Sometime soon I'll be doing Halloween/Horror recommendations, I promise.. but I'd recently promised to do some helpful sites that might be useful so.. here we go.
Comic Book Database - I mentioned this before, but the Comic Book Database allows you to search for character, creator, comic name, series name, title of comic, and a whole host of other things to find more information. It can be sparse at times or it can have information overload. This is great though if you're looking for every appearance of a character, if a comic is reprinted and where it's reprinted, follow a creator's full works, and a bunch of other stuff.
Grand Comics Database - pretty similar to the one above, but a different interface and they sometimes disagree on things. Both give you a great look at over all comics and can give you tons of information. For personal use, I tend to gravitate towards the Comic Book Database, but that's just my personal choice. Both are great and have a wealth of information, it just really depends on which you like better.
ComicVine - ComicVine tries to do a little bit of what the above two do with a different interface. However, it focuses a little bit more on character/team histories of the comics as well has some news and reviews. If you want to know the history of a character or see if they've appeared in comics, ComcVine is a great option. They also have an extensive image gallery, but be careful with that as some pictures especially of female characters might push the boundaries of Safe for Work. The other thing is don't use ComicVine for research on characters powers/abilities as they have a site wide system that they force every character into, so sometimes it's not exactly accurate from being so generic.
Atomic Avenue and My Comic Shop - both of these are there to sell comics, but they have some pretty extensive cataloging on the back end that sometimes gives you really good/important information. Both typically list all comics available in a trade for instance and My Comic Shop has a synopsis on a lot of single issues including creative team. Super helpful at times. I often use both of these sites to find the last issue in a series or information like that since they're much quicker and easier to search than the databases for me (and they only search for series name, not also character name, so that helps). Really though, they have some nice tools that I know I use regularly.
Wikipedia - Also DC wikia and Marvel Wikia there is also one for Public Domain superheroes (PDSH wikia) These are pretty definitive guides on characters, powers, and creators in general. There is a lot of research information here. Wikipedia can also be a great resource about trades and what issues are in trade, what is currently available, and more. So don't be afraid to use them for this information. Now they may not have everything and they may be missing information on some lesser known characters (and I'm talking super obscure cause they have full wiki entries on Lady Stilt-Man, Prince Ra-Man, and Yellow Peri), but over all they're really good. These are one of the reasons I say don't waste money on the DK Publishing or Encyclopedia style books because.. these wikis are more up-to-date with more comprehensive information.
Comic Book Database - I mentioned this before, but the Comic Book Database allows you to search for character, creator, comic name, series name, title of comic, and a whole host of other things to find more information. It can be sparse at times or it can have information overload. This is great though if you're looking for every appearance of a character, if a comic is reprinted and where it's reprinted, follow a creator's full works, and a bunch of other stuff.
Grand Comics Database - pretty similar to the one above, but a different interface and they sometimes disagree on things. Both give you a great look at over all comics and can give you tons of information. For personal use, I tend to gravitate towards the Comic Book Database, but that's just my personal choice. Both are great and have a wealth of information, it just really depends on which you like better.
ComicVine - ComicVine tries to do a little bit of what the above two do with a different interface. However, it focuses a little bit more on character/team histories of the comics as well has some news and reviews. If you want to know the history of a character or see if they've appeared in comics, ComcVine is a great option. They also have an extensive image gallery, but be careful with that as some pictures especially of female characters might push the boundaries of Safe for Work. The other thing is don't use ComicVine for research on characters powers/abilities as they have a site wide system that they force every character into, so sometimes it's not exactly accurate from being so generic.
Atomic Avenue and My Comic Shop - both of these are there to sell comics, but they have some pretty extensive cataloging on the back end that sometimes gives you really good/important information. Both typically list all comics available in a trade for instance and My Comic Shop has a synopsis on a lot of single issues including creative team. Super helpful at times. I often use both of these sites to find the last issue in a series or information like that since they're much quicker and easier to search than the databases for me (and they only search for series name, not also character name, so that helps). Really though, they have some nice tools that I know I use regularly.
Wikipedia - Also DC wikia and Marvel Wikia there is also one for Public Domain superheroes (PDSH wikia) These are pretty definitive guides on characters, powers, and creators in general. There is a lot of research information here. Wikipedia can also be a great resource about trades and what issues are in trade, what is currently available, and more. So don't be afraid to use them for this information. Now they may not have everything and they may be missing information on some lesser known characters (and I'm talking super obscure cause they have full wiki entries on Lady Stilt-Man, Prince Ra-Man, and Yellow Peri), but over all they're really good. These are one of the reasons I say don't waste money on the DK Publishing or Encyclopedia style books because.. these wikis are more up-to-date with more comprehensive information.
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