Spring has awakened, the flowers are in bloom and the boys jogging are wearing less and less! I like to call springtime "the battle of the bulge" ... or at least my battle to not get caught staring at them as they run by. It's like follow the bouncing ball, how can I not want to play along? 

Obviously I've got hotties on the brain and that could only mean one thing... 

The AfterElton.com Hot 100! There's still time to vote, so stop working (come on, the sun it out, no one expects much of you today) and vote for your Top 10!  If you're in need of a little inspiration or eye candy to get you started, check out these other Top 10's (Brian, Frank from !! omgblog !!). 

Here are the Top 10 guys I'm currently obsessing over.  It's really hard to come up with a list of just 10 because there are so many different reasons for picking each person (some intellectual, some musical, some just for being hot business...). The list could go on and on so I beg of you to not be all judgy-judge on my picks but rather to share yours in the comments section.  Happy viewing, boys!

Brad Neely

10. Brad Neely (Animator/Artist, Wizard People, Dear Readers)

9. Joel McHale (Comedian, The Soup)

8. Tom Ford (Designer, Hotness)

7. Chris Carrabba (Musician, Dashboard Confessional)

Chris Carrabba
 

6. John Hamm (Actor, Mad Men)

5. Lee Pace (Actor, Pushing Daisies)

Kyle Chandler

4. Kyle Chandler (Actor, Friday Night Lights)

3. Jamie Bamber (Actor, Battlestar Galactica)

Adam Levine

2. Adam Levine (Musician, Maroon 5)

And my current #1 Hot Guy is...

In order to be sure that we are providing you with an appropriately varied pool of beefcake suggestions for the ongoing AfterElton.com Hot 100 poll, we've reached out to a few of our favorite man-crazy blogs for their picks for this year's all-thoroughbred team.

Today we're pleased to share with you the top ten of Frank from the illustrious (and illustrative), award-winning !! omgblog !!. If you're familiar with Frank's work, you already know that he's got quite an eye for the mancandy. And if you're not ... well, you don't know what you're missin'.

So without further ado ... Frank's picks!

Gossip boy Penn Badgley

10. Chris Evans (Actor, Sunshine)

9. James Franco (Actor, Milk)

8. Penn Badgley (Actor, Gossip Girl)

Jamie Dornan

7. Jamie Dornan (Model, Actor)

6. Ryan Gosling (Actor, Lars and the Real Girl)

5. Heath Ledger (RIP)

Justin Theroux: Full Throttle

4. Justin Theroux (Actor, Six Feet Under, The Broken Hearts Club)

3. Adam Brody (Actor, The O.C.)

2. Andy Roddick (Tennis player)

And Frank's top pick for the year...

Yes, it's that time again, when buds are on the trees and visions of beefcake swim in the heads of gay men everywhere. Is it the rising temperatures? Is it that the UPS guys are back to wearing shorts again? We're not sure, but spring seemed the perfect time to launch the second annual AfterElton.com Hot 100, where we ask gay and bi men around the world for their picks of who the hottest men are in popular culture.

Last year's poll was a testament to the diversity in tastes among gay and bi men, and this year, to get as many balls rolling as possible, we're providing Top Tens from members of the AfterElton.com team and some of our favorite online personalities. Ready to make your own contribution? Head on over and vote!

And so, without further ado, here are my picks ... 

Hot 100 vet Taye Diggs

10. Chris Evans (Actor, Sunshine)

9. Seann William Scott (Actor, Southland Tales)

8. Taye Diggs (Actor, Private Practice)

Jay Brannan, photographed by Nicolas Moore

7. Byung Hun Lee (Actor, G.I. Joe)

6. Jay Brannan (Musician and actor, Shortbus)

5. Alessandro Calza (Actor, Ciao)

Ian Roberts (from Outrage magazine)

4. Ian Roberts (Aussie rugger turned actor, Kiss Me Deadly)

3. Eddie Cibrian (Actor, Ugly Betty)

2. Ryan Reynolds (Actor, The Nines)

And my new top pick for the year...

