Girl Power

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.

For what little it’s worth in this particular Challenge, here are our former Aprils:
Year one
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...il-2015-a.html
Year two
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...il-2016-a.html
Year three
https://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book...il-2017-a.html

This might give me a reason to read my Infinity Crusade tpbs. What with Goddess.

Flight of the Raven
75 Years of Shazam: Mary Marvel origin
Bizarre Adventures #25: Black Widow story
Marvel Fanfare 10-13: Black Widow story
Star Wars Doctor Aphra 1-13 plus Annual 1
Black Canary 2007 1-4
Birds of Prey 1999 vol. 1

I'm reading a great-looking French book called Flight of the Raven, about Paris Resistance fighters. There's a sequel coming out in the U.S. in English next month (though I saw it in British stores last week).

I've been trying to work my way through Marvel's Ultimate line (which I started because I wanted to do it before getting to Secret War), and there's some overlap with this challenge.

Ultimate Spider-man 98-105 (Clone Saga) - introduces a female spider-man character that steals the show; I remember all the variant spider characters from Avengers West Coast, Jessica Drew, etc but their origins were never as clear or interesting as this one. The storyline has some nice twists and gutsy alterations from core Marvel canon.
Ultimate Fantastic Four 20- trying to justify this from the lens of Invisible Woman, it does seem she has more of a leadership role in the Ultimate line.

I read a couple great-looking Black Widow stories from Bizarre Adventures and Marvel Fanfare illustrated by Paul Gullacy and George Perez. That was followed by a Black Canary 2007 four-issue miniseries that was an interesting-enough story about BC finding a surrogate daughter while trying to sort out her relationship with Green Arrow. Then the first volume of the 1999 Birds of Prey written by Chuck Dixon. I have a TPB but the issue lineup may not be exactly the same. The early issues they're sorting out the lineup past Oracle and Black Canary (Catwoman? Lois Lane? Huntress?), and the stories are fun, but I think the Simone run is better.

I stumbled upon a couple different interviews with JH Williams last week, so took that to be a sign to read some of his work for this Challenge. I’m not mentally ready to tackle Promethea, but have been reading Chase and enjoying it. The premise is one I’m prone to enjoy in comics and television, a “real human” investigating or handling the “unreal”. Many of my favorite things in life are based on this: Kolchak, X-Files, Damage Control.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_(comics)

I've been busy this month, so haven't gotten any reading in yet. But I still plan to get in my Infinity Crusade TPBs.

Fitting into this month's theme, DC has announced they are putting out an omnibus of the Diana Prince era in Wonder Woman where she dresses in hip fashions and loses the costume.