Ah, 2013 - you were an interesting one.

It was a year of news that a decade earlier would’ve dumbfounded me.

Nearly every week brings announcements, images and footage from an ever growing series of amazing blockbusters, beautiful graphic novels and other nerdy pursuits, with the bar of quality constantly being raised.

Who would’ve thought heading into 2013 that we’d have a deep and rich Marvel movie universe, a growing DC one, and more importantly - people would be looking forward to them?

It also was a tough year here at Blast-O-Rama - technical difficulties derailing new life given to the site.

But in 2014, I think we’ll get it all right. Provided our hosting stays right.

That said - 2013 brought some amazing movies, music and more, and I thought this would be the appropriate time to highlight my personal favorites. (Not the best, per se, but favorite.)

FILM: Pacific Rim

From the first trailer, it was an almost given that I’d fall in love with director Guillermo Del Toro’s homage to giant monster films - but once screened, there was so much more to love. All of the tropes remained, from crazy poses, to yelling of special attacks (and surprise last ditch special attacks), but were met with an incredibly rich cast of characters and absolutely beautiful special effects.  Sure, we’ve seen action in this scale before with Michael Bay’s Transformers, but it was the cast that allowed us to truly connect to the film.  I’ve seen the movie countless times at this point, between the theater and blu-ray, and every time, I find another detail to love. Great work, all.

MUSIC: Illumination Ritual by The Appleseed Cast

Sure, Daft Punk and Arcade Fire did the impossible and created albums that matched their equally impressive amounts of marketing with quality, but the music which filled my ears the most this year was the eighth release from Kansas’s own The Appleseed Cast.  Eight albums in, the band only features the original singer and guitarist, but the music found in Illumination Ritual match, if not beat some of their finest albums.  With a return of the intricate drumming of the Mare Vitalis era matched with the incredible sonics of Peregrine and Sagarmatha, this was music to not only enjoy, but become enveloped in.

Note -  as always, I made a playlist of my favorite songs of the year, which you can check out on Spotify, here.

TV: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Yes, Breaking Bad ended perfectly. And yes, Game of Thrones blew our minds with the Red Wedding. But personally, I’ve been wanting a really great new sitcom for some time. And with Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, we got it. Helmed by one of the producers of Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine somehow wisely missed the freshman missteps of that sitcom (which followed in the footsteps of The Office, which also started iffy), found a way to ground Andy Samberg with a stunning supporting cast, and somehow made Andre Braugher a great comedic straight man. Only six episodes in, the show is fantastic, and has become a program  I look forward to every week, and laugh hard at for a solid 22 minutes.

COMICS: Sex Criminals

Saga and Hawkeye continued their fantastic reigns this year, and The Superior Foes of Spider-Man is probably the best new Marvel book since Hawkeye, but the comic that absolutely enthralled me this year is the one with the worst title and worst premise, on paper.  Matt Fraction shows us why he’s so great with individual character, by giving us the sweet yet naughty tale of two characters who stop time when they orgasm.  Sounds awful, but his gift of gab makes them feel real, whole and vulnerable.  Matched by the easter-egg rich, yet wonderfully cartoony art of Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals is a comic that makes you laugh, think and you’re entirely embarrassed to talk about in real life. But god damn is it good.

So, what did YOU enjoy this year? Sound off in the comments!