by Lyle Masaki

The Week in Gay Geek: It's NY Comic Con weekend, "The Sims" hits a sales milestone, DC heroes versus whaaa? and more!

Lyle Masaki

What's gay at the NY Comic Con?
Who's attending the New York Comic Con, this weekend? Queer comics advocates Prism Comics will be helping to bring some gay sensibility to the gathering. On Sunday, Ivan Velez, Jr. leads a "Gays in Comics" panel that asks, "Glorified, Gentrified or Ghetto-Sized?" to a group that includes Phil Jimenez, Tim Fish, Stephen Sadowski and Jose Villarrubia. And on Saturday, don't miss the acclaimed Ariel Schrag's appearance at Jim Hanley's Universe.
8 Years, 100 Million, 35 titles:
Electronic Arts bragged this week that The Sims franchise has sold over a hundred million units. There are a lot of reasons behind the game's popularity, I think one important factor is that you can't find a more gay inclusive video game (though it's probably just as important to note how gay friendly its fanbase is). I still remember the thrill of picking up the first Sims game on the release date and figuring out that, yes, you could have same-sex romances. That gets me thinking to how a gay couple in the first game could only move in together, while The Sims 2 let same-sex couples become unioned and enjoy the same wedding ceremonies... I wonder if any more equality will be seen by gay sims in the upcoming third game.
Old Kingdom, New Screenplay:
While I'm not sure if the devoted fanbase for Garth Nix' fantasy novel Sabriel includes a gay segment, I always figured that to be the case -- don't gay geeks have a weakness for brainy heroines from Nancy Drew to Barbara Gordon? Sabriel fans this week got some promising news this week as Nix announced that he's working on a Sabriel screenplay with gay ally Dan Futterman. Normally, I'd be worried about getting the tone right but considering the last time Futterman adapted a novel into a screenplay we got Capote, I think the project is starting out on solid ground. On and since I've got an excuse, here's the handsome Mister Futterman:
Any Sabriel fans out there? (And who would you cast to play the young, hunky and easily befuddled Prince Touchstone?)
Raise your hand if 'Huh?':
Well, here's a very surprising bit of news, the next game in the Mortal Kombat series will be a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game. Honestly, I'm having a hard time imagining this working out to either brand's advantage -- Mortal Kombat wouldn't be the same without the fatalities (even the repetitive ones from Armageddon) while the idea of The Flash (sadly, Wonder Woman is now an inapt example -- thank you very much Infinite Crisis) punching off his enemies heads doesn't sound like the DC game I've been waiting to play. On the other hand the idea of Dick Greyson battling Johnny Cage does have its appeal (or how about Black Canary versus Mileena). What do you think?
"Get out of the house and play (in someone else's house)!" :
I only just saw this year-old ad for the pen & paper Dungeons & Dragons and I'm curious what people think:
(In case the image is too small, the ad reads, "If you're going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help. Get together. Roll some dice. Have fun.") It feels a bit full circle to see the P&P RPG calling another type of game anti-social. That gave me a chuckle, at least.