A Very Exfanding Holiday Season

Well, today was supposed to be a review of the latest Kurosawa film Nathaniel and I watched, Yojimbo, but um...it's not. A review about Yojimbo, I mean.

That will be coming your way tomorrow, and it will be filled with all of the insightful commentary and hilarity that you've come to expect from us.

Promise.

Today, though, I'd like to talk about the holiday shopping season, and more specifically, how it affects all of us as fans of different, dorky things. Tomorrow is a Big Shopping Day for me personally, as I plan to finish off my list and pick up things for the remaining family members and friends that are on said list.

What can I say? I started early this year. Also, what with being unemployed and all, I decided to take a page from Nathaniel (shh--don't tell him), and start very early, and do a little at a time, spreading the money around. I mean, sure, it's still being spent, but small doses is always better for everyone.

So tomorrow I plan on leaving my house at around eight, and not returning until the very last gift is bought. We'll see how that works out.

But, back to geeky things. We are, as a whole and as you probably already know, incredibly difficult to shop for. Geeks, I mean. Actually, I'd even venture to say that we are the worst (The. Worst.) people on the entire planet to shop for.

Either I already have that issue of Amazing Spider-Man that Aunt Hilda saw in the local Borders and just knew I'd love, or you just don't want that Jar Jar coffee mug your Uncle Phil saw in the dollar bin at the local Target. You know, because he remembered you liked Star Trek.

Maybe some enterprising cousin saw fit to buy us a box set of our favorite movie trilogy (pick one, they all apply here), but didn't realize that what she bought was actually the second-latest release of the films, and doesn't contain all those new, shiny, useless features that we need to have.

Maybe everyone in my family knows that I want to write comics, and so they buy me (the awesome, but one or two copies is enough) The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, by Denny O'Neil.

Maybe--well, you get the idea.

Shopping for a comics fan is kinda like High School Alex sitting in calculus and trying not to look baffled.

And, when it comes down to it, what we really want as dorky fanboys or fangirls can only be special ordered at a comics shop. Or found on some artist's homepage who no one we know has ever heard of. Or will take the equivalent of a down payment on a condo to afford.

So, since Christmas is fast approaching, and it's the one holiday that Nathaniel and I can both agree on (see his Halloween posting from this past October as an example of how persnickety he can be about such things), we figured we'd continue the Exfanding tradition of making a geek-centric gift guide for the holidays.

As you'll remember (sure you will), we started this time-honored tradition last year, with our epic, week-long Gifts for Geeks. (Which you can find here, here, here, here, and here.)

This year's endeavor probably won't be as long, or as epic, but it'll..um...be.

Most likely starting next week, we'll throw out some holiday ideas for fanboys and girls of every age. So, if your family members are exasperated as to what to buy you for the holidays, tell 'em to stop on by for the greatest geek guide on the Internets*.


*Gifts for Geeks is not actually the greatest geek guide on the Internets.