The guys here at Stumblebum Studios know how difficult it is to hunt down that perfect gift for friends and loved ones and we wanted to take the opportunity to make it a little easier on you. We have asked our contributors to put together a list of the gifts we think fanboys wouldn’t be able to live without.

If you do end up purchasing some of these items for yourself, your friends, or your loved ones, please use the link provided. You will be contributing to the upkeep of (what I am convinced is) your favorite comics and entertainment website.

Thanks again,

The Editor

Gift Wish List-Dana Place

Death of Superman and World Without a Superman: If you are looking for what Superman is and what he means to the world of comic books, you can dig around for some obscure back issue at your local comic book store or you can go to the source. Any comic book fan on your list is sure to have read these (along with anyone over the age of 5 when they were published), but whether it is their first read or the fiftieth, they will still get that same lump in their throat when the Man of Steele literally puts his foot down and sacrifices everything for the people he has spent his life protecting. A good gift for getting that casual reader hooked on comics and a great gift for the collector that probably has a worn out 12 year old copy hidden somewhere in his bedroom that he pulls out every once in a while to remember what a great Superman comic looks like.

Akira Kurosawa 4 film box set: The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo the Bodygaurd, Sanjuro, and The Hidden Fortress. The closest thing I have ever seen to the definitive collection of the most influential films from the most influential director of the past 50 years. Any movie buff would love to have this as a part of his collection and can’t really say he is one without it. Akira Kurosawa has inspired some of the greatest films in American cinema with these movies.

Godfather  Box Set: I really shouldn’t have to explain this one. If you don’t know maybe you should pick it up for yourself too.

Batman: The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family: Two comic book classics and probably the best of the Batman/Joker stories. One book written by a crazy Englishman who best defined the relationship between the Dark Knight and his arch enemy and the other a great story that just emphasizes why Bruce Wayne is essentially a really screwed up guy in a bat costume who takes out his aggression on anyone dumb enough to screw with his town.

Sin City un-cut and Batman Begins: The best comic book movies of 2005 and a must have addition to any comic book fans movie collection.

Watchmen: What? An intelligent dissection and analysis of heroes in comics that is more than just action with a storyline thrown in to keep some sort of story moving forward you ask? Yep. This book is the father of many books to follow that takes a normally superfluous subject like men running around in costumes fighting crime and gives them a depth, character, and many of the flaws that make them human beings first and crime fighters second. Pick this up for that comic book geek you love and it’ll show him/her that you understand that the stack of boxes they keep adding books to each week is more than just a colorful collection of kids stories.

The Prisoner Box Set: A short lived television series that is essentially man’s fight for individuality and each episode addresses issues of democracy, freedom, statehood and how we view our society. The prisoner tackles these issues with the seriousness of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984, all with an entertaining storyline. Probably the best “thinking man’s television” you’ll find out there.

American Diabetes Association
In case you feel like giving in a different way, a great cause and an idea a little different than running around trying to find that perfect gift for someone.

Gift List-Drew Clements

Depths volume #1: When it comes to giving someone their first comic book, you can either give 'em something wrapped in cliché muscle-bound spandex with continuity thicker than peanut butter... or you can give 'em something thought-provoking, funny, and smart--a perfect example of how comics aren't just for the kiddies.

If there were ever a comic that could win people over, then it's Paul Chadwick's Concrete, which is the top of the heap when it comes to fantastic writing with adult themes.

Fantastic Four Omnibus volume 1 HC: This is the Holy Grail of Fantastic Four trade paperbacks and is perfect for that FF fan on your shopping list. This collects the first 30 issues of the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby hit in an oversized, re-mastered format.

Will Eisner: A Spirited Life: For the old-school comic fan we have the biography of the legendary Will Eisner as written from interviews with the man himself, family, co-workers, and the people he inspired. Definitely a must-have for fans of Eisner.

Fantastic Four; (widescreen DVD): This happens to be my favorite comic book movie of the past year (yes, even above Batman Begins and Sin City!). It successfully captures the fun and family feeling of the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comics.

This is a comic book movie that's appropriate for the entire family--all ages.

Gift List-David DeGrand

The Looney Tunes Golden Collection volumes 1-3: In my opinion, simply the best cartoon shorts from the golden age of animation. Having Chuck Jones’ masterpiece “One Froggy Evening” on DVD finally gives my life some meaning.

The Ren and Stimpy Show volumes 1-3: When this show came out in the early nineties, it was like a religious experience for an eleven year old wannabe cartoonist. There was never anything like it before or since, despite the countless imitations. Even the show’s original creators haven’t been able to replicate the surreal genius of the first season based on their later output. The first DVD collection is my personal favorite, but the other two are still worth getting.

