Originally posted: Monday, February 6, 2012 8:30am
Late last year I posted my Top Geek Gals of 2011. I wanted to shine a spotlight on the wonderful ladies that fly the geek flag proudly, doing what they can to make the world just a bit geekier. But then a debate broke out on the post over whether one could be ‘sexy’ and ‘geeky’ at the same time. Some argued for and others against. And to tell the truth, this argument has been around for a while now, with some folks calling into question the ‘geek cred’ of those who would put a pretty face on the world of geeks and nerds.
So that got me to thinking: would geek guys get the same amount of skepticism? To put it to the test I asked some of the geekiest fellas I know to be a part of my “Hottest Geek Guys of Winter” gallery. I requested from each of them a bio spelling out what made them a geek/nerd and a photo where they put on their sexy side. I’ve got to say that they didn’t disappoint. Whether they put on their best threads, gave their most sultry looks, or even flashed some skin, my fellow brothers-in-geekdom managed to turn up the heat!
Check out this gallery and be sure to read their bios where they lay out their ‘geek credentials’:
Carlin “CT” Trammel has been blogging at NerdLunch.net for five years. He was a co-host of the short-lived “Nerd Lunch: The Web Series” and is currently the regular host of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. He has directed short films, written self-published comics, and was an editorial intern at Marvel Comics back in 1998. Although none of that amounts to the greatness that is his hair, what he considers one of his most defining features. Follow him on Twitter! @NerdLunch
Alan “Sizzler” Kistler is an author and actor who has been recognized as a comic book historian and works as a freelance contributor for many sites. Along with his weekly column “Agent of S.T.Y.L.E.” on Newsarama, he is the creator and co-host of the weekly podcast “Crazy Sexy Geeks,” dealing with pop culture news and dating advice. His upcoming work in books includes The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cook Book and a couple of chapters of Star Trek and History. Alan has also had characters based on him and appears in multiple STAR TREK novels by David A. Mack & Keith R. A. DeCandido as Alan Kistler, Protection Agent to the President of the United Federation of Planets (which means he’s been trained to handle both Klingons AND Romulans). His Twitter account is @SizzlerKistler and his archives can be found at http://AlanKistler.com. After a few drinks, Alan sometimes shares stories of his travels though the space-time vortex.
DVD producer Brian Ward earns his geek cred by bringing us some of our favorite 80’s nerdy shows such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Jem and the Holograms. With more contemporary titles like MST3K, The Middleman, and Marvel Knights Motion Comics, the talented Mr. Ward has geeked his way to Director of DVD production at Shout! Factory. He is currently producing MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC. Isn’t that adorable? Remember when your mom told you you’d never make a living watching Saturday Morning Cartoons? Well, this guy does. With his southern charm, boy-next-door manners, and touchable ginger locks, he’ll surely make your GILF list! Follow him on twitter: @BWard028
Mel Caylo – Marketing Manager, Archaia Entertainment: Mel Caylo has been employed as a writer, editor, and PR & marketing professional in the geek entertainment publishing industry for over 11 years, having worked for Wizard magazine, Top Cow Productions and Archaia Entertainment. Mel was born and raised in New York City’s Stuyvesant Town neighborhood, went to high school at Brooklyn Tech and attended New York University and Hunter College, where he graduated with a BA in Media Studies and a minor concentration in Asian American Studies. Raised by immigrant Filipino parents who passed on to him an extensive knowledge of the retail food industry, Mel grew up in and around the restaurant business and street food industry, having worked almost every summer weekend from age 10 to 17 with his family to prepare, cook, and sell Filipino cuisine at various food festivals and street fairs. In 2002, he and his partners opened FeliciTea, a unique café and flower shop combination on Manhattan’s Upper West Side until the publishing field beckoned him back. Mel and his siblings were latchkey kids who grew up on weekday afternoon viewings of “Speed Racer,” “Battle of the Planets,” “G.I. Joe,” “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” and other great ’80s cartoons, as well as classic TV shows like “Batman” and “The Six Million Dollar Man.” His love of science-fiction movies began when a babysitter took him and his brother to see “Star Wars” at the old Murray Hill Cinema on East 34th St. He hasn’t been the same ever since. Mel’s first comic book was Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7, and to this day, The Champion remains one of his favorite comic book characters of all time. Mel is also a major sports geek, counting the New York Knicks, Yankees and Giants as his favorite professional teams. Mel is currently the Marketing Manager for Archaia Entertainment, a publisher of high-quality, hardcover graphic novels, and serves as a mentor for budding start-up, InnoHouse, a new initiative started to bring young entrepreneurs together under the same roof in New York City’s Silicon Alley to collaborate on projects that will change the world. You can find Mel on Twitter at @melcaylo and on Tumblr at voicemel.tumblr.com.
