Comics

Okay, I admit it. I read comics. Quite a few, actually. Naturally, I consider what I read to be of good quality. And, if you haven't been keeping up with your comic book reading, there are more than a few titles out there worth finding. I don't mean just superhero comics, of course; there's a world's worth of comics that have little nothing to do with superheroes but which are very well done and quite entertaining. Don't look down on the media (for "comics" aren't a genre but an artform, however often they're usually of poor quality) because of its worst practitioners and examples. We don't judge literature by Jackie Collins and Sydney Sheldon, and we don't judge music by Top 40, so we shouldn't judge comics by the worst of the superhero lot. If you're really curious about what I'm talking about, e-mail me and I'll send you a list of books that you'll enjoy regardless of your tastes.

Comic Reference

I write. I write fiction and nonfiction. And a lot of times, what I'm writing about has something to do with comic books and comic book characters. Now, I am a bit of a geek (as should be apparent if you've made it this far) but I've only so much room in my mind for knowledge about comic book characters. Lucky for me, there are folks out on the Web who've made their own Web pages with reference material.

DC Reference

Adventure Comics Cover Gallery Images of every issue of Adventure Comics from 1951 to 1969. Neat, eh?

Annotated Justice Society Checklist A nice set of features on the JSA.

Blackhawk Comics Home Page If you're looking for information on that intrepid bunch of pilots. the Blackhawks, you need go no farther.
Davo's All Star Comics Page A good Aussie site on All Star Comics.
DC's Alien Worlds Entertaining and illustrated guide to the fictional worlds of DCU space. (A distressing number of the links are down at the moment, but I trust that will change soon enough)

DC Chronology Project See the Marvel Chronology Project, below. Not as thorough, but still damn impressive.

DC Comics Golden Age Who's Who Still rudimentary, but I have hopes that it will eventually become useful.

DC Comics timeline/chronology A handy guide to what happened when in the ever-changing DC universe. Not as thorough as it could be, the updates seem very slow in coming, and I really don't like the way he's laid out his pages, but useful nonetheless.
DC Magic Resource Page This site is shaping up nicely, and becoming a very thorough guide to magic-using DCU characters.

DC Western Characters Having trouble keeping Johnny Thunder and Batlash and Nighthawk straight? This page will tell you all about them, and a bunch of other characters you may not know about.

Doom Patrol Ah, weirdness. The mundanes don't like it, but those of us who lean toward the geeky and the outre' do. And few embodied it better than the Doom Patrol, both in their first, 1960s incarnation and in the 1990s Grant Morrison version.

Faux DC! A page of fanfic writers who write books based on DC characters (hence the name). I write some fanfic here; if you're really curious, check out the Brave and the Bold (which I think is not my best work, but still entertaining)

Index of Annotations to the Golden Age The first draft annotations to the very entertaining miniseries. Scott's annotations to issue #4 aren't included here, which is a shame, but (thanks, Peter!) they can be found at the Comic Book Annotations site.

The Infinite Atlas Jonathan Woodward's very good guide to the various fictional universes of DC.

Justice League FAQ The Frequently Asked Questions list for the Justice League (complete, he said immodestly, with some of my own annotations).

Justice Society Chronology A chronology of the JSA and what each of the characters did in each of the months they appeared in.

The Justice Society of America A decent site on their history.

Law's Legionnaires Index A good site on the history and characters of DC's second-rate GA team.

* Legion Outpost II A very nice guide to the post-boot Legion.

Meet Ma Hunkel An entertaining history on that interesting and curious GA hero.

Superman Homepage! A good resource for information on the Last Son of Krypton.
The Unofficial DC Comics Index Series "An ongoing project to provide a complete index to every single DC super-hero comic since Crisis On Infinite Earths."
The Unofficial Forgotten Heroes Web Site A concise guide to the various heroes and villains who made up the Forgotton Heroes.
* The Unofficial Green Lantern Corps Web Page An outstanding (and perhaps frighteningly obsessive) guide to the legendary interstellar police corps, the Green Lanterns. Seriously, everything you could possibly want to know about them is here. A really nice piece of comic's scholarship, I think.
The Unofficial History of the DC Universe A very good attempt at making sense of the seemingly-constantly-revised history and continuity of the DC universe and characters. Hasn't been updated in over two years, alas, and they never got around to the post-1959 years, but still a good attempt.
The Wake The best site for annotations and information on Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
Welcome to the Clubhouse! "Your one-stop (sic) for DC Comics Golden Age Info!" That's overstating the case, but it does have useful information.
Who Was That Masked Man? Messages gathered from a thread on the DC Comics boards. Information on the most obscure (no foolin') GA characters. I have used this information on my own Golden Age Heroes Directory, which surpasses this site, but it's still interesting to read.
Who's Who in the DC Universe Images and text on some of DC's obscurest characters.
Who's Whose in the DC Universe Bob Hughes' excellent site on which writers and artists created which characters.

