WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS

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From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)
Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: Introduction
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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4
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: 6/6/94]

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 and www 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 tyg@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.creative
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 original moderator was Brian Hughes. The
current moderator is "Scowling" Jim Cowling whose email address is
scowling@angmar.dataflux.bc.ca

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.creative: For the posting of fan fiction, such as stories
of the Legion of Net.Heroes and the Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade. The group's
charter states: This newsgroup is to be available for people who want to
post comic-related fiction and discussions about them. Writers are
encouraged to follow the existing continuity of the "universe" in which
their stories take place. (Writers can have their stories take place in a
"universe" that is entirely their own but this would mean that any
"cross-overs" with other storylines would have to be considered "out of
continuity".) This group is *not* intended as a place for posting stories
using current characters from actual comic books as this would constitute
trademark infringement.

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 dead, with the creation of r.a.c.creative. Due to
various factors which aren't worth going into here,
the group itself is unlikely to disappear. Don't
bother posting to it though.
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. to see the posts.

[end of part 1: introduction]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."
--Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach
tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info,rec.arts.comics.misc,rec.answers,news.answers

Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uunet!leafusa!tyg

From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: Glossary

Message-ID: <comics-faq-2-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

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Reply-To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Organization: Black Ink Irregulars

References: <comics-faq-1-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4

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: 11/10/94]

2. The USENET/ Rec.arts.comics lingo glossary:

Terms defined here (a + before a term indicates a changed definition, a *

indicates a new entry).

AOL

bandwidth

btw

CIS

FAQ

flame

flame war

FYI

IMHO

IMPO

kill file

LOL

newbie

ROFL

September

signal-to-noise ratio

SOL

Web

wrt

WWW

:-)

ashcan

*Bizarro Squiddy

CBG

comix

Crisis

CSN

dangling plotline/dangler

fanboy/fangirl/otaku

fourth wall

furry

JLA, JLE, JLI

LNH

LSH

PAD

patch

phonebook

pod person/pod

pogs/milk caps

post-Crisis

pre-Crisis

+retcon

spoiler

Squiddy

Suicide Squid

TMNT

xbooks

Zero Hour

General Usenet terms:

AOL = America On-Line, a commercial on-line service which provides Usenet

access.

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

CIS = Compuserve, a commercial on-line service which provides Usenet

access.

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

LOL = Laughing Out Loud. To the compiler of this FAQ, an unfortunate

migration from BBS land to indicate that you thought a post was

funny. See ROFL.

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.

ROFL = Rolling On Floor Laughing. To the compiler of this FAQ, an unfortunate

migration from BBS land to indicate that you thought a post was

*really* funny. See LOL.

September = Tradiationally the time the net sees an influx of newbies as

college freshlings get accounts. This is now distinguished as Actual

September (the actual month of September) and Virtual September, which

occurs when a pay service such as AOL or Compuserve causes a large

number of newbies to gain access to Usenet.

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

Web = See WWW

wrt = with respect to

WWW = World Wide Web, a hypertext linked system of information resources.

See part 5 of the Welcome message for more information.

:-) = a "smiley", used to indicate humor or sarcasm

Specific R.a.c terms:

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.

Bizarro Squiddy = The sillier and more net oriented annual r.a.c.

awards. See "Squiddy" for more detail. Formerly known as the

Alternative Squiddy, but changed to avoid confusion with

alt.comics.alternative

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/otaku = 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 = the popular DC super-hero groups "Justice League

America", "Justice League Europe", "Justice League International"

L* = Shorthand for the DC comic title Legionnaires, to distinguish it from

the title LSH.

LNH = Legion of Net Heroes, a parody of sorts of...

LSH = Legion of Super-heroes (a DC comic book)

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. It is

a shortening and, at times, a verbification of the Roy Thomas

popularized term "retroactive continuity". That term appears to

have first been used in a letter column in All-Star Squardron #18,

where Thomas writes that he heard it at a convention)

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

xbooks = comics in the X-Men family line

Zero Hour = DC Universe redefining mini-series. See the FAQ in part 3.

ZH = Zero Hour

[end of part 2]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."

-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach

tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uunet!leafusa!tyg

From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: FAQ

Message-ID: <comics-faq-3-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc

Originator: tyg@valhalla

Sender: usenet@HQ.Ileaf.COM

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Reply-To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Organization: Black Ink Irregulars

References: <comics-faq-1-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4

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: 10/24/94]

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's this about Sandman ending?

