Another Blogathon Article
It took me a while to find this, but it’s another clipping for the collection. Many thanks to Janet Gadeski for the link.
Canadian Fundraiser eNews – The latest “thon” the blogathon
Steve Wark of Montreal spent all night on July 28 reading comic books. Steve’s not a kid reading under the covers with a flashlight. He’s a father of a five-year-old autistic son who wants to give back to Montreal Children’s Hospital, where young Ben was diagnosed.
As well as reading comics overnight, Steve blogged every half hour. His Blogathon for Ben was part of the Day of Blogs, a fundraising effort that saw dozens of participants around the world posting every half hour for 24 hours, soliciting funds for their chosen charities.
Steve participated in a similar effort for the first time last year. To his great surprise, he raised $1,400 for the hospital’s autism clinic. The donations came from family, colleagues and friends as you might expect, but also from people who stumbled across his blog and even other participants.
This year, the day began with his usual stint of home-based work as a freelance writer and video game designer under the supervision of Ben and his two-year-old sister Naomi. Steve blogged faithfully every 30 minutes and was sometimes able to prepare a post or two in advance. During the day he posted about the experience of parenting an autistic child.
Staying awake became a challenge once the children were bedded down for the night. Blogging about the comic books he had saved up to read kept him going. And he attracted a sponsor; Boom! Studios offered five comic books to his top five donors.
By August 1, Steve had raised $1,950 with a further $300 pledged.
For more information, www.steve-blogathon.com, www.dayofblogs.org
Blogathon 2008: The Day After
The donations are still trickling in, so I’ll post the latest donor count and fundraising total in a couple of days. At the same time, I’ll offer the lucky winners their pick up the Boom! Studios trades and the lucky commenters their choice of the books.
I had a five-hour nap Sunday morning, and that kept me going for the rest of the day. Believe me, it was an early night!
Thanks to everyone for making this event a huge success! This was a terrific group effort!
50. Fin
Looks like this is the end of the Blogathon! I’ll get in touch with all the prizewinners as soon as I have all the figures in. Believe me, I’m in no condition to handle basic arithmetic…or spelling, as you may have noticed of late.
That’s 50 posts, plus interludes. An awful lot of typing for one day.
Time for breakfast, and a nap.
See you next year!
49. Thanks…Pt 2
…to Jen at Day of Blogs, for organizing the event this year.
…to Lindsey, for being my monitor, and reminding me of my own monitor duties
…to Chip Mosher and Boom Studios for the prize support.
…to Steve Faguy for the Gazette article
…to Loretta at the Commemorative Giving department of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, for keeping the pledges organized.
…to the staff athe Autism Clinic, for giving us information and support.
…to Ben’s therapists and CROM, for helping Ben tell his stories in his own words.
…to Ben and Naomi, for playing nicely and not erasing files from my laptop.
…to Dina, for fundraising, love, child-distraction and support.
48. Thanks…Pt 1
…to everyone who donated and/or pledged (in no particular order): Albena, Tamu, Karen, Gen, ***Dave, Albert, Matt, Kuan Yin, Mark, Judy, Christine, Susan, Annelise, Leslie, Phil, Lynda, Exivrogne, Mom & Dad, Scott, Lou & Tilly, Mireille, Stephen, Deb, Barb, Tal & Erik, Ramsay, Adriana, Dan & Libby, Lisa, Bill, Jill & Kathy, Lyle, Tanya, Michel, Melissa, Martine & Ed, Jonet, Peter & Lysanne…and everyone else whom I may have forgotten in this early morning haze. Thank you for your great generosity.
…to everyone who left comments or sent emails of support: Michel, Ramsay, Tal & Erik, Exivrogne, ***Dave, Barb, Dave, Tamu, Mom, Martine, Lysanne, Kathy, Phil, Peter, Andrew, Karen, Melissa, Jeff, Barb, Tanya, Jogany, Adriana, Bill, Lynda, and Scott…couldn’t have made it without you!
47. Hidden Gems…Pt 5
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Acts of Vengeance Supervillains are always being defeated by their traditional opposites: Kingpin can’t get the better of Daredevil; Doctor Doom may posture, but Reed Richards owns the stage etc., until the villains finally get the bright idea of switching opponents. Now they have a fighting chance! The whole concept turns out to have been a ploy engineered by Loki, because he enjoys that sort of thing and because he thinks it will help him destroy his own superheroic nemesis – the Avengers, the team he inadvertently caused to form. The mixed-up matchups took place in all Marvel’s titles for three months, leading to some great stories (Magneto taking on the Nazi Red Skull instead of Captain America, as he’d been assigned), to the odd but significant stories (Psylocke inexplicably changes from a British woman with cyborg eyes into an Asian assassin familiar to teenaged male readers of the X-Men for the last 15 years) to the frankly lame (Iron Man vs. Chemo, the guy with the Alchemist Ray. No, really. I can’t make this stuff up). All told, it was a striking concept and a great visual. |
46. Hidden Gems…Pt 4
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Armageddon 2001 This was DC’s version of the annual crossover, and it had a great hook: In the year 2001, one of the modern superheroes turned tyrant, killed the others, and called himself/herself Monarch of the Earth. A time traveller goes back to the past to discover which hero becomes the villain. Each annual is another alternate future of the character and, given that Batman and Superman had multiple titles, they were visited multiple times. The ending was bad, though, where the obvious choice for Monarch – Captain Atom – was elevated into a Superman-level powerhouse. Nobody bought it. Rumours have it that the story changed at the last minute because the secret had been leaked, but the writers should have left well enough alone. |
45. Hidden Gems…Pt 3
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Atlantis Attacks This was the second of Marvel’s line of Annual crossovers. Yes, they happened once a year, but they involved the Annuals of all the regular titles (annuals were a special one-shot issue that stood outside regular continuity). The Deviants of Lemuria steal the Serpent Crown to raise Set from the dead. All the heroes were involved…and it was a huge caper, very well done. Widescreen comics before Mark Millar coined the term. Too bad Marvel destroyed the Annual crossover concept in the years to follow. |
44. Hidden Gems…Pt 2
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Sensational She-Hulk John Byrne wrote the first eight issues of this series as an industry satire, with fake back issue ads and references to the weird villains from the Hulk’s original run. Then Steve Gerber took over and turned the book into a Howard-the-Duckian cultural satire, using some familiar Marvel and DC characters. Pseudoman was the first, followed by Nosferate the She-Bat and, my favourite, the Critic (as opposed to the Watcher). |
43. Hidden Gems…Pt 1
Looking through the basement and closet longboxes was as much about finding the wheat as it was removing the chaff. Here’s one treaasure I enjoyed.
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Mobfire 1-6 This Vertigo series is the first crime comic I can claim to have read. It’s about British mobsters who use magic to attain their dominant position…but when the family patriarch dies, they learn that he had control, but somebody else had the power. |