British gay magazine AXM has released their list of the ten sexiest men, as voted on by their readers. Comparing their picks with our own AfterElton.com Hot 100 List, the differences are noteworthy. Four of their picks made our top 100, but only one made our top 10.

Their #1 pick is no surprise. You may have heard of David Beckham: he's an underwear model, metrosexual trailblazer, and I think he plays some kind of sport. Surprisingly, he only came in at #39 in our poll. (Oversaturation, maybe?)

Channing Tatum comes in at #2. The model, Step Up and She's The Man actor was our #23 pick.

See the rest of the AXM top ten after the jump...

AfterElton Hot 100 vet David Beckham plays peek-a-boo at a Seoul press conference

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• Why did no one tell me that there was a new episode of Planet Unicorn?! In fine PU form, it's a Christmas episode ... in February. This is your brain on drugs, kids.

• This fella is liveblogging (kinda) the Pink Flight to Sydney Mardi Gras. The updates stopped when he got on the plane, so either he couldn't get online or he had one too many pink martinis and blacked out in the lavatory.

• Anderson Cooper covered the murder of gay teen Lawrence King on his show, but unfortunately the CNN podcast elected to cut that segment in favor of a singing kid in underwear.

• A big happy birthday to Elizabeth Taylor. The legendary actress and tireless AIDS research supporter turns 76 today. 
  

• I know this is awful, but this guy freaking out on Scare Tactics at the "genetically altered rat-boy" is still one of the funniest things ever to air on television.

• Vanessa Williams was given the HRC Equality Award over the weekend, and gave a lovely acceptance speech. Even better, it was presented to her by Becki Newton (Ugly Betty's wonderfully evil Amanda) and Nessie dropped some great UB references and told some great stories about her own growing up with gay colleagues and friends along the way.

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Over in our forums, Dwiz is working on making a Hot 100 list of comic book superheroes. Since it's always a fun topic, I thought I'd chime in with my ten. (I'm sticking with superheroes, following Diwz' lead, otherwise I'd be stuck finding room for Yorrick Brown, John Constantine or David Qin.)

Karate Kid (The Legion of Super-Heroes)

The Legion of Super-Heroes has long been a favorite of gay comic fans for its (traditionally) optimistic view of the future, large cast, wild concepts, inclusive values and strong women. Val Armorr was part of one of the Legion's many supercouples, eventually marrying the regal Princess Projectra, who came from the medieval planet Orando. When Val died saving Orando from the Legion of Super-Villains, it was one of the most tear-invoking moments in the Legion's history. (Check out the key pages here and try to keep your eyes dry.)

When Val initially appeared in 1966, he looked as white as the other Legionnaires. However, after Dave Cockrum (or did this happen during the Mike Grell years?) started drawing Val to look like Bruce Lee, readers learned that he was half-Japanese, making him one of the earliest hapa superhero characters and one of the few who actually looked multiracial (unlike, say, Connor Hawke who has Korean and African ancestry, but spent years with pale skin, blond hair and green eyes), an added bonus for a hapa comic reader like myself.

Nightwing

Sorry, I know a crush on Dick Greyson an old cliche for a child of the 80s. As the former Boy Wonder who had grown out of the youthful role, Nightwing was the perfect imaginary boyfriend -- smart, caring, acrobatic and darkly handsome to a ridiculous degree. Since getting a solo title, however, his character has become less perfect as everyone who regularly works with Batman now turns a little dysfunctional.

If you live in New York, you can basically cook your lunch off the sidewalk today. And if not, you can definitely at least warm some leftovers with the heat being generated from the AfterElton Hot 100 poll. It's like a mancrowave!

Yes, the submissions keep piling in (we're taking 'em through July 3, so be sure to vote), but to keep your eyes busy and your minds churning for the best-looking guys out there, we're thrilled to present you with another guest list.

