Blogathon 2011

Once again, I will be doing a Blogathon here on GraphiContent. It will be my fourth one and, like always, will be for charity. For those unaware, a Blogathon is where you blog for 24 hours straight, updating every 30 minutes, for charity. There's an 'official' one of these where everyone does it on the same day and that's how I first got into it back in 2007 when I blogged on some Joe Casey comics for 24 hours. Since then, I've set my own date to work with my schedule, aka when my girlfriend is out of town. This year, I have the added problem of my work schedule. In my three previous Blogathons, they always happened from 9am Saturday until 9am Sunday. This year, that won't work because I work Saturdays and Sundays. This year, the Blogathon will run from 9am Monday August 15 until 9am Tuesday August 16.

This year, my charity of choice is the Hero Initiative. It's a group created by professionals in the comic industry to provide financial support for comic creators that need help, often older professionals no longer actively in the industry. Since this is a comics site, I like to choose comics-based charities and, after two years of blogging for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, thought it appropriate to spread the love to another worthy cause.

If you wish to sponsor me, there are a variety of options:
* Direct donations to the Hero Initiative
* Purchasing products from their site, including annual memberships
* Purchasing products from their eBay store

Just let me know via e-mail (chevett13[AT]yahoo[DOT]ca) that you donated to or purchased something from the Hero Initiative and how much. I know, it doesn't sound very charitable to tell people how much you give, but I would like to keep track of how much money is raised here. If you purchase anything, please don't include shipping in your total cost. The Hero Initiative offers a lot of cool products that make helping them out that much easier, so please take a look and see if anything catches your eye.

All that leaves is what I'll be blogging about this year. So far, I've done some Joe Casey comics, Brian Michael Bendis's Avengers work, and Hellblazer. All three of those had very structured plans where I knew ahead of time how many posts I had filled before I even began. If I was discussing 40 comics, that was 40 posts accounted for with only nine to come up with during the blogathon (seven when you take out the intro/entro posts). After doing that three times, I think I've proven I can stay up for a day writing about comics where the path is laid out quite clearly. With no topics of a similar nature demanding my attention this time around, I've decided to challenge myself by picking a topic/idea that could have me make a complete fool of myself when I fail to produce content at some point during the Blogathon. Something more than a simple endurance trial.

This year, I've come up with a list of 12-15 topics to discuss, all about superhero comics from the past ten years, that I'll write about for whatever length seems appropriate. I will be trying to write essays that I'm lucky to put up on the site every six months -- and I'll be trying to do a dozen of them in a day. For a few of the comics or topics I want to discuss, I have a set format. There will be a "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story" by Raymond Chandler post, there will be an issue-by-issue series of posts on a Joe Casey comic, and maybe another one or two of my standard 'gimmicks' will make an appearance.

I've chosen superhero comics from the past ten years as my limiting framework, because it was 2001 when my family got a home computer and I began interacting with all of my fellow comics fans online through message boards and blogs. And since my charity is the Hero Initiative this time, why not stick to superheroes?

The date of this year's Blogathon again is Monday August 15 and the charity is the Hero Initiative. I hope you will be generous to a great charity and also show up on the day to lend some moral support and, hopefully, see me pull off this stupid idea of mine.

Thanks