Cartoons That Time Forgot: The Ub Iwerks Collection volumes 1 and 2: Despite what the Walt Disney company will tell you, Mickey Mouse was created out of desperation (it’s a long story). Walt’s right hand man, Ub Iwerks, was the artist responsible for animating (by himself) the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon. After getting burned out for years of not getting the credit he deserved, he formed his own studio and made the cartoons on these DVDs. These black and white shorts are very weird at times and although not as good as the Mickey cartoons, they have an unrestrained quality that is hard to describe. It’s sort of like watching what cartoon characters would do without having to star in a story with any kind of plot.

Mickey Mouse in Black and White volumes 1 and 2: Although these are better made cartoons than the Ub Iwerks shorts mentioned above, I’m listing them one number lower for the simple fact that the Iwerks shorts work on a more bizarre level. That being said, these early Mickey cartoons display a very different Mickey than what the rest of the world is used to seeing. Mickey likes to torture animals and kidnap Minnie quite a bit, but remember he’s the GOOD guy in these.

The Ripping Friends: Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi made this series almost a decade after his masterpiece, and it’s nowhere near as good. However, animation fans should check it out for the awesome character designs and more weirdness for the sake of being weird that John K does best.

School House Rock: The 30th Anniversary Collection: Everyone knows the songs by heart, but watching the cartoons again made me realize how much they got away with by using such a minimal approach to character design. These cartoons have a good-hearted mean streak, watch them again and you’ll see what I mean.

Any Betty Boop collection: You can find Betty Boop cartoons almost anywhere, and they’re always really cheap. If you can find any of the black and white shorts, you will be treated to the best animation of the 1930’s. As a plus, you get a healthy dose of surreal imagery that really needs to be seen to appreciate.

Cartoons That Time Forgot: From the Van Beuren Cartoons: This long forgotten cartoon studio was rather underrated in my book after seeing the cartoons on this DVD. Although technically not as polished as anything from the Fleischer or Disney studios, I still love these shorts for the fact that almost every inanimate object at some point sprouts arms and a face and starts to sing and dance.

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle: Seasons 1-3: There are currently three seasons available of this show, and each one is worth getting. The character design and backgrounds alone on these cartoons make me drool, and the fact that they are funny as hell doesn’t hurt.

Somewhere in Dreamland: This awesome collection features all of the Max Fleischer “Color Classics” series, which were basically rip offs of Disney’s “Silly Symphonies”. I like these better though, the look of these shorts is more of the surreal-cartoony that I love, and check out the huge phallic nose on the ant-eater in the short “Ants in the Plants”.

Gift List-Kevin Steele

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Volumes 1-4: Because if you haven't figured out that a talking 100-pound wad of meat and a fat guy that resembles Dennis Franz without the charming personality can be funny, then pal you need to turn it on and turn it up.

The Warner Gangsters Collection: Because if you dig Sin City, you gotta check out the original public enemy, James Cagney, in THREE of his best films-- "White Heat", "Angels With Dirty Faces", and "The Public Enemy".

Apple 30 GB Black I-Pod: If you love music and get tired of lugging around your CD collection of "Marcy Playground" and "Britney Spears' Greatest Hits" in your not-so-macho-man-purse then you gotta get this nice bit o' tech that even lets you download and store Britney's pre-preggo gyrations. And it's BLACK, so it has to be cool, right?

The Jason Voorhees Resin Mini-Bust from Neca: Your favorite homicidal retard giving you the evil eye from your bookshelf, or make-shift altar to serial killers, while your girlfriend contemplates her options and cries herself to sleep with a butcher knife under her pillow. How cool is that? Okay, I don't really know that it qualifies as cool but wouldn't you like to own the Jason Mini-bust with its removable mask, and the oh-so-sweet, only-a-crazed-mass-murdering-mother-could-love face adoring you instead of actually blowing so much more money and time on finding a real girlfriend that could nurture your need to be fulfilled by another human being and maybe even give you a little slap-n-tickle once she's had enough booze to dull the pain of her bleak future with you? Think of it as an investment in your future.

The Sin City (Recut&Extended Edition) DVD: With almost two and a half hours of Noir-ish bad-assness, there HAS to be a Jessica Alba nipple slip somewhere.

And while you're at it...

The Complete Frank Miller's Sin City Library: This complete box-set of the award-winning graphic novels will help you get your fix while you're waiting for the movie sequel. And, they're all paperbacks so you can take them anywhere and not feel guilty about scratching or staining them, except when you smuggle them into the bathroom to leer at the nude illustrations of Nancy and touch yourself like your mommy told you not to. That's just wrong, man.

