TAFFETA DARLING
@TaffetaDarlin | thetaffetadarling.com | YouTube.com/thefangirlsofdallas
Best Movies: How To Train Your Dragon 2, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Only Lovers Left Alive, Birdman, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
Best TV Shows: The Goldbergs, Mike Tyson Mysteries, Bob’s Burgers, Marry Me, American Horror Story Freakshow, The Flash
Best Books (fiction): Beowulf– Tolkien translation
Best Books (non-fiction): As You Wish by Cary Elwes, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris
Best Video Game: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Forza 5, Dragon Age Inquisition, Advance Warfare
Best Songs: Whatever I sang in the shower.
Best Albums: ‘Hang’ by Lagwagon, ‘The Black Market’ by Rise Against, ‘Pursuance’ by Only Crime
Best Music Video: The Crystal Light America’s Greatest Aerobic Athletes (“We are the champions, the champions!!!”)
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Sex Criminals, Rat Queens, Wytches, Big Trouble In Little China, Seconds by O’Malley
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Tusk, Guardians of the Galaxy
Most overrated thing about 2014? Star Wars Episode VII trailer
Most underrated thing about 2014? Game of Thrones season finale.
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? meh.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? meh.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Squirrel Girl’s new comic, Jem and the Holograms comic, Game of Thrones season 5 and a bunch of movies.
Taffeta Darling is a blogger, cosplay model and host of the Fangirls:Dames of the Round Table web channel.
JOE YEZUKEVICH
Best Movies: Guardians of the Galaxy
Best TV Shows: True Detective, Broadchurch
Best Books (fiction): Neil Gaiman’s Ocean At the End of the Lane
Best Books (non-fiction): Managerial Accounting
Best Songs: ‘The War’ by Bob Mould
Best Albums: ‘Do to the Beast’ by the Afghan Whigs
Best Music Video: All of the Weird Al videos. A-L-L OF THEM.
Most overrated thing about 2014? The ironic watching of NBC Peter Pan
Most underrated thing about 2014? The end of Craig Ferguson heart felt, funny and exciting Late Late Show on CBS, Guided by Voices playing a set of mostly new material. Mind blown.
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? Seeing The Replacements on City Hall Plaza in Boston, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? Lorde on City Hall Plaza in Boston.
Joe Yezukevich is a contributor to Forces of Geek.
ERIN MAXWELL
Best Movies:
Only Lovers Left Alive: This is the 1990s vampire movie society has been waiting for. It is everything that every former goth wants out of a proper vamp movie. Two vampires with the souls of poets and the appetites of a hellspawn find a way to make their millenium-long relationship work in the modern world. But why do I love it so much? Because in the end, I’m more of a Stax girl.
Best TV Shows:
Hannibal: The perfect combination of food porn and torture porn finds a home on NBC of all places. The battle of will between Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter is like watching a dance between seasoned professionals. Unlike many other adapted works, liberties taken with the characters and the story are a welcome change, adding true shock and awe to a storyline that almost everyone knows by heart. I anxiously await the third season.
Fargo: If you had told me a few years ago that Billy Bob Thornton would scare the hell out of me one day, I probably would have guessed it was at an Applebee’s Happy Hour on a Tuesday. It is rare to find a show strikes a chord on every level. Much like it’s genius source material, Fargo is an instant classic, filled with quirky characters, gripping stories and heart-stopping violence. Every actor gives a nuanced performance, elevating the material beyond the norm, yet just odd enough to make David Lynch do a double take. Bravo.
Best Books (non-fiction):
The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks, illustrated by Canaan White. Is this cheating if my favorite non-fiction book of the year is a graphic novel?
Brooks, son of Mel and World War Z scribe, tells the story of the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-black unit of the National Guard who went to France to kick ass and take names during World War I.
Best Songs to Like Against Your Will Because You Can’t Escape It No Matter Where You Go: Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’
Best Music Video: Röyksopp & Robyn, ‘Do It Again.’ Directed by Martin De Thurah, the black and white video for the synth pop dance ballad tells a disjointed story about passion, be it misplaced or uninhibited. Runner up: Sia’s ‘Chandelier.’ I do a mean version of this in my one-piece Jantzen.
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Rare is the honestly funny and engaging sex comedy in the comic book industry, but Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick, by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Chip Zdarsky, managed to strike the perfect balance between subversive writing, slick art and what-the-fuckness that everyone needs in their life. The comic follows the exploits of Suzie and Jon, a modern couple like many others except that they both have the ability to stop time when they achieve la petite morte. Making the best out of a strange situation, the two decide to go on a crime spree, beginning with the Jon’s employer, a bank. This is pulp fiction meets a sexy romp with funny and engaging characters with a sleek, modern look.
