Welcome to rec.arts.comics: Introduction
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part1
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 1 of 7: introduction)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 4/6/94]
Welcome to the rec.arts.comics hierarchy, or as we tend to call it, rac.
If you're new to Usenet, you probably aren't aware of the many customs that
the net and the rec.arts.comics.* hierarchy have developed over many years.
However you should be, so you won't inadvertantly break them.
Breaking these customs won't cost you anything but the most important thing
you've got on the net: your credibility. It's assumed that you're reading
and posting to newsgroups to communicate with other people, and violating
these customs will tend to make most people take your posts less seriously,
or even start to ignore them all together. Which isn't much help in your
attempts to communicate with others.
This monthly posting, provided to help out new readers of the
rec.arts.comics newsgroups, contains the following parts:
1. where to read/post: the rec.arts.comics hierarchy and related newsgroups
2. glossary of some common terms
3. the "FAQ": answers to frequently-asked questions
4. guidelines for posting articles
5. ftp addresses to ask for various types of comics-related files
6. e-mail addresses to ask for various types of comics-related files
and how to use other net resources about comics such as IRC and
MUD/MUSHes
7. e-mail addresses of comics-related mailing lists.
Before getting specific about rec.arts.comics.*, if you are a newcomer to
Usenet you should go read six posts which are generally found in the
newsgroup news.announce.newusers. These have the Subject:s of:
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
Rules for posting to Usenet
A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
Hints on writing style for Usenet
What is Usenet?
If not in n.a.n., these are available via FTP from rtfm.mit.edu. See part 5
for specific commands to access them, both by FTP and by email.
You should also be reading the newsgroup news.newusers.questions.
Feel free to e-mail me at t...@hq.ileaf.com if you have any suggestions as
to what should be included in this "Welcome to Rec.arts.comics" post.
1. the rec.arts.comics hierarchy and related newsgroups
Groups described here, in order (a + before a group indicates a change in
its description, a * before a group indicates a new group)
rec.arts.comics.info
rec.arts.comics.strips
rec.arts.comics.xbooks
rec.arts.comics.marketplace
rec.arts.comics.misc
rec.arts.manga
rec.arts.animation
rec.arts.anime
alt.comics.alternative
alt.comics.lnh
alt.comics.superman
alt.comics.batman
alt.comics.elfquest
alt.fan.albedo
alt.fan.bugtown
alt.fan.furry
alt.fan.suicide-squid
alt.fan.tank-girl
The r.a.c set of newsgroups, in general, is devoted to the discussion of
comic books, graphic novels, and sequential art.
Until summer 1992, comics discussion took place in the group
rec.arts.comics. This group was removed and should not be posted to.
r.a.c. was replaced by the following more specific groups:
rec.arts.comics.info: A moderated group, r.a.c.i. is intended for factual
and informational postings and reasonably detailed reviews (i.e. a review
consisting entirely of "I really liked/hated Suicide Squid #666" isn't
going to cut it). Relatively low volume, the idea is to have a very high
signal to noise ratio in its postings. Posting to this group will result
in your post being emailed to the moderator, who'll decide whether to post
it to the group at large. In general, turnaround time is within 24 hours,
and the moderator announces on the group if he'll not be posting for any
longer period. Followup discussion of posts here take place in the
appropriate r.a.c. group. The moderator is Brian Hughes, whose mail
address is ha...@coos.dartmouth.edu
rec.arts.comics.strips: For the discussion of comic strips and editorial
cartoons, their creators, and any spinoffs such as tv, movies, collections,
or merchandise.
rec.arts.comics.xbooks: For discussion of Marvel mutant books (defined as
X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, Wolverine, X-Men 2099,
Generation X, and any mini-series or stories in anthology titles about
characters from those books). Note that xbooks has its own FAQ.
rec.arts.comics.marketplace: For the posting of For Sale and Wanted posts
dealing with any aspect of comics or related merchandise. Note that
marketplace has its own FAQ.
rec.arts.comics.misc: If it's about comics and doesn't fit in the above
groups, this is where to post it.
In general, there should be almost no crossposting between the above
groups. r.a.c. has taken the approach of developing a hierarchy based on
carving off well defined subtopics with their own semi-defined readerships
from the overall topic. In particular, all "for sale" posts should go in
rec.arts.comics.marketplace, and crossposting them elsewhere is *highly*
discouraged. (A number of r.a.c.ers have stated that they will ignore For
Sale posts made in other groups, and it'll undoubtedly result in your
getting some flaming email.) One other special note: material solely about
xbooks should be posted into r.a.c.xbooks and should not be crossposted
into r.a.c.misc.
See part 3 for suggested criteria for future r.a.c.* groups.
Note that posts which have nothing to do with comics, such as
non-comics-related Star Trek, political/religious rants or personal
attacks, have no place in r.a.c.. In particular, regarding the Usenet
Floating Homosexuality Flamewar, it is appropriate for the appearance of
gays in comics to be discussed, but rants either against or in favor of
homosexuality in the general sense are not appropriate.
There are several groups which are tangentially related to comics, and
which may be more appropriate for a particular post. It *may* be
appropriate, in limited contexts, to cross-post between one of these groups
and one of the rec.arts.comics groups, but be *very* careful that your post
is actually relevant to both groups!
rec.arts.manga: Though not technically part of the rec.arts.comics
hierarchy (there was already one religious war on the subject; let's not
repeat it), this newsgroup is devoted to the discussion of Japanese manga.
rec.arts.animation: a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of animated
films, TV shows, shorts, etc. There are also innumerable related
newsgroups to this, such as rec.arts.disney and alt.tv.tiny-toons, but in
particular there is:
rec.arts.anime: for discussion of Japanese animation.
Finally, there are various "alt" groups which are not affiliated with
"mainstreaml" Usenet and are usually received at fewer sites than r.a.c
groups. User discretion is advised.
alt.comics.alternative For alternative comics. Crossposting to r.a.c.misc
is *very* strongly recommended. See below for why.
alt.comics.lnh The Legion of Net.Heroes, a r.a.c spinoff of
fan fiction
alt.comics.superman use r.a.c.misc instead, for more dependable
distribution; at the very least, crosspost
alt.comics.batman use r.a.c.misc instead, for more dependable
distribution; at the very least, crosspost
alt.comics.elfquest use r.a.c.misc instead, for more dependable
distribution; at the very least, crosspost
alt.fan.albedo a furry comic
alt.fan.bugtown Matt Howarth comics, such as _Those Annoying Post
Brothers_ and _Savage Henry_.
alt.fan.furry all furry comics + animation
alt.fan.suicide-squid a net.character, see part 3 for details
alt.fan.tank-girl the comic book "Tank Girl"
alt.comics.alternative was created in January 1994 amid considerable
debate. The arguments by those pro-creation involved it being hard to find
posts about alternative comics in the heavy r.a.c.misc traffic and that
such a focused group would attract people who'd given up on r.a.c.misc. The
counterarguments were that alternative was not defined by the proposers,
and alt groups have lower propagation than rec groups.
The situation was further confused by the actual creation of
alt.comics.alternative. Simplifying matters considerably, the creation was
done by someone known to be less than discriminating in group creation, and
due to this a number of sites are not carrying the group. Crossposting of
any comics related post here to r.a.c.misc is *strongly* advised as this
will 1) give the post a wider propagation 2) allow people in r.a.c.misc
whose systems don't carry a.c.a.
[end of part 1: introduction]
"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
--Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg t...@hq.ileaf.com
Tom Galloway
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part2
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 2 of 7: the r.a.c. glossary)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 11/30/93]
2. The USENET/ Rec.arts.comics lingo glossary:
Terms defined here (a + before a term indicates a changed definition, a *
indicates a new entry).
bandwidth
btw
FAQ
flame
flame war
FYI
IMHO
IMPO
kill file
newbie
signal-to-noise ratio
SOL
wrt
:-)
Alternative Squiddy
ashcan
CBG
comix
Crisis
CSN
dangling plotline/dangler
fanboy/fangirl
fourth wall
furry
JLA, JLE, JLI, JLUTB
LNH
LSH
OHOTMUDE
PAD
patch
phonebook
pod person/pod
pogs/milk caps
post-Crisis
pre-Crisis
retcon
spoiler
Squiddy
Suicide Squid
TMNT
General Usenet terms:
bandwidth = analogous to a radio bandwidth (frequency), referring to
the resources needed to propagate posts. Usually used in the
phrase "stop wasting bandwidth", which means simply "don't post
if you don't have anything relevant to say."
btw = by the way
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions; topics which have come up repeatedly with
answers to try to avoid having them come up again. See part 3.
flame = an inflammatory, insulting post
flame war = a flame response to a flame responding to a flame...
FYI = for your information
IMHO = in my humble (or honest) opinion
IMPO = in my personal (or pompous) opinion
kill file = a file usable in the "rn" and "nn" news programs that one can
keep to "filter out" disliked topics, keywords, or posters
newbie = [General] anyone new to Usenet or a particular newsgroup.
[Specific] anyone who makes a netiquette mistake showing that
they've not bothered to learn the customs of either Usenet or
the newsgroup they're posting to.
signal-to-noise ratio = in a newsgroup, the proportion of useful articles
to useless ones (such as flames). We like to keep the signal
relatively high and the noise very low.
SOL = shit out of luck
wrt = with respect to
:-) = a "smiley", used to indicate humor or sarcasm
Specific R.a.c terms:
Alternative Squiddy = The sillier and more net oriented annual r.a.c.
awards. See "Squiddy" for more detail.
ashcan = a half-sized (4" x 5"), typically black and white,
promotional copy of a comic book. Originally, ashcans were
produced to claim trademarks. Today, ashcans are produced more as
a promotion than to gain guardianship of intellectual property.
CBG = Comic Buyers' Guide, a weekly newspaper
comix = independent, non-mainstream comics, such as _Yummy Fur_ or
_Desert Peach_.
