The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Today’s Best of the Year choices come courtesy of my colleague Iz, our senior buyer (in addition to constantly tackling numerous other tasks) and also the translator for Blank Slate Books’ two Mawil titles, We Can Still be Friends and Sparky O’Hare. Here’s Iz sharing what floated her boat in movies, TV, books and comics over the last twelve months:

TV: Well, I will have to pick two winners here, because there are just too many good shows out there at the moment. One of the winners this year for me has got to be The Big Bang Theory. I love this show. I can imagine it doesn’t do much for a lot of viewers who don’t get all the comic, movie and just general ‘geek’ references, simply because most of its humour is based on those kind of ‘insider’ jokes, but those of us who do get them (because we are a bit nerdy and geeky ourselves), this show is just brilliantly funny! Definitely the best US show out there at the moment.

(the main cast of geek-friendly The Big Bang Theory, (c) CBS)

And the best UK show for me has got to be Gavin and Stacey. Just like TBBT it has got a great cast, great characters and a fantastic script. If you haven’t watched this yet, you have no idea what you are missing!

Movie: For me as a German it has got to be Krabat. I loved the book (by Otfried Preussler) as a kid; in fact I still re-read it every now and then, because it just keeps getting better. I’ve been waiting for a movie version for the last 20 years or so, so when this movie finally came out, I just had to like it. I have to admit I still haven’t seen all of it, but what I’ve seen so far looks pretty amazing. No doubt there are bits that aren’t as in the book and of course there are scenes missing, but for the fact alone that someone has finally turned this fantastic book into a movie I have to make it my pick of the year. If you want to read the book, it has been translated into English, although the title has been changed from Krabat to The Curse of the Darkling Mill.

Novel: Staying with the whole black magic theme… kinda. My book pick is the latest in the Spook’s Apprentice series, The Spook’s Mistake (by Joe Delaney). My mate Tim got me into these books, because I told him about my love for Krabat. I’ve never read Harry Potter or any similar magic/fantasy books since I was a kid, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these books. The first book in the range is really dark and gripping – pretty scary stuff for children you’d have thought (maybe kids are just tougher these days…).

Book two and three weren’t as good as the first one, the fourth volume picked up the pace again and this fifth volume is – in my opinion – easily the best of the lot. I know they are rated as children’s books, but grown ups are going to love these too. It’s a quick read, but not because the story is weak – because of the exact opposite. The story grabs a hold of you from the word go and you just can’t put it down!

Comic: Well, I know it ended ages ago, in January in fact, but I only read the final issue of Y: The Last Man last month. I’d been putting it off for so long, but I just had to read it in the end. I knew it was going to happen, and it did. I cried. A brilliant run of a brilliant comic came to an end in 2008. It wasn’t quite what I had hoped for, but how else really could they have ended this story. Maybe shouldn’t have ended it at all. But then again, how much longer could Yorick have travelled around the world…

(Y the Last Man deluxe edition volume 1, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra, cover art by Massimo Carnevale, published by DC Vertigo)

A real shame it had to end, but a glorious read. Pick up the trade paperback or the deluxe editions of this amazing story by Brian K Vaughn and re-read one of the best comics ever.

Others: Mmm, I just had to list something that wasn’t like all the other lists…my favourite Premier League football shirt of the season. And the winner is…the Arsenal Home Kit. What a shirt! I know it’s not the traditional Gunners red shirt with white sleeves, as this one’s sleeves aren’t all white…but this shirt is so punchy and simply cool looking, how can you not like it? Maybe you have to be a Gooner to love it (like me)…. :)