WARM UP YOUR VOCAL CHORDS FOR A "ONE OF US" CHANT:
Get your Barrowmania hats back on, cuz a certain Scottish actor has come a-courting. In an interview with the National Post of Canada John Barrowman talks about his love of science fiction, declaring himself a "G-Double-E-K":

"I grew up watching Doctor Who," he says. "I'm of the Star Wars generation; I love science fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica ... love 'em."

"I love every morning, getting up to go to work because that little boy inside of me jumps with excitement every time I'm going to fight an alien or shoot a rocket gun or be on a spaceship or be with the Doctor or get onto the TARDIS," he gushes. "So every time I'm working on it, I'm really, really happy."

Barrowman: "G-Double-E-K"

Okay, so there's a little optimist Lyle on one shoulder and a cynic Lyle on the other. The optimist is going "Aw, sah-woon." while the cynic is muttering something about people who say they like Star Trek and follow the sentiment with a series of imitations of Checkov asking about "nuclear wessels".

METAPHORS FOR QUEER RIGHTS MOVE TO SAN FRANCISCO, FILM AT ELEVEN:
It's been a pretty high-profile change to the status quo, so you've probably heard that the X-Men made a move to San Francisco with the 500th issue of Uncanny X-Men. But editor Axel Alonso gave us an interesting teaser when he talked with the San Francisco Chronicle recently:

Q: Is there a chance we might see one of the X-Men come out?

A: Yes. Yes. The city being what it is, certain characters whose sexuality might have been ambiguous are going to feel free to be who they are. I will qualify and say that I never go into the situation with a mandate or an agenda. It has to come along naturally. We're not going to rush into it. But I see it happening.

San Francisco, open your Golden Gates...

Considering the current team working on the X-Men, I see more than a little reason for optimism. Alonso is the editor responsible for Peter Milligan's excellent run on X-Force/X-Factor and the current X-Men writing team includes people responsible for some notable gay moments in comics. Uncanny X-Men is co-written by Ed Brubaker, who created Holly, the temporary successor to Selina Kyle, in his Catwoman run. The adjectiveless title (currently called X-Men: Legacy) comes from the pen of Mike Carey who's was very gay-inclusive on Vertigo titles like Lucifer and Hellblazer, even though in most cases that was a matter of including gay people amid those titles' high bodycount. Finally, Astonishing X-Men has the mind of Apollo and Midnighter creator Warren Ellis working for it.

From the way Alonso phrases things, it sounds like any gay mutant who might come out would be one who has been quietly coming to terms with their sexuality for a while ... so who's been pinging your gaydar? Anyone think it might turn out that Beast wasn't joking when he came out a few years back?

The new Infinity Inc.

By the way, speaking of Peter Milligan, is anyone reading his gender-twisting work on Infinity Inc. at DC? There's nothing specifically gay about the series, so far, but the series includes one guy who sometimes deals with his insecurity by turning into a woman (leading to plenty of gay teasing from one friend) and another guy whose struggle with narcissism is complicated by his ability to clone himself. Of course, the series is already has its final issue scheduled to come out in a few months. Sigh.

AFTER THE BREAK: New life for the gayest video game never to get a US port, Calvin and Hobbes gets mashed up and more!

MUSCLEMAN SHOOTER GO!:
Cho Aniki is one of the most notorious video game franchise never to make it stateside. This series of shooter (and one fighting) games been called "the gayest video game" due to the plethora of muscular men as characters and foes, as well as bizarre character designs like the guys who fire a cannon from a flying bathtub and a guy who seems to be half-house, half-Elvis impersonator.

No, I wasn't exaggerating about the flying bathtub or the Elvis/house guy:

For years, US gamers had to rely on other gamers' recaps of the Cho Aniki games or have had to mod their game systems to be able to play an import version if they wanted to sample Cho Aniki for themselves. But that might change soon. There's a rumored Cho Aniki game in the works for the PSP and, if I'm understanding things correctly, the PSP doesn't come with the region-coding that most game consoles do, which would be the closest we're likely to get to seeing the franchise being sold in the states.

Buff bosses are a part of even the first Cho Aniki game:

It looks like the PSP game will be a part of the original Cho Aniki, which is the hardest to find. It's also said to have the least amount of homoeroticsm, but with screens like the one above, it's probably way ahead of most games coming out.

GUESS THE GAY FAVE MARVEL HEROINE I'D LIKE TO SEE HIM TEAM WITH:
io9 took a look at the the deleted scenes from the upcoming Heroes DVD this week and, apparently, one of the second season's could've-beens included a revelation about the powers of George Takei's character, Daddy Nakamura.

So do those deleted scenes also reveal Mama Petrelli's powers?

Kensei's power certainly would have been an interesting one to see in use but I wonder if the frustrating second season of Heroes could have been up to such a challenge.

FINDING LOVE IN (MUMBLE), FIGHTING EVIL IN LIPSTICK:
Well, here's a game I'd like to hear more about, apparently one of the intriguing titles coming soon in Japan is a visual novel featuring a cross-dressing detective. In drag, certain sources are more likely to talk freely and reveal information to the protagonist, a twist that could either be wince-inducing or rather intriguing.

Mac lipstick transformation!

I do like the sparkly magical girl-style transformation that comes with the switch.

NEXT UP, BOB's BIG BOY, OR MAYBE A SOPRANO:
Oh, you know by now I can't resist a good mash-up and this week spotted the rather brilliant Calvin and Jobs on the Internets. This one replaces Calvin's imaginary tiger friend with an imaginary Steve Jobs. Hilarity and mockery of Apple culture ensues:

A peek at Calvin and Jobs

That gets me wondering: What would a Calvin and Hodg comic look like?

Calvin and John Hodgman