Diabolu Frank Challenges All DC Bloggers!

Tonight I'll be taking a break from my regular blogging to offer up a proposal. If you or someone you know runs a blog featuring DC Comics inclusive comic book related content, I'd like to extend an invitation to take part in a relatively large scale crossover. Here's an edited version of my original pitch, first sent out to folks the week before Thanksgiving...

Greetings fellow blogger! I'm Frank Diabolu, and you may know me from such information superhighway personal interweb electronic log journals as Justice League Detroit: The Blog, ...nurgh..., and The Idol-Head of Diabolu, a blog for J'Onn J'Onzz, the Manhunter from Mars! What you may not know is that you and I are not the only isolated, obsessive-compulsive comic book enthusiasts with virtual presences, but merely part of a sort of virtual community of same. In fact, emulating actual comic book universes, some such bloggers occasionally have themed "events," a perfect opportunity to exploit the desire for still-mostly-introverted camaraderie and hijack the readership of others. I can speak to its virtues through my personal experiences with canny promotions enriching experiences like Crisis on Earth-Blog and Crisis On Earth-Blog: Super Powers Collection 25th Anniversary! It's splendtafulous!

Alright, enough with the Troy McClure shtick. I personally haven't run one of these shindigs before, but I thought it might be nice to give it a try. Most people receiving this email have already participated, and have at least one DC-centric blog. I'm going to try to expand our circle some more though, and there are enough characters to go around that non-specific blogs can "adopt" to join in. There will also be different MPAA-style "rated" blogs (my Idol-Head is pretty PG, while ...nurgh... is a soft "R,") but I can work to make sure all-ages blogs aren't contaminated with more mature links. My take is to be a bit more interactive by running a "scavenger hunt" where readers can bounce from blog to blog, advancing by answering trivia questions or solving other puzzles, usually related to the DC Comics character your blog would represent. Right answers would bring readers closer to "lush scans from two obscure pin-ups featuring every major character involved in this event," hosted by a site I don't run TBA. For the longest time, I considered giving away stuff, like a complete set of the DC Challenge mini-series, but realized too much trouble and personal information trafficking would be involved. Instead, we'll keep it neat, fun, and coast on the high end of our average daily hit counts.

I'll be happy to provide all the necessary art, text and html, making this a free "day off" for the daily blogger. Folks can contribute as much as they'd like, though, preferably at least the questions and correct answers, and as difficult as you want.

I ask that everyone try to post around the same time, but there should be enough participants that the only problem would be if the "winner" site failed to publish. As I said, everyone will receive a 400 pixel wide detail from the piece, and everyone would be free to post the full image (which I'll host on Photobucket) on their blog after observing a respectable waiting period for the sake of the "winning" blog.

Anyway, thanks for reading this far, and I hope you consider joining in.

I didn't appreciate how complex my own premise was, so the initial early December date slipped, then mid-month, and I finally decided to declare a hiatus for the holidays. I've begun contacting the authors of the sixteen or so blogs that confirmed they'd like to participate this week. However, some are easier to reach and more enthusiastic than others, and since I doubt I'll ever run such a crossover again, I'd like this to be as convoluted and insane as possible. That's why I'm flinging the doors open with an open call to whoever has an interest in joining the fun.

Here's more details I sent out to those blogs...

I don't want to suffocate anyone here with a specific structure. We all have our own styles, and I want everyone to have the opportunity to do their own thing. To that end, if you would prefer to use anagrams, crossword puzzles, Java-enabled hangman, madlibs, dirty limericks-- whatever challenge you want to present to your readers, so long as you do your own work and link out to everyone else, is alright with me. In fact, if challenges aren't your style, and you just want to ramble about how you hate every character in this event, roll how you want. Take the picture I give you, post the links, and make the rest your own.

Interested parties are urged to contact me directly at email_of_diabolu@yahoo.com . The event is scheduled for February 1, 2010, and is enough of a pain that I actually built a new blog just to offer participants a tutorial/FAQ to help them along. Consider that fair warning of what you'd be getting into. Also, most of the better DC Universe characters are already taken, so you'd better have sincere love in your heart for C and D-listers...