Obscure Comics Character Challenge ('welcome to the OC^3, bitch!') update
Yes, liviapenn and I will be running this. We've created this community, comica_obscura, to help organize it. The posting deadline will be in late March, to allow some breathing room between that deadline and those of a couple other comics challenges that are going now. Some tentative information:

"Obscure" will be defined in terms of quantity of fic, not character popularity. At this point, we are planning on allowing toon characters, but not characters from movies or other media. Because of the potential nature of the fic, however, you must be an adult to play. We will be running a "suggestion" period (like yuletide) and then allowing people to sign up for the characters suggested which Livia and I judge to be obscure. You will have three slots for DC (including Vertigo and WildStorm)/Marvel characters and an optional fourth slot for an indie (i.e., not DC/Marvel) character, as well as an optional (for you to make and for the writer to fulfill) request field. All genres (including het and slash) will be allowed; if you want to particularly request or discourage any type of fic, you're welcome to do so (politely) in the request field. You will have to volunteer to write at least three DC/Marvel characters, though for ease of matching we encourage you to volunteer for more, including indies. We're going to be hand-matching--no forms to struggle with for you, just an email to send. You don't have to have a LiveJournal to participate, as long as we can reach you via email. We'll match you, and you'll have three to four weeks to write 1000 words about one character the person you are matched with requested. We'll post the stories without names and then do a reveal a week later, because I think that's the most fun way to do it!

Unfortunately, given the behavior of certain yuletide participants this year, a couple of points need to be made in advance. An "obscure" challenge is a little different from many of the other challenges out there. These stories are, by definition, harder to produce than other stories (if they were easy, everybody'd be doing them!), so recipients need to be flexible in their expectations and understanding about the difficulty involved. This is a chance to get matched with someone who's willing to write about a comics character that you like but don't get to read enough about; it's not a chance to place an order to make someone produce the exact story you always wanted to see for that character. We will also be expecting people not to publicly criticize the story they receive. I'm a long-time supporter of constructive criticism in fandom (as is Livia), but having had one of my yuletide stories savaged in the LJ of the recipient this year, I can tell you that it's a real letdown to have someone trash a story you really only wrote because they asked you to, and we're doing this to spread fun in the comics fandom, not unpleasantness. If you don't find either of these points acceptable to you, we unfortunately need you not to sign up.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to post them here.