So Superman wears muscle-clinging spandex, Batman covers his face with a dark mask and Wonder Woman runs around in a one piece swimsuit. To say sexuality factors into the comic book industry is an understatement. But despite years of progress, the gays still have a way to go with major publishers. Right now DC has two prominent characters headlining their flagship book Detective Comics featuring Batwoman and The Question, but there is still a rich back history involved with these and other characters that is sometimes never explored.

So when Blog@Newsarama posts a link to the A-Z LGBT Character Superlist, it gives you the chance to ask that lingering question: What do those ludicrous costumes really mean?

With research only recently starting and the comics’ industry over 75 years old, don’t expect every character to be analyzed just yet. For now, just accept the fact that Nightclawer’s German accent is probably a language barrier, and not his method of seducing his fellow X-Men.

Is Pj Perez a Renaissance man or just a workaholic? The high quality of his latest effort, the debut issue of The Utopian, a full-color comic book originally serialized online and now available for purchase at better comics shops, suggests the former. Perez has a long history in indie publishing and commercial magazines; he’s the former editor of Racket and a freelance writer. Now he’s picked up pencils and ink to craft the story of James Douglas, a frustrated young man hoping to upend the brutal caste system of Sagebrush High. It’s a system populated by a football-frenzied principal, a girlfriend-slapping jock and a teacher too timid to do anything about it. Fellow comics addict Jarret Keene recently sat down with Perez before his Nov. 8 launch party at Yayo Taco (4632 S. Maryland Pkwy.) to probe the artist’s influences and intent in fashioning a protagonist many will dismiss as a trench coat Mafioso.

CityLife: Although billed as “America’s Most Emo Comic Strip,” The Utopian doesn’t read anything like a My Chemical Romance lyrics sheet. It owes more to teen adventure series like “The Bloodhound Gang,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or early issues of “Amazing Spider-Man.” But I understand you need a tag line, and it’s fun to riff off Fantastic Four’s “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.”

Pj Perez: Well, the “emo” thing has been a self-mocking joke all along. From the start, I wanted to temper the semi-seriousness of the situations and narration with biting, self-referential humor. I think most people get that, but someone posted links to the Utopian webcomic in a “Worst Webcomics” forum and by their comments it was obvious they both didn’t get the metaphorical nature of the strip nor the self-mocking tone. So I decided to play it up with the tag line.

Not to belabor the point, but I’m glad you brought up “Buffy.” In writing, I’m hugely influenced by great TV and movie script writers, and Joss Whedon is definitely in that group—and I’m also honored you’d even make the comparison. You know how the demons and monsters on “Buffy” were really just allusions to common dilemmas experienced by adolescents coming of age? So many of the Utopian’s situations are the same: All allegorical and symbolic and stuff. But I try to make it entertaining by punching up the dialog. Sometimes it fails, but when it works, it works.

CL: How much of The Utopian’s righteous attitude lies in Pj Perez?

PP: A lot. In my much younger years, I wrote a series of essays and poems not just raging against the system, but calling for a new world order. I was certain that as we approached the turn of the century, the world was going to devolve into chaos and surely something better would come along. Sounds like a Tool song or something, huh? But as most people know (more…)

You may sometimes wonder why people believe things that aren’t true. You know, things such as the Earth is but 10,000 years old. Or that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Or that the health-care bill will set up death panels that will decide whether grandma lives or dies. Or that there was no attempt to blow up Harry Reid’s car in 1981.

There is, and was, ample evidence to disprove all of these things, yet some people continue to insist that they’re true. And a new article from the research-oriented website Miller-McCune.com explains why: People are assisting in their own deception, by embracing evidence that reinforces their pre-existing beliefs and rejecting (or simply ignoring) evidence that contradicts it. In this way, a person’s worldview is dangerously shaped not by observation, building theories, testing, and revising theories, but by “the gut,” instinct or just plain ignorance.

You can read the article here. It’s disturbing, or at least it will be to those who still believe in objective reality, the scientific method and the enduring value of reason and evidence-based policymaking.

UPDATE: We forgot to mention those who don’t believe President Barack Obama was born in the United States, or in global climate change. Those who, in the words of New Yorker book critic Elizabeth Kolbert, are described thusly: “Several decades ago, a detachment of the American right cut itself loose from reason, and it has been drifting along happily ever since.” Author and Obama administration information czar Cass Sunstein writes about them in his latest book, reviewed here.

