Outside your Comfort Zone 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.

Previous years threads for ideas:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...er-2015-a.html
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-...er-2016-a.html
https://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book...er-2017-a.html

I’ve never read any of the new generation of GI Joe, so I started by reading issue 1 of Snake Eyes: Agent Of Cobra .

Today I read part 2 of Snake Eyes: Agent Of Cobra .

Part 3 of Snake Eyes: Agent Of Cobra
Part 4 of Snake Eyes: Agent Of Cobra

So Snake Eyes has gone to the other side?

I'm actually not sure what to tackle for this theme. I recently got long runs of Usage Yojimbo and Elfquest, but I'm not sure if those would qualify. Maybe the first because I look at it, regret the black and white (even though I've read other B&W comics), and close it.

I believe so. I haven't finished it yet, but volume 1 of the compilation has a picture of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, and Snake Eyes has a Cobra insignia on his mask.

I’m not feeling very “ready” this month, and probably haven’t read anything that qualifies for this Challenge. So today I randomly picked something out from Dark Horse called Smoke/Ashes that apparently is a political intrigue crime thing, not my norm, and will try to get thru it today.

It's weak sauce, but I did continue reading the Avengers Under Siege Epic Collection. It's sort of new horizons because I've never read this run, or really much past the '70s other than some relatively recent forays into New Avengers, Disassembled, etc.