Crisis = the Crisis on Infinite Earths (usually). (See the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) in part 3)
CSN = Comic Shop News, a free weekly hype sheet
dangling plotline/dangler = an unresolved plotline or mystery which an
author has apparently forgotten about, since it hasn't been
mentioned in a long time.
fanboy/fangirl = a rabidly devoted fan, often said to be "drooling". This
can be used in a general sense, or a specific sense, such as X-Men
fanboy, Sandgirl, Image fanboy, etc.
fourth wall = originally used with reference to stage sets, this
term refers to the imaginary wall between the characters and
the audience. "Breaking the fourth wall" refers to comics
in which the characters are aware that they exist in a comic
book, sometimes for the purpose of humor.
furry = an anthropomorphic animal, such as Mickey Mouse, Cerebus, or Omaha
JLA, JLE, JLI, JLUTB = the popular DC super-hero groups "Justice League
America", "Justice League Europe", "Justice League International",
and for those tired of them, the hypothetical "Justice League
Up-the-Butt"
LNH = Legion of Net Heroes, a parody of sorts of...
LSH = Legion of Super-heroes (a DC comic book)
OHOTMUDE = Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Deluxe Edition
PAD = Peter A. David, a comics writer known to read r.a.c
patch = see retcon
phonebook = name for the collections of 20-25 issues of Cerebus, so called
because they're the thickness of the phonebook for a large city.
Sometimes applied to other hefty collections, but most often to
Cerebus.
pod person/pod = a character who has been taken over by a
new writer and/or editor and immediately acts very inconsistently
with previous characterization, with no explanation given for the
change, and no change noticed by other characters in the book. The
term is from the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where aliens
grew duplicates of people in giant pods. First use of 'pod' was in
reference to the changeover after Keith Giffen left the JLI titles,
concerning the characters Fire, Ice, Max, and Oberon.
pogs/milk caps = Round, approximately 1-2.5 inches in diameter, and
cardboard, pogs are the element of a game from Hawaii. While the
game involves stacking the pogs and flipping another to knock them
over, on the continent in recent months, they have simply become
another alternative to trading cards, bearing art and/or text
concerning super-heroes. Many here consider pogs on the mainland an
example of a manufactured fad.
post-Crisis = events/history/characters in the DC Universe as they existed
*after* the Crisis on Infinite Earths. (See the "Frequently-Asked
Questions" section in part 3.)
pre-Crisis = events/history/characters in the DC Universe as they existed
*prior* to the Crisis on Infinite Earths. (See the "Frequently-
Asked Questions" section in part 3.)
retcon = to retroactively change the continuity of a character or title.
(This term, a r.a.c favorite, was coined by Damian Cugley).
Originally, the term "retcon" was used only in cases where the
interpretation of "facts" from earlier stories is changed, but the
facts themselves are preserved. For example, Alan Moore took took
Swamp Thing, previously considered to be a man transformed into a
plant creature, and with minimal changes to facts presented in
previous stories, wrote Swamp Thing to be a "plant elemental", one
of a long line of such beings.
A "patch" was the term used (taken from programmer's
jargon) to mean an actual change, rather than merely filling in
details.
These days, however, "retcon" is used increasingly to mean
changes to history as well as to retroactive continuity. So, to
"retcon" is to change history, so that something that had existed
in the continuity of the fictional universe, not ONLY doesn't exist
now, but in the fictional history, NEVER HAS existed. This can be
true of an event, of a character, or whatever. For example, if
Hawkman appears in the Justice League, and then years later a
writer decides that "No, Hawkman just came to Earth, he was *never*
in the Justice League," that's a retcon.
Retcon is also listed in the New Hacker's Dictionary, with
credit given to r.a.c.. In the second edition, this is disputed.
In the third edition, should there be one, there will likely be a
dispute of the dispute...
spoiler = any item which "gives away" information about a comic. Proper
netiquette is to give a "Spolier Warning" first, to allow people to
avoid the spoiler if they wish to not have their surprise ruined.
Squiddy = what some people call the annual r.a.c. Awards. See section 3
for why this is the case. These are the more formal and serious
categories.
Suicide Squid = See the FAQ in part 3.
TMNT = Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
[end of part 2]
"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg t...@hq.ileaf.com
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part3
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 3 of 7: the r.a.c FAQ)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 4/10/94; updated gay characters and split discussion answers
and added new info about Zero Hour. Also added new question about email
addresses of comics companies]
3. Frequently-Asked Questions (The r.a.c.* FAQ)
Questions answered here (a + before a question indicates a changed answer,
a * indicates a new question).
0. What other comics FAQs are available?
1. Why not split off a new group for Marvel/Sandman/comix/etc?
+ 2. What is Zero Hour?
3. What's this about Sandman ending?
4. Who's this Cerebus character people post a lot about?
5. What was the Crisis on Infinite Earths?
6. Where can I find Man of Steel, Women of Kleenex?
7. What are the different types of Kryptonite?
8. How do you spell/pronounce the last name of artist Bill Sienkiewicz?
9. Isn't there a gay Marvel mutant?
+ 10. What are some of the gay characters in comics?
11. How old is Kitty Pryde (of Excalibur)?
12 .Where are the "real" locations of Metropolis, Gotham City, Hub City,
etc., in the DC Universe?
13. Who is Suicide Squid?
14. How can I get a Suicide Squid t-shirt?
15. Who is Paul
16. What is The Cowboy Wally Show?
+ 17. Is that really Peter David who posts here?
18. Is that really Art Adams, Kevin Maguire, and Michael Collins who post
here?
+ 19. Are there any other pros on the net?
20. What's the joke behind John Byrne's Next Men's letter column title?
21. Where can I get GIFs or other scanned comics art?
* 22. What are the email addresses of comics companies?
0. What other comics FAQs are available?
In addition to this general FAQ, there are a number of comics FAQs
available about more specific topics or characters.. Information about
how to obtain these can be found in parts 5 and 6 of the Welcome to r.a.c.*
posts. Available FAQs are:
rec.arts.comics.marketplace
rec.arts.comics.xbooks
Grendel
Legion of Net.Heroes
Legion of Super-Heroes
Preserving and Protecting Comics
Rogue
Sandman
Superman
Watchmen (annotations)
X-Men characters
X-Men creators
X-Men history
Numerous other information sources are listed in parts 5 and 6, and should
be checked before posting a query to which the answer is already available.
1. Why not split off a new group for Marvel/Sandman/comix/etc?
This is a highly flammable topic of debate. Several dozen splits have been
suggested over the past few years. Only two (rac.strips, and the rac
re-org) succeeded. Many readers would still prefer going back to a single
r.a.c with no subgroups. Here is an incomplete list of previously rejected
ideas:
rac.superhero battlin' guys wearing tights. Failed in the 1992 vote;
also ambiguous.
rac.marvel/dc company-based splits have failed several previous
votes. In November 1993, a straw poll had both groups
fail to achieve a majority, much less the needed
2/3rds vote. A general other companies split question
got only a 30% positive response.
rac.vertigo/image both suggested in late 1992, told to wait a while.
rac.indie basically a company-based split.
rac.alternative rejected due to ambiguity of "alternative".
rac.mature implies other comics are immature. ambiguous.
rac.adult implies sexually-explicit material. ambiguous.
rac.sandman Sandman is ending as a regular series within two years.
Empheral groups like this are very unlikely to pass.
rac.other-media Comics characters in non-comics media such as tv, movies,
prose, and toys. Failed in February '94 due to lack of
a 100 vote margin (generally people thought this was
a reasonable split proposal, but it didn't work up enough
enthusiasm to pass)
rac.creative failed by four votes in October '93. Likely to be
reproposed around April '94.
In the November '93 poll, only 38% indicated there was *any* non-company
based or non-rac.creative split they would support...and since
rac.other-media was first proposed during the poll period, it's likely the
percentage is even lower.
alt.comics.alternative was created as the alt hierarcy does not require
a vote before a group is created. Due to the way in which it was created,
propagation is limited and crossposting between it and r.a.c.misc is
strongly encouraged. It's possible that after a year or so, it may be
possible to pass r.a.c.alternative, but suggesting it until 1995 would
be premature given poll results.
Splits are not impossible, though-- the r.a.c hierarchy *was* created. But
any further split would have to be very well justified. Attempt them at
your own risk (buy lots of asbestos). Some things to consider:
- Is the split easily and clearly defined, and separable from other
traffic?
- Will a fair number of people *not* want to read the new group?
- Is current group traffic too high? Will the split reduce it?
- Will the topic die off in a few years, leaving us a redundant group?
- Will at least 2/3rds, not a majority, of voters want to create it.
- Can you convince thousands of people you are not a raving loon?
Please note: r.a.c. has seen a lot of split discussion over the years.
Particularly given the poll results, anyone who proposes a split similar to
the ones listed above other than rac.creative or rac.other-media before
around November 1994 will likely get posted and emailed responses on the
order of "Not AGAIN!" While things may change over time, there's strong
evidence that of the ones listed, only creative and other-media have any
reasonable chance of succeeding at this time.
2. What is Zero Hour?
From various reliable sources, including the 1994 DC Editorial Presentation,
the following seems pretty definite. Zero Hour is a major DC crossover
series which will happen in summer '94. There are reports it will be
"self-contained" by which people have guessed that it will feature many
different DC characters in the mini-series, but will not have explicit
crossovers into existing DC titles. However, October dated issues of DC
comics will all be #0 issues instead of the regular numbering for that
month. The #0 issues will either deal with changes to the book from Zero
Hour or retell the conclusive for the moment origin of the character(s).
Currently being built up to in a number of books, most prominently Team
Titans and Valor, this series will be about "fixing time" in the DC
Universe. It'll be written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, and will be five
issues, published in the order of #4, 3, 2, 1, 0. There'll be a related
crossover between Legion of Super-Heroes, Legionnaires, and L.E.G.I.O.N..
Zero Hour is intended to clean up DC continuity problems, particularly those
resulting from either time travel or the phasing in of Crisis results (see
below for a summary of those).
3. What's this about Sandman ending?
Neil Gaiman has announced that Sandman will relatively soon end as a
regular, monthly, series. The current storyline is titled The Kindly Ones
and is the last multi-issue major storyline. This will be followed by a
short storyline titled The Wake, and several one issue stories. The final
issue will be The Tempest, drawn by Charles Vess. He's announced his intent
to continue to do specials and mini-series about the Endless and their
supporting cast, but not as a continuing, regular, series.
