(NOT) SPENDING MONEY IN SAN DIEGO:
A few months back, I told you about how gay activists were boycotting the Manchester Grand Hyatt, a major location for those attending Comic Con International at San Diego, because of the hotel owner’s donations to anti-gay causes including Proposition 8 which will de-legalize gay marriage in California.

It does my heart good to hear that the boycott is being discussed by some of the creators who will be attending the Con this week. At this point, it’s too late to decide to give up a room at the Hyatt as a moral stand. However, as Christopher Butcher points out, the Hyatt is also a popular place to get a drink with three bars that are usually crowded every night and, thus, it’s still possible for LGBT-supportive Con attendees to take a stand – with so many bars in the area, why not spend your drinking money elsewhere?

Being one of the closest hotels to the Convention Center, the Manchester Grand Hyatt is known as a good place to spot comic creators and one reason to get a drink there is the possibility of spending time around popular artists and writers. Hence, I’m happy to see various industry names like SLG Publications’ Jennifer de Guzman, DMZ and Channel Zero creator Brian Wood, supporting the boycott in comment threads at Butcher's site and at The Beat. Meanwhile, the always-outspoken Lea Hernandez suggests people save their bar tabs and send it to the hotel as documentation of how much money they didn’t spend at the Hyatt’s bars.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of who gets your money when you’re in San Diego, might I remind you about the time the nearby Omni Hotel shut down Margaret Cho’s performance because they disapproved of her material?

WHO WATCHES THE FILM TRAILER EDITORS?:
Last week, we got a trailer for the Watchmen movie and, overall, it looks great. Still, I’ve got to ask – why does a trailer for a movie that’s supposed to deconstruct and examine the superhero genre look so much like a typical superhero movie trailer? I’m a little worried here.

You can check out the trailer here, what do you think?

I know a high-profile, big-budget movie like Watchmen isn’t going to find a wide enough audience by playing up the themes and moral questions raised by Alan Moore, but without those parts why bother turning Watchmen into a movie? Maybe I would feel better if there were a falling bottle of Nostalgia Perfume amongst the visuals?

WE'VE GOT MEET UP SIGN!:
If you want more to anticipate in San Diego (and if you’re going, you’ve got plenty of good stuff ahead) here’s one more thing to get excited about – the Gays in Comics meet up on Saturday night. This year’s event at Flicks will be the first team-up between Prism Comics and gay comics site Pink Kryptonite. I really need to make sure I don't miss another trip to Comic Con next year.

After the break: Anti-gay comics and comic book villainesses!

• "It's Spawn but gay":
  Gay comics site Pink Kryptonite interviewed Prism Comics co-founder Charles "Zan" Christensen this week. The discussion included his gay-themed comic Mark of Aeacus, the development of Prism and other queer comic creators. Prism has been very effective as a comics advocacy group, working to make it easier for gay readers to support LGBT and LGBT-friendly creators, and Zan's been a big part of that empowerment.
  

• If you dare wear short robes...
  Long time comic readers likely know artist Colleen Doran. A Distant Soil stands out as an early example of a gay male character with a dedicated female fanbase. She also co-pencilled the infamous Legion issue where Shvaughn Erin was revealed as transgender. Right now, Doran is sharing unpublished art from her 1987 Marvel mini-series Fallen Angels, including this scene of X-hottie Jamie Madrox (aka The Multiple Man) in a robe so short it "nearly gave (Fallen Angels) editor Bob Harras a heart attack". It's a fun example of Doran's challenged the exclusionary tendencies of comic book fandom. Besides, it involves Madrox, who's been hinted as having a bisexual side. Doran promises pages that took inches off of Harras' headline all on their own. I wonder if she means this newly-posted page of Jamie fighting for his clothes:

  

  Doran muses that "it’s not every day you get to draw a mighty Marvel mutant in a struggle with a sentient mutant cybernetic lobster for control of a pair of pants." Sadly, true. (BTW, that's just a portion of the art Doran shares, be sure to visit her site for the full pages and more of Doran's wonderful work.)
  

• Uuuuh, yeah, I guess you could say our priorities are misplaced:
  I don't know how to react to this except to shake my head. Parenting game site What They Play asked its readers what they would find more offensive in a video game. The site's users answered that they'd be more offended by two men kissing than a "graphically severed human head". Seriously? At least gay kisses placed a distant second to a heterosexual sex scene. I know American audiences are generally more tolerant of violence than sexuality but still ... these people would rather their kids play Mortal Kombat than The Sims?
  

• Apocalyptic anticipation:
  Since I know there's a lot of anticipation for the third installment in the Fallout series (which has been gay-inclusive in the past) I thought some Week in Gay Geek readers might be excited to see some new teaser screens.

