Blogathon 01: Good Morning

Well, this is it.

Welcome to the beginning of Blogathon 2011 where I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen as the day progresses. I've got the topics, I've reread the books, but what will I actually say? What order will I discuss them? I don't know much more than you do. It should be interesting to say the least.

In this year's Blogathon, I will be looking at various superhero comics from the past ten years in various ways from freeform essays to issue-by-issue analyses to the application of outside methodologies. And it's all to benefit the Hero Initiative, a charity that provides financial assistance to comic professionals that require it. 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

Right now, we're sitting at $135 raised and, I hope, by this time tomorrow, that number will be a bit higher. If you wish to sponsor me, make sure to let me know in the comments or via e-mail (chevett13[AT]yahoo[DOT]ca) so I can keep track of the donations.

Some rules about the Blogathon, taken from last year's intro post, because I said it so well then:

1. I read all of the comics in advance, but have not written any of the posts.

2. I may try and work ahead a little bit to give me time to go get a slushy from 7-11 or make food/eat, but I will ALWAYS work on a post during its half-hour period. The last two times, in a couple of cases, I did 3/4s of a post before leaving and finished it when I got back. I take the whole 'post every 30 minutes' thing seriously. This is meant to be a pretty constant thing I'm doing here.

3. I won't be using images in my posts, because I don't feel like searching for so many damn covers. Also, the images would just be covers at the beginning of the post and... who cares? It hasn't been a problem in previous years, so I assume it won't be one now.

4. Not every post is going to be a winner. In fact, a lot of them won't be. Nor will I get to say everything I want to or would if I were writing about these works the way I normally do. But, dammit, I'm going to try.

5. Posts are being set for the hour/half-hour for simplicity. That means they ARE being scheduled technically, but by only a few minutes... better to be early than late.

6. I was crazy and stupid to do this, but it's too late to back out now. And, honestly, it's always fun.

And that's that. Join me in half an hour as I begin some thoughts on superheroes in general and try to pin down why I care and what I want from them. And, of course, please donate to the Hero Initiative.