General Reference

Cartoon Study Centre The University of Kent at Canterbury's academic center for the study of cartoons and caricature.
The Champions Write-Up Page A trio of comics-savvy gamers came up with stats for the Champions game for, oh, dozens and dozens of superheroes--everyone from the All-Star Squadron to the Fantastic Four to anime' characters.
Chroma City Jonathan Woodward's good assemblage of annotations and information.
* Classic Comic Books Michael E. Grost's excellent essays on various DC characters and comics.

* Comic Art & Graffix Gallery Virtual Museum A very nice virtual museum on the history of comic art.

* Comic Art & Graffix Gallery Virtual Museum - Artist Biographies Good biographies on a very wide range of comic professionals.

* Comic Book Annotations & Bibliographies An excellent mirror site for various comic book annotations & bibliographies, my own among them.

Comic Book Database They describe themselves as "the most detailed comic book resource on the net," which they aren't--not by a long chalk, the best and most detailed is the Grand Comic Book Database, more on which below--but this site isn't a bad substitute.

The Comic Book Homepage It's not quite at the level of The Comic Page (see the next entry) but it's still not a bad look at comics from a critical standpoint. However, it hasn't been updated in two years.

The Comic Book Scrapbook Jerry Bails' excellent assortment of art samples from various artists.

* The Comic Page A nicely executed guide to "the history and details of the American comic book medium."

Comics Annotations An index of annotations on Suicide Squid, Sandman, Books of Magic, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta. These haven't been updated in a while, and there may be newer versions of them out there.

The Comics Archives Information on (mostly-DC) Golden Age characters. Even though David Stepp, the guy who put this together, is an arrogant, ego-besotted sod, it's still a useful page.

* Comics Scholarship Annotated Bibliographies A very thorough annotated bibliography of virtually every text that might possibly be useful for comics scholarship.

Comics Timeline A rudimentary, if lengthy, timeline of comics, going back to 1568.

NEW * Comics UK A good site on British comics that bids fair to become an excellent and indispensable one.

Ditko Looked Up The quite nicely done tribute site to that one-of-a-kind talent, Steve Ditko. A model for what tribute web sites should be.

* Don Markstein's Cartoonopedia. Over 350 illustrated articles of an online, hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation. Say what you will about Markstein--and many have said just about everything about him--the encyclopedia itself is a fine piece of work.

The EC Comics Database "The EC Comics database primarily concerns itself with the works of Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman, men who ran MAD Magazine, and men who altered the destiny of the comics industry as well as their various roles in culture."

Forgotten Comic Book Character HQ A site dedicated to some lame and some not-so-lame characters, all of whom are currently forgotten and abandoned.

* Gallery of Comic Book Covers From the 1940s Oooooh--pretty images!

Golden Age Greats Reprinted adventures, online, of obscure GA characters. Cool!

* The Good Guys and Gals of the Golden Age Another excellent site on GA heroes, obscure and otherwise.

* Grand Comic Book Database The best and most detailed resource for comic research on the Web, bar none.

* The History of Superhero Comic Books! Another good site on the history of superhero comics.

Illustrator Biographies Biographies on artists from E.A. Abbey to N.C. Wyeth.

Jerry Bails' Who's Who of American Comic-Books The start site for this most indispensable of resources.

* Jess Nevins' Comic Book Annotations My annotations to Kingdom Come, the Kingdom sequel, JLA: The Nail, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, my guides to Marvel's 1940s and Pre-Fantastic Four #1 heroes, Robert Wicks' Marvel Chronology, and Ronald Byrd's Wolverine Chronology.

Ka-Boom! A Dictionary A very silly page, but somehow appealing because of it. It's a dictionary of sound effects, and what they mean, and where they were used.

* Lambiek.Net Comiclopedia A very good "searchable gallery of comic artist biographies and artwork examples."

