In this week's episode of Angry Puppy, Marc and Lee talk about breaking movie news (keywords: Jake Gyllenhaal!), George Takei's Secret Talent, Jack and Ianto's Weevil-hunting clinch, some new X-Men books, and much, much more.

Stuff you should know about Bryan Fuller: He hates Queer as Folk. He has “a huge lesbian agenda”. His beautifully written, eye-popping pilot for ABC’s Pushing Daisies was named one of the 10 best television broadcasts of 2007 by The Washington Post.

And – boys – he’s totally adorable. Like clean puppies and chocolate birthday cake adorable. Noon on your favorite beach in June with a fistful of nostalgia-laden boardwalk cuisine adorable. Freshly cut Christmas tree, decorated in candy canes and red ribbons with a cute miniature train running through a cute miniature town underneath adorable.

And did we mention – he’s crazy talented. Fuller spoke to us for part two of our special investigative report: "Gays in Primetime", but there just wasn’t enough room for all the wonderfulness that is ... Bryan. So here are more tidbits from our interview. Topics include the gay Star Trek script that never got made, the de-gayed gay dad on Dead Like Me, the big gay character-driven show Fuller dreams of doing, and - *EXCLUSIVE* - his big reveal on the identity of Pushing Daisies’ gay character.

Click on through the jump for the gay spoiler and lots more Fuller!

With the gay geeks finally getting representation on Beauty and the Geek thanks to Gregg, I've been thinking about openly gay men in pop culture as well as the visibility of gay themes in the realms of science fiction, comics and video games. Overall, these are realms where gay fans frequently feel left out, but things are getting better. Here are six openly gay men working in those areas who have also helped improve visibility for those of us who'd like to have a superhero, space captain, or time-traveling immortal of our own.

Russell T. Davies

Davies became a well-known name when he created the original Queer As Folk, a series that was groundbreaking at the time for prominently featuring gay characters including Doctor Who fanboy Vince Tyler. Davies was a longtime Doctor Who fan himself and was eventually tasked with reviving the franchise. Davies' Who run brought queer characters to the franchise. While most gay characters were a part of the world's background, Davies' first season of Who gave us Captain Jack Harkness, a charming and roguish, time-traveling con artist. Captain Jack was a popular character who got his own spin-off series (we've discussed it occasionally) giving us the first bisexual male heroic lead on a mainstream sci-fi program.

One of the interesting tendencies of Davies is to reuse names, something that Davies says helps him flesh out a character. His Queer as Folk everyman Vince shared a name with the first companion in Davies' Doctor Who run, Rose. (And the Tyler name continued in a show that Davies didn't work on when the creators of Life on Mars named their time-traveling protagonist, Sam Tyler, after Rose.) He's introduced two smart and capable women named Jones (Prime Minister Harriet Jones and medical student Martha Jones) as well as Torchwood's super capable office assistant Ianto Jones. However, the character that has the geekiest lineage is Captain Jack who is named after Agatha Harkness, a popular character among gay Marvel readers. Naming your influential character after the tutor of a d-list comic book diva, that's geek cred.

Phil Jimenez

Jimenez's artwork first hit the comic shops in 1991, his amazingly detailed and realistic style quickly made an impression. Over time, his consistently strong work has built him a following that has made him one of comics' marquee names who publishers court for an exclusive contract (he's currently exclusive to Marvel and is working on the flagship Amazing Spider-Man, with his first issue hitting the shelves earlier this month).

Jimenez became a role model for gay comic fans in 1996 with an editorial that appeared the last issue of the Tempest mini-series that he wrote and pencilled. In the editorial, Jimenez publicly came out and touchingly remembered Neal Pozner the man who first hired him to work for DC Comics who became a mentor to Jimenez, as well as Jimenez' partner. Pozner died in 1994 and the eulogy was powerful not only for increasing gay visibility among comic creators but for bringing a gay relationship into the dialogue.

Clive Barker

Barker quickly made an impression as a horror writer, particularly after Stephen King praised him as "the future of horror". Barker has had a long and varied career that has included film (which includes the horror series Hellraiser as well as producing the film Gods and Monsters), comic books (Barker has an original series comic soon from IDW, who've previously published adaptations of his The Thief of Always and The Great and Secret Show) and video games.

2007 was quite a year for gay geeks, with gay representation in comics books, on science fiction television and in video games being a frequent discussion topic. While these topics aren't entirely new, this year the discussion was at its most active.

On TV, we saw ourselves more often, especially on BBC America's Torchwood ... even though we had frustrating setbacks on shows like Heroes. Things looked incredibly bright for gamers, who found themselves expecting a good number of games with expected gay-inclusiveness and found it easier to find each other.

Additionally, gay geeks became more visible. Logo debuted its collection of animation, Alien Boot Camp,which included bumpers showing gay fans at comics and sci-fi conventions, as well as gay comic creators like Alison Bechtel. For a long time, this subset of queers weren't seen often, with gay geeks being happily surprised when they found each other, but that's changing as our visibility within the gay community increases.

Let's take a look back at the past year, shall we?

Here they come, the sound of drums

If we were to declare a king of the gay geeks, Russel T. Davies would be the candidate to beat. The Doctor Who producer did plenty to increase gay visibility on sci-fi television. The past season of Who regularly showed gay people as simply a part of the human tapestry. More importantly, 2007 was the year Torchwood made its USA debut. The series quickly became BBC America's biggest hit and, seeking to maintain the momentum from season one's success, the network announced that the second season will air only two weeks after it airs on BBC Three.