Today's list comes from blogstar Rod McCullom, the brains (and brawn) behind the immensely popular Rod2.0 (for a recent interview with this fine fella, head on over here). Enjoy, and don't forget to vote!

Rod McCullom's Top Ten

Jensen Atwood (actor)
Tyson Beckford (supermodel)
John Cena (wrestler-"actor")
Mehcad Brooks (actor)
Will Demps (football-New York Giants)
Rio Ferdinand (soccer-Manchester United)
LL Cool J (actor-rapper, pictured above)
Mario Lopez (actor)
Channing Tatum (actor)
Chad White (supermodel, pictured below)

As you know, we are celebrating the summer months here at AfterElton.com by gossiping about cute boys. Hey -- with Gilmore Girls off the air, we've got to have an outlet for this kind of thing. We've also been enlisting the leering eyes of some our favorite blogstars to chip in with their picks and get the ogling rolling, and today we're delighted to offer the musings of our friend Kenneth Walsh from Kennethinthe212. Here are his picks for the AfterElton Hot 100 -- to add your gay ten cents, head on over to the poll's main page.

Kennethinthe212's Top Ten

Kyle Chandler (pictured above in King Kong)
Brady Quinn
Scott Andreasen
David Wright (pictured below)
Michael Owen
Tom Brady
Tim Daly
Marat Safin
James Marsden
Edward Burns

Seriously, folks -- since we launched this Hot 100 poll, I have literally been drowning in man-meat. It's a mantasia. A manslaught. A mandango. It's like I bellied up to the all-you-can-eat man buffet at the Ponderosa Mansteakhouse and never left.

Well, to invite the floodgates to widen even further, we're offering another guestlist -- this time from kissing cousin John Polly over at NewNowNext. Remember, you've got until July 3 to send in your top ten hottiepantses -- so get oglin'!

John Polly's Top Ten (er ... Fifteen)

Clive Owen
Johnny Knoxville
Arpad Miklos (gay porn star)
Mike Rowe (host of Dirty Jobs TV show)
Javier Bardem
Ewan McGregor
Ricky Martin (I know; I'm a dork...)
Ryan Reynolds
Tom Ford
Steve Carell (I love his big nose)
Guy Ritchie
Aaron Eckhart
Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy cutie)
John Amaechi (so tall, so handsome and gentle and well-spoken)
Matt Siegle (the artist; okay, er... he's my actual boyfriend; and I'm stupid-crazy for him; so embarrassing)

And just about any Aussie Rules Football player or professional rugby player. Burly!!!!

You heard it here first, folks: "burly". You know what? Ricky may have been dork-bait a few years back, but I totally agree that his latest look is pretty slammin'. And my mad love for Steve Carell is well-documented by this point -- the truth is, attraction's a total mystery, and one that we need everyone's help in cracking.

So be sure to lob in your noms! These hunks ain't gettin' any fresher, you know! Sadly ... *sigh*

Yesterday we launched the AfterElton.com Hot 100 poll, in which you fine folks send in your bids on what guys you find hottest and we compile into a master list of gay aesthetic firepower. Again, this is based solely on physical attraction -- we're not looking for who's sweetest or smartest or most talented, which we pretty much cover every other day of the week. This is an attempt to see how gay men's aesthetic preferences stack up to other "hot lists" out there, and by the looks of the onslaught of responses, it's long overdue.

And this should really go without saying, but just to be clear: this is all in the name of fun and fantasy. It's not an invitation to judge others on their aesthetic tastes or politicize physical attraction -- so let's all play nice.

We've reached out to a few of our favorite blogs to get their lists, and today we're proud to present the hot picks of BoiFromTroy.

BoiFromTroy's Top Ten

Brady Quinn
Jeremy Bloom
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ricardo Cabanas
Ryan Phillipe
Tom Welling
Justin Timberlake
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Mayor Gavin Newsom
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (about 30 years ago)

So head on over to the poll page and drop your nominees in the ballot-box! And get the word out -- the more entries we get, the more of my weekend I get to spend counting them! I mean ... the more valid the results will be!