The Marvel Family Web The best site on the 'Net for information on the Marvel Family.

* Mikel's Golden Age Comics Page An excellent resource--the best on the Web--for links to information on Golden Age comics and characters. Plus Michael does various timelines, all of which are entertaining.

* National Museum of American Illustrators Original artworks from the "Golden Age of American Illustration," including work by Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Charles Gibson, and so on. Sweet!

Nedor Comics Covers A cover gallery of Better Comics/Nedor Comics/Standard Comics, from the Golden Age. Good stuff.

Official R.C. Harvey Home Page The home page of the respected critic.

The Origin of Marvelman Though he was most notable for being one of Alan Moore's earliest retcon projects, the original Marvelman had a certain charm of his own, despite being a Captain Marvel rip. This is a good site for learning about him and his history.

The Periodic Table of Comic Books A guide to the periodical table, using comic book heroes and events to explain each element. I'd never have thought of this idea, but I wish I had.

Phantom FAQ The Ghost Who Walks! The classic comic strip character, here given a very handy treatment of Frequently Asked Questions.

* Prescription for Excitement! An online magazine for fans of the GA and SA.

Prince Valiant Companion Like the Index, a very useful guide to the character and world of Prince Valiant.

Prince Valiant Index A nice list of Prince Valiant dates, appearances and the like.

Reading Room Index Alphabetical Index Screen Michigan State University has an outstanding collection of comics, both in paper and on microfiche/microfilm. What the beneficent folks who run the comics collection have done is put up a guide to their collection; if you want to know where, say, Merzah the Mystic appears in any of the books (comic or print) in their collection, you can find out in this guide. I'm no longer near enough to MSU to be able to easily do research there, but if I want to know where someone is mentioned, I can find out.

Some Early Comics Links Links to web sites showing "early comics"--that is, from before 1900.

Scrapbook of Comic-Book Art A great reference work to comic book artists.

* Spectatorship and Framing in the Strips An interesting and well-written essay on comics and the "Yellow Kid." A worthy attempt at performing formal literary criticism on comic strips.

The Super Hero Encyclopedia Table of Contents A site of middlin'-fair content, but at least they seem to be trying to cover as many bases as possible, and their last update was not very long ago.

Who's Who in Amalgam A handy guide to who the amalgamated characters were based on in the DC/Marvel crossover Amalgam books.

Marvel Reference

I started out collecting comics as a Marvel fanboy, and though my tastes have broadened and become more refined, at heart I'm still a Marvel fanboy. Which is why some of the links here are extremely fanboyish.
 

A Page The first of several pages of a rudimentary, good encyclopedia of Marvel characters.

Alpha Zone A good site covering Alpha Flight.

Alternates A guide to what characters and their alternates have appeared on various alternate Earths.

Arthur's Marvel Comics Reprints A good guide to what Marvel comics have been reprinted where.

* Atlas Comics Homepage A good web page on the comics that Marvel published during the late 1940s and 1950s, when it was known as Atlas Comics.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! The Avengers is one of Marvel Comics' oldest books. It's had some good moments and some bad ones. Right now, in the hands of Kurt Busiek, it's going through a long period of good moments. The page has a wide range of interesting material on the Avengers.
* DMK's Guide to Alpha Flight The best site on the 'Net for Alpha Flight information.

FF issue summaries A summary of what happened in various issues of the Fantastic Four. Not as thorough or as detailed as we might wish, but a decent start.

The Gazetteer Hyboria A nice gazetteer (go ahead, look the word up, don't be bashful) to the world of Conan.

The Golden Age of Superheroes I must perforce swallow my bile and spite and jealousy and admit that this is, all in all, a good site. That said, it needs more detail, more information, and above all more updates!

Gord's Mighty Marvel Reference Page A site that lists "every Marvel (and Timely, Atlas, Epic Star & Alamagram) Comic published since 1939," in their chronological order of publication and with dates published. Not the sort of thing you'll use often, but when you need it you'll find it incredibly valuable.

* A Guide to Marvel's Golden Age Characters My own creation, and one I'm rather proud of; the best guide on the Web to Marvel's 1930s and 1940s characters.

* A Guide to Marvel's Pre-FF #1 Characters My other creation, and another one I'm proud of. Like the preceding site, this is the best guide on the Web to Marvel's characters which appeared, diegetically and exegetically (go look those two words up, too, I can wait), before Fantastic Four #1.