  

  The apocalypse looks pretty good.
  

• Attention Q-Mart shoppers:
  YAOI readers might want to take note that publisher 801 Media announced on their blog that some of their earlier titles are almost out of stock, so if you've been procrastinating on one of 801's titles, "now or never" time might be coming soon. I've had my eye o Ichigenme, a title from Fumi Yoshinaga (one of the creators I highlighted in my look at YAOI comics) since realizing how Yoshinaga nimbly mixes gay issues with escapist romance.
  

• The week in comic mash-ups:
  The first movie I ever saw in the theatres was Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, so I'm probably likely to like anything that puts the Peanuts through a new creative filter and that includes this illustration of the Peanuts characters as the Watchmen characters:

  

  Since I always quibble, I do wonder about how the characters were matched up, Snoopy as Rorschach is brilliant and Charlie Brown as Dr. Manhattan actually makes some twisted sense... but Linus as The Comedian? (I see him as more of a Night-Owl myself) and Lucy as the Silk Spectre? What do you think? How would you mix Peanuts characters with Watchmen mystery men?
  

• We've got movie sign!
  It's been a heavy week for comic book movie news. The most exciting bit for me is that the Justice League movie is set for a 2009 debut. Rapper Common will get to don Green Lantern's power ring while The O.C. hottie Adam Brody is cast as The Flash. Physically, Brody's pretty far from TV's Flash, John Wesley Shipp:





The difference seems apt, however, since we're talking The Flash, who probably should have more of a runner's physique.

Meanwhile, some new teaser images for the Wolverine movie hit the Internets this week. Maybe it's the well-defined back, but this one has me thinking of Mark Sivestri's sexy New X-Men cover:





We also heard little more news about the Watchmen movie, as the DVD will include a Tales of the Black Freighter animated short narrated by Gerald Butler. While it may seem odd to be discussing the bonus features on the Watchmen DVD when the movie hasn't come close to hitting theatres, that actually feels rather apt considering the way the original Watchmen comic was full of bonus features itself.


• Number one on the threatdown: Orcs!:
  I so love it when my geekdoms collide. Apparently, the World of Warcraft CCG considered including a character card inspired by Steven Colbert. The card is pretty brilliant:
  





"He's putting the hoard on notice." Heh.

Still, my inner gamer nerd can't help but shake my head and think about how "truthiness" would throw off the game balance. Then again, it's been ages since I've played a CCG, so maybe things have changed and truthiness usually puts Colbert in God Mode during his interviews, so maybe its all apt after all.


• The week in fanart and mashups:
  Brilliant. You've got to check out these comic covers of Vertigo comics re-imagined as Silver Age classics. (Thanks Heidi) Here's Y: The Last Man:
  





It's been ages since I've played Doom but if there's a mod giving you the Rick Roll of Death as a weapon, I could dig up my old 3.5" floppies. (Of course, finding a floppy drive is another question.) Ah, yes, demons do fear classic Stock/Aitken/Waterman...

And while we're discussing cool fan art, let me draw your attention back to Torchwood Babiez, where part two has already come out. Not only does the series manage to get even cuter, we've got a twist ending to this one.


• Link of the week:
  This could be my new favorite blog not named after Elton John: Get Off the Internet is a new blog collecting the best in people saying stupid things online. Think of it as the new Fanboy Rampage blog except that now it's not just comic readers making fools of themselves.
  
  

After years in development hell, Warner Bros. announced a cast for a movie adaptation of Watchmen at Comic-Con International. Watchmen is a highly regarded comic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that asked how different our world would be if superheroes actually existed and if real people could maintain their morality if they found themselves wielding so much power and authority.

The story primarily takes place at the end of the Cold War, the late 80s, but also looks back at the history of its alternate universe to see how superheroes would have changed our history. One of the caped crusaders we meet during those flashbacks is Hooded Justice, one of the first masked men to arrive on the scene who, it turns out, was also gay.

So far, Hooded Justice hasn't been cast and hasn't been mentioned in discussion of the film. I hope that doesn't mean he won't appear in the movie. While Hooded Justice isn't one of Watchmen's essential characters, he plays a key role in establishing the bigotry and violent tendencies of another character, The Comedian.

I'm probably suffering from a bit of hair trigger worry, considering that Watchmen will be directed by Zack Snyder, who unfortunately struck more than a few homophobic notes in his previous comic book movie, 300. It's probably worth considering that the 300 comic was also considered homophobic by many, while Watchmen creator Alan Moore has a history of being very gay friendly (he also wrote V for Vendetta). Perhaps, in the long run, we'll be able to attribute the homophobia in 300 more to the source material than the director, but in the meantime it's worth watching to see if Watchmen's influential gay hero makes it into the film adaptation.