Happy Birthday To Us! Geekanerd Is One!

The Gnerd Crew: Albo, Johnny, Bishop, Fred, Sarah B and AHR.*

"But Albo," you say, "Just one year? I feel like Geekanerd has been around forever! I can't imagine a time without such a great source for comic book, movie, and video game news and opinions!" Yeah, we get that all the time. But it's true! One year ago this week, AHR posted our very first article--a "Panel Discussion" of Avengers: The Initiative #2. Panel Discussion became a weekly feature, and this wild n' crazy journey down the rabbit hole of Geekanerdism began. But enough about the first article, what were the BEST articles? And so, in celebration of our first birthday:

GEEKANERD'S TOP TEN MOST POPULAR ARTICLES ALL TIME

(Based on total visitors)

After the jump!

*Not pictured: Degan. He's in LA or something. Nerd.

10. The Dark American Psycho Knight
Our mashup of the newest Dark Knight trailer with scenes from American Psycho probably got some people in trouble at work, but that didn't stop word of mouth from making it a minor internet hit.

9. MoCCA 2007: Hot Webcartoonist Action!
Apparently people are really curious what all those reclusive cartoonists look like in the flesh. I must admit I was mildly surprised to discover what a good looking group they are! Or maybe Special Ops Correspondent Bishop just has eyes for the pretty ones. I suspect we'll be getting a sequel to this one soon, considering MoCCA went down over the weekend... Bishop?

8. An Insane Fan's Guide to the Sweeney Todd Trailer
As soon as the Sweeney Todd trailer reached our internets AHR withdrew into her patented Foaming Geek Analysis Mode to dissect the images and draw an opinion on the adaptation of what she has long considered "the greatest material ever written." She picked it apart as only a true fan could, which is really what Geekanerd is all about.

7. Superhero Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum
Special Ops Correspondent Bishop strikes again, with this awesome sneak preview of the Superhero Fashion exhibit that's still going on at the Met.

6. The Kwik-E-Mart Comes to Times Square
Mere steps from her apartment door, AHR stumbled upon NYC's very own Kwik-E-Mart on the morning it opened, giving Geekanerd readers the first look at this Simpsons Movie publicity stunt. Having the only Kwik-E-Mart photos on the internet for a couple of days got us tons and tons of traffic. Truly our first blockbuster article.

5. Watchmen Movie Photos to Comic Panels Comparison
Many places on the internet referencing such a comparison link Maxim's similar article, but ours was chock full of the kind of intense scrutiny and analysis that only a true fan can deliver. "Geekanerd: When Maxim Just Isn't Geeky Enough."

4. Dark Knight Bootleg: The 7-Minute Scene
This video still gets a lot of visitors clamoring for anything Dark Knight related. It's a recording of a full scene from DK that ran before I Am Lengend on IMAX screens. The video gets taken down every once in a while by Warner Bros., but we've managed to keep getting it back up. I actually haven't even watched it, as I want to be as fresh as possible when I go in this summer. (It's great! - AHR)

3. Venture Bros. Season Three Preview
This is a relatively young article that's climbed to the top three in record time. Another case of being the first on the scene with something that a certain niche is itching for, AHR shot this at a New York Comic Con panel and for some reason was the only person to do so and post it. There was only one place for Venture Bros fans to come for their fix, and we welcomed them with open arms. The recording was so ubiquitous that most sites reporting the official release of the preview weeks later made remarks like "Now you can stop watching that bootleg version."

2. Portal Authority: Everything Good on the Internet About Portal
AHR here for this one. This post is very close to my heart. Writing it allowed me to take the mind-consuming obsession and adoration I experienced after playing Portal and expel it onto the internet, where I could share the crazy with similarly afflicted fans. Analysis born of all-encompassing geek-love is something I always wanted to be at the heart of this site. It's been more than half a year since this post, yet it seems like GLaDOS and I met only yesterday.

1. Early Zelda Drawings Reveal Hyrule That Could Have Been
It might be misleading to call this our most "popular" article ever. It certainly has the most visitors, but my fanboy rant drew a lot of fire from Zelda-ites all over the internet. I thought I loved the franchise, but I've got nothing on the people that came out to say all sorts of bad things about me: "the author's a whiny little bitch," "this guys is an idiot," "a bucket of pure distilled nonsense," "he's talkin rubbish," "this guy is a whiny dick," "what a prick this guy is." I had some well spoken supporters in the massive (for G'nerd) comment section, though, which softened the blows. I suppose I've learned my lesson about inflammatory language.