4. Who's this Cerebus character people post a lot about?
Cerebus, written and produced by Dave Sim, is longest running and generally
best selling black & white comic on the market. Cerebus, the main
character, is a 3 foot tall aardvark who has been, among other things, a
barbarian, prime minister, pope, and outlaw. The series is expected to run
exactly 300 issues, ending in March 2004 (I'm not making this up) with the
death of Cerebus. A long time net.favorite, the comic can be read on
several levels. Sim keeps just about all regular issues of Cerebus in
print via what are called phonebooks; trade paperbacks collecting 20-25
issues at a stretch, all of which are kept in print. See near the back
of any issue of Cerebus for details on how to order them if your shop
doesn't carry them.
5. What was the Crisis on Infinite Earths?
The _Crisis on Infinite Earths_ was a 12-issue series published by DC in
1985-6. The "Crisis" effectively revamped the entire DC Universe by
merging several universes (containing the various DC characters) into a
single universe (whose history is still somewhat unclear in parts). The
Crisis was used as an opportunity to change DC history retroactively (see
"retcon" in the list of definitions), including the remaking of several
main DC characters. Thus people refer to the "post-Crisis" Superman,
Wonder Woman, etc., as distinct from the "pre-Crisis" versions who existed
on "Earth-1" or "Earth-2".
The confusion *really* begins because the revamping and "retconning" didn't
all take place in the Crisis limited series itself, nor in the comics
immediately after then. If DC had simply started all their series over
from scratch, thing would have been pretty straightforward. Instead, they
declared the Pre-Crisis history to be implicitly intact, until and unless
they could explicitly create the new, post-Crisis versions of characters
and histories.
Thus, new changes are still being made in titles today, more than half a
decade later. So, for example, the "old" Hawkman appeared in the "new"
Justice League. But then Timothy Truman began writing _Hawkworld_, which
retconned Hawkman's character; among other changes, Hawkman "now" arrived
on Earth much later. *So*, the Hawkman who appeared in the new Justice
League comic (call him the Silver Age Hawkman, or the pre-Crisis Hawkman)
"now" (in real world time) "no longer exists, and never has" (within
current DC continuity).
But then the creators realized the problem, so they said that most of the
Silver Age Hawkman appearances in JLA were actually by the Golden Age
Hawkman, and a new Hawkman was created whose purpose was to satisfy those
few JLA appearances made after the GA Hawkman was known to have been MIA.
Confused yet? Suffice it to say, the way DC handled the Crisis and its
aftermath confuses *lots* of readers and provides a perennial topic of
discussion on r.a.c.misc. Zero Hour is said to be an attempt to "fix"
problems caused by Crisis, but we'll see.
There has been the occasional announcement that Crisis would be reprinted
as a trade paperback, but the latest word from DC is that they feel it
would be too expensive and don't plan to do so.
6. Where can I find "Man of Steel, Women of Kleenex"?
In the late 1960s, Larry Niven wrote a hysterically funny essay in which he
speculated about possible problems that the pre-Crisis Superman would have
in attempting to reproduce or just have sex with a Terran. The essay
appears in Niven's collections _All the Myriad Ways_ and _N-Space_, and in
the anthology _Alien Sex_. And yes, we know that Niven didn't take the
bottle city of Kandor into account.
7. What are the different types of Kryptonite?
Post-Crisis there have been only three main types, of which only one has
made more than one appearance. This, usually refered to just as
"kryptonite", is green and has similar effects on Kryptonians as pre-Crisis
Green K. While it has no immediate effect on Terrans or other races,
prolonged exposure has resulted in cancer due to radiation.
Mr. Mxyzptlk created a chunk of Red Kryptonite, which effectively removed
Superman's powers for a time.
In the Pocket Universe storyline, Superman encountered what amounted to
a rainbow of types of pre-Crisis Kryptonite. He was not affected by any
of it, although PU Kryptonians were.
Pre-Crisis, there were numerous types. These were:
Green Kryptonite: weakens and eventually kills super-powered Kryptonians.
Usually harmless to other races, but one story in Brave and the Bold had
a device used which resulted in Terrans being affected similar to
Kryptonians.
Anti-Kryptonite: similar to Green K, but affects non-super-powered
Kryptonians. This was a retcon used to explain why the non-powered Argo
City residents could be killed by what seemed to be Green K.
X-Kryptonite: Only one chunk, it was created by Supergirl trying to find a
cure for Green K. It gives Terrans, or at least Terran cats, Kryptonian
style powers for a limited time.
Red Kryptonite: Causes a specific, odd, effect. Often involved physical
transformations or mental changes. Each chunk had a different effect, and
could only affect a given Kryptonian once. Effects usually wore off in
24-48 hours. Created when Green K passed through a space cloud.
Gold Kryptonite: Removes a Kryptonian's super-powers permanently. Created
when Green K passed through a different space cloud.
White Kryptonite: Kills any plant life from any world. Yep, another space
cloud.
Blue Kryptonite: Has the same effect on Bizarro Kryptonians as Green K does
on real Kryptonians. Created by the same imperfect duplicator ray that
created the Bizarros.
Jewel Kryptonite: Remnents of Krypton's Jewel Mountains, it allows Phantom
Zone residents to focus their mental energy and cause explosions in the
outside world.
Two notable fake varieties are Silver and Yellow K. Silver was used to keep
Superman from closely investigating what turned out to be a 25th (silver)
anniversary gift for him from his friends, and Yellow was used by Luthor to
fake out what he thought was Superman. It turned out it was a Superman
robot ordered to react to Kryptonite like the real thing. When Luthor found
this out, he returned all the gold from Fort Knox which he'd stolen.
8. How do you spell/pronounce the last name of artist Bill Sienkiewicz?
It's spelled as above, and pronounced "sin-KEV-itch".
9. Isn't there a gay Marvel mutant?
Yes. This is Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier) from _Alpha Flight_. When John
Byrne began the series (issues #1-26), he made the point that Jean-Paul was
gay, using tiny hints that are obvious if you're looking for them.
In issue #7, Northstar visits Raymonde Belmonde, presumably a former lover.
In #8, Aurora apparently knows (and disapproves) of his sexual orientation.
In #11's back-up story, James Hudson comments that Northstar didn't seem
too interested in women. There were other tiny hints as well-- nothing
that really made sense unless you knew what to look for.
The hints were subtle enough that you might not get the idea independently.
But if you read the stories with the possibility in mind, it was quite
clear. Later in the series, there were strong hints that Jean-Paul had
contracted AIDS.
Unfortunately, the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel, (there is debate on which
one; Jim Shooter or Tom DeFalco), declared "There are no homosexuals in the
Marvel Universe," and decided to "fix things." After Byrne, Bill Mantlo
was writing Alpha Flight, and he retconned both Northstar and Aurora into
being half-human and half-elf (thus their pointed ears), and decided that
Northstar's sickness was due to being outside of the realm of faerie.
Note that nothing in the faerie storyline indicated that Jean-Paul was
*not* gay, just that he didn't have AIDS. Also, Mantlo should be given
some credit. He dropped several "hints" as well, including issues #28 and
#45 or 46. Unlike Byrne's, these had the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
The "faerie" change was later de-retconned, though I am unfamiliar with the
details. In any case, much later, in issue #106, Northstar held a press
conference is which he came out of the closet (He does *not* have AIDS). A
Marvel editor explained that (paraphrasing), "Many of our readers suspected
the truth all along, but now we decided to make the issue clear." Yeah,
right.
It's also worth noting that the true powers-that-be at Marvel (i.e. way
above the editor-in-chief level and at the corporate level) got very antsy
about this story and the media attention it got. Northstar pretty quickly
effectively went back in the closet in that little if any reference to his
orientation was mentioned during the rest of Alpha Flight's run.
10. What are some of the gay characters in comics?
A short list for DC includes Mindy Meyer's brother (Wonder Woman), Maggie
Sawyer and Toby Gaines (Superman), Extrano (New Guardians), Pied Piper
(Flash), perhaps Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet (Legion of
Superheroes). It has also been suggested that the Amazons in WW are gay to
some extent.
In the Vertigo line, there are numerous gay characters. Offhand, Hazel,
Foxglove, and Judy in Sandman, along with Judy. Lenny and Kathy in Shade,
Ray Monde in Hellblazer, Liz Tremayne in Swamp Thing, and others.
Marvel has Northstar, perhaps Mystique and Destiny. Mystique has been
revealed to have mothered two children, and it's strongly implied that she
had sex with Wolverine in Wolverine #51, so if she is gay, she's bi-.
Note that according to Chris Claremont, his planned origin for Nightcrawler
had Mystique, a shape-changer, being Kurt's father and Destiny being the
mother. At the time, Mystique was in male form and sufficiently traumatized
from war incidents to not realize her true gender or past. Hector of the
Pantheon in Hulk is gay; while at first this was somewhat hinted around
in the comic and only stated in Peter David's CBG column, he has now
explicitly stated his orientation in the comic.
In the Milestone line, Fade in Blood Syndiate is gay, and Masquerade is
what amounts to a self operated transsexual, although it's unclear what
his orientation is beyond that. Donner and Blitzen in Shadow Cabinet
are lesbian partners, and Rick, a supporting character in Static, is likely
gay although it's not been explicitly stated yet.
Others include the women warriors in Epic's _Sisterhood of Steel_, Barney
(The Masked Man), the woman from _Detectives, Inc._, Robbie and Frank from
_Omaha_, and Terry, Pam, and George from _Zot!_. Several characters are
either gay or bi in _Love and Rockets_. _Desert Peach_ has a gay main
character, Erwin Rommel's (fictitious) younger brother.
Many of the above are gays-written-by-straights and are of questionable
merit. Others have been said by gays to have been handled quite well.
11. How old is Kitty Pryde (of Excalibur)?
The short answer: Kitty was 13 1/2 when she joined the X-Men. She had her
15th birthday in Excalibur #24. Soren F. Peterson reports that Claremont
spoke at a con the weekend of July 27-28, 1991 and stated without a shadow
of a doubt that Kitty Pryde is only 15. Now, there's no *way* that only 18
months passed in the interim; too many events have occurred. But forget
trying to make sense of it. If Chris Claremont can't keep track of Kitty's
age, why should you? Until the writers retcon it, 15 it is.
However, as of October, 1993, an issue of Excalibur had Kitty saying:
"Unh-uh, Professor...we've *had* this conversation once too often,
when I was still a *minor* [her emphasis], living at the mansion. The
whole stern-but-benevolent patriarch riff isn't going to *work* anymore.
You have a *case* to make -- make it as an *adult, one-on-one*."