Ryan Smith is a freelance writer specializing in video game and sports journalism. He apparently likes “Red” publications as he authors game reviews and the “Video Games Plus” column for RedBullUSA and contributes local gaming, sports, feature stories and columns for Chicago Tribune’s RedEye. (Don’t worry, Redbook magazine isn’t going to happen anytime soon.) For three years, he was also the “Dr. Fantasy” fantasy sports columnist for RedEye. Ryan’s work has also appeared in the Chicago Reader, The Onion A.V. Club-Chicago, Escapist Magazine and PopMatters.com and he also authored a Chicago-specific gaming blog for ChicagoNow.com called GameSmith. He’s interviewed a host of sports and entertainment celebrities for stories — Danica Patrick, Sam Worthington, Common, Tony Hawk, Daniel Tosh, Shaun White and others. Ryan is a bit of a participatory journalist in the mold of George Plimpton — he’s hit slapshots with Blackhawks players on the United Center ice, raced at 180 MPH in the back of an Indy Car at Chicago Speedway, been tackled by Lingerie Football League players, and bodyslammed a MMA fighter for first person stories. A Land of Lincoln (Springfield, IL) native, Smith began his career as a sports editor in tiny small town Centralia, Missouri. He then spent two years as the only reporter for a daily newspaper in also-very-tiny Mexico, Mo. (Town slogan: “Just a little north of the border”). He later became an award-winning crime and courts reporter in Jefferson City, Mo. — eventually becoming a character in a true crime novel because of his work on an infamous murder case. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he was a game tester for “Call of Duty” and “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” at Activision and a reporter at a West L.A. startup newspaper before moving to Chicago in the fall of 2007. He’d love to friend you on Xbox Live and PSN if you’re nice: (Sasquatchkid7) You should heavily consider following him on Twitter as well.
John J. Galbo – Editor-In-Chief, [adult swim] central. Columnist, Podcaster: There are many ways to describe John J. (as he is known to the internet universe). Visionary, Diabolical Genius, Social Butterfly, Delusional Weirdo… many, however know him as “The Most Beloved Man on the Internet.” Having failed to in his first attempt (a fansite about the show “Mystery Science Theater 3000,”) John J. started another site, dedicated to the hit [adult swim] show, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” The site itself, gained a rather moderate following, even garnering the attention of the creators, voice actors, and staff of the show. After building sites based on other [adult swim] programs, John J. placed them under the umbrella of [adult swim] central. With the advent of the podcasting boom of the mid-2000s, [as]central’s Swimcast was established as well. The Swimcast is a round-table podcast regarding all things going on in the [as] universe, sometimes including guest interviews. In 2010, John J. started venturing outside of the [adult swim] universe and became an occasional columnist for sites such as The Other View and Nerd Blerp. Shortly after, John J. started the Adventure Club Podcast: A hodgepodge of a podcast, which includes pop-culture, nostalgia, comedy, tech, and all-around geekdom. John J. graduated from Brookdale Community College (the same college attended by director Kevin Smith, NBC News Anchor Brian Williams, and Venture Bros. voice actor James Urbaniak.) with a degree in Fine Arts. When not being “The Most Beloved…,” he enjoys playing games on X-Box/PS3, collecting various action figures, and watching way too much TV and equally too many Movies. Follow John on Twitter!
