The Bent Corner
Who’s Who, Handbook, and more
09/29/2009
Comic Books: Blogging:: 1 comments: by Isaac Magaña
Have you ever looked at a Handbook or Who’s Who? I mean these things are just littered with information, but yet they serve a purpose. Can you believe that?
As a comic book universe grows and grows it gets harder and harder to keep track of all of the information: character history, character details, and even family connections. Before the internet, fans relied on comic publishers to supply them with the method for keeping track of this information. DC does it with a Who’s Who, Marvel does it with their Handbooks, and other publishers have jumped in as well. Top Cow is releasing their Top Cow Bible so that fans can understand their world. Are these books really worth it?
I, personally, don’t collect or read any of these handbooks. I use the internet for this kind of information. The internet sites I visit use these types of books as there sources, so in a way I am getting this information, just not through the books. The origin for these books is also the same reason I scour websites, I want to know something about the comics I read that is not evident in the books themselves.
Every fan of comics enjoys knowing the details about the books they read. Whether it is the mailing address of the X-men, or Superman’s exact height we want to know, it is part of being a fan. I’m pretty sure Marvel and DC are aware of this and, therefore, do their best to supply fans with the information they want to know. It also benefits the publisher who creates these books. It allows them to keep a condensed, but accurate history of their universe, which aids current and future writers. Of course they aren’t sold internally, they are sold to fans.
Fans want to know more about their comics and publishers create official answers for their questions. So are they worth it? As a fan of comics I would say yes. It’s good to know that publishers are aware of the questions fans have and they are willing to supply the answers. This is far easier than debating ‘plausible’ answers back and forth with other fans. Now we can avoid arguing over details in books, we now have official answers to our questions. Well, that is, until we as fans find evidence to contradict these handbooks, Who’s Who, etc. Then that’s another can of worms.
Elsewhere on PopSyndicate.com
About Isaac Magaña
Location: Corvallis, OR
Occupation: Computer Support
Bio:
Posts: 142
More from this author
Categories
Television
Blogs
Podcasts
Follow Us
Copyright
- © 2009 PopSyndicate.com all rights reserved
- Privacy Policy
- Web design by Martini Lab
Posted by Madison Carter on 10/03/2009, 01:02 AM
As one of the writers for Marvel’s Official Handbooks, I’m always interested to hear others’ thoughts regarding our work.
I will say one thing regarding relying on online sources for this information: It’s not always right. In the five+ years we’ve been working on the current crop of Handbooks, we’ve learned that it is never safe to rely on any online source because too many people tend to either add or omit things; we’ve found very reputable websites that included information for characters that was just outright false - basically fanfic working its way into the middle of the history. We’ve also seen people leave out key elements to character history because they simply didn’t like the particular story it was presented in.
Now, that said, the Handbooks aren’t flawless. God knows we try, but we’re not. Occasional errors do crop up, though we do have the luxury of correcting them in future editions and the like. And of course, retconning will always throw a loop or two into that system as well.
Are the Handbooks something all fans will enjoy? Nah. I do though - some of the first comics I owned all my own were a couple of the original 1982 run of the series and when the opportunity came for me to join the current writing team, I jumped at it. I wish more people were into them, but c’est la vie and all that.