Gift List-Paul Milligan

The Art of Hellboy – Mike Mignola is simply one of the best damn artists, not only in the field of comics, but anywhere. His most famous creation, the monster hunting Hellboy, represents some of Mignola’s greatest leaps in sequential storytelling and style and with The Art of Hellboy you can see how the character, the book and the artist have evolved over the years. This oversized book contains character sketches, original covers, pin-ups, rarely seen short stories and more and it’s the perfect gift for fans of Mignola, Hellboy and damn good art.

Batman (Two-Disc Special Edition) – Sure, Batman Begins was great, but let’s not forget that the original Batman is still one of the best and most successful comic book movies ever made. Timed to coincide with the release of Batman Begins this new edition of Tim Burton’s classic features a commentary track with the director himself and a ton of documentaries on the making of the film. There’s also a box set containing this movie and its three god-awful sequels, but save some money and just buy the good one.

Bone: One Volume Edition – This 1300 page volume collects Jeff Smith’s entire epic adventure story about the three Bone cousins, Fone, Phoney and Smiley as they spend a year in the mysterious Valley after being run out of their hometown of Boneville.

Blankets – Craig Thompson’s massive, semi autobiographical Blankets, which clocks at about 600 pages, may seem daunting at first but once you crack the cover and get into the amazingly touching, heart-breaking and beautifully illustrated story you’ll find it hard to put the book down. It’s one of the finest examples of just how beautiful, expressive and compelling the comic book medium can be.

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes – Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes is probably one of the most revered comic strips of all time and with good reason. Hilarious, witty and beautifully illustrated, this strip revived the ailing newspaper comic strip section in the 80’s and is still missed by fans of the strip even now, a decade after it ended. This three-volume collection consists of every Calvin and Hobbes strip from 1985 to 1995.

Danger Doom – The Mouse and The Mask – Hey it’s a hip-hop album for fans of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (notably Space Ghost, Harvey Birdman and Aqua Teen Hunger Force)! Sound lame? A cheap “inspired by” soundtrack album that’s probably as instantly forgettable as the “stars” on the record? Not by a long shot. Danger Doom is a collaboration between two of the coolest and most talented up and comers in the hip-hop industry, DJ Dangermouse and MF Doom. This album is more like a labor of love than a money grabbing gimmick album and if you like great hip-hop, kick ass beats and hilarious cartoons then there ain’t no better album than The Mouse and The Mask.

DC Comics Showcase Presentsand Marvel Comics Essentials Collections – Feel like reading the adventures of the Amazing Spiderman from the very beginning? Wanna see how the Justice League of America first got together? Yeah, that’d be nice, but how the heck are you gonna do that without spending hundreds of dollars on old, hard to find back issues? Why, just pick up one of DC Comics Showcase Presents or Marvel Comics Essentials collections. These books are a genius idea, collecting dozens of issues of hard to find 60’s, 70’s and 80’s classics in one cheap, black and white volume. Most of the collections clock in around 500 pages and can be purchased for less than fifteen bucks! Marvel already has an extensive collection ranging from Spiderman to X-Men and everything in between. DC’s Showcase Presents series just started up recently, already collecting a number of classics like Silver Age Green Lantern, Superman and Justice League comics.

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross – Featuring over 300 pages of artwork, this book is a must have for fans of Alex Ross, the Norman Rockwell of the comics industry. This oversized, coffee-table book, put together by incredibly talented book designer Chip Kidd, contains pages and pages of sketches, old paintings, character designs and more, telling the visual story of Alex Ross’ travels through the DC Universe up to and including his masterpiece, Kingdom Come. I originally purchased this book as a hardcover in 2003 but it’s finally available in paperback, much cheaper than previous editions and comes with a brand new (and stunning) cover by Ross.

The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes – Starting in 1998 writer Paul Dini, creator of the Batman, Batman Beyond and Superman animated series’, and artist Alex Ross teamed up to create six tabloid sized graphic novels starring DC Comics greatest heroes. Now all six books (Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: War on Crime, Shazam: Power of Hope, Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth, JLA: Secret Origins and JLA: Liberty and Justice) have been collected into one 400-page, hardcover collection. These stories are iconic, larger than life and definitive of each of these unforgettable characters. This book also includes several pages of promotional art, sketches, photos, a brand new cover by Alex Ross and a huge poster featuring the entire Justice League. All this for fifty bucks? It’s a freakin’ steal!