Jimmy Palmiotti is a Multi Award winning character creator with a wide range of experience in advertising, production, consulting, editorial, film writing, development and production, media presentation and video game development. Just a few of his clients include Nike, Nickelodeon, Universal pictures, Disney, Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, Lion’s Gate, Vidmark, Starz, Fox Atomic, Alliance films, New Line, Spike TV, MTV, 2kgames, Midway, Radical games, Activision and THQ games. Co-founder of such companies as Event Comics, Black Bull Media, Marvel Knights, a division of Marvel Comics, and the current Paperfilms, where he is partners with Amanda Conner and Justin Gray. Together they have created and co created numerous universes, comics , TV series and characters including: The New West, Monolith, 21 Down, The Resistance, The Tattered man, The Pro, Gatecrasher, Beautiful killer, Ash, Timebomb, Cloudburst, Trigger Girl 6, Thrill Seeker, Back to Brooklyn, Random Acts of Violence, Trailblazer, Ballerina, The Twilight Experiment and the TV series, Painkiller Jane. Find Jimmy on Twitter @JPalmiotti
Dan Panosian: This geek was born in Cleveland, Ohio and later went to school in Melbourne, Florida. Growing up reading Conan comic books and playing Dungeons & Dragons, Dan Panosian laid the foundation for a life of geekiness. His school notebooks consisted of silly drawings and ridiculous stories of a cat that carried a samurai sword and battled ninja rats. So naturally he embarked on a career with Marvel and DC Comics.After working on Captain America, Batman, Green Lantern, The Hulk, Spiderman, Punisher and Thor, Dan’s work caught the eye of the artistic teams working on the X-Men line of comic books. Soon after, Image Comics was formed and he was asked to illustrate the popular comic book Prophet. The move from Manhattan to Los Angeles introduced new emerging artistic opportunities such as storyboarding and video game design to his growing resume. Dan became the lead designer on a new video game from DreamWorks Interactive about anthropomorphic animals that embody the spirit of Kung-Fu. The original game design caught the attention of Steven Spielberg and became the springboard for the blockbuster movie, Kung-Fu Panda. Shortly after, Dan was doing the lead design work for the best selling video game, Duke Nukem. Still living in Los Angeles, Dan manages to balance a steady stream of comic book work for Marvel, DC and Image Comics with commercial art projects. He also co-founded the Original Drink and Draw Social Club which boasts charter groups and publications world wide. Check out his website www.urbanbarbarian.com
Eliot Sirota: Born on February 6th, 1972, Eliot is a born geek. This became extremely apparent in 1977 when he first saw Star Wars. Not only did the Star Wars series become his all time favorite movies and lifelong obsession, they also introduced him to the world of special effects. He started drawing at a very young age, and eventually created his own visual f/x major at Cornell University. Since then he has gone on to work as a visual fx artist/computer modeler for such companies as Walt Disney Feature Animation, The Jim Henson Company, Digital Domain and The Third Floor.As a huge Star Wars fan, he has used his creative abilities to show his fanatical devotion in many ways. He is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Mandalorian Mercs, a Star Wars costuming group who builds their own custom armor and troops at events and conventions to raise money for charity. In 2011 he created his first fully computer animated short fan film about a funky Gonk droid and won the George Lucas Selects Award in the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge at SDCC. Most recently he had the honor of visiting Steve Sanweet’s private Star Wars collection at Rancho Obi-Wan. Eliot is also an avid collector of Star Wars memorabilia, especially items from Gentle Giant.Eliot is also a huge fan of Firefly, Aliens, Animation, Batman, Lord of the Rings and many other geeky pursuits. He loves discussing movies, philosophy and technology, wearing a fez, eating sushi, is an accomplished amateur magician, and an eye cancer survivor. He believes that everyone has some geekiness in them and should embrace it and share it with the world.
Jason Enright may have achieved the status of “Ultimate Nerd” by the age of 25. He manages Emerald Knights, a comics and gaming store, where he serves as guru for all your continuity questions and arbiter for RPG rule disputes. He’s a comic book reviewer for FanboyComics.net with his weekly article “The 3 Comics You Can’t Miss.” He’s also an entrepreneur, running his own rent-a-GM business, where he brings RPGs to your doorstep. Jason garnered press at SDCC last year when he challenged Dan Didio, the head of DC Comics to “Hire more women!”. He was so disappointed at DC’s lack of response, that he decided to launch his own comics publishing company, WE Comics: Comics for Everyone. The company’s first comics should be hitting shelves by late 2012. Jason is always open to debate comics and games on twitter, his call sign is @jasonenright.