So she may be 18 now, but it's not completely sure. Particularly since an
issue of X-Men appearing at about the same time stated that only a year had
passed since events which took place before Kitty's 15th birthday party.
12. Where are the "real" locations of Metropolis, Gotham City, Hub City,
etc., in the DC Universe?
Metropolis and Gotham City have been equated to *many* different real-world
cities over the years; there is no one correct answer. (Even if there
were, the current writers are under no duress to use it.) Hub City, from
_The Question_, is a bit different; it is based on a combination of two
cities in Illinois, one of which is definitely East St. Louis. Writer Denny
O'Neil admitted this at one point, but no longer does so in order not to
offend residents of the cities.
Metropolis, as originally developed by Siegel and Shuster, was probably
Cleveland, the "big city" with which they were most familiar. There are
also possible early references to Toronto. Later, Superman's home was moved
to somewhere in the BosWash corridor on the U.S. East Coast. _Who's Who in
the Legion of Superheroes_ showed a 30th century Metropolis, which
stretched slightly beyond New York and Boston in either direction, and used
those names explicitly in the description of Metropolis. John Byrne seemed
to think it was back in the midwest.
Gotham is a traditional nickname for New York City, but there is a separate
NYC in the DC universe. It is definitely a port city, probably on the east
coast; too much plot has depended on that fact. Again, various sources
have placed Gotham City all along the east coast, often near Metropolis.
The distance to Metropolis has also varied; from hundreds of miles to
linked by a bridge.
Frank Miller once claimed that, metaphorically, "Metropolis is New York in
the daytime, while Gotham is New York at night." Works for me.
Mayfair Games published an Atlas of the DC Universe, written by DC staffer
Paul Kupperberg. While not completely official, it does jibe with
locations that DC used when its house fanzine of the mid-70s discussed this
same question. The locations given for the main DC fictional cities are:
Metropolis: Delaware
Gotham City: New Jersey
Star City: far nothern California
Coast City: on 101 near Sausalito between San Francisco and Oakland
[Now destroyed, but based on maps shown in the Superman
titles, seemingly moved to midway between LA and SF.]
Middleton (where J'onn J'Onzz first operated): suburb of Denver
Littleville (Robby Reed): Wyoming
Blue Valley (Kid Flash): northwest Nebraska, near South Dakota
Central City/Keystone City: a bit north of Kansas City, Central is in
Missouri while Keystone is in Kansas on the other side of the Mississippi
Calvin City/Ivy Town (Atoms): both in Connecticut near New Haven
Dos Rios (El Diablo): 65 miles south of San Antonio
Fairfax (2nd Dial H for Hero): suburb of Bangor, Maine
Midway City (Doom Patrol, Hawkman): Michigan, just east of Sault Ste. Marie
Smallville: Kansas, 50 miles west of the I-70/I-35 interchange on I-70.
The population is given as 90,000 btw.
Many people have noted errors in the geographical plausibility of the above
entries. For example, the state borders near the Mississippi and Missouri
Rivers are obviously different in the DC Universe than in our world, and
Coast City can only be "between San Franciso and Oakland" if one intends to
drive from one city to the other without bothering to use the bridge that
directly connects the two. These are from the Mayfair Games book, which
was obviously not edited as scrupulously as the r.a.c Welcome posting. :-)
One final note: There's a real small town in southern Illinois named
Metropolis, located about twenty miles north of where the Mississippi and
Ohio Rivers meet. On their "Welcome to Metropolis" sign they do claim
"Home of Superman", have a Superman statue on display, and every year they
have a Superman festival. At least at one time, the local paper was called
the Daily Planet.
13. Who is Suicide Squid?
Short answer: Suicide Squid is the de facto r.a.c. mascot. Squiddy was
accidently created in April, 1991 when a netter wanted to ask the question
"Can someone tell me what's going on in Suicide Squad?" and typed an "i"
for the "a" in Squad. Many netters responded with what had been going on
in the Suicide Squid comic, which was a pretty good trick since it didn't
really exist. People then tried to reconcile the different versions of the
comic, and it mushroomed from there. Suicide Squid is now used in r.a.c.
posts for a generic comic book title when one is needed, or as a way of
commenting satirically on various events in comics. The current
writer/artist of the book is usually said to be Alonzo Mori, and the SS
fan club is the Black Ink Irregulars. The annual r.a.c. Awards are often
refered to as the Squiddies, and the r.a.c. team in the last two San Diego
Comicon trivia contests has gone by the name of the Black Ink Irregulars
(and won both years).
A copy of the Squid relevant parts of just about every post mentioning
Squiddy since his creation is kept at theory.lcs.mit.edu in the FTPable
file pub/wald/suicide-squid. As you might expect, it's quite large but
fun to read.
There are Suicide Squid t-shirts, and wearing them is a good way to be
recognized by other r.a.c.ers at cons, signings, and other events.
14. How can I get a Suicide Squid t-shirt?
There have been three runs of these shirts, sold only to r.a.c.ers and a
few comics professionals. The art was done by pro artist Ty Templeton, and
the shirts have appeared on an episode of Parker Lewis Can't Lose (then on
Fox, now being rerun on USA Cable in the U.S.) and on Prisoners of Gravity,
an Ontario public TV show about science fiction and comics which is also
shown on some PBS stations in the U.S.. A Squid shirt will appear regularly
on the '93-4 season of Prisoners of Gravity.
The third run has been mailed out. There may be extras. Send email to
t...@hq.ileaf.com to be put on a waiting list or to be put on a mailing list
for a fourth run should the third run be sold out (fourth run probably
won't happen until Fall '94, but could go earlier if a lot of interest).
15. Who is Paul?
Paul is essentially Suicide Squid mark 2. Someone posted about a rumor that
Marvel was going to kill off one of their characters and concluded the post
with a list of possibilities, one per line. Underneath the last, they had
their name, "Paul". People promptly jumped on this, and started
constructing a comics continuity for a character named Paul. The continuity
frequently made reference to the christian disciple Paul and his history.
There is no relation between this Paul and the New England Comics character
and comic book Paul the Samurai.
16. What is "The Cowboy Wally Show"?
TCWS is a graphic novel written and drawn by Kyle Baker around 1988. It was
done for Doubleday, not a regular comics publisher, and thus showed up in
bookstores rather than comics stores. In a strip in Spy Magazine in 1993,
Baker comments that more copies were returned than were published; it's
hard to tell how much he was exaggerating.
At any rate, this book is now out of print and very hard to find. To give
you an idea, Jim Cowling bought a copy via an ad on the net for $100. As
for why it's in such demand, Jim later stated it was worth every penny to
him. It's a very funny book, and has contributed numerous .sig quotes to
those of us who have a copy. It's become something of an icon on r.a.c.m.,
and in the 1993 Alternative Squiddies, one category (inspired by a thread
the previous year on r.a.c.m.) was "Body Part You'd Give Up For A Copy Of
The Cowboy Wally Show".
17. Is that really Peter David who posts here?
Yes, the Peter A. David aka PAD who posts here is in fact the Peter David who
writes Hulk, Soulsearchers & Co., Aquaman, Spider-Man 2099, etc. Want proof?
Take a look at this passage from one of his Psi-Man novels, written under
the pen name of David Peters:
"Chuck was impressed to see the latest hardware rolling his way--the
computer aided RAC 3000, Ultraflame Model.....'What does RAC stand for?' he
asked."
"Really Awesome Car."
"'Oh.' He shrugged. Obviously a name developed by people in marketing."
Not to mention individual netters who have shown up as characters in his
comics and novel work (Star Trek #4 in the current DC run includes the
FAQ maintainer as an Admiral in charge of Starbase 24, for example). And
in Spider-Man 2099, page 3, a reference to Suicide Squid is worked into
the dialogue.
Please note the following etiquette which has developed around posting to
Peter; he tends to read posts which have PAD in the Subject: line, and it's
perfectly acceptable to ask him questions, say something like:
Subject: PAD: When will Aquaman encounter Suicide Squid?
Keep in mind he's under no obligation to either read or answer such though.
Also, it's considered bad form to ask him either something which is either
not of general interest to r.a.c., or specifically ask him about topics
which he has no more personal knowledge of than any other r.a.c.er. For
example, specifically asking Peter about, oh, something in the Superman
books, makes no sense since he has nothing to do with them.
18. Is that really Art Adams, Kevin Maguire, and Michael Collins who post
here?
Yes, it really is Art Adams, Kevin Maguire, and Michael Collins who post
here. It's just that the people with those names who post here aren't the
comics artists with those names. This has led to an informal r.a.c. rule of
thumb; if you see a post from someone with the same name as a comics
writer, it probably is the writer. If you see a post from someone with the
same name as a comics artist, it's probably not the artist. And ruining a
perfectly good heuristic, Wayne Wong announced in late October '93 that
he'll be drawing Space Police, due out next year from Sky Comics. And just
after that, Steven Lieber, who draws Hawkman, came on the net.
19. Are there any other pros on the net?
There are a few at the creative level as mentioned in the previous answer,
but Peter and Steven are the only "big names" who post with any regularity.
Posts have been seen from the artists mentioned above, Diane Duane, Henry
Vogel, Louis Bright-Raven, and the Studio DNA crew and Jeff Lang. Neil
Gaiman frequently is forwarded posts about his work, although he's not
directly on the net. A fair number of pros are on the COMICS-L via email
connections from Compuserve. Malibu editor Roland Mann used to post
frequently until he moved and lost his net connection. There are probably
others I've overlooked. A special case is Matthew High, who works for
Antarctic Press in a non-creative capacity and regularly posts information
about what the company is up to.
20. What's the joke behind John Byrne's Next Men's letter column title?
The title is "A Flame About This High". The joke to which this is the
punchline is "You know what really burns my ass?"
21. Where can I get GIFs or other scanned comics art?
You won't find that information here. It is illegal to post or make
available for FTP scanned in copyrighted art (the by far most common requests
being for same). Yes, it's against copyright even if no one makes money
off of it. Yes, it's against copyright even if you *really* want it and
don't have a scanner to make your own fair use copy.
22. What are the email addresses of comics companies?
DC Comics can be reached at:
dc.c...@genie.geis.com
Antarctic Press can be reached at:
anta...@delphi.com
To the best of my knowledge, no other companies are formally on the net,
as opposed to people who happen to work for companies.
