CITY OF FILMMAKERS:
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I can get sucked into the various video streaming sites looking at machinima films – movies made using the animations available in games like The Sims, World of Warcraft, The Movies and City of Heroes. If you’re someone who makes machinima, you might want to consider putting together an entry for the current City of Heroes/City of Villains “Get in Touch with Your Dark Side” machinima contest:

"No matter if you’re a daring do-gooder or a dastardly deceiver - everyone has a dark side, skeletons in the closet, secret fans of the N-gage ... whatever. We’re asking you to manifest some mischief in a Machinima piece, where games and movies come together, and win some great prizes while you’re at it. So when it comes to trick or treating, lay hard on the tricks, which shouldn’t be a problem with super powers."

The difference between creating machinima in a MMO like City of Heroes and a game like The Sims, is that you’ll need some actors to help you out … which makes it helpful that the Q Pride Prom is happening this weekend. If you’re thinking of making a fabulous gay-themed movie, that would be a great chance to meet up with some potential cast members. Just come up with something more entertaining than the “inspirational video” offered by the contest:

Sheesh, is it really necessary to make use of a yellowface accent when playing the Tsoo?

HAVE YOU MET CAPTAIN HAMMER?:
Can’t wait to see the team-up of Neil Patrick Harris, Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion when Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog debuts next week? It turns out that Dark Horse Comics has revived their anthology series Dark Horse Presents on their MySpace page and one of the current stories takes a look at Captain Hammer, the nemesis of Dr. Horrible.

It’s only a small taste, so far, but as it’s less than a week before Dr. Horrible makes its debut, it should hold me. I hope.

Lots more Geek after the jump!

• "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?
  

• Post-apocalyptic wishes and radioactive dreams:
  One of this year's most anticipated games is Fallout 3, the follow-up to what's seen as one of the best and most innovative role playing games. Those eager Fallout fans got some exciting news this week. Not only is the game done (with bugs to fix) the game promises to be huge -- with some 200 possible endings. Wow. Now if only someone could tell me if the game has any same-sex couples, as Fallout 2 did...
  
  
• Welcome to the Dollhouse, Helo:
  Before the Writers' Guild went on strike, we were pretty excited over the news of a new Joss Whedon series. Now that Hollywood has gone back to work, they've begun casting the roles not played by Eliza Dushku. Battlestar Galactica hottie Tahmoh Penikett will be playng Dushku's romantic foil. Nice...

  

  Maybe it's just the articles I read, but I haven't seen the usual talk of "We can work around his Battlestar Galactica commitments." Hurm, I wonder...
  
  
• I'd buy a record from a group called Doctor and the Three Companions:
  Oh, goody, the series four Doctor Who trailer hit the web this week. Check it out. I know this isn't a common opinion, but I'm looking forward to seeing the return of Donna. I like the idea of an everywoman companion who isn't immediately wowed by everything The Doctor does and the promise of a big companion meet-up is pretty exciting, as well. (Though why not throw Mickey into that mix, as well? And weren't we already promised that Captain Jack would be a part of the mix?) The fourth season arrives in the USA on the Sci-Fi Channel April 18, starting with the "Voyage of the Damned" special which co-stars dance diva Kylie Minogue.
  
  
• Look who's honoring him now:
  Four years ago, indie game developer Stardock introduced a strategy based around presidential politics, The Political Machine. The game was simple, but fun. It was like something you'd expect to play during a social studies class with the cool teacher. (So calling all you Oregon Trail fans...)
  
  This week, the publisher announced it would be coming out with a new 2008 edition. Here's what I find amusing: Four years ago the screenshot for the media screen showed a pundit looking a lot like Bill O'Reilly. This time, their media screen looks like:

  

  Notice the portrait in the corner? Heh.
  
  

• Kissing boys on multiple platforms:
  If you've been wanting to try out the boy-kissing of Bully but don't have a PlayStation 2, soon more of us will have the chance to break into lockers and win the hearts of the gay teens at Bullworth Academy. Bully: Scholarship Edition will bring the game to the Wii and Xbox 360 in March with new missions, items and classes. I've only just gotten around to picking the PS2 version for myself and it's a lot of fun ... now if only I could figure out how to stop the camera from changing angles at the worst possible moment.
  

