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HotShot Pickleball @hspickleball is Live on @kickstarter

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Pick Your Pickle and Prepare for Puns: Pickleball's Board Game Just Launched. A fast, fun, irreverent board game that celebrates the joy of Pickleball. Fans of silly puns, pickles, and fast-paced games alike have a new game to add to their list of must-haves: HotShot Pickleball. This delightful card-drawing board game is quick to learn and gives a surprising amount of opportunity to lightly strategize as you race to the ball and attempt to hit it back over the net to your opponent. The debut release from indie studio Midnight Trading Co., HotShot Pickleball was made while game designer Robert Gelb was recovering from an Achilles injury sustained, ironically, by playing Pickleball. For those who haven’t heard of pickleball, it's the fastest-growing sport in the world, with over 32 million players last year. HotShot Pickleball is a lively, family-friendly game that combines the fun of the sport with a cast of quirky, pickle-themed characters like Stew Cumber, Kim Chee, and Corni

Best of 2013, Movies, Comics, Video Games & TV


Well the year is finally winding down and we are all set for 2014. So I figured I'd take a look back at some of my favorites from 2013. So what where my favorite comics, movies, video games, and TV shows in 2013? Read more to find out, and let me know in the comments what your favorites were.


Best Comic Based Movie

It is a good time to be a comic geek and this year saw a lot of comic book movies. We had Marvel's Iron Man 3, The Wolverine, & Thor: The Dark World; Icon's Kick-Ass 2; DC's Man of Steel; Dark Horse's; R.I.P.D.; and Boom!'s 2 Guns.

The Winner: Iron Man 3
Honorable Mention: Man of Steel


Best Sci-Fi/Fantasty Movie


Again this year we were treated with a large selection of movies to help us get our geek on. Movies like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Pacific Rim, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, World War Z, Jack the Giant Slayer, Oz the Great and Powerful, The Host, Esyllium, Evil Dead, Oblivion, 47 Ronin, After Earth, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Ender's Game, and Star Trek Into Darkness.

The Winner: (Tie) Star Trek: Into Darkness, Pacific Rim
Honorable Mentions: Catching Fire, Desolation of Smaug


Best Animated Movie


This is one of those categories that even if you don't have kids, there is still a kid in all of us. I watch animated (cartoon) features, but I really love digital animation thanks to Pixar. I unfortunately didn't get to watch that any anime features this year (maybe next year). Also this year we didn't have any cartoon features (unless I missed something) but had plenty of digital animated features like The Croods, Planes, Monsters University, Frozen, Escape from Planet Earth, Free Birds, and Despicable Me 2.

The Winner: Monsters University
Honorable Mentions: Planes, The Croods, Despicable Me 2


Best New TV Series


Every Spring and Fall we get to set our DVR's to record everything just so we don't miss out on that next big thing. This year we saw plenty of series that any comicbook/sci-fi buff would love. I'm watching Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers Assemble, Beware the Batman, Mirror Black, Sleepy Hollow, Almost Human, Atlantis, Teen Titans GO!, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Defiance, and Orphan Black. I tried to get into both Dracula and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland but just couldn't.

The Winner: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Honorable Mention: Almost Human


Best Season/Mid-Season Finale


There is really no contest in this category, I watch so many shows and most of the time the finales are just OK, but two stood out for me this year. First was the mid-season finale of Doctor Who along with the special Day of the Doctor, and second was The Walking Dead mid-season finale. With Doctor Who we finally get to see the missing parts of the puzzle with the "War Doctor" and what happened to Galifrey. And with The Walking Dead we finally got the battle at the prison that we always wanted and honestly should have been the season finale for last year.

The Winner: (Tie) Doctor Who, The Walking Dead


Best Returning Show


Again this is a hard category to judge. Some of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy shows I just can't go without watching are Warehouse 13, Being Human, Continuum, Arrow, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Falling Skies, Game of Thrones, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ultimate Spider-Man, Lost Girl, and Doctor Who.

