Who's who?

[blackphoenix]

DC announced a new Who's Who at the same thime they announced the DC Legacies mini-series. When will it be coming out?

[Hawkman]

Pretty sure I heard it was delayed until after Brightest Day, so as not to spoil anything and/or not have to be revamped within a month of being released. I think the reshuffling of management at the DC offices also had something to do with it. It's still coming out, though; we just don't know when.

[blackphoenix]

Total bummer.:frown:

[Babylon23]

DC seems to announce a new Who's Who every couple of years, but they never emerg. I'd love to see a new series but I'm not holding my breath.

[Tanrage]

What i want to know is if/when it comes out if it will have those eye-bleeding yellow borders with the circles and squares...
:biggrin:

[Flash's Lightning]

Well, I used to buy those from flea markets for a quarter, so I have some nostalgic feelings toward those covers! :D

Seriously though, I hope they revamp the cover style while keeping the style in some way the same so you can still get that "Who's Who" feel to it.

The better question is, who do we trust to do this, and do this right? We don't want this screwed up!

I can think of only three people off the top of my head with intimate knowledge of detailed comic history. Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and Dan Slott.

Mark's at Boom at the moment, Dan's...where is Dan these days? Still with Marvel? I guess that'd leave Kurt, who'd do a fine job with it if he was able to commit...

Anyone I'm forgetting? The two requirements for doing a Who's Who would be a) almost encyclopedic knowledge of heroes and b) a real love and joy of DC history.

[thwhtGuardian]

I'm pretty sure it was stated that Bob Greenberger was going to be writing it, which makes sense as he's had a hand in crafting a few of the DC encyclopedias. The last I read about the project though it was stated that it had been pushed back until after Flashpoint is over, so I guess it's wait and see.

[Sean Walsh]

Y'know.....I'd be fine without a WHO'S WHO as long as DC kept pumping out these big Encyclopedia books.

GL and JLA are the obvious next 2 volumes, I suspect Flash and JSA would get ones too eventually.

[Flamebird]

Well, I used to buy those from flea markets for a quarter, so I have some nostalgic feelings toward those covers! :D

Seriously though, I hope they revamp the cover style while keeping the style in some way the same so you can still get that "Who's Who" feel to it.

The better question is, who do we trust to do this, and do this right? We don't want this screwed up!

I can think of only three people off the top of my head with intimate knowledge of detailed comic history. Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and Dan Slott.

Mark's at Boom at the moment, Dan's...where is Dan these days? Still with Marvel? I guess that'd leave Kurt, who'd do a fine job with it if he was able to commit...

Anyone I'm forgetting? The two requirements for doing a Who's Who would be a) almost encyclopedic knowledge of heroes and b) a real love and joy of DC history.

I'd say; Keith Giffen, Paul Levitz or even George Perez would have plenty of knowledge.
Morrison probably knows more about DC than anyone else would want to, but I'm not sure he'd want to bother explaining it, if it weren't going to be used in a story "right then". Then again, he might make stuff up just to see what he could sneak through. :wink:

[Buried Alien]

Y'know.....I'd be fine without a WHO'S WHO as long as DC kept pumping out these big Encyclopedia books.


Those ENCYCLOPEDIAS never offered entries as in-depth or detailed as did the original WHO'S WHO, and the ENCYLOPEDIAS tended to omit even some fairly significant characters.

With the availability of the Internet, though, I'm not sure any of these publications have the value they once did as sources of information.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[dupersuper]

DC seems to announce a new Who's Who every couple of years, but they never emerg. I'd love to see a new series but I'm not holding my breath.

Just as well, I don't have the time to go through it with a pen crossing out all of the pointless Johnsconning.

[glennsim]

I still say they should just put it all online for free, and then use that to define whatever continuity is true at the moment. So you lay down a basic background for each character. Then as significant things happen, you adjust their entries. And then when you don't want some significant thing to be the case any more, you delete it from that entry.

