Trevor

What's a Comic Book Challenge?

- monthly threads to encourage more reading and discussion
- a way to figure out "what do I read next?"
- motivation to try different genres
- motivation to keep reading and make progress on our unread piles
- a place to get recommendations

How does it work?

- we pick a genre (or company, or title, or whatever) for a month
- we post in this thread and talk about what we plan to read and read throughout the month
- you could keep a spoilered list in one post and update it all month, or post as you read
- in theory the lists could be kept in a separate thread to allow for fancier formatting while avoiding clutter

What makes it a "challenge"?

- well, unofficially, the goal is to read 100 comics a month, but that isn't stressed
- the group discussion will challenge and encourage you to read more (the main goal of most participants I imagine)

Who can participate?

- anyone and everyone!
- you don't have to list your reading or even post at all to participate, but what's the fun in that?
- quasi-technically, anyone on the planet who reads a qualifying book for the month is a participant, whether they know it or not

When does it start and end?

- it begins at dusk the night before the 1st of the month, and ends at dawn the following 1st
- this bonus time allows for possible "double counting" cross-Challenge content
- content eligible for both Challenges has the bonus of being able to be counted for all 24 hours of the last/first days of the month for both Challenges

Who wins?

- there are no losers, the person who reads one page a month is equal to the person who reads 20 books a day

Trevor

Outside Your Comfort Zone was a few characters too long, so I improvised.

majorjoe23

Sept. 30
Need More Love 13

Total books read: 52

Undeadcow

September 2
[b]Wonder Woman (2011) 1-



Total Issues: 0

davidh777

So the basic concept is to try something we wouldn't normally read, whether it be age or genre or whatever?

Trevor

Yep.

My tastes are pretty eclectic and I occasionally read almost everything. I was thinking I'm pretty clueless on manga, but then kept remembering ones I've read over the years.

To fully qualify I may be limited to comics about opera, or hardcore comix.

Dimension X

I've been kind of unofficially participating in these Comic Challenges for the last couple of months (I wasn't even aware you were doing them until April, I think), having read a volume of Mac Raboy's Flash Gordon and something else I'm forgetting a couple months back, and From Hell and 4 separate The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series this month. I'm like you, there's not many genres I wouldn't try, and I'm not likely to own anything that is out of my "comfort zone," so I couldn't think of anything to read. I finally decided on at least reading the Marvel Romance trade I have on the spinner rack (I bought it for the art. Seriously. It has a Steranko story I've never read, along with stuff by Gene Colan and Dick Giordano.), but manga's a good suggestion. I've never read any, that I recall, and I have a bunch that I've picked up in thrift shops.

malazar

Not sure what I will be reading, but I will be participating.

I will put my list in this post.

Total Issues Read: 5

1. Disney Kingdoms: Figment 1-5

majorjoe23

I just looked through my Humble Bundle library and found a lot of things like Jungle Girl Omnibus and some Chaos stuff that was the stuff I didn't really care about in bundles I bought. I think I'll try to clear some of that out of my digital unread pile.

I've also got some Star Wars stuff to read. I'm not sure if that counts as outside my comfort zone, since I'm a huge Star Wars fan. But stuff outside the films has usually had about zero interest for me.

davidh777

I'm going to consider my "comfort zone" Marvel-DC-Image of the last 40 years, and consider my eligible pool older stuff like Simon-Kirby, classic comic strips, European series, or just books that I've picked up on a whim but never taken the plunge to read.

Trevor

That's a good plan David! That'll allow me to count the old Avengers books that I bought mainly for collecting/history but really don't enjoy all that much.

Trevor

So what's everyone reading this month?

Not much for me. A little manga, and an old Slave Labor Graphics trade paperback of True Swamp is all I have that qualifies so far.

Avengers Vs 4
Giant Days 1
Prehistoric Bradleys

majorjoe23

Mostly what I would call "Dynamite crap," the things in Humble Bundles that weren't the reason I bought the package.

I've also been reading Crumb's Genesis adaptation and George RR Martin's Wild Cards. Very different than his Game of Thrones work.

Undeadcow

I've been trying to read the New 52 era Wonder Woman stuff but not feeling it much this month...

PhantomStranger

I ended up reading Uncharted #6, a 2012 series from DC Comics based on the hit videogame. Having no prior familiarity with the game or comic, it was still pretty easy to understand what was going on except for a couple of references to other characters. Apparently this guy is a treasure hunter in the mold of Indiana Jones.

Having no loyalty to the brand, its decompressed storytelling made the issue a very light read which I didn't find particularly filling. The art was nice enough but I think this is strictly for fans of the videogame.

Trevor

Lining up some manga/horror and slice-of-life/horror to read tomorrow for double credit.

This was a pretty lost month for me, barely read anything.

But with horror being my favorite genre, I'm hoping to avoid watching a crazy amount of films next month (for a change) and concentrate my free time on reading. Have a probably crazy goal of 300 books, but 100 is more likely. I have some old and new Creepy and Eerie loaded in my Dark Horse app, and a nice hodge podge of stuff on Comixology to go along with a pile of old House of Mystery and Unexpected floppies.

And maybe this year I'll actually read that Man-Thing Omnibus that I barely touched last year.

majorjoe23

At the end of Sept. we'll have been doing this for 12 full months. I need to go through and tally up my total for the year.

Of course, I haven't kept track of the books that don't count for challenges, so it's not an accurate total.

terrycloth

i havent really read anything for this challenge as iv been trying to get caught up in Justice league of the current run read 1-30 this week,

I do have a lot lined up for next month

Extinction Parade
EP: war
Crawlspace
Hellblazer
Ghosted
and maybe ill look for some titles at nycc