• Those candidates were fast as lightning, it was a little bit frightening:
  This week, Kung-Fu Election seemed to be the webgame that captured the imagination of videogame blogs. The game mashes up a Mortal Kombat-style fighting game with presidential candidates. Hilary Clinton gets to be one of my favorite kinds of fighting game characters: a warrior who can bust heads with a razor fan like Mortal Kombat's Kitana or Fatal Fury's Mai Shiranui. Poor Bill Richardson, to be turned into Street Fighter's E. Honda. At least his special move isn't called the "Robotic Candidate Attack".
  

• Boys who like boys and reading work by girls who like boys who like boys:
  This week, we gave you a look at boy-meets-boy manga with some suggestions for titles gay men may enjoy. If that wasn't enough for you, Canada's Xtra also took a look at YAOI. This one comes from the very knowledgeable Christopher Butcher, who focuses a little more on finding the steamy stuff. We both gave time to manga by Fumi Yoshinaga, which I say is a sign of what a great creator she is. At his website, Butcher also shows us a look at a great cover created by Eric Kim.
  

• I'll go for any excuse to shout out "Allez cuisine!":
  Well, here's even more reason for me to covet a Wii: the interactive gaming platform has an Iron Chef game in development. The blurb for the series mentions Iron Chef America spin-off series, The Next Iron Chef. I'm really curious if that means that Wii users will have a digital Alton Brown or if the game will feature the original Chairman Kaga. Either way, I'm dying to find out if they make use of the Wii's unique gameplay options.
  

• I wonder what kind of Lego buildings this will inspire:
  Back in October, AfterEllen's nogal4u took a look at customized Lego figures. I wonder what she thinks of the news that a set of Lego-eque Minimates figures will recreate characters from The Silence of the Lambs. Yes, there will soon be an official Lego-style Clarice Starling figure.
  



• Dig out those old Fallout 2 discs:
  Here's a way for you Fallout fans can make the time waiting for Fallout 3 go by a little more quickly: take a second replay through the gay-inclusive Fallout 2. Thanks to the Fallout 2 restoration project, you can have a new experience with a familiar game. The project offers a patch that unlocks content that was taken out of the game at the last minute.
  

• Webgame of the week:
  I know this week's entry is a bit heavy on the games but this one is one is a little too cool to hold back ... Cursor*10 is a puzzle game where your moves with your first life comes into play with all later lives. It's like a puzzle game combined with a Doctor Who episode.
  

• AKA Johnny Everythinghands
  GayGamer first brought my attention to Eternity's Child, a game that initially reminds me of Okami done with Western art, which will have a gay character. Now they've got more information on the game's gay character, who can replace his hands with various devices. He definitely has the potential to be very interesting (or, if not done just right, offensive). More reason for me to be wishing for a Wii. Check out the graphics below...
  

• Show your pride, Paragon City!
  Hey City of Heroes players! Celebrate your pride with City of Gaymers' "Out and Proud '07" dance on the Victory server on Thursday. The event celebrates National Coming Out Day and will meet under the statue of Atlas in Atlas Park at 6PM PDT. How come no one ever parties at the base of Galaxy Girl's statue? (Thanks to Knightengale for the tip!) Now, to figure out which of my various Victory alts to bring...
  
  
• The post-apocalyptic barren wasteland needs you!
  Speaking of gay friendly games, Fallout is having a tenth anniversary contest, asking for players to design a perk to be included in the upcoming Fallout 3.
  
  
• Street fair comic con
  If any Bay Area residents are planning to attend this weekend's Castro Street Fair, stop by the new Castro Street comic shop (how long has it been since I've walked past the Tully's?) Whatever... where Bay Area comic creators will be signing comics all day. Finding gay creators whose work you enjoy and supporting them is one positive way to help gay representation in comics.
  
  
• Gay site of the Week!
  If you can't wait until Sunday to get your hands on some positive gay superheroes, check out Boy Meets Hero, a webcomic that combines classic superhero action with a steamy same-sex romance.
  
  I love creator Chayne Avery's visual style, which mixes so nicely with Russell Garcia's coloring.