The Winner: Doctor Who
Honorable Mentions: Warehouse 13, Arrow


Best Video Game


I have an Xbox 360 as the little logo in the social media widget on the side will tell you and was very excited for several games this year. The games that peaked my interest were Deadpool, Batman: Arkham Origins, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Bioshock Infinite, and Tomb Raider.

The Winner: (Tie) Injustice: Gods Among Us, Tomb Raider
Honorable Mentions: Deadpool, Batman: Arkham Origins


Best New Comic


I read a lot of comics these days and trying to decide whether to pick up a new series is sometimes tough. Some of the new series I started reading this year were;

  • Marvel; Superior Spider-Man Team-Up, Avengers (A.I., New, Secret, Mighty & Young), Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fearless Defenders, X-Men, Wolverine (Ongoing & Savage), Morbius: The Living Vampire
  • DC; Larfleeze, Green Team: Teen Trillionaires, Justice League of America's Vibe, Justice League of America, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Batman/Superman, Superman/Wonder Woman, Katana, The Movement, Hinterkind, Superman Unchained, Astro City
  • IDW; T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, G.I. Joe (Ongoing, Special Missions, The Cobra Files)
  • Dynamite; Red Sonja, Uncanny, Miss Fury, The Black Bat, Battlestar Galactica
  • Boom; Suicide Risk,
  • Image; Sex Criminals, East of West, Rat Queens, Pretty Deadly, The Bounce, Sidekick, Ten Grand, Lazarus, Aphrodite IX, Cyber Force, Rocket Girl, Five Ghosts, Five Weapons
  • Aspen; Fathom
  • Valiant; Eternal Warrior

The Winner: See Highlights Above
Honorable Mentions: See Highlights Above


Best Mini-Series


Mini-Series or limited run comics are some publishers bread and butter. It's an easy way for a publisher to get their books out and try to entice new readers. It's also a good way to test the waters before making an ongoing series. Dark Horse and Zenescope for example are almost exclusively mini-series publisher with both ongoing universes as well as new ones. Here is a selection of the mini-series I enjoyed this year;

  • Marvel; Fantomex Max, Superior Carnage, Hunger, Marvel Knights (Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men), Thanos Rising, Deadpool Kills Deadpool, What if? AVX, Daredevil: Dark Nights
  • DC;  DC Universe vs. Masters of the Universe, Damian: Son of Batman
  • IDW; Danger Girl: The Chase, Zombie War, Star Trek: Khan, Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time, Half Past Danger, Doomsday.1, Transformers: Monstrosity, Wild Blue Yonder, Vitriol the Hunter, Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters, The Colonized
  • Image; Bushido
  • Boom; Six-Gun Gorilla, Imagine Agents,
  • Dynamite; The Owl, Lady Rawhide,
  • Zenescope; Grimm Fairy Tales (Oz, No Tomorrow, Realm Knights),
  • Aspen; Jirni, Bubblegun
  • Dark Horse; Clown Fatale, Kiss Me Satan!, S.H.O.O.T. First, Buzzkill, Star Wars (multiple), Itty Bitty Hellboy, Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem, Amala's Blade, Akaneiro
  • Titan; Death Sentence, Chronos Commandos, A1 (Odyssey, Weirding Willows, & Carpe DIEm),

The Winner: See Highlights Above
Honorable Mentions: See Highlights Above


Best Story Arc


Each publisher tries to push the envelope each year by having both major and minor story arcs. In the case of Marvel they had multiple, while others have none. While there were many others, the arcs I enjoyed the most were; Marvel's Age of Ultron, Infinity, Battle of the Atom, & Cataclysm; DC's Death of the Family, Villains' Month, & Forever Evil; IDW's Dark Cybertron, & City Fall.

The Winner: (Tie) Infinity, Forever Evil, City Fall
Honorable Mentions: Battle of the Atom, Dark Cybertron

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