3. Who's this Cerebus character people post a lot about?

4. What was the Crisis on Infinite Earths?

5. What was Zero Hour?

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. Are there pros on the net?

18. What's the joke behind John Byrne's Next Men's letter column title?

19. Where can I get GIFs or other scanned comics art?

+20. What are the email addresses of comics companies?

21. What are the Ages of comics?

22. How do I become a pro comics writer or artist?

23. When is the 1995 San Diego Comics Convention?

24. Where can I buy original comics art?

25. What letter columns can I e-mail to?

26. What was the first #0 issue?

*27. Whatever happened to D'arc Tangent, Grimjack, Big Numbers, Miracleman,

Akira, and 1963?

28. What's this about X-Men being cancelled?

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

Batman: The Animated Series

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?

I'm leaving the current answer up for the next few months, until things

settle down around February. However, here's the current split status:

rec.arts.comics.alternative is going to a vote in late November.

A straw poll in November found strong support for creating DC and Marvel

groups, and majority support for Elfquest, Legion of Super-Heroes, and

Other-Media. Due to various deadline problems that you don't want to know

about unless you're a news.groups wonk, people are currently working to

craft an RFD (Request for Discussion) for all these to be posted in early

January, with the end of the vote on them expected in mid-February. If you're

interested in working on this, send email to tyg@hq.ileaf.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is a highly flammable topic of debate. Several dozen splits have been

suggested over the past few years. Only three (rac.strips, the rac re-org,

and rac.creative) 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 (define superhero. be aware that we've

got *lots* of ambiguous characters by any definition

so far).

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 until

they exhibit long term stability.

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)

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. And considerable work will be needed to

determine an appropriate charter for the group, since unlike a.c.a.,

rac.alternative would have an effect on the allowed contents of rac.misc.

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). If you want your proposal to have

a chance, it should meet the following criteria:

- Is the group easily and clearly defined (i.e. given any post, would it

go in the new group or an existing one)

- Is it sufficiently different from existing groups?

- Will a fair number of people *not* want to read the new group or stop

reading the old group it's split off from?

(there's no point in splitting off a new group if most people will

read both the old group and 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?

(Usenet reality is that groups aren't easy to get rid of, so groups

which are about transitory topics are unlikely to pass)

- Is there sufficient traffic already about the topic? (Usenet does not

work on the "Field of Dreams principle" of "If you build it they will

come". There has to be existing evidence of traffic)

- 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.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 other-media has any reasonable chance of succeeding at this time.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 were still being made in titles up to eight years after

the end of Crisis. 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 was said to be an attempt to "fix"

problems caused by Crisis and part of the McGuffin for Zero Hour was that

Crisis actually didn't end, and all continuity problems until ZH were symptoms

of this. (see next question).

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.

5. What was Zero Hour?

Zero Hour was intended to fix problems resulting from inconsistant

post-Crisis DC continuity. It was a five issue mini-series in summer 1994

which will cause price guides fits since the order of the issues was

#4, #3, #2, #1, #0. The month after Zero Hour, all mainstream DC Universe

books were #0 issues, making it even more fun for indexers.

The #0 issue had a timeline of the DC Universe which is considered

definitive. The end result of Zero Hour was the killing off and aging to

their proper age several Justice Society members, and a resetting of the

DC Universe such that it's much the same as the post-Crisis but with

"subtle differences". So far, the only specific differences stated are:

# It's no longer true that Batman has caught his parents' killer.

# Bruce Wayne did officially adopt Dick Grayson

# Dick Grayson had a traumatic experience in his early days as Robin

relating to failing to prevent someone being killed by Two-Face. This

seems to have caused a character change to his being much more self

doubting.

# Catwoman's origin was completed revamped in Catwoman #0. Changes include

her no longer having been a prostitute (which was itself a post-Crisis

retcon), her not having a sister, and not having been trained by Ted

(Wildcat) Grant.

# Legion of Super-Heroes/Legionnaires: both books have started over

completely from scratch, similar to the post-Crisis reboot of Superman and

Wonder Woman. Past continuity has some effect on the books, but the

writers are free to chuck it if they want to.

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 Jan Arrah, Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet (Legion of

Superheroes). It has also been suggested that the Amazons in WW are gay to

some extent. Watchmen had Silouette, Hooded Justice, Captