PhantomStranger

Yes, a couple of times.

Trevor

April Challenge posted.

majorjoe23

Any thoughts about how the Make Your Own challenge will work? Do we declare what we plan to read or just wing it?

Undeadcow

I was planning on focusing on just X-men or maybe Hellboy.

majorjoe23

I'm thinking maybe a samurai focused month. I have a lot of Samurai Executioner and Usagi Yojimbo to read.

Trevor

Fwiw, I was planning on bumping this thread today to say that I've been thinking about the later open months and thinking that perhaps we need to come up with broader concepts. I really want to encourage more participation.
I think the spirit of MYO is to have a real theme and not just watch/read your normal fare or unread queue.

The MYO media Challenge is my favorite because of the really creative things people do with it.

That said, I plan to be fairly boring and just read Dark Horse stuff, but specializing in my absolute favorite titles. Doing similar for the media version.

davidh777

Inspired by some articles in Back Issue, I think I'm going to focus on "B" teams: The Defenders, the Champions, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Pretty much anything other than JLA, Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men. Teen Titans would seem to qualify, except their Wolfman-Perez years were A-list. The Legion I think would technically qualify, but might not quite be in the spirit of what I'm aiming for.

Trevor

That's a cool idea David. I haven't read that Back Issue yet but I'm looking forward to it. But then, I look forward to reading pretty much every word of that magazine.

Trevor

So I've been (over)thinking about these Challenges lately. Here is the current proposed schedule for reference:

January - TV/Movie/Book/Radio/Play
February - Eisner/Harvey/Etc Winners
March - Rotating Company
April - TBD (random idea every year)
May - Make-Your-Own
June - Reality
July - Science Fiction & Fantasy
August - Older-Than-You
September - Outside-Your-Comfort-Zone
October - Horror
November - Comedy
December - Holiday

It'd be cool to get more participation, perhaps even have them draw other comic readers into DVDTalk like our media Challenges bring people to the forum. But then, perhaps reading comics is more of a solitary hobby and doesn't allow for group participation as much? Maybe we need subset lists of specific books to read to generate more discussion?

On the other hand, while I like the topics we've chosen and love sticking close to the media Challenges topic; I think more openness in more months may be good. Even myself, with my list/follow-the-set-order OCD, have gotten tired of the narrow focus of the month and wanted to go in different reading directions.

I know it'll be hard to come to any consensus with only a half dozen or so of us participating so far, but I welcome any input on what you all think.

My over-all personal goal with these is just to have something to encourage me to read comics almost every day. I love the hobby and have thousands and thousands of books that I absolutely want to read and re-read. I figured a few of you are similar and that the group participation/Challenge format would be helpful.

But trying to figure out 12 topics has been tough. We've had about 30 good ideas. I'd love to do all of them. Have even thought about breaking some months into 2 or more periods to squeeze in more areas.

But then, many of the ideas are somewhat limiting. Lots of people probably have little interest in reading books from the Golden or even Silver Age. Reality Month (books about real events or real life) doesn't seem to be a popular idea.

I'm finally getting into my reading of Avengers from the beginning, and would love to plow through all ~500 over the course of the next year; but the topics we have set now wouldn't really allow that. At least not for 'counting'.

tldr summary
So I'm thinking that perhaps we should replace the three unbolded months with subjects much closer to Make Your Own. Perhaps a pick your own company month, a pick a character month, and a pick a creator (or three) month?

I realize that having multiple months of people doing dissimilar reading will generate less discussion; but perhaps it is better to just have topics that encourage any participation at all.

Even if the Challenges never generate tons of participants at least they stand to keep those few of here actively reading.

I'm rambling and using way too many paragraphs, but love the idea of these Challenges flourishing and keeping us reading and talking. So again, please share any criticisms or ideas you have.

terrycloth

I dont keep my list updated at all due to a mixture of being busy and lazy when i do get down time.
my favorite part of the challenges just like the movies is seeing what other people read to get new suggestions.
maybe to bring more discussions have weekly topics like this month we could of devoted a week to read captain america focused books or atleast would be the time to discuss your favorite moments to spark conversation.

i think even if its just 5 people a seperate lists thread may open up discussion more i know it would motivate me to update my list more. since when i do get time to update i get caught up reading the thread instead.

as far as the myoc i am throwing around a gotham or x-men challenge or writer specific with either Lemire or Ennis

Trevor

There are a couple things in this week's DC Comixology sale that would qualify; and a couple of giant dollar comics.
Thanks Terry.

