With 2011 coming to a close, a bunch of us here at Geeks of Doom, along with some Friends of Doom, decided to take a look back at some of our favorite albums that celebrated their 25th anniversary this year.

The year 1986 was a fantastic one for music, with pivotal albums from metal bands like Metallica and Slayer and rap artists like The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. There was also great music topping the charts from artists like Genesis, Janet Jackson, and Van Halen. Oh and let’s not forget the soundtracks!

Check out our picks below for Our Favorite Albums Of 1986.

One year I was lucky enough to spend New Year’s Eve in Orlando, FL, at Disney World’s Pleasure Island, the nightclub are where there’s a NYE-style countdown and fireworks display every night. It’s an amazing place to be to bring in the new year.

Check out the video here below from spotlighting some fireworks displays at the Disney Parks throughout the last 40 years; there’s also a video of some of the highlights from last year’s New Year’s Eve celebration at Disneyland’s California Adventure Park theme park (in Anaheim, CA) [...]

Artist John Quinn did a painting for a presentation for the people at Disney of Mickey Mouse and Pluto in a Frank Frazetta style and setting [...]

Another year, another cool holiday greeting from Quirk Books, publisher of awesomeness like Night of the Living Trekkies, The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as well as their upcoming release, Jason Heller’s Taft 2012.

This year’s holiday greetings came in the form of a hand-signed and numbered original limited edition silk screened print by Tim Gough that urged everyone to “devour more books” – and I happened to think that that’s a great suggestion!

Check out a photo of my print, which was 117 of 500, here below [...]

The $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel is a Firefly-themed shirt called “The Fighting Fireflies” by Brinkerhoff.

The sale at RIPT began today, Saturday, December 31, 2011, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore [...]

Amazon currently has 100 MP3 Albums For $5 Each for the month of December 2011, so today’s the last day to grab the items in this sale. There’s plenty of great music from artists like Nine Inch Nails, Dio, Beck, Bruce Springsteen, and more, as well as soundtracks for Tron: Legacy and Book Of Mormon.

Below is a sample of some of the albums in this $5 sale, so grab it now before it’s over at 11:59pm PST tonight!

- Green Day – Insomniac
- Daft Punk – Tron: Legacy Reconfigured
- The Offspring – Greatest Hits
- The Book Of Mormon – Original Broadway Cast Recording
- Flight of the Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky
- Bruce Springsteen – Greatest Hits
- Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
- Beck – Odelay
- Dio – Holy Diver
- Korn – Korn III: Remember Who You Are [...]

The ebook deal of the day over at Amazon today is three top-rated American history books from historian Stephen E. Ambrose for only $1.99 each (that’s 80% off the list price).

- Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
- Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of German
- Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors

Note – this deal is valid only for today, Saturday, December 31, 2011, until 11:59pm PST [...]

The video game deal of the day over at Amazon today is Crysis 2 for PC Download for only $9.99 (that’s 33% off the list price of $59.95)

Note, this deal is only for today, Saturday, December 31, 2011, til midnight PST while supplies last.

If you purchase this game download today, you’ll receive a $5 promotional credit good towards any of the 2011 bestselling video game downloads like Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in the month of January 2012. See the “Special Offers and Product Promotions” section of the product page [...]

The $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at TeeFury today is a design by Castle inspired by Seth Grahame-Smith’s book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The sale began at Teefury today, Saturday, December 31, 2011, at midnight EST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore [...]

2011 was a big year for doorstopper-sized fantasy novels, particularly A Dance of Dragons by George R.R. Martin, which is a whopping 1,040 pages. It sold 298,000 copies on its first day alone, which included 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 eBooks, and 18,000 audiobooks, proving that although ebook sales are catching up, print is still ahead for big releases like this.

Another major series that got a hugely anticipated sequel came in the form of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Wise Man’s Fear, which continues the events of The Name of the Wind and propels Kvothe into an even more compelling situations. Canadian horror also got a few notable entries with Enter, Night and Dead of Winter, both historical fiction novels and both superbly written. Small and mid-sized presses continue to produce some of the best genre fiction out there, and this year proved no exception.

Here’s my picks for the Top 10 Fantasy and Horror Books of 2011 [...]

Author George R.R. Martin‘s book series A Song of Ice and Fire got a major boast in popularity thanks its hit television adaptation, HBO’s Game Of Thrones. The fifth installment in the saga, A Dance with Dragons, which was released this Summer, was one of the most highly anticipated and well-received books of 2011.

Now, the author has posted an excerpt at his website from The Winds of Winter, the next book in the series! [...]

There’s been a cool little crafty fan movement online for some while now, especially from the folks over at Cubeecraft, for people to put together their own cuby geek goodies using paper craft. Now, thanks to some dedicated time and modifications by Chris aka ~CyberDrone over at Deviantart.com, you can now construct your own TARDIS from Doctor Who.

And it’s not just one TARDIS we’re talking here… there are several variations including the Bad Wolf TARDIS from the David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston periods, a classic black and white TARDIS from the early William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton days, and even the rare pink TARDIS from one of Sylvester McCoy‘s episodes. Yes, you read that correctly: a PINK TARDIS! [...]

Christmas time has come and gone, and with the festive season, as always, we received the gift of a Doctor Who Christmas Special for 2011. The Doctor (Matt Smith) finds himself indebted to Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner), a mother from World War II-era England, for saving his life. The Doctor, after learning that her husband is missing and presumed dead during the war, decides to help provide the best Christmas ever to Madge and her children.

In his effort, he uses technology from TARDIS to create a Christmas present that is, in fact, a dimensional portal to another planet called Androzani Major. Unfortunately one of the children sneak into the present early and begin exploring the world… the Doctor follows only to find that this planet of Christmas trees is not only in risk, but so is Madge and her children [...]

Baltimore: The Curse Bells #5
Written by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola
Art by Ben Stenbeck
Colors by Dave Stewart
Letters by Clem Robins
Cover by Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart
Dark Horse Comics
Release date: December 14, 2011
Cover Price: $3.50

The adventure of Lord Henry Baltimore and the cursed bells concludes.

In Baltimore: The Curse Bells #5, Lord Henry Baltimore fights the evil priest that now has taken control of the villagers in the nearby town by cursing the bells of an old church. The cursed bells grant the priest ultimate control over anyone who can hear the bells ring. Everyone is under the priest’s control except for Lord Henry Baltimore. Baltimore takes on the evil priest’s army while Baltimore ultimate enemy, Haigus, has other plans. Will Baltimore defeat the evil priest? Will Baltimore get his revenge on the one-eyed vampire Haigus? [...]

Okay, so there are a lot of rumors circulating across the Internet that concerns a work that many a comic book reader holds dearly in their hearts. And that comic book work is Watchmen. Now, are they Spielberg-ing by replacing The Comedian’s gun with a walkie-talkie? No. But the rumor is that we’ll be seeing a Watchmen prequel comic from DC Comics sooner rather than later. But, there is a petition for that [...]