[end of part 3]
"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg t...@hq.ileaf.com
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part4
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 4 of 7: netiquette)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 4/10/93]
4. guidelines for posting articles
First, if you haven't already done so, read the articles in
news.announce.newusers, especially "A Primer on How to Work with the USENET
Community". In fact, go read it even if you've read it before; the article
contains many helpful suggestions.
After you've done that, read these r.a.c-specific comments:
The most common r.a.c. netiquette mistakes made by newbies are:
1) Posting X-Men related articles in r.a.c.misc.
2) Quoting an entire article being responded to.
a) And only adding what amounts to "I dis/agree" at the end
b) Quoting less than the entire article, but not by much.
c) Quoting a .sig and without commenting on it.
Or, as Dave van Domelen put it in an LNH story modelled after Billy Batson's
first encounter with Shazam...
"As he followed the tunnel, the walls became more cavernlike and less
public-workslike. Bas relief scupltures lined the walls..."The Seven Deadly
Breaches of Netiquette." Flaming. Cascades. Gratuitous Crossposting. Not
Trimming Included Articles. Me Too. Trolling. And the most hideous of all the
sculptures...MAKE.MONEY.FAST."
* Think about your audience.
Make sure you post to the proper newsgroup, as explained in Part 1, on the
r.a.c hierarchy and related newsgroups.
* Have something to say, and support your arguments
Post because you want to say something about comics, or ask a question
about comics. Don't post to satisfy your ego. Respect other posters'
opinions, though you may disagree with them. When arguing a point,
rational argument with examples is preferable to sheer volume, or, worse,
to personal attack. Say something substantive, that others would like to
read and perhaps reply to.
A special case of the above: If people aren't posting about a comic or
character you're interested in, your best bet to start conversation about
it is to post something relatively substantial about the topic. If you
just post "I like Suicide Squid. Does anyone else?" it's doubtful you'll
get much response. Posting "I like Suicide Squid because (reasons)" or
"Does anyone know why this happened in Suicide Squid #37?" or even "Top Ten
Reasons Suicide Squid Should Be Chopped Up Into Calimari (reasons)" will be
much more likely to get discussion going. If you just post a complaint
that Suicide Squid isn't being posted about, you'll basically get back that
if you want Squiddy discussed, you should start a discussion.
* Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
This is a generally a friendly, tolerant newsgroup, and we like to keep it
that way. One of the things which can destroy the pleasant atmosphere
around here are "flames": inflammatory, insulting posts. People send
articles saying things that they would never say to one another in person,
perhaps because of the anonymity that electronic newsgroups provide.
Please refrain from doing this. There *are* people on the other end of
your message, and they're likely to take offense at your taking offense.
The result is called a "flame war", and it wastes the time of everybody on
the newsgroup. When you respond to an article, even one with which you
vehemently disagree, try to respond to the *article*, not the poster; give
reasoned rebuttal, not personal invective. Also, try not to dash off a
reply in anger; you may regret it later. Instead, wait until after you've
had some sleep and calmed down, before you reply. Finally, note that the
best way to avoid a flame war with someone who is *obviously* looking for
"attention" is to *ignore* that person.
* Special note on "taste wars"...
Of late [writing in late 1992], there's been an increasing amount of people
bashing one another's tastes, using such invectives as "DC fans suck", "I
hate you Marvel Zombies", "Marvel haters are a bunch of pretentious jerks",
and so forth. The newsgroup r.a.c.xbooks was incorporated, for example, in
hopes of splitting off those who read and rave about Marvel's X-titles from
those who don't want to hear any more about them. Similarly, there seems
to be an eternal war between the Image likers and haters.
Consider this a special case of the above two categories. Have something
to say, support your arguments, and argue against another post's substance
or lack thereof, not to your assumed perception of its author. It *is*
perfectly acceptable to post something like "People who read nothing but
Marvel comics should try to look at some other comics; if you enjoyed <X>
you might like <Y> from company <Z>. Here's why..." or "I'm tired of
people bashing those of us who read Marvel; I happen to *like* reading
books <X> and <A>. Here's why..." Either of these sorts of posts is a
*lot* more likely to convince people of the Rightness of Your Opinions than
is loud spleen-venting.
Furthermore, as a general rule, either liking or disliking an *entire
company's output* is a position of questionable merit. Many have gotten to
the point where they tend to follow favorite writers and artists, instead of
characters or companies. While there can be noticible trends in companies'
output, if a company does more than a handful of titles there's a good
chance there's some title(s) you'll think are "better" or "worse" than what
you might expect from that company on average.
At the same time, though, people here *can* get awfully pretentious. The
best thing to do, again, no matter which side you're on, is to back up your
posts with *substance*, and to reply to specifics, because much of the
arguing is due to misunderstanding another's position.
* Be careful with humor and sarcasm.
Subtle humor tends to be missed in text-only form. There is a standard net
method for indicating sarcasm: the "smiley", a group of symbols which look
like a smiley-face on its side, like this :-)
(A post with a non-generic reference to Suicide Squid is also fairly likely
to be less than serious...)
* Use mail, don't post a follow-up
Many types of replies are best given by private electronic mail, not posted
to the entire newsgroup audience. This seems obvious, but many people
ignore this. For example, if someone posts a poll or a trivia contest, you
should reply to them by electronic mail. Don't post!
As a special case of this, posts which ask for people to post their top N
titles/storylines/characters/etc. should be discouraged. Unless these lists
have reasonably detailed explanations of why the poster has these
particular entries, they get old fast. Posting that you're running an email
poll on the top N whatevers and will post results is much better.
* Don't overdo signatures
You can include a signature on the end of your posts. (In "rn", if you
create a ".signature" file, it will be added automatically.) But keep it
short. Nothing is more boring than wading through the same long signature
repeated on multiple articles. A maximum of four lines is suggested (and,
on some systems, four is the maximum possible). You may see some frequent
posters use longer .sigs. In general, these are people who include
particularly interesting quotes (or original writing) in their .sigs and
change it on a weekly or even per message frequency. Ascii art and
lettering, borders, etc. is old hat to most people, and multiple quotes in
a single .sig are definitely frowned on.
* Read all follow-ups and don't repeat what has already been said
This is especially important for answering questions that lots of people
know the answers to, such as "What's the name of that bald guy who founded
the X-Men?" or "When did Elrod last appear in Cerebus?" If you want to
respond to an article or query, mark it (use the "M" key in "rn"), make
sure no one has already said what you want to, and *then* go back and
reply. Or, just be safe and answer by e-mail instead of posting.
* Don't repost just because there were no follow-ups
Don't assume that, simply because there weren't any follow-ups to your
post, that it didn't go out. *Most* messages do not generate any
follow-ups. If you go and post the message again, simply because it didn't
cause discussion the first time, you will simply annoy others and make
yourself look foolish. If you're really concerned about whether your posts
are making it out, you might email a poster at a site other than yours and
ask if they'd check if they've received your posts.
* When following up an article, quote only the appropriate amount of text.
Many posting programs make it easy to include text from the article you're
responding to. Take care to edit this text down to the minimum needed to
understand your new contribution to the discussion. Many readers skip past
articles with a lot of included text, particularly at the beginning of an
article. A rule of thumb is that if you include more than 10 lines of quoted
text at a time, you're almost certainly doing something wrong. More than 5
and you probably are. Including more than 20 quoted lines at the start of
your post will insure that a fair number of people will *not* read it.
Habitually including too many quoted lines gets you put in kill files.
In particular, unless you are actually commenting on it in your post, there
is no reason why you should ever include the .sig from an article you're
responding to. The person's id is given at the start of the included text,
and that's sufficient.
* Double-check follow-up newsgroups and distributions
"Cross-posting" is the practice of posting the same article to multiple
newsgroups. If you're posting a review about the Akira movie, for example,
then it would be relevant to the newsgroups rec.arts.anime and
rec.arts.movies.reviews. Depending what you have to say (perhaps you are
comparing the film to the manga version), it might also be relevant to
rec.arts.comics.misc or rec.arts.manga. But try to limit crossposts as
much as possible, and when you feel you *must* cross-post, include a
"Follow-up:" line to only one of the newsgroups (in the sample case,
probably "Follow-up: rec.arts.anime").
"Distribution" refers to how far a post will propagate. While the majority
of r.a.c. readers and posters seem to be from the United States, there have
been posts from Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and
Australia/New Zealand, obviously meaning there are readers there as well.
For general comics matters, the correct distribution will be "world" so as
not to leave anyone out who isn't from your state/province, country, or
continent. On the flip side, if you're posting about a local event, post to
"local" distribution or whatever is appropriate (e.g., "nj" for New
Jersey). Sometimes it's hard to tell what's appropriate; thus, if you're
telling people about a convention in the Boston area, and some people from
outside Massachusetts might be interested (likely true), then you may wish
to post to a wider area, like "usa" or "na". But try to apologize in
advance when you do. Also, distributions don't always work, so if you in
Australia see a post for a small 1-day convention in Boston, don't flame
or otherwise admonish the poster without first checking that the
distribution line isn't in fact "ne" and the post has escaped its attempted
limitation.
* Cite appropriate references; don't use unnamed sources
In r.a.c, this means that it's preferable to include your source when
stating "news" or "rumors". For example, you might write, "I read in CBG
that Alonzo Mori won't be writing Suicide Squid after issue #100." That's
preferable to stating "I heard that..."
Please note that claiming unnamed "inside sources" is an almost sure way of
casting doubt on your credibility. People are only able to get away with
this to any degree once they've built up a reputation of being reliable,
have shown they do indeed know people in the industry, and when it's clear
there's a good reason for the anonymity. Keep in mind that there are
several people here who really do either know people in the industry or are
actually professionals and have established a reputation for reliability.
All doing this sort of thing will do is hurt your net.reputation for a long
time, because you will get called on it.
* Mark Answers or Spoilers
Ever had someone tell you events in a movie that you wanted to see,
spoiling the surprise? It's the same with comics. If something you say
might "give away" information about a new comic, state "WARNING: SPOILERS"
at the beginning and/or header of your article. Also, insert a "<ctrl>L"
so that the article doesn't scroll. In the "emacs" editor, this is done by
typing <ctrl>Q followed by <ctrl>L. In the "vi" editor, type <ctrl>V and
then <ctrl>L. Note that the <ctrl>L must be the first character on a line
for this to work. If you include quoted text which includes a <ctrl>L,
you'll have to remove the quote indicator character(s) or space in front of
it for it to work.
* suggestions for reviews
There are several people who post reviews of comics (usually on r.a.c.info)
periodically. Feel free to post your own reviews. Jim Drew has helpfully
provided the following suggested guidelines:
Jim's Rules of Review (like Robert's Rules of Order, and followed as often
B-)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Don't review it if there is nothing to say about it.
2. Don't review *everything.*
3. Have a broad spectrum of reviews -- include something no one else will.
3.a. Don't be *too* esoteric -- include something from Marvel or DC, too.
4. Develop a style for your reviews that is uniquely your own.
5. Discuss the plot/themes/art/etc. "I liked it" is insufficient.
People can e-mail Jim Drew directly for the expanded discussion.
j...@frame.com
[end of Part 4]
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part5
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 5 of 7: ftp resources)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 4/10/94]
5. FTP sites containing comics related files.
Many resources are available at different sites on the net via a mechanism
called FTP (for File Transfer Protocol). If your system is fully on the
Internet, use your local help command to get information about how to use
FTP to access the files listed in this post. If your system is not fully on
the Internet, it is still possible to access these files via email.
Two addresses which provide FTP by email access are ftp...@decwrl.dec.com
and ftp...@sunsite.unc.edu FTP commands should be placed in the body of
your message to these addresses. Note that a human will not read your
messages to these addresses, so don't bother putting anything other than
FTP commands for the message body.
To get a list of available commands and some information about this
service, send the following message (the decwrl address is used for demo
purposes)
mail ftp...@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: <return>
help <return>
quit <return>
<exit mail program and send mail>
FTP Commands you should know about for getting files are as follows.
Arguments you should specify are described in <>s.
connect <site name, such as teetot.acusd.edu>
chdir <directory files you want are in; only one per session>
dir <return a listing of the current directory's files>
get <name of file you want sent to you>
In general, you should use connect once, followed by a chdir, and if
retrieving files, as many gets as you have file requests. Note that some
sites limit the number of gets in a single message, usually to 10 or so.
After a while you should get a mail response similar to this:
From: "ftpmail service on ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com" <nob...@pa.dec.com>
To: t...@hq.ileaf.com
Subject: your ftpmail request has been received
We processed the following input from your mail message:
<what commands you sent>
We have entered the following request into our job queue
as job number 746315939.01678:
The message will conclude with how many jobs are ahead of yours, and that
you should expect to get the results (i.e. your files) in a day or so.
You cannot delete an FTPmail request once sent, so be careful. Nor can you
request that only part of a file be sent. Large files will be divided up
into equal sized chunks of a set number of characters (except for the last
chunk, of course).
Gopher is another utility for getting files from remote sites. If your
system has gopher, use your local help facility to find out how to use it.
If not, just use FTPmail.
Please do not email the r.a.c. FAQ maintainer with questions about how to
FTP or gopher. I don't know how your system is set up. The appropriate
person to ask these questions of is your local system administrator. The
above information is meant to help out people who do not have FTP access
but would still like to get the information at various archive sites.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A date in brackets, like [2/92], indicates the most recent month that an
address and file(s) were confirmed/updated as still being valid. If a [?]
is shown, I have not had a recent confirmation... if anyone can either
confirm or deny a [?]. please email me. Also, if anyone tries emailing one
of these addresses and gets no response, please email me and I'll try to
check it out.
I attempt to check the current status of one third of these each month.
Thus, validation dates should be at most three months ago, once we complete
the first three month cycle (which started with this post)
[4/94]
Posts that all newcomers to Usenet should read before posting are:
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
Rules for posting to Usenet
A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
Hints on writing style for Usenet
What is Usenet?
These should be available in the newsgroup news.announce.newusers, but if
not they can be obtained via FTP from rtfm.mit.edu
They are located there as the following files, all in the directory
/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers
Emily_Postnews_Answers_Your_Questions_on_Netiquette
A_Primer_on_How_to_Work_With_the_Usenet_Community
Answers_to_Frequently_Asked_Questions_about_Usenet
Rules_for_posting_to_Usenet
Hints_on_writing_style_for_Usenet
What_is_Usenet?
[4/94]
There is a major r.a.c. archive site at Ostfold Regional College in Norway.
Either gopher to gopher.dhhalden.no or FTP to ftp.dhhalden.no (158.36.33.3).
The administrator is Jon Lovstad <jo...@dhhalden.no>. Please email him only
if you encounter problems with the archive; he does this as volunteer
labor. Do not ask him about general FTP matters. It is requested that the
archive not be accessed during work hours of 0800-1800 Norway time. To be
parochial for a moment, this is 0200-1400 United States and Canada Eastern
Time. To be more general, this is Greenwich + 1 time.
If you have material you'd like to be in the archive, please place it in
the /incoming directory on the root level. Then mail Jon a list of what
you've uploaded, along with a pointer as to where it belongs in the
hierarcy.
Files you should download first are 00_Full_Index, a full index of the
archive, 00_Overview, an ls -lR of the archive, and 00_Readme, usage
guidelines for the archive.
What follows is an abbreviated version of archive contents as of 10
April 1994.
/Annotations contains annotations of Ambush Bug, Asterix, Books of Magic,
Doom Patrol, and Watchmen.
/Batman has an episode guide and upcoming episodes of Batman:The Animated
Series.
/Beanworld has various information about Tales of the Beanworld, including
an interview with Larry Marder, where to find Beanworld stuff, and back
issues of Gunkldunk, the Internet Beanworld newsletter.
/Cerebus has a checklist of Cerebus appearances, annotations of Cerebus
1-13, and a timeline.
/Comics-L has back issues of the Comics-L digest.
/Disney has information of getting more Disney related files and an index
of Mickey Mouse cartoons on Laserdisc.
/FAQ has Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) about Doom, Grading
Comics, Grendel, Legion of Super-Heroes, X-Fans, Protecting Comics,
rec.arts.comics.marketplace, these Welcome to r.a.c. posts, Rogue, Sandman,
Superman, and X-Men characters, creators, and history. It also includes the
r.a.c.marketplace FAQ.
/Fanfiction has many subdirectories and contains net.fan-fiction such as
the Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade and the Legion of Net.Heroes, and contains
the FAQ for the LNH.
/Film_and_TV has episode guides for Lois & Clark and The Flash.
/Guidelines has guidelines for submitting work to Caliber, DC, Dark Horse,
Eclipse, Fantagraphics, Image, Malibu, Marvel, and Valiant.
/Misc has comments about comics collector software, Antarctic Press news
and information, an interview with Bone's Jeff Smith, Malibu's Bravura line,
CBG subscription info, the Legend creator owned line, Love and Rockets, The
MAXX mailing list, Maison Ikkoku Guidebook, Matt Howarth catalog, Peter
David's snail mail address, why Shaman's Tears was cancelled, and Suicide
Squid t-shirts.
/Previews has information about upcoming comics.
/Reference has 1993 Comics news stories, an Alan Moore checklist, a
Bloodlines checklist, a list of comics libraries, a comics fanclubs list, an
index of comics reference lists, a comics film and tve series guide, an
index of comics related theses, how copyright works, a cover enhancement
glossary, Fantastic Four story guide, index of crossovers, index of Hard
Looks, index of horror and sci-fi comics, addresses of comics companies,
Jack Kirby checklist, Peter David checklist, Star Trek comics checklist, an
index of references to Superman in song lyrics, and an X-Men reprint guide.
/Releases has Jim Cowling's weekly list of new releases for the last few
months.
/Reviews has reviews of Comic Book Rebels, The Complete Crumb Comics, Hero
Illustrated, Saint Sinner, and the review columns Sidekick Reviews, Image
Review, Valiant Review, and McReviews
/Sandman has the Sandman FAQ.
/Software has various comics related software.
/Statistics has ordering stats for top UK comics, top US comics for several
months, publishers' market share, and the print run on some Marvel titles.
For some reason, it also has Jim Cowling's Top Ten Things Newbies Say.
/Strips has bibliographies of Calvin & Hobbes and Peanuts collections.
/Toys has a list of ToyBiz Marvel figures and a peek at the 1994 line of
same.
/Trading_Cards has nothing yet, but is open to files of checklists, print
runs, price guides, etc.
/Watchment has the Watchmen annotations.
/X-Men has the r.a.c.xbooks FAQ, Rogue FAQ a list of Marvel characters who
have appeared on the animated X-Men, the X-Men creators list, synopses of
X-Men 120-280, an X-Men timeline, a reprint guide, and a 4 part list of
dangling X-Men plotlines.
[4/94]
A second major r.a.c. archive is at teetot.acusd.edu This can be reached
either by gophering to that location, or by FTPing. The root directory if
FTPing is /pub/Beelzebub/Comics
If gophering, the sequence of menu numbers/items is:
--> 6. Everything else that matters...
--> 4. Light ( and otherwise ) reading material
--> 1. Comic Books
If FTPing, you want to get 00list, a complete listing of available files,
and 00newlist, new files recently added to the archive.
The following files are there. They are listed in directory format, with
each directory being a Gopher menu item.
This should provide sufficient clues for FTPers to find them via ls
commands.
About_Comics has a top level file about sequential art from Bordeaux and
Prague available via World Wide Web
About_Comics/Business has files on Antarctic Press information, Crash
Course Studios, Dez Skinn suing Eclipse, Impulse Studios, and Comics
Company Addresses.
About_Comics/Business/Top_BW_Comics has lists of the top black and white
comics ordered by one distributor for various months.
About_Comics/Business/Top_Color_Comics has lists of the top color comics
ordered by one distributor for various months.
About_Comics/Business/Top_Publishers has lists of the top publishers by
market share based on orders from one distributor for various months.
About_Comics/Business/Comic_Art_Studies has files relating to the Comic Art
Studies newsletter published by the Michigan State University Libraries
About_Comics/Comics Theses has a list of comic related ms/phd thesis
About_Comics/Comics Works Reference List has a list of comics reference
books.
About_Comics/Comics_News has comic related stories from various newspapers
and magazines.
About_Comics/Essays has essays about comics and music, and comics in Europe.
About_Comics/Essays/Comics_Code_Authority has discussion about and history
of the CCA.
About_Comics/Essays/Uber-Christ has files relating comics to religous
symbolism.
About_Comics/Libraries with Comics has a list of comic carrying libraries.
About_Comics/Lod Goukens History of Comics is a history of comic strips.