I'd be ok with both suggestions but am not sure exactly how to implement them best. The chances of any of reading the same books is fairly small most likely.

And on the separate list thread: a thread of four or five posts would be awful lonely looking, so maybe one master list thread for all Challenges may work?

davidh777

I think the current system works OK--most lists should be on the first page, and discussion is ongoing through the rest of the thread.

Love dollar comics!

Man, I realize I have so many other titles that qualify that I've been meaning to read: THUNDER Agents, Metal Men, Doom Patrol, Challengers of the Unknown. I'm just going to have to pick my spots, with no plane rides on the horizon to pad my numbers.

Trevor

Holy moley, it's almost May already?
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...ay-2015-a.html

shadokitty

Regarding net month's challenge I have no idea what reality comics are out there.

Regarding Phantom Stranger, until I saw him as the Magic Heroes R&D Contact in DCUO, never heard of him before.

Trevor

Well, we might do something like "Choose Your Own Series" instead of "Reality".

But reality would encompass hundreds of thousands of existing comics, a good chunk of the non-superhero fare. Obvious examples include westerns, war, romance, and Archie type. Basically anything that could be 'real'.

Here are a few links to Comixology genres with thousands of titles to choose.
https://www.comixology.com/School-Li...L0dlbnJlTGlzdA

https://www.comixology.com/Slice-of-...L0dlbnJlTGlzdA

https://www.comixology.com/Historica...L0dlbnJlTGlzdA

https://www.comixology.com/Biography...L0dlbnJlTGlzdA

Undeadcow

I don't doubt that there are plenty of realistic comic books out there; they are just less interesting to me. Choose your own series sounds ok.

Edit: On second thought reality would give me a push to try different stuff...

Trevor

I (usually) just think it'd be good to have a month or three of non-superhero stuff.

If it's just us reading our same ole DC and Marvel stuff then what's the point?

The media Challenges we have are a broad range of genres and few people are big fans of each month. The range of topics are meant to pull us out of our comfort zones and get us to experience new things.

On the other hand I'd love to be able to read pretty much whatever I read normally and have lots of very open months that allow that. But again, what's the point of calling them Challenges then? We might as well just change these thread titles to 'what are you reading this month?' or something.

I don't know what's best. Maybe both. Maybe we should have monthly reading threads for people who want to power thru what they would have read anyway; and also have these Challenges with very different topics that aren't meant for the generic superhero-only reader.

I'm not slamming the generic superhero fan by the way, I am one.

I just think Challenges should be more than 'what are you watching/reading' threads.

davidh777

This sounds good to me. Not that I've been a huge participant anyway, and I admit a lot of the above is what I read anyway (noir stuff like Criminal and Parker should be eligible too), but I agree it's good to mix things up. Not every DVD challenge appeals to everyone either.

Undeadcow

That's a fair point, so far most of the comic challenges have been really open ended. ...I did buy the Archie Humble Bundle and there are those free 'America's Army' issues so... I'm down for trying.

PhantomStranger

I save the multiverse from the Spectre going mad and this is the recognition I get.

shadokitty

You mean such a small role in a major mmo?

PhantomStranger

I am a member of the Justice League after all. The Stranger goes where the Stranger is needed.

Trevor

Ok, unless there is another round of counterpoint, I'll stop flip-flopping and stick to 'reality' for June's Challenge. Basically any comic that could be real. So no superheroes, no fantasy, no to some science fiction I guess. I'll start a thread later today probably.

majorjoe23

I went through my shelves over the weekend and picked out a bunch of unread autobiographical stuff, along with some historical stuff like the first vol of March to read through.

Trevor

Heard great things about March. I'll try to find my copy. Maybe I'll finally re-read (finish?) From Hell as well.