And to you, dear readers...thanks to the early birds who've been with us for the whole year, and who stuck with us during our colored text phase and the endless reconfigurations of Snap Judg(e)ments. Thanks to the new folks who have joined the party in the last few months, and have pushed our stats into the magical land of Maybe We Should Be Making Money Now. Thanks even to the horny guys and gay girls who just came here once for the Nerdcore Calendar link. We wish we could offer each and every one of you a piece of this unbelievably delicious Food Emporium cake. Stick around for an exciting year two, which Force-willing will include some podcast action and maybe even our own little t-shirt collection.

Early Zelda Drawings Reveal Hyrule That Could Have Been

A LiveJournaler by the name of studiojfish has gathered together 23 early Zelda drawings by Katsuya Terada that ran in Nintendo Power back in the 80's, and they make my heart ACHE. This is the kind of thing they would print to convince you the little blobs of sprites on your screen were actually fierce monsters and the brave heroes that slay them. Technology has advanced since then, and gamers no longer have to rely on their imaginations to visualize dramatic worlds. So why is the current incarnation of the Zelda universe so dull when compared to these early drawings? THIS is what we gamers were visualizing as we played and replayed the original NES masterpiece. The monsters were huge and terrifying, not goofy slapstick comedians. The shopkeepers were craggy old men in dusty caves, not moon-faced jokesters. And most importantly, MOST IMPORTANTLY:

In our minds, Link was a hero with gravitas and personality, not a bland effeminate mute. When your hero has no character development your story is in trouble. Giving the poor kid some personality and a fucking voice (text is fine) would at the very least eliminate the necessity for the annoyingly chatty fairies and sidekicks that have plagued every modern Zelda game.

Behold: There once was a dream that was Hyrule, and Nintendo has castrated it. Twilight Princess was a step in the right direction, but these beautiful images show there's still progress to be made.

Hit the jump for a few of my favorites from the collection...
Via Infendo.

April lols?

As you may have already discovered when you woke up to find your room swarming with Madagascar hissing cockroaches (apologies to my roommates) it is indeed April 1st, better known to all as April Fool's Day. A day when we play pranks on our loved ones to show them that, well, I guess to show them how gullible they are. Anyway, nobody knows how to prank better than the Geek community. Take a look at this trailer that was posted on IGN and is already making the rounds:

Link.

High quality eh? The production team behind it is Rainfall Films, and I must say they did quite a good job with the fx.

More Gnerd worthy April Fools jokes after the jump.

Next up, our friends over at Blizzard. With the new expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" so highly anticipated, Blizzard decided to create a new class to capitalize on the Guitar Hero/Rock Band craze. Introducing, the bard:
Link.

Nice one Blizz, though I have to say, that would be a pretty hilariously amazing class to roll.

Next up, YTMND! ZMG YTMND IS DED!

Youtube is apparently Rickrolling it's own users. If you're not familier with it, Rickrolling is when you purportedly link to something, but the link actually takes the clicker to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Check out any of the Featured Videos on Youtube and prepare to be serenaded by a skinny redhead with the stolen voice of Barry White.

Google mail (or Gmail as it's affectionately known) has created "custom time" as can be seen here. This allows users to backdate their emails to have them appear in whatever chronological order is necessary. Seems silly, but 1 million procrastinating college students just passed out from sheer joy at the cruel joke.

A couple webcomics have also joined the fun, including Dinosaur Comics, Questionable Content, and Xkcd, which have all swapped web addresses to confuse and confound. Of course, since these are all links, you'll have to check the http at the top of your browser to confirm that yes, they all have the wrong addresses. CONFUSION!

That's all for now, be sure to let us here at Gnerd know about any other Gnerd-worthy April Fool's jokes that are going on!

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Intro

A 360 degree turn from the "dark" Twilight Princess, the upcoming Zelda game for the DS introduces its story (ie recaps The Windwaker) through some ultra-adorable, really well done storybook-esque cutouts. I wish they were somewhat animated, but the design is still undeniably great.