Project Homeless Connect, the annual gathering of services for the homeless, is in desperate need of help. Last year, the event offered services such as legal aid, medical checkups and haircuts to approximately 3,400 people. This year, they expect to see between 4,000 and 4,500, according to Larry Lovelett, spokesman for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.

Unfortunately, the increased need must be met by fewer resources. Clark County, which organizes the event, can’t spare as many staff members to man registration tables and conduct intake interviews as they have in years past. That’s where you come in.

Volunteers will be asked to arrive at 7 a.m. and stay until 4 p.m. If you can’t commit an entire day, you can donate nonperishable food and clothing items such as T-shirts and socks.

Lovelett says he expects not only to see more people this year, but also more people who are newly homeless. The housing collapse in particular has bankrupted a lot of formerly well-off people. Real estate agents, construction workers and home improvement specialists have all been hit pretty hard by the recession. Just a few years ago, professionals in those industries regularly made six-figure salaries.

“We’re going to be seeing our neighbors,” Lovelett says.

For more information about donating or volunteering, call 340-8821.

Whoops! An article in this week’s paper includes the wrong information for the book signing party and art opening for Drunk: A Comic About Bar Stories. The event is happening tonight at Frankie’s Tiki Room, which is on Charleston Boulevard near UMC. You can hang out with the artists from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., then wander over to the Atomic Todd Gallery on Main Street to check out original art from the book.

You can get copies of the book at Alternate Reality comic book shop on Maryland Parkway and at Comic Oasis on Rainbow. For more information, visit the website here.

Gov. Jim Gibbons today called for Nevada to become a national leader in recycling materials sent to landfills. His comments come after a controversy erupted over a huge landfill project near Winnemucca that will host thousands of tons of trash generated in neighboring California.

Here’s the governor’s complete statement:

GOVERNOR GIBBONS:

“WE NEED TO STOP WASTING NEVADA.”

Carson City – Governor Jim Gibbons today announced his intention to sponsor a major initiative to completely eliminate landfills as we presently know them. “There have been huge leaps in recycling technology,” Governor Gibbons said, “We can conserve natural resources, create clean energy and create jobs by looking at landfills not as places where we bury our trash, but as places where recycling and energy recovery begin.”

Governor Gibbons said that at least 75 percent of the trash now sent to landfills in Nevada can be recycled or used as a renewable energy source using existing technology. Similar results have been attained by the city of San Jose, California. Governor Gibbons recently toured a waste recycling operation there.

“Federal law does not allow us to ban the importation of waste from California. But state law allows me to require enough recovery that a waste stream becomes an asset. The availability of economical recycled materials will encourage manufacturers to locate in Nevada,” Gibbons said, “Mandated waste recovery can be a significant part of diversifying our economy and provide much needed jobs.”

Governor Gibbons will push the waste industry in Nevada to adopt recycling and energy recovery technology. He has already invited the presidents of Waste Management (Washoe County) and Republic Services (Clark County) to join in the effort to make Nevada the best “Resource Recovery State” in the country.

“I expressed to them that I will not let Nevada become the landfill of the west. I am pleased that they understand the need to do a better job of protecting our environment and that they have agreed to work with us for the benefit of Nevada.”

Governor Gibbons intends to propose legislation directly targeting the waste industry that will reward superior performance in recycling and energy recovery. Gibbons said that he will propose various incentives and abatements to encourage businesses to locate in Nevada and utilize recycled materials. He will also promote low cost financing alternatives to help build waste recovery facilities.

Here in the United States, we haven’t heard much about the power of nonviolent resistance, at least not since various social movements here used it to such great effect in the 1960s and 1970s.

All that changes tonight when UNLV welcomes former Liberian president Amos Sawyer, who’ll speak about the nonviolent resistance women in his homeland used to help end a civil war in 2003 and force the exile of dictator Charles Taylor.

Sawyer led Liberia before Taylor, the former guerrilla leader, grabbed power in a military coup there before formally winning election as president in 1997.

Sawyer, whose interview with CityLife will run in part next week, will talk about the state of his nation and how he believes his county is back on the path to peach.

His talk and panel discussion with UNLV women’s studies and political science professors will start after a screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a 2008 documentary about those successful, nonviolent protests which changed Liberia.

The event starts Friday at 6:30 p.m. in UNLV’s Greenspun Hall Auditorium. For more information, call the William S. Boyd School of Law at 895-3671 or visit their website.