whether it's Marvel or DC, it doesn't matter, they're just something I'm not invested in anymore, probably down to I'm not exactly a fan of Supers comics either, although 'The Batman' was the best of the bunch I saw this year. I think the small screen is a better way to adapt a comic book. There's not much difference in how a show looks visually these days (heck, some shows look even better than some movies do!), and rather than butcher a compelling story and try to cram the narrative into a couple of hours, there's more time to spread a story arc over a few episodes of an hour each or so. As such the comic adaptations of 'The Sandman' on Netflix, 'Paper Girls' on Amazon, and even the 'His Dark Materials' series adapted from author Philip Pullman's books on BBC/HBO are great examples of doing just that, and although I'm a big fan of the original source materials (so maybe a tiny bit biased), the adaptations for the smaller screen more than did them justice and are some of my favourite series I've watched this year along with a few other series.

Here is a list of shows and movies that I enjoyed this year.

Click images for trailers.

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Books:

Once again I managed to surpass the number of books / audiobooks in my GoodReads Reading Challenge this year, getting through 70, with still having a couple of reads/listens ongoing!

I usually try to have a mix of the latest books, audiobooks or graphic novels with titles I've been meaning to read - from short stories to novellas to chunky tomes - as well as picking up a few favourites to read again on my (ever expanding) reading list. It's always a challenge, especially when there have been some great new releases throughout the year, as well as some that I've missed and want to get caught up on.

I love my stories, mostly within the realms of fantasy and science fiction and enjoy historical and mythical retellings inspired by myths, legends and folklore as well. Some of my favourite reads recently have been stories that break away from the usual SFF tropes and trends; tales inspired by cultures, mythologies and perspectives other than my own (I'm a white European cis male), that often delves deep into the world building and lore of these fantastical worlds, filled with interesting and engaging characters. In recent years I've discovered quite a few new authors and series as a result, which I'll be keeping a watch out for with their future releases. You can see my star ratings and some of my reviews for the books I've read at my GoodReads profile.

Once again I've really enjoyed what I've read / listened to this year. A couple of DNF's (Did Not Finish) that I just couldn't get into but won't name and shame, but for the most part, outstanding new releases like; 'Legends & Lattes' by Travis Baldree (which I listened to twice this year and met the author at a Geek Con this year!!), 'Dark Earth' by Rebecca Stott, and 'Babel' by RF Kuang (my Top 3 reads of the year), as well mixing in a few re-reads like 'Kings Of The Wyld' & 'Bloody Rose' by Nicholas Eames, the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman (which I'll complete next year) and diving into the complete run of 'The Sandman' comic book series, plus a few highly rated reads like the entire 'Akira' graphic novel run and rediscovering authors that I've not read for a long while, have made it a joy to get lost within the pages of this year's reading list.

Here's a list of the books, graphic novels and audiobooks that I've read / listened to throughout the year.

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Art / Illustration:

Another year full of gorgeous art goes by, with way too many fantastic pieces to even consider singling out just one or two.

Here are just a few of my favourites (in no particular order and only really represents the tip of a very large iceberg of awesome art) from the many print releases, cover artwork and gallery exhibitions throughout 2022 (no AI or NFTs).

by Tom Bagshaw

by Matt Ferguson

by Rich Davies

by Mark Bell

by ONEQ

by Jake Kontou

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Gaming:

I love to play RPG (Role Playing Games) video games, immersing myself in a single player, story driven, action adventure game, with a vast and deep world to explore, puzzles to solve, some good NPCs to interact with, and a compelling protagonist that develops over the course of the game.

I haven't played many games this year, 2022 and all that, so I was a bit late to the party but I am still enjoying the heck out of 'Horizon Forbidden West' on my trusty PS4 (still not got round to getting a PS5 just yet). I loved 'Horizon Zero Dawn' and was good to continue Aloy's adventures in the far future in this sequel, as it looks to have cranked things up to 11, both visually and narratively!

Click image for trailer.

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So there you have it, a list of some of my favourites from 2022. As always, thanks again to everyone who drops by the blog, and follows me on the socials, making 'The Geeky Nerfherder' a lot of fun to curate! Here's to another year of nerdiness!

Links

Thursday, December 29, 2022

The Geeky Nerfherder 11th Anniversary & My 2022 Favourites

GeekCons:

TV & Movies:

Books:

Art / Illustration:

Gaming:

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