Trevor

Reality Challenge

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 on the last day of previous month, and ends at dawn on the first day of the next month
- 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 both Challenges

How does counting work?
- as with every other 'rule', we're pretty liberal and you can count any way you want really
- in general, a comic book counts as one
- for graphic novels and oversize books, feel free to count one for every twenty pages

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

What is the schedule?

January - TV/Movie/Book
February - Eisner/Harvey/Etc Winners
March - Rotating Company
April - TBD (random idea every year)
May - Make-Your-Own
June - Reality
July - Science Fiction
August - Fantasy
September - Outside-Your-Comfort-Zone
October - Horror
November - Comedy
December - Holiday (w/ bonus Thanksgiving and New Year's time)

Want a personal checklist to help you pick stuff to read?

Obviously you'll want to edit the below spoilered example checklist to fit your needs.

Trevor

Basically any comic that good be “real” qualifies. So no superhero books, and maybe not a ton of fantasy and sci-fi, but most other genres would fully count.

Year one
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...ne-2015-a.html
Year two
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...ne-2016-a.html
Year three
https://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book...ne-2017-a.html

shadokitty

Would GI Joe count?

Trevor

My knowledge of GI Joe is close to zero. If it’s realistic army stuff, yes; but laser beams and teleporters, no.

Tom Banjo

I think I might pick up My Friend Dahmer for this. It’s been on my radar for a couple of months but just haven’t gotten around to it.

Trevor

I’ve been meaning to read that too. Coincidentally, I just saw that the film was on Kanopy so added it to my queue there.

Trevor

I think I’ve turned a corner and gotten into the habit of actually reading my comics. Pretty sure I read over 100 last month. Haven’t decided on a theme yet for this month. Anyone else have a plan?

davidh777

There's a ton of stuff I could read for this theme, as a lot of what I collect are European crime/spy comics. I've been working my way through Torpedo, a hard-boiled Italian crime series. Alex Toth worked on it briefly.

1. Torpedo Vol. 1*
2. Battlefields: The Night Witches*
3. Battlefields: Dear Billy

Trevor

Was surprised to really love the Airboy reboot weirdness from a couple years ago. Sort of a Hunter S Thompson 4th wall breaking oddity written by James Robinson. Not my usual fare, a bit adultish, but I really dug it.