Media Roundup: Wednesday Comics, Starlog Contests, and Playboy & Gayness

The latest from the world of media (with an emphasis on print):

• I just discovered a blog by my friend and former colleague from Internet World, Ruhan Memishi. It's called Media Musing, and it's a good addition to your reading list. Apparently, she's quite obsessed with her iPhone these days.
• Lo and behold, another former Internet World colleague of mine, Brian Caulfield, will be appearing at The Commonwealth Club, where I work. Brian is now a Forbes senior technology editor, and on November 9 he will be on a panel discussing "Tech Toys for the Holidays: Must-Have Gadgets to Give and Get." It'll take place in Silicon Valley. Go to the event. Maybe ask him about being an altar boy when he was a kid. (For the sake of clarity, my views on this blog are always mine and mine alone, not my employer's).
• So that's why I'm gay: By now, you've probably already heard about the conservative wingnut who declared that all pornography is gay and that reading Playboy makes you gay. He then said no 11-year-old boy would even think about reading a Playboy if he was told that it made him gay. Frankly, even an 11-year-old boy is smart enough to know his parents are nuts if they tell him such a thing. But now the temptresses at Playboy have admitted it's all true and that they've been caught red-handed.
• To sort of maintain that theme here, blogger Matthew Rettenmund has an item about his former employer, adult gay magazine publisher Mavety. As the gay periodicals drop like flies, I'm left with the impression that there are a lot of good stories to tell behind those scenes. Now we need a right-wing nut to convince people that reading gay pornographic magazines makes you straight -- that'd probably boost the circulation of the remaining titles.
• I noted here recently that there are some contests that people should be entering. Well, the contests just keep coming. Starlog has a handful right now, opportunities to win DVD box sets from Fringe, The Big Bang Theory, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. And Starlog has teamed with its sister title, Fangoria, to give away a costume from the movie Pandorum. Fango's also giving away a trip to its new horror extravaganza in Las Vegas. Don't miss these chances!
• Why did it take me so long to discover DC's Wednesday Comics? This innovative, newspaper-format 12-issue special series was two-thirds finished before I stumbled across it, only because I saw it on the Mr. Magazine blog. So I've bought the final four issues as they've come out, but I don't want to read them until I get the first issues (thanks, Mile High Comics). But they look great -- printed on high-quality newsprint (i.e., not cheap newsprint) in full color, with big panels for the art. I hope this series has sold well, for two reasons: I'd like to see DC make this an ongoing weekly publication, and because I hope it will keep DC and Marvel and Dark Horse and all of the others innovating. If DC can revive newsprint for comics, what else can be done? A lot, I'll bet.

My previous media roundup.