The success of Torchwood, as well as Doctor Who, is a significant development for gay sci-fi fans. On Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness is a very different way of portraying queer men on television: as a dashing, heroic lead. Meanwhile, Captain Jack's return to Doctor Who this season continued to show his relationship with The Doctor as one having the kind of strained affection previously seen only with female companions like Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler.

While Doctor Who is an obscure series for American fans, it's a major franchise in the UK and the series is the target of constant rumors and speculation regarding arrivals and departures both in front and behind the cameras. Those rumors included talk that Davies' may be cutting back on his Who duties with Steven Moffat taking over the series. Moffat wrote some of Who's most popular episodes and created the gay-inclusive Coupling and Jeckyll. If the speculation has any merit, Moffat sounds like a promising replacement.

We're still holding on for our hero on Heroes, Monday nights

For some media pundits, Heroes is a solid example of what diversity should look like on television,; but for people who actively advocate for increased diversity, the show is a mix of potential and problems. Last December, we noted that early promotion for the series had Zach as gay but that the show had suddenly turned away from the idea. Discussion into the character continued into the new year. Out producer Bryan Fuller confirmed that the character was written as gay, only to have those plans derailed by the management of Thomas Dekker, who played Zach. In its second season, Heroes was supposed to add a lesbian character but she, too, disappeared before becoming a major presence.

• In 60's terms, was the original cast of Star Trek this hot?
  That J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie has found its Sulu and Scotty. John Cho will be playing Sulu while Simon Pegg is taking on the role of Scotty. With Zachary Qunto playing Spock and Eric Bana playing the film's bad guy, my interest in the Trek is slowly returning.
  

• Remember Matt Keeslar, Bart? He's back... in ABC Family form
  A little while ago, I wondered what Matt Keeslar was up to. It turns out he's headed to ABC Family. The channel is developing an adaptation of Middleman, an indie comic about an artist recruited into a secret organization that fights supervillains. Keeslar will play her mentor at the organization. So when is somebody going to option Scott Pilgrim?

• Must-See Geek TV?
  PC Magazine lists its Ten Favorite Geeky TV Shows with the Russell T Davies-led Doctor Who being named second. (But The Big Bang Theory? Really?)

• Attack of the Heroes chatter
  Gamer TV network G4TV will be airing repeating the latest episode of Heroes on Saturdays. It will be followed by a half-hour talk show discussing Heroes. I have to admit I'm intrigued -- G4 has occasionally shown awareness that gamers can come from a variety of demographics, including gays, so I wonder if the show's homerotic tendencies will ever get discussed. On the other hand, G4's coverage of the San Diego Comic Con never looks like the event I've attended.

• Tokyopop's quest for the cutest shojo boy
  Comics publisher Tokyopop is asking who's the cutest shojo boy? I'm more of a Viz reader myself, but I'm happy to see the boys from Gravitation in the mix, but why don't my boys from Fake get some love? Too bad the cutest boy from a Tokyopop comic -- Noah from 12 Days -- isn't included in the mix.



• Link of the week:
  Last weekend, Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine discovered how the Burn Hogarth sometimes looked like gay erotica. Doesn't the example above look like some geek pin-up? He's beautiful! He's buff! He reads! Is there a collected edition out there?

• Great news: Freak Show, the unapologetically queer and inarguably fabulous teen novel by James St. James, has been nominated for an ALA Best Book for Young Adults award.
  

• Star Trek: Odyssey, a fan-created spinoff from the Hidden Frontier folks centering around gay Starfleet officer Ro Nevin, is sneak-peeking its pilot episode, "Iliad", today. Set phasers to "intrigued"...
  

• Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange to be terrorized by fame-hungry raccoons in the feature film adaptation of Grey Gardens, not to be mistaken for the musical adaptation or the original documentary. And who says they don't write good roles for women anymore?

• Is Queen Latifah the new Jodie Foster?

• Not Without My Gays: Katie Heigl (we're on a nickname basis now, right?) reportedly would not walk down the aisle unless T.R. could be there. Related: People like their friends to be at their weddings.

• We meant to post this weeks ago but their server was down (hopefully due to overwhelming popularity): The much-anticipated new episode of Star Trek: New Voyages featuring out actor George Takei is available online!
  

• Neil Patrick Harris has lent his talents to a very strange Web show called Powerloafing w/ Cubicle Carl. in the "Department of Doom" episode, NPH plays a Canadian office worker who finds a corpse in a hidden room. Yes, it is as strange as it sounds.

• Out actor Charlie David (Dante's Cove) was interviewed on the set of his new film The Mulligans, and calls his decision to be an out actor a "day of liberation". Atta boy, Charlie!

• One of John Barrowman's many very busy clones (as there's no way he can do all of the things he does and still get his beauty rest) is starring on stage in the UK as the lead in Aladdin. Let's hope they work in his unrequited leather fetish! (We noted this a few months back, but the Playbill article has some new details.)
  

• “The sport has not confronted homophobia because the gay footballers who are playing in our leagues are too frightened to declare their sexuality and cope with the backlash.” - Graeme Le Saux, an English footballer who says that rumors about his sexuality almost ruined his career.