Combine that with a "What you need to know" for each book (like a recap page, but on the Web site), and you can help new readers while not having to change the actual books.

[Buried Alien]

I still say they should just put it all online for free, and then use that to define whatever continuity is true at the moment. So you lay down a basic background for each character. Then as significant things happen, you adjust their entries. And then when you don't want some significant thing to be the case any more, you delete it from that entry.

Combine that with a "What you need to know" for each book (like a recap page, but on the Web site), and you can help new readers while not having to change the actual books.

This would work best for this day and age, with what technology can do now.

I think each entry should have separate "historical" biographies of characters separate from current biographies, to show how depictions of the characters have changed over the years. The original WHO'S WHO featured separate entries for Kal-L, the Earth-Two Golden Age Superman and the then-newly-minted Post-COIE John Byrne-rebooted Superman, but for some reason omitted the Silver/Bronze Age Superman who had just seen them through the previous thirty years of storytelling. Ideally, all three versions would have been featured (and perhaps major non-continuity Supermen such as the KINGDOM COME version as well).

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Babylon23]

While the online version makes more logical sense, I'm a sucker for Who's Who-type series and would happily buy one if DC ever publishes it. The original Who's Who introduced me to a lot of character I might never have known about otherwise.

I'd love original artwork as well, much like the old Who's Who, rather than Marvel's current approach of reprinted artwork for their Handbooks.

[daveageallen]

Well, I used to buy those from flea markets for a quarter, so I have some nostalgic feelings toward those covers! :D

Seriously though, I hope they revamp the cover style while keeping the style in some way the same so you can still get that "Who's Who" feel to it.

The better question is, who do we trust to do this, and do this right? We don't want this screwed up!

I can think of only three people off the top of my head with intimate knowledge of detailed comic history. Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and Dan Slott.

Mark's at Boom at the moment, Dan's...where is Dan these days? Still with Marvel? I guess that'd leave Kurt, who'd do a fine job with it if he was able to commit...

Anyone I'm forgetting? The two requirements for doing a Who's Who would be a) almost encyclopedic knowledge of heroes and b) a real love and joy of DC history.

dan is the head writer of amazing spiderman. his dream job

[LordEd1976]

I'd love original artwork as well, much like the old Who's Who, rather than Marvel's current approach of reprinted artwork for their Handbooks.

The current crop of Handbooks have been using original art. even then, the 04-09 Handbooks used alot of art taken from comics, not just old Handbook art

[Babylon23]

The current crop of Handbooks have been using original art. even then, the 04-09 Handbooks used alot of art taken from comics, not just old Handbook art

I admit its been about 4 years since I bought a Marvel Handbook. last I saw the entries featured no new artwork, just shots taken from existing books. One of the things I loved about the old Who's Who and Marvel Handbooks was that the profile pictures were drawn specifically for the books.

[El Sombrero]

Are the "Who's Who" comics actual, you know, stories with sequential art, or are they just profile pages?

If they're just profile pages then I really have to question the necessity of this with Wikipedia, unless the art is done by the top artists in the industry and / or the thing is produced really really nicely.

[Sean Walsh]

Are the "Who's Who" comics actual, you know, stories with sequential art, or are they just profile pages?

If they're just profile pages then I really have to question the necessity of this with Wikipedia, unless the art is done by the top artists in the industry and / or the thing is produced really really nicely.

WHO'S WHO was always a far less detailed profile book than Marvel's OHOTMU. Everyone got 1 page - *maybe* 2 pages here and there. The profile art was always brand new stuff, though, so maybe that was the point of it.

The 3-holed DELUXE EDITION books from 1991-2 were more detailed, a larger format that benefited the big profile pictures (and more info), and much more like the good OHOTMU stuff.

If a new WHO'S WHO is on the way, then it MUST be either like the recently incarnation of OHOTMU or like the DC Encyclopedias. Anything less is a waste of money.