Zach Sharpe: “I’m definitely best known as being one of the best competitive pinball players on the planet…and yes, there are such things as pinball tournaments. I’m currently ranked 9th out of over 12,000 players worldwide (www.pinballrankings.com) and have been able to travel and compete in tournaments all over the world including stints in London and Sweden. While that all sounds way cooler in my head, unfortunately one can not make a living as a professional pinball player. Outside of this unique hobby, my day job is as an account manager for an integrated marketing agency in the city.”How does one get into pinball? You can definitely say I was born into the hobby. My dad Roger Sharpe, has a way more entertaining life story than I do and has worked in the coin operated industry since before I was born, but his true claim to fame came in 1976. The shortened version of this spectacular, waiting to be made into a Hollywood movie tale, revolves around the battle of legalizing pinball. Most people don’t know, but pinball was illegal in this country from the 1940s all the way through the mid 1970s since it was seen as a gambling device. My dad went in front of a jury and testified in New York to prove that pinball was indeed a game of skill, not luck. With some Babe Ruth-esque shot-calling on the spot in a crowded jury room, he helped prove pinball was in fact a game of skill and helped legalize pinball in all major metropolitan cities (New York, Chicago and Los Angeles)…so essentially, my dad saved pinball and I’m more than happy to admit my accomplishments so far in life pale in comparison. “Why am I so good at pinball? I honestly couldn’t tell you…maybe good genes? (my brother Josh is currently ranked 5th) Regardless, I’m super competitive so if I happened to excel at stacking cups or juggling, I’m sure I would actively try being the best stack cupping juggler on the planet. It also couldn’t have hurt that we grew up with pinball machines in the house as kids and I currently own 5 machines of my own…it’s truly shocking that I’m single.” Find Zach on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/zachary.sharpe
Dave Styer AKA Geekleetist is 39 years old and Lives in SLC UT, artist, blogger, (before you ask yes I have 12 wives). Fandoms of choice, Star Wars & Star Trek (I’m totally Bi-Fi) Cons of choice -Dragon*Con (the rest aren’t as much party) Pet peeves- Twilight & Ryan Gosling Links- http://society6.com/Geekleetist & Geekleetist.com
Dave Losso is a genius that lives in Chicago and does stuff. He’s the writer/artist of the irreverent all-ages comic series The Great Sandwich Detective, the writer of the digital series Kill The Wonderhawks for Paper + Plastick Records and the writer of the upcoming F**k You: A Parkour Story. He’s also done artwork for bands like The Number 12 Looks Like You, Cochise Soulstar, Arsonists Get All The Girls, publications like Time Out Chicago and various national art gallery shows. He also likes food, fireworks and Huey Lewis & The News. He also has a girlfriend, so keep your meathooks off, ladies. www.davelosso.tumblr.com
Ian Cummins is an Irish journalist, actor and soon-to-be web series creator (but that’s still hush hush so pretend you didn’t read it). He is one half of the award-winning Irish geeky entertainment website Pop Culture Monster. His favourite television show ever is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He often fondly remembers when vampires weren’t creepy, stalky emos. He is obsessed with Joss Whedon and has vowed to one day marry his brain. He has been gaming for as long as he can remember. He got his very first console when he was 6. It was a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis). He got Disney’s Aladdin with the console and became obsessed with it. He could probably play through it now if you asked him. Blindfolded. He has owned or played nearly every console since. At 8, he moved to his very first PC. He can mostly be found online playing WoW because he just renewed his subscription and it’s a waste not to. Amongst his collection of consoles you’ll find the Amiga 500, Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum, Sega Mega Drive, N64, Gameboys (original and colour), Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and the 3DS. His favourite game ever is Final Fantasy VII. He is an avid Marvel fan, particularly the X-Men. His favourite character is Emma “because she’s not weak and she don’t take nothin’ from no one.” He one day hopes to collaborate with Grant Morrison on an X-Men title. So, if you’re reading this Grant, give him a call. In his spare time he avidly plans his survival of the zombie apocalypse. His dream job is to be a well-paid writer/actor and/or a personal assistant to Joss Whedon. Find him on Twitter @TheGreatHumbug.
So who do YOU think is the “hottest geek guy” in the gallery! Do you think that one can’t be sexy and geeky at the same time? Do you doubt that any of these fellas are true blue, dyed-in-the-wool geek guys?