Most overrated thing about 2014? Kim Kardashians oily derriere took up waaaaaay to much bandwidth and Twitter space. Also, it seems that tried and true tentpoles, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and Spider-Man just proved themselves tired. But their disappointing bows just made truly fantastic films like Guardians of the Galaxy that much more special.
Most underrated thing about 2014? Apparently, the North Koreans. All this time, I thought they were launching missiles with a jerry-rigged Coleco hooked up to a Lite Brite. Who knew?
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014?
In 2013, the slate of Independent films in 2014 looked too good to be true. In actuality, it blew me away. So many fantastic surprises were found at art house theaters. Only Lovers Left Alive, Under the Skin, Babadook, Boyhood, Ida, Whiplash, Birdman…all these films became experiences, and for that, I am grateful. Also, TV really stepped up it’s game, once again proving that some of the most exciting writing and directing is coming from small screen talent rather than the movie house.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? So many mainstream movies. Just…wow. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Monuments Men, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Noah, Transcendence...I feel like the Arclight Theater owes me a solid.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? North Korea taking down Paramount Studios with a box of Q-Tips and an Atari Jaguar.
Erin Maxwell writes the column, A Complete Waste of Time, for Forces of Geek
CHARLES KNAUF
Jesus, FOG! has been knocking on my door to give them my best of 2014 for the past month. I’m hardly able to construct a sentence after New Years, but they bailed me out of that Turkish prison two weeks ago so I guess I owe the editors SOMETHING…Okay, let’s break it down:
Best Movies:
Guardians of the Galaxy – I know this is a cop-out, but whatever; it was fun. Solid cast, great directing, great story.
The LEGO Movie – sounds like a Chris Pratt love-fest, huh? Whatever; the guy is involved in some of the most fun movies I’ve seen in years.
Nightcrawler – I only bring this one up because I haven’t seen another sociopath played as beautifully as Jake Gyllenhaal. Seriously, this one will get swept under the rug for awards season but it was haunting character work by a dude that embraced the role.Best TV Shows: The only TV show of 2014 that made me turn my head was True Detective. That’s it. True Detective was AMAZING storytelling on par with The Wire.
Best Books (fiction): I guess I’d go into two books this year:
Redeployment by Phil Klay was a solid book going over the tribulations that veterans of the Iraq war deal with.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt was a deep look at depression and loss. It’s not really a book you want to read for fun, but something you should read in you want to feel.
Best Books (non-fiction): Nothing. Honestly, nothing should receive any award for non-fiction this year. Pick up a newspaper.
Best Video Game: Really, all I do is get drunk and play GTA or Left 4 Dead.
Best Songs: It was that song by that dude that sang the hip beat and catchy bridge! You know, the one that goes dum-dum-dummmm?
Best Albums: It’s that same as what I said above, the one that goes dum-dum-dummmm?
Best Music Video: Holy crap they still make music videos?
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Best new comic is The Humans – bar none. It’s the most fun I’ve read in a while.
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Blu-ray and DVDs still exist?
Most overrated thing about 2014? Anything Walking Dead.
Most underrated thing about 2014? Me.
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? When CERN discovered Higgs Boson.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? When I found out the Higgs Boson couldn’t help me travel through dimensions and find “plant of the desperate hot women.”
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Not getting my legs broken by my bookie…?
Charles Knauf writes the column, Flashback to the Present, for Forces of Geek. His current whereabouts are unknown.
THAD KOMOROWSKI
Best Books (non-fiction): Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books by Michael Barrier
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 5: Outwits the Phantom Blot by Floyd Gottfredson, edited by David Gerstein
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Fleischer Classics Featuring Gulliver’s Travels – Thunderbean Animation (Steve Stanchfield), Technicolor Dreams and Black and White Nightmares – Thunderbean Animation (Steve Stanchfield), Cartoon Roots – Cartoons on Film (Tom Stathes), The Bubble 3-D (Blu-Ray) – 3-D Film Archive (Bob Furmanek), Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 3
Thad Komorowski is a former columnist for Forces of Geek and regularly writes about animation at What About Thad?
JIMMY PALMIOTTI
@jpalmiotti | paperfilms.com
Best Movies: Interstellar, Edge of Tomorrow, Jodorowsky’s Dune
Best TV Shows: Black Mirror, Orange is the New Black, Game of Thrones
Best Video Game: Call of Duty: Advance Warfare
Best Songs: ‘Fucked My Way To The Top’ by Lana Del Ray
Best Albums: St. Vincent (self titled), ‘Holly’ by Nick Waterhouse, ‘They Want My Soul’ by Spoon, ‘Moon’ by Sou
Best Music Video: ‘Shades of Cool’ by Lana Del Ray, ‘Turn Down For What’ by DJ Snake feat. Lil Jon’, ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Miley Cyrus
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Too many to even start this list.
Most overrated thing about 2014? Comic Book Crossovers and Events, Alternate Covers
Most underrated thing about 2014? Digital Comics, Kickstarter
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? Great Kickstarters and with Harley Quinn, proving that comics that are silly fun can sell.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? Not enough people stepping out and doing their own thing, People picking on Cosplay.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Watching people start to support creators and not blindly following companies.
Jimmy Palmiotti is the co-writer of Harley Quinn and the upcoming Con Job. He is also a partner of the transmedia company, Paperfilms.
BRIAN SANER LAMKEN
Best Movies: Birdman, “Feast” (short), Guardians of the Galaxy, Life Itself, Snowpiercer
Best TV: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, The Good Wife, Jane the Virgin, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black
Best DVD Release: Batman: The Complete Television Series
Best Books (Non-Fiction): 75 Years of Marvel (Roy Thomas, Josh Baker), The Secret History of Wonder Woman (Jill Lepore)
Best Songs: ‘All about That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor, ‘Bad Self-Portraits by Lake Street Dive, Blank Space’ by Taylor Swift, Dearly Departed’ by Shakey Graves feat. Esme Patterson, ‘Take Me to Church’ by Hozier
Best Albums: ‘Bad Self-Portraits’ by Lake Street Dive, ‘Gary Clark Jr. Live’ by Gary Clark Jr., ‘Take Me to Church’ by Hozier, ‘Supernova’ by Ray LaMontagne
Best Music Videos: ‘All about That Bass’ (live jazz cover by Postmodern Jukebox feat. Kate Davis),’ Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift, ‘Word Crimes’ by Weird Al Yankovic
Best Comics (Series/Issues): Batgirl #35-36 (Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, & Babs Tarr w/ Maris Wicks), The Fade Out (Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips w/ Elizabeth Breitweiser), Lumberjanes (Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, Brooke Allen, et al.), Ms. Marvel (G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona w/ Ian Herring), Supreme: Blue Rose (Warren Ellis & Tula Lotay)
Best Comics (OGNs/Collections): Afterlife with Archie Vol. I (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Francesco Francavilla), Hellboy in Hell Vol. I (Mike Mignola w/ Dave Stewart), Sisters (Raina Telgemeier), Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen (Dylan Horrocks), This One Summer (Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki)
Things I Was Most Excited About in 2014: The Flash and the Arrow/Flash crossover, new books from Dylan Horrocks — Incomplete Works and Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Things That Disappointed Me in 2014? The way-too-faithful covers on The Art of McCartney, Gotham (despite low expectations), the How I Met Your Mother finale, Sleepy Hollow after the Henry Parrish reveal, the Veronica Mars Kickstarter fiasco
Things I’m Most Looking Forward To in 2015? The Archie revamp, Avengers: The Age of Ultron, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Marvel on Netflix, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Brian Saner Lamken, once and perhaps future editor of Comicology, is a very occasional contributor to Forces of Geek. He’s usually a lot wordier.
JOE KEATINGE
@joekeatinge | joekeatinge.com
Best Movies: Jodorowsky’s Dune
Best TV Shows: Louie
Best Books (fiction): Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Best Books (non-fiction): Italian Ways by Tim Parks
Best Video Game: Telltale’s Walking Dead Season 2
Best Songs: Anything that came out of Beyoncé’s mouth
Best Albums: Same
Best Music Video: Same
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Farel Dalrymple’s Wrenchies
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Criterion’s The Innocents
Joe Keatinge currently writes Shutter and Techjacket for Image Comics
B.S. WALKER
Best Movies: Guardians of Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Chef, Whiplash, Wild, X-Men: Days of Future Past
Best TV Shows: Justified, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Masters of Sex, The 100
Best Songs: ‘Take Me to Church’ by Hozier
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: CONGO!!
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Mad Max, Star Wars, Avengers, Halo 5, South of Hell (airing on WEtv), and the Nickelodeon Original Movie Splitting Adam.
B.S. Walker is a contributor to Forces of Geek and a staff writer on South of Hell and co-writer of Splitting Adam.
SETH LEVI
Best Movies: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best TV Shows: Game of Thrones, Veep, Transparent, BoJack Horseman, Getting On, The Americans
Best Books (non-fiction): Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner
Best Albums: ‘West Side Story’ by Michael Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Symphony
Most overrated thing about 2014? Marvel Comics movies, True Detective, House of Cards
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? The Wire in HD.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? True Detective
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Winds of Winter…maybe?
Seth Levi writes the column, Maximum Pixels, for Forces of Geek
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