The Immortal Thor of Asgard A very good Thor site.

Index to The New Mutants 1-100 A summary of what happened in all 100 issues of The New Mutants.

Invaders Anyone who's ever heard or read me speak about Roy Thomas knows that I hold the man's writings on Golden Age characters in contempt. I still do. But the Invaders, for all its manifest flaws, still made use of the 1940s characters (even if Thomas did warp and ruin some of them), and so it's a good thing to have a web page dedicated to the book, even if the book, at its best moments, only achieved mediocrity, and more often wallowed somewhere between "wretched" and "awful."

The Invaders Again, not my favorite book or group of characters. But this is an okay attempt (not as good as the preceding site) at covering them.

The Long List of Mutants An ugly layout, for certainly; there's no excuse for putting an ASCII document on the web, not with so many comic book geeks out there who know HTML. Even so, this is the best document of its kind for looking up Marvel mutants, even if the list is sometimes confusingly arranged.

Marvel Atlas Project Hey, cool! An atlas for the Marvel Universe! Neat! (They need more information and don't update nearly so often as they should, but it's still a good site)

Marvel Chronology Project Now we're into serious geekdom. The Marvel Chronology Project is a list of characters and the order in which they appeared, so that we can tell whether Johnny Storm's appearance in an issue of Marvel Team-Up came before his appearance in Killmonger. Nobody but us hardcore comic fans will find this useful, but those of us who want something like this will find it essential.

Marvel: The Lost Generation An attempt to do what I did, and better, at my Pre-FF #1 Heroes site. Still, it's got some good information and images.

Marvel RPG and more... A great resource for those who roleplay using the Marvel system.

Marvel Universe Book of the Dead A decent guide, in need of updating, of the status of those characters who were dead as of the last version of the Marvel Handbook.

* Marvel Universe: The Appendix An excellent guide to Marvel's more obscure characters, places, and concepts.

MSH Galaxy Sourcebook A nice little page on the big three of Marvel's alien races, as well as information on other cosmic entities and some other planets and places.

The Mutant Page A site with a good range of interesting material on Marvel's X-characters.

MV1 Fan-Fiction Project Main Page A site of fanfiction, ranging in quality from fair to absolutely wretched. (Some of the writers are so bad that they really must be read to be believed) But it also hosts some of my own fanfiction, which I happen to think is pretty good.

NEW Series Regulares A very nice Brazilian site with a wide range of series' covers on it.

Squadron Supreme Good coverage on the characters from Earth-S.

The Star-Spangled Site A very handy guide to Captain America.

NEW * The Timely-Atlas Cover Gallery The product of the redoubtable Blake Bell, this excellent site has images of over 600 Timely/Atlas covers on it, including some real rarities.

Timely Comics A decent introduction to the Timely heroes (many of which essays I wrote myself).

* The Timely Comics Web Page, Prologue My own work, and I'll forego false modesty and state that it is the definitive Web page on the history of Timely Comics. I need to figure out how to make the images smaller, which causes the page to take far too long to load--but still and all, it's a damn fine piece of work (Tony Isabella called it "stunning") and the only place you need go for information on Timely.

Timely Golden Age Superheroes Cover Gallery About time there was one of these for Timely.
The Uncanny X-Page Hotlist Another good site on things X-related.
The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators Information on who wrote what issue.

* The Unofficial Handbook to the Marvel Universe An online and up-to-date version of the OHOTMU. And, best of all, the current owner (hi, Danny!) is keeping it current and devoting time and effort to it, something unfortunately less than common on many of this sites.

The Villains of Marvel Comics! The honorable and worthy Jeanne Burch (I've never met her, but I feel like I can say these things anyhow) has put together two Web pages on Marvel characters, with character histories and graphics. Essential research material.

Vintage Age Handbook A character reference for pre-Fantastic Four #1 characters.

* The Wakandan Embassy A very good site on the Black Panther.

The Women of Marvel Comics! This is Jeanne Burch's other Web page, and a fine one it is, even if she isn't maintaining it any more.
* The X-Axis Paul O'Brien is a Scots fan of the X-books, and his site has some very entertaining material on back issues. I'm including him here for his weekly "X-Axis" reviews of the X-books. He's the best online critic of comics, and you should be reading him even if you're not a fan of the X-books.

Miscellaneous

Alvaro's Comic Boards Some of the best and most interesting talk between fans about comics takes place at Alvaro's various boards.
The Amy Unbounded Home PageAmy Unbounded is one of the best comics that few people have heard of. It's about "the adventures and misadventures of nine-year-old Amy of Eddybrook in the medieval queendom of Goredd." It's charming and its simplicity of composition covers up a multitude of pleasures. Rachel Hartman, the creator of Amy Unbounded, is a really nice person and put this website together herself.
Basil Wolverton Website A basic but still interesting look at Wolverton.
The Clubhouse A "gateway to the Golden Age," i.e., another site on the GA.
Comicon Most of the best and most interesting talk between fans and professionals, about comics and other things, takes place here.
Comics Continuum A site of comics news, updated six days a week.
Comics Worth Reading Johanna Carlson's interesting online criticism site.
Delphi Forums I only include this here because the one-and-only Warren Ellis has his own forum at Delphi, a free-wheeling affair that ranges from high- to low-brow, and to which Ellis himself, along with several other professionals, contributes.

Eddie Campbell Comics Campbell's website.

Gert & Daisy's Guide to Old Comics A collection of links and information on GA comics.

Get Comics Network A relatively new comic directory. Strictly average content, but that may change.

GURPS Supers Meets The Golden Age of Comics The beginnings (and, alas, nothing more) of the GURPS roleplaying versions of various GA characters. This hasn't been updated since 1997, unfortunately, and must be counted as a dead site. Damn it.

The Hembeck Files A site reprinting several of the very amusing strips by the singular Fred Hembeck.

Island of Misfit Comic Boards Message boards for discussion of topics that don't appear on other boards.

Joe Shuster A site, finally, devoted to Shuster's work.

Jonah Weiland's Comic Book Resources Message boards, interviews, and the best set of links available for comic book-related subjects.

Kirby Graphics Gallery A big archive of images from the hands of the King of Comics, Jack Kirby.

Knights of the Web The very nice site to that hilarious comic, The Knights of the Dinner Table.

The Lord of Light Universe Jack Kirby doing art, sketches, and other stuff for a proposed-but-never-finalized theme park based on Roger Zelazny's Hugo-winning Lord of Light. Go--go now! Just remember to wipe the drool off your chin.

* Microcolour International The excellent source of Golden Age comics on microfiche.

The New Comic Book Releases List Web Site What's that, Bunky? It's 4 am and you absolutely, positively must know what comics are coming out this week? Well, go here and find out!

NinthArt A good online magazine which I recommend for the excellent Paul O'Brien's essays. O'Brien is the best fan critic of comics working today, and everyone, most especially the professional writers, should be reading his stuff.

Perpetual Comics The home of Tony Isabella's current column.

Planetary A good site on Warren Ellis' excellent comic.

NEW Rich's Micro-Heroes Page A neat site for micro-heroes, which if you don't what they are you should go here and find out, y'know?

The Pulse Another site for comic news.

Sequential Tart A well-done online 'zine, with much better writing than most of its kind.

Silver Bullet Comics I include this here because of Rich Johnston's "All the Rage" column, which is essential reading.

Some Early Comics Links Links to early (pre-1900, generally) "comics." Surprisingly interesting.

Super Friends Page A very entertaining site, based on the Super Friends. Just go ahead and look.

Thimble Theater Popeye A site devoted to the sailor man and to Elzie Segar.

Tony's Online Tips Tony Isabella's former column site, and the location of a good, civil discussion board.

* The Visual Telling of Stories An excellent site on the subject: "an interactive critical database devoted to the narrative."

WarrenEllis.com Warren Ellis writes various comics, including the outstanding Transmetropolitan and the top-notch Planetary. He also has a home page. Unlike most of the comic pro's pages that I've found, however, his home page is entertaining, informative, and most of all useful. Not only does he have vastly entertaining essays/columns, he also writes about the craft of writing comics, he has a good collection of Weirdness Links, and he writes about (and occasionally gives previews of) his own work. It's not updated nearly as often as I'd like, but it's still well worth your time to visit.

Welcome to the Gay League A good site on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and transgendered comic book characters.
Wildwood Cemetery aka The Spirit Database, and that's all you really need to know.

Women in Refrigerators The controversial site on how badly female characters in comics have been treated.

 

 

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