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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 04 July 2010 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | 1
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I had read in a DC Nation article that they were planning to do a new Who's WHo at DC starting, well... it was supposed to start this past May. Anybody else hear anything?
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Robert White
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4560
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| Posted: 04 July 2010 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | 2
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I think the quantification that showed up in the Handbooks
had a lot to do with the era. This was the same period that
saw the rise of superhero role-playing games, which are ancillary products that mandate quantified stats. I wonder
if part of Shooter's insistence on sweeping rules had
something to do with the knowledge that the Handbooks would
appeal to the fans of the rpg's? Since Marvel was so much
smaller as an overall company at the time, it's possible
that something like that would carry more weight than
today.
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Mike Norris
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4274
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| Posted: 04 July 2010 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | 3
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I prefered the poster look of DC over the police line up look of Marvel in the looseleaf versions.
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Greg McPhee
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5114
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| Posted: 04 July 2010 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | 4
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I had read in a DC Nation article that they were planning to do a new Who's WHo at DC starting, well... it was supposed to start this past May. Anybody else hear anything? ================================================ Considering Superman: Secret Origin was supposed to run September 2009 - February 2010, and will now finish (apparently) in August 2010, I can't say I am too shocked this hasn't reared its head yet.
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Tony Midyett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 January 2010
Location: United States
Posts: 2834
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 6:10am | IP Logged | 5
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Some of the new "power scale" stuff in OHOTMU is a bit silly. When you grade characters on a short scale, then Electro gets a 4, and Galactus gets a 7...that doesn't seem right. I realize it must be an exponential scale, but still....
Also, careful research is important! The character of Cannonball is well known to X-fans as a Kentuckian, but a few years back, one of the hardcover Handbooks listed him as being from West Virginia. Kind of a clumsy mistake, much less forgivable than transposing two digits in a weight listing or even forgetting to list a key appearance in a bibliography.
BTW: I hope the rumors of a new Who's Who series are true! Any chance you might do a few entries, JB? Wonder Woman? The JSA? Or maybe the Fourth World guys? Pretty please? :)
Edited by Tony Midyett on 06 July 2010 at 6:14am
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B. Morningway
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 June 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 54
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 8:25am | IP Logged | 6
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I did, and still, love the OHOTMU. Granted, some of the explanations for powers were a little bit odd, such as the previously mentioned alternate dimensional source for Cyclops optic blasts, and also the fact that gamma radiation was what always changed the Hulks pants purple, but I really liked the fact that the powers were quantifiable. Its likely because I love roleplaying games, but seeing that the Thing can lift 85 tons, and that his skin can resist the explosive effects of an armor-piercing bazooka shell (15 pounds of high explosives) with no injury, puts a smile on my face.
While I liked Who's Who, the lack of detailed information put me off everytime I read it. In fact, I often thought of giving Who's Who the OHOTMU treatment and quantify all the heroes and villains powers, on my own. Time is an issue here though...
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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9846
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 9:05am | IP Logged | 7
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Much preferred the (original) Who's Who over OHOTMU.
OHOTMU was too cold, with simple staid shots, whereas Who's Who had much more interesting art, and didn't spend nearly the space trying to describe everything. (I would much rather get a snap-shot of what the character is about than pages of write up.)
Added to that: Who's Who featured fantastic art by fantastic artists! Not only GL and villains by Gil Kane, Flash and villains by Carmine Infantino, but also the likes of Joe Kubert, Kurt Shaffenberger, Irv Novick, Jim Aparo, George Perez, and JB on characters they were most tied to. Also, great art by Dave Stevens, Brian Bolland, Garcia-Lopez, etc on other characters.
The only drawback to Who's Who was that it wasn't coordinated with what was happening with the characters in the monthly titles and how Crisis affected them, so by the time we got to the end of the line many of the characters had to be re-written.
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Charles Valderrama
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4918
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 9:26am | IP Logged | 8
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Who's Who definitely provided more interesting artwork!!! Enjoyed the cover art as well as the inside artwork. Collected it purely for the visuals!
-C!
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Dusty Abell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 356
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 11:33am | IP Logged | 9
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I LOVED The Marvel Handbooks! To me the sheer amount of entertainment you got in those issues was worth ten times the face value of the book. It took me literally hours upon hours to read one issue front to back, and when I was fourteen, that's exactly what I did. Origins for many of the obscure heroes and villains you may never have even heard of, with their oocasional links and crossovers with characters you did know expanded my enjoyment of the entire Marvel Universe. Characters with at that time 40 years of history having their stories and origins compiled in a concise linear fashion was a wonderful way to catch up on anything important you may have missed and a acknowledgment to all the writers that had worked on characters throughout the years that their contributions mattered. The art was always a pleasure to see, I always wished Terry would have been the series inker, my mind just does summer saults thinking about that sometimes! I'm the fan that absolutely loved the explanation of powers, it was a revelation. It also sparked an interest in many of the scientific theories and mechanical engineering principles introduced in the Handbooks.
The Who's Who's were by far the winner in the artwork department, although I felt the red and blue color holds utilized on the background elements were not exactly to my liking. I could easily have done without those. Everything else was just to cursory, it clearly wasn't the labor of love Gruenwald, Carlin, Brown, Sanderson and all the rest put into thier version at Marvel.
I had the amazing good fortune to work with many of the original creators of the Marvel Handbooks when I put together The Invincible Handbook with Robert Kirkmans blessing and it stands as one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences of my professional life. Many of the old school classic artists who contributed artwork to that book, which was meant as an homage to the original Handbook, had a great deal of fun returning for another go at it some 23 years later! Across the board though, every comtemporary comic artist involved from Ed McGuinness to Brian Stelfreeze and all my buddies in the animation industry loved the original Handbook editions and were really psyched about getting a chance to contribute to something that meant so much to them as young comic fans. I'll always regret not getting John, he was THE artist I most identify with the Handbooks. His clenched fists, shoulders back, feet spread wide apart hero pose was the template I drew characters in for years afterwards.
There you go, that's my two cents!
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Tim Farnsworth
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 July 2010
Posts: 817
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | 10
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Dusty, you guys did a great job with The Invincible Handbook. It looked like a million bucks.
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Lars Sandmark
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 05 October 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 3138
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | 11
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I only bought them for all the (great art!), and hardly read any of the captions themselves.
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Paul Kimball
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2231
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| Posted: 06 July 2010 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | 12
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Dusty, thanks for the work on the invincible books, I really enjoyed them.
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