About_Comics/Sturman Collection at LOC is, I suppose, something about comics
at the Library of Congress.
Annotations_and_Information has annotations and/or checklists on Asterix,
Avengers, Cherry, Doom Patrol, Fantastic Four, Horror and Sci-Fi, Image
Comics, Jack Kirby (including tributes after his death), a Jeff Smith
interview, the Legion of Super-Heroes FAQ, Neil Gaiman bibliography,
Sandman FAQ, various reviews and interviews relating to Sandman, Skip
Williamson interview, Stan Lee on Larry King Show, Stanley and his
Monster, the Superman FAQ and major stories synopses, Understanding
Comics, the Watchmen annotations, and the X-Men
Comic_Book_Legal_Defense_Fund has information about same
Comics_as_a_Career has information about breaking into comics and Berni
Wrightson on writing as well as Gary Reed's self-publishing guide and
Michael Davis on professionalism. The Guidelines subdirectory has
submission guidelines from Blue Comet, Caliber, DC, Dark Horse, Eclipse,
Fantagraphics, Image, Malibu, Marvel, and Voyager. The John_Ostrander
subdirectory contains essays by John on comics writing. The Misc.Writing
subdirectory has general information about writing from the misc.writing
newsgroup, The Peter_David subdirecty has But I Digress columns which
Peter gave permission to post and how he writes scripts for Marvel,
The Rob_Davis subdirectory has much information by Rob Davis about working
in comics, particularly as an artist. Finally, there is a file of San
Diego Con Tips For Writers.
Conventions has reviews of the 1993 Philadelphia Comicfest and the 1993 San
Diego Comics Con by many r.a.c.ers, as well as the UK Comics Creators'
Guild Small Press Night and UKCAC 1993.
Humor has the annotated Ambush Bug, a Hulk Death Survey, parody lyrics for
Muties for Nothing, and a self-censorship comics code.
Interviews has Usenet interviews with Bernie Mireault, Chris Claremont, Dave
Sim, Denny O'Neil, Eddie Campbell, Evan Dorkin, James Owen, K. C. Carlson,
Peter David, Steve Gerber, Tony Lobito, and Vince Sullivan.
Net_Resources has information about comics related BBSs, High Weirdness by
FTP, and the Norwegian r.a.c. FTP site.
New_Comics has reviews and information about Dirtbag, Knotted, Nina's
Adventures, Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner, Roland Gethers, and Terror Tots.
Operation_Crazed_Ferret has files for computer animations of the Animated
Cerebus portfolio.
Welcome_to_Rec.Arts.Comics has the Welcome to r.a.c. postings as well as
the Batman:TAS FAQ, Image FAQ,, r.a.c.marketplace FAQ, and the
r.a.c.xbooks FAQ
[10/93]
Disney comics
The archive of the disney-comics mailing list (see below) contains
indexes of many old and new Disney comics, a Don Rosa index, as well
as some other information on Disney comics.
ftp: from ftp.lysator.liu.se, directory pub/comics/disney.
There is an FTP by email server on this machine; send mail to:
ftp...@lysator.liu.se with the word HELP as the body of your
message for information on how to use it.
(this information provided by
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: star...@student.docs.uu.se)
[5/93]
X-Men files (archived files available via anonymous FTP)
darwin.cc.nd.edu
/pub/comics/X-Men-files is the directory
[10/93]
Connie Hirsch's New Mutants novel, _Kid Dynamo_.
ftp: from ocf.berkeley.edu, directory /pub/Comics/Kid_Dynamo
email: gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb)
[10/93]
Sandman annotations by Greg Morrow (mor...@fnal.fnal.gov)
Books of Magic annotations by David Goldfarb (gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu)
Watchmen annotations by Doug Atkinson (do...@yang.earlham.edu)
Suicide Squid discussions (all Suicide Squid posts from Day One; LONG)
David Wald (wa...@theory.lcs.mit.edu) has made these available
by both ftp and email. For Sandman, the filenames are "Index", for
the index of files, and "sandman.01" and up for the annotations.
BY FTP: ftp to theory.lcs.mit.edu or 18.52.0.92, and look in the directory
pub/wald/sandman
[for the other files, the directories are:]
pub/wald/books-of-magic
pub/wald/watchmen
pub/wald [suicide-squid file]
BY EMAIL: send mail containing the line "send wald sandman/filename" to
archive...@theory.lcs.mit.edu. Thus, to fetch the index
of currently available annotations, send email with the line
"send wald sandman/Index". If you can't get this to work,
try sending email to the archive server containing only the
word "help".
[for the other files, "send wald suicide-squid"]
[10/93]
Superman FAQ
dav...@leland.Stanford.EDU (David Thomas Chappell)
Available via anonymous FTP at
garfield.catt.ncsu.edu 152.1.43.23 /pub/misc/superman.txt
ftp.dhhalden.no 158.36.33.3 /pub/Comics/FAQ/Superman.FAQ
[4/94]
Comic Strip Collections: Titles and Publishing Information
Available via World Wide Web at:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/comics/collections/faq.html
Available via FTP at:
rtfm.mit.edu /pub/usenet/news.answers/comics/collections
ftp.uu.net /usenet/news.answers/comics/collections.Z
[10/93]
Animated Cerebus portfolio animations (aka Operation: Crazed Ferret)
Color version anonymous ftp at:
asylum.sf.ca.us
/pub/cerebus/crazed-ferret
Grayscale version anonymous ftp at:
sunsite.unc.edu
/pub/multimedia/pictures/OTIS/animations
Both sites have the same filenames of:
bar.qt.cpt.hqx = "A Well Equipped Bar" for Macs
bar.avi for "IBM"s
bat.qt.cpt.hqx = "Add One Mummified Bat"
bat.avi
sword.qt.cpt.hqx = "His First Sword"
sword.avi
README and ferret.readme = essential info about all kinds of stuff
[9/93]
Usenet interview with Dave Sim (creator of _Cerebus_)
Cerebus Companion (from soda.berkeley.edu)
available via anonymous ftp; connect to "asylum.sf.ca.us"
/pub/cerebus/sim-interview/1
/pub/cerebus/sim-interview/2
/pub/cerebus/sim-interview/3
/pub/cerebus/sim-interview/4
/pub/cerebus/sim-interview/5
/pub/cerebus/sim-interview/6
/pub/cerebus/companion
[?]
Watchmen discussion (archives in an FTP site, *not* an e-mail address). These
are the archived net.comics discussions of Watchmen from 1985-6 as
the book came out. LONG
ftp.white.toronto.edu
/pub/comics/watchmen is the correct path
[end of part 5]
"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg t...@hq.ileaf.com
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part6
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 6 of 7: email and other net sources)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 4/10/94]
6. e-mail and other net.resources for comics information or discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW THIS MONTH:
Gary Reed's Self Publishing Guide (originally from Cerebus #171)
Michigan State University Comics Collection Online Catalog
Comics Trade Service
Peanuts Bibliography and Character List
Worldwide Directory of Comic Book Stores
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Various files are available from people via e-mail. Simply e-mail the
appropriate list-holder, providing them with appropriate supplications,
plus a valid e-mail return address.
If you have any comics-related files you'd be willing to e-mail to
supplicants, please e-mail t...@hq.ileaf.com so I can add you to the list.
(Feel free to e-mail me for any other appropriate changes, too.)
A date in brackets, like [2/92], indicates the most recent month that an
address and file(s) were confirmed/updated as still being valid. If a [?]
is shown, I have not had a recent confirmation... if anyone can either
confirm or deny a [?]. please email me. Also, if anyone tries emailing one
of these addresses and gets no response, please email me and I'll try to
check it out.
I attempt to check the current status of one third of these each month.
Thus, validation dates should be at most three months ago, once we complete
the first three month cycle (which started with the previous post)
[2/92]
to post to r.a.c.*, for people with mailing but not posting privileges,
mail your post to the following address (it will be auto-posted):
rec.arts.c...@news.cs.indiana.edu
[and similarly for the other r.a.c.* groups.]
to receive r.a.c.* by email in digest form, for people without a
newsreader, contact:
[3/94] Jimmy Aitken
ji...@pyramid.com
ji...@pyra.co.uk
...!mcsun!ukc!pyrltd!jimmy
[3/93] MJ Dominus "I don't guarantee anything."
m...@saul.cis.upenn.edu
[10/93]
results of past years' rec.arts.comics polls of favorites from 1990-2
Mickey McCarter
mic...@bach.udel.edu
[3/94]
To Protect and Preserve: how to protect comics from damage
Grading Guide: how to grade comics correctly
Paul Adams
pa...@erc.msstate.edu
[3/94]
the Legion of Net.Heroes FAQ (LNH) (also available via FTP, see part 5)
bar...@wkuvx1.wku.edu
[3/94]
the rec.arts.comics.marketplace FAQ
Jim Cowling
jcow...@sol.UVic.CA
[3/94]
Canonical List of X-Men and X-Factor Dangling Plotlines
Robi Karp
ro...@adacel.com.au
[2/94]
Star Trek comics checklist, Part 1/6 [Introduction]
Star Trek comics checklist, Part 2/6 [Star Trek comics (1967-1988)]
Star Trek comics checklist, Part 3/6 [Star Trek comics (1989-present)]
Star Trek comics checklist, Part 4/6 [Star Trek: TNG comics]
Star Trek comics checklist, Part 5/6 [Star Trek: DS9 comics]
Star Trek comics checklist, Part 6/6 [Everything else]
Sherlock Holmes Illustrated [Holmes comics and graphic novels]
Peter A. David: The write stuff [comics, novels, and other projects]
Mark Martinez
ml...@lanl.gov
[3/94]
X-Men History and Character List
Martin Phipps
cx...@musica.mcgill.ca
[3/94]
Hispanic Supers List
jo...@clark.net (Jorge DeLaCruz)
[4/94]
lists of Black superheroes, Jewish superheroes
the Claremont files (his plans for X-Men had he continued writing them)
administration of LNH faq and associated lists
SCAVENGER (kog...@ucsu.colorado.edu)
[11/93]
Canonical List of Excalibur Dangling Plotlines
Alan Davis comicography
NO ACTIVE MAINTAINER: Those wanting to do so contact
Rich Carreiro
rlc...@animato.network23.com
[5/92]
Eddie Campbell Index
Marcus Brazil
mat...@lure.latrobe.edu.au
[11/93]
Cerebus Guide ("appearances and reprints" checklist and other r.a.c info)
(last updated near the end of '91)
Jim Dean
jim...@bnr.ca
[4/94]
Bill Sienkiewicz comicography (by the way, it's pronounced sin-KEV-itch):
History of Legion of Super-Heroes
History of X-Men #190-present
Politically Correct Definition of "Graphic Novel"
Suggestions on Making Comic Book Submissions
Submission Guidelines: Blue Comet, Caliber, DC, Dark Horse, Eclipse,
Fantagraphics, Image, Malibu, Marvel, Valiant, Constellation, Freeflight
Submission Guidelines: Ciao! (fanzine)
Jim Drew
j...@frame.com
[12/93]
Prisoner mini-series archive
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: mori...@tc.fluke.COM
UUCP: {uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
[12/93]
list of the episodes of the Flash TV series
Ernie Oporto
EAO...@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
[1/94]
James "Starchild" Owen interview
Jeff "Bone" Smith interview
Comic Book company addresses
Geoffrey R. Mason
j...@elm.circa.ufl.edu
[4/94]
Gary Reed's Self Publishing Guide (originally from Cerebus #171)
Glenn Carnegy
lf...@midway.uchicago.edu
[4/94]
Michigan State University Comics Collection Online Catalog
MSU has one of the best publically accessible comics collections in
the country as part of the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection
in its library system. The comics contained there are cataloged and
listed in the online catalog system, which is accessible via telnet.
Telnet to hermes.merit.edu and you'll get a "Which Host?" prompt.
Enter "MAGIC" and you'll be connected to the catalog
[4/94]
Peanuts Bibliography and Character List
Separate Listings of all Peanuts strip collections and books and
all characters to have appeared in the strip.
Jym Dyer
j...@remarque.berkeley.edu
[4/94]
Worldwide Directory of Comics Stores
Listing with reviews by r.a.c.ers of comic stores around the world
in geographic order.
Jeff Mason
j...@elm.circa.ufl.edu
[11/93]
What is IRC and what comics related discussion goes on there?
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It allows large numbers of users to
talk to each other in real time, much like the Unix talk command or the VMS
phone command. IRC consists of a large number of channels, and users can
join the channel (or channels) that they are interested in and talk to
other people on that channel. The #comics channel is where r.a.c. types
go to discuss comics.
The best way to get on IRC is to get a program called an IRC client, which
will handle all of the details of connecting you to an IRC server. Check
with other people at your site to see if anyone else already has an IRC
client, or obtain the source code via anonymous ftp from cs.bu.edu in the
directory /irc/clients. Or just try typing "irc" at your command prompt.
You can also use the telnet server by typing "telnet tiger.itc.univie.ac.at
6668" at the command prompt; however, please do not use the telnet server
unless it is impossible for you to run a client. Its resources are very
limited. Please do not mail the FAQ maintainer to ask about how to hook up
your system to IRC; ask your local site administrator.
The anonymous ftp site cs.bu.edu has a lot of information about IRC, as
well as clients for almost every different operating system. You might
also want the following files:
/irc/support/alt-irc-faq Much more extensive information
about IRC and how to use it.
/irc/support/servers.* The complete list of publically
accessible IRC servers.
IRC is very extensive and a complete description of all the commands is
beyond the scope of this FAQ. Use the IRC command /help or read the
alt.irc FAQ (see above). All new users of IRC should type /help newuser to
get the new user information. Briefly, all commands in IRC begin with a
slash (/). Anything you type that doesn't begin with a slash is sent to
your current channel so that other users can read it. The command /join
<channel> where <channel> is the channel name joins that channel. The
command /quit will exit from IRC. Another important command is /ignore,
which will allow you to ignore messages from annoying people (much like a
Usenet killfile). Type /help ignore to get more information.
If you have questions, just /join #comics and ask someone. Most people
will be glad to help. One other note: you will hear about "ops" or
"channel ops" a lot on IRC. A person who has "ops" on a channel has
control over the way the channel functions. On #comics, we have found that
ops is too often abused to be useful, so we usually make sure no one on
#comics has ops.
[12/93]
What is LegionMUSH and how do I get on it?
A MUSH is a multi-user online game, a variety of tinymud, which is a
particular type of mud. The emphasis on MUSHes is roleplaying and
building, over combat. LegionMUSH is based on the comics Legionnaires and
Legion of Super-Heroes, focusing more on the younger Legionnaires and New
Earth, although not exclusively.
To connect to LegionMUSH, issue the Unix telnet command:
telnet 131.215.67.3 2995
The 131.215.67.3 is the machine address, and 2995 is the port number.
Clients such as tinyfugue and tinytalk can be used to connect and make
MUSHing easier. To look around LegionMUSH, use the guest character Protean
Tourist. To do this, when you connect and see the login banner type
"connect guest guest" (only without the "s).
[4/94]
Comics Trade Service
Dominique Dumont has set up a comics trade service via computer. The idea
is that buyers and sellers both send buy and sell lists of comics to
a particular machine. A program compares what's for sale with what's wanted
and will notify potential buyers when a match is found.
To get information about this service, mail to do...@ss7serv.grenoble.hp.com
with the Subject: comic_market and the body of the message consisting of
:HELP: (include the :s and be sure the Subject: is only comic_market and
nothing else). The details of using the service are a bit long to be
included here.
Dumont can be contacted at Dominiqu...@grenoble.hp.com if there are
any problems.
[end of part 6]
"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg t...@hq.ileaf.com
Tom Galloway
Archive-name: comics/faq/part7
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 7 of 7: mailing lists)
written by lots of different people
edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993
Tom Galloway 1993-present
[last update: 4/10/94]
7. e-mail addresses of comics-related mailing lists.
The following mailing lists are described and have information about how to
join. New ones are preceded by a "*", ones with changed information from last
month are preceded with a "+"
COMICS-L: a listserv discussion list
comix: "non-mainstream" comics
New Comics: what's scheduled to come out this week.
Cerebus: discussion about the short grey aardvark.
Gunk'l'dunk: moderated newsletter for fans of Tales Of The Beanworld
Omnicom: the online Legion of Super-Heroes APA (LSH mailing list)
Disney comics: discussion of comics featuring Disney characters.
Poison Elves: discussion of Drew Hayes' Poison Elves, formerly I,
Lusiphur
Small Press: discussion of being a small publisher (not just of
comics)
Valiant: discussion of Valiant Comics.
2000AD: discussion of the British weekly comic (Judge Dredd and
others)
*Bone: discussion of Jeff Smith's Bone comic
*Comic Art Studies: newsletter of the Michigan State University Library
comics collection
*Superguy: Interactive adventure fiction
Besides the newsgroups in the r.a.c hierarchy, you can also subscribe to
various mailing lists on specific topics (sort of like a mini-newsgroup)
and have messages sent to your email address.
You can subscribe to any of the following mailing lists by emailing a
request to the appropriate email address. Please note that the appropriate
address for subscribing and unsubscribing is often different from the
address of the list itself, that is, the address to which one does the
equivalent of "posting" articles.
"comics-l", a listserv discussion list
to subscribe, send a request to: list...@unlvm.unl.edu
(address of list itself:
Comi...@unlvm.unl.edu or Comi...@unlvm.BITNET)
"non-mainstream" comics
to subscribe: comix-...@world.std.com
List of new comics released each week
to subscribe: jcow...@sol.UVic.CA
Cerebus mailing list
to subscribe: mail majo...@erzo.berkeley.edu with the following
message body (not subject):
subscribe cerebi
to unsubscribe: mail to the same address with the body:
unsubscribe cerebi
to post to the list, mail to cer...@erzo.berkeley.edu
Gunk'l'dunk : moderated newsletter for fans of _Tales_Of_The_Beanworld_
contact jer...@stat.cmu.edu
Omnicom: the Online Legion of Super-Heroes APA (LSH mailing list)
send your email address and a subscription request to:
omnicom-li...@andrew.cmu.edu
[info provided by Vernon H Harmon vh...@andrew.cmu.edu]
Disney comics mailing list
to subscribe: disney-com...@student.docs.uu.se (Per
Starback)
Poison Elves mailing list
n894...@henson.cc.wwu.edu
Small Press mailing list
to subscribe: small-pre...@world.std.com
(small...@world.std.com)
This mailing list deals in part with small press comics,
although be warned that it also deals with zines, small book
publishers, small magazine publishers, literary journals, and so
forth. The list tends to be more aimed at publishing and getting
published (and getting copies from people who publish), than it is
about content.
There is also a newsgroup "alt.zines".
Valiant Visions newsletter
About Valient Comics. To join, send email to the editor, Chris
Vitek, at cvi...@drew.drew.edu
2000AD mailing list
About the British comics weekly, which has a regular Judge Dredd
feature and other character features as well. Many of DC's "Brit
Pack" started out here. Email the editor at win...@coplex.com
Bone mailing list
About Jeff Smith's Bone comic, a wonderful book for all ages
which has consistently gotten excellent word of mouth review
among both r.a.c. types and many creators.
To be added to the list send email to:
majo...@erzo.berkeley.edu
with the phrase:
subscribe bone your-email-address-here
in the body of the letter (not the subject).
Comic Art Studies
A newsletter from the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection at
Michigan State University, home of one of the best publically
accessible comics collections in the country. Not really a
discussion list, this is an electronic version of the quarterly
hardcopy newsletter. To subscribe contact Pete Coogan at
coog...@student.msu.edu
Back issues are available via FTP at teetot.acusd.edu in the
directory /pub/Beelzebub/Comics/About_Comics. See Part 5 of these
Welcome messages for more information about FTP and this site.
Superguy
Superguy is a mailing list devoted to interactive adventure fiction,
of both humorous and serious types. It is an open, unmonitored list,
which allows anyone to post anything they wish. However, as our
stated purpose is entertaining fiction, posts not connected with
that fiction or discussing the group itself are frowned on. There
are several different universes, including the Superguy universe,
a superheroic satire.
I'm personally not familiar with it, but it seems similar to the
LNH with established characters and plotlines. Before posting, one
should get a copy of their FAQ. To subcribe, send the message
SUBSCRIBE SUPERGUY to list...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu while submissions
to the list should go to supe...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
[end of Part 7]
"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg t...@hq.ileaf.com