The Nerdy Dozen : the Dollar Bin’s Best from 2009

I figured that in addition to our third annual Dollar Bin Awards, I could use this now somewhat regular feature to reflect on some of what I considered the “best” of 2009. The nomination process for our third annual awards show is now underway on our forums with voting to follow soon-ish here on the main site. But this list, unlike most of our DB Awards, will actually just about the Dollar Bin itself. So here is what I consider to be the best content and experiences the Dollar Bin had to share with our listeners, viewers and readers in 2009.

12) The Dollar Bin’s Expanding Contributors List: Each year there has been a Dollar Bin, we have lost a few contributors and gained a few contributors, so for long time followers the folks producing the content has been pretty fluid. In 2009 we saw more of Terence and Brandon (and their houses), Joel and Shawn both gave writing articles for the site a shot, Ted and Shawn both became regulars on the shows and part of the staff and many others joined us both in person and via phone for shows. And those are just a few of the examples from this year because in a way we consider everyone who gets involved with our little online and in-person community to be a part of the DB’s posse.

11) Chrissie Zullo video: It may have been one of the most recent posts but I also think it was one of our best of the year. For me it included some of our favorite things all mixed into one video: a visit to a great comic shop (Richard’s), focus on a local creator (Chrissie), video of a talented artist sketching (also Chrissie) and a good interview (Adam & Brendan & Chrissie). Hopefully there are more video features like this in the Dollar Bin’s future.

10) Heroes Con Panel Coverage: In our 3 years going to Heroes Con as “the Dollar Bin” our coverage of Heroes Con and her panels has grown. The past two years, Adam has sacrificed a lot of his Heroes Con experience to provide our site and Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find with audio coverage of as many of the convention’s panels as he could. Not only do I think this is as awesome feature for our site but I also think it is really cool to be able to listen to the panels after the fact because I (like a lot of our peeps at the con) have not been able to catch any in the last two years either. Kudos to Adam (and friends) for another great performance covering the panels at this year’s show.

9) Gotham City Makeovers: Considering I am doing this list and this show featured a lot of me and a lot of discussion about things involving Batman, it making the top ten should not be a shock. But besides the focus on Batman (and me), I thought this episode showed a lot of focus on the topic which is often a weakness of ours. Plus it is always great to record at Richard’s and it was very nice to get to hear more from local creators and DB pals, Bradd Parton and Mitch Rogers.

8) Comic-Con Preview Show: I had nothing to do with this episode so it might be a shock that it makes this list. But the conference call lead by Adam and Shawn that featured Comic-Con attendees Rob Ullman, Andy Runton, J Chris Campbell and Robert Venditti as they were just a few days away from heading to the event (Rob and Chris for the 1^st time) was a lot of fun to listen to.

7) Sketch Videos: While I think our sketch videos are often under appreciated and under viewed on our site I can’t imagine not having them. As someone who loves comic book art but is far from a talented artist, I love seeing someone who is very talented create the awesome that I cannot. I think we have a lot of great videos like this on our site and I am sure that will continue so if you have a sketch book or just love comic book art you should really be checking them out.

6) Free Comic Book Day: For the third straight year the DB hit the road to cover Free Comic Book Day. For the second straight year, Adam and I shuttled back and forth between Greenville and Charlotte to cover the events at both Richard’s Comic and Collectables and Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find. Why do we do it? Because both stores are awesome and even though it is a long day, it is still one of the most fun DB related days we have each year.

5) Interviews with IDW editor Andy Schmidt : As a site we started to cover IDW more this year and as part of that, we were lucky enough to have two phone interviews with IDW editor and writer Andy Schmidt. Like the true marketing geniuses that we are, both were focused on their properties that had big movie releases in 2009 (Transformers and GI Joe) and released around those times of year. While his Transformers interview was mixed into a show with some of our normal foolishness, I think the follow up that focused on IDW’s line of GI Joe books is one of the best interviews that the DB has been able to offer so far. Andy was great in both pieces and I look forward to having follow-up opportunities to talk with him again.

4) Heroes Discussion Group – Matt Fraction & Iron Man: Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find frequently has great discussion groups lead by their excellent shop staff or super moderator Andy Mansell. On this occasion they were lucky enough to be joined via telephone by writer (and former Heroes employee) Matt Fraction and we were lucky enough to be in attendance. It was a really fun discussion in the store and the fun continued afterwards at a fine establishment across the street for food, drinks and more talk. I really hope we have the opportunity to record more of these events in the future.

3) Fluke: I know our topic coverage might often seem all over the place on any given broadcast, and I can imagine that our content from Fluke each year might be double that. And I have to say that is not likely to change no matter how many times we attend this awesome indy show. Even though we go to Athens hoping for some content for the site, we really just go to Fluke because it is so fun. You really can’t beat a comic gathering with a lot of your buddies in a bar in a sweet little town like Athens, GA. Each year we have been we’ve known more cool people going in and more cool people at the end of the day.

2) Mark Waid Interview: I interviewed Mark the previous year at Heroes Con, but to be honest most of the focus was about his work with other companies and just getting over the fact that I was getting to interview Mark Waid. This year, the focus for both of us was to talk not only about his current work but also the growth of Boom Studios and I was delighted for that change. I think it was a great year for Boom, with a lot of both successful and great books, and it was nice to be able to chat with Mark in the middle of that. It would not hurt my feelings at all if these chats became a yearly feature of the DB’s trips to Heroes Con.

1) Our Heroes Con Art Auction Donation: We really amped up our Heroes Con experience this year on a couple of levels and that included giving ourselves this little art project. The idea was pretty simple, get a bunch of our pals (both new and familiar) around Indy Island to contribute to a big jam piece to donate to Heroes’ annual art auction. The amount of talented artists who contributed and the results they gave us were better than we could have hoped for and it was a really nice feeling giving the finished product to the auction staff when all of us would have loved to keep it for ourselves. I think we all ended up being pretty proud of the results of this project and I’m not sure whose idea it was but I hear that guy is awesome.

So those are my picks for the best content from our site in 2009. What are yours?

Comments

[DeeSnider]

The site does keep getting better. I guess I am a podcast fan first and always will be. Count me as one of the people underviewing the videos. Most of my internet time is spent at work, where we're not allowed to stream video, and by the time I get home the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer screen (those comics won't read themselves). But this year I'm going to make a resolution to start checking out all the Dollar Bin videos on the site. I'm sure they're as awesome as the rest of the content.

On the topic of the Dollar Bin Awards, any thought about doing "Best of the Decade"? Lots of sites seem to be doing top 10 lists in that regard.

[Adam-Bin]

Best of the decade has been a discussion of ours, but the little known fact is the decade doesn't end until we kick over to 2011.

[joel]

I made the nerdy dozen! awesome..................

[Ted]

#1 was an INCREDIBLE idea. Made the convention for me. Well, that and Tee's "Ted Tarver: Man About Town" comic in Dollar Bin Friends Assembled Vol. 2 (available in the Dollar Bin Store for the low-low price of $4).