Mini Challenges & Book Suggestions - A Call for HELP!

Dear Fanboys, Fangirls, and Fanpersons,

Are you all freaking THRILLED about kicking off the Graphic Novels Challenge 2010? I know I am! Nymeth and I (Chris) have lots of fun stuff planned for you this year with the challenge, and one of those things is monthly mini-challenges! We already have a few people who have signed up to host mini-challenges, but there are still plenty of spots available for others to host. So what is a mini-challenge, you ask. Well...it can be anything really. It's basically a short, quick, easy to do challenge within the larger challenge. It can center around a specific theme, it can require a certain action, you can basically do whatever you want as long as it centers around graphic novels. We just ask that it doesn't last any longer than one month. You may want to ask people to do a group read of a certain graphic novel, or pair up with a partner and read a graphic novel, stand on their head and read a graphic novel. Anything! Be creative. If you want to offer a prize, you're more than welcome to. If you don't, that's fine too! This is all just about having fun.

So, does this sound like something you're interested in? If so, please send us an email at the dedicated challenge email address: graphicnovelschallenge (at) googlemail (dot) com. Please notice that it's NOT GMAIL, it's GOOGLEMAIL. (edit: we've discovered it's fine if you use the gmail extension!) What we would need to know is your name of course and blog address, which month you'd be interested in hosting your mini-challenge in, and just a brief, general idea of what your mini challenge will be about. We don't need specifics yet, so no need to fret about that! And of course, if more than 12 people volunteer, we'll just have more than one mini-challenge per month which will mean more fun :)

The second thing that we thought would be fun was to put together a recommended reading list! This will be especially good for people who are new to the graphic novel medium! What we're looking for here is an "if you like this....then you'll love this" type of list. So an example would be:

If you like John Green novels, you'll love the Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O'Malley
or more specific:
If you like Watership Down by Richard Adams you'll love Mouseguard by David Petersen.

That way, people who know which novels they love will have an idea of what kind of Graphic Novels to try out. We'd appreciate any suggestions you could send us!!! Please don't leave your suggestions in the comment, email them to us pretty please!! Once again, you can email them to: graphicnovelschallenge (at) googlemail (dot) com. That way when the list goes up, it's a surprise :) We'll try to have it up by the start of the challenge! The more suggestions the better, so send us a list!!

One last thing, if you're looking for a fantastic list of Graphic Novels to get you started, check out Flashlight Worthy Books list of the Best Graphic Novels of 2009! And I swear I'm not just pointing you over there because Nymeth and I are contributors >> Though it is awesome to be in such great company! It really is a fantastic list and I know I'll be reading some of those myself!

And once again, if you have any questions at all, feel free to contact us!! And happy reading!! And if you haven't signed up yet, don't wait! Sign up today.....at the post below this one ;)

Graphic Novels Challenge 2010

Hello everyone - Nymeth from things mean a lot here. Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made On and I spoke to Laza recently - she did an excellent job with the challenge as you all know, but she's been busy and hasn't been able to blog much lately, so Chris and I will be hosting the challenge in 2010. This means a lot to the both of us - not only because we love Graphic Novels, but also because the challenge was started by a friend we dearly miss, Dewey.

So - rules and guidelines:

• The challenge starts on January 1st 2010 and ends on December 31st (but we don't mind you starting early.)
• You don't have to make a list beforehand (but you can, of course! Lists are great because they give ideas to people who aren't sure what to read. And if you do make one, don't feel forced to stick to it!)
• We simplified the levels of participation: you can be a Beginner (3 Comics or Graphic Novels), Intermediate (3-10) or an Expert (10+). You're more than free to adjust your level of participation after the challenge has begun.
• There will be mini-challenges! Look for a post with more info on that soon.
• Overlaps with other challenges are totally fine.
  

We also wanted to ask participants whether they'd rather post their reviews to the blog like we did for the past two years, or if we should post a monthly/bi-monthly Mr Linky where you'd enter your reviews like some other challenges do. We'd be fine with either option - just let us know in the comments which one you'd find more convenient, and we'll let the majority decide.

If you have any further questions or suggestions, please feel free to e-mails us at untuneric (Ana) or Chrisa511 (Chris) at gmail. And to sign up, just enter your name in the Mr Linky below - you can link to your sign-up posts should you chose to write one, or just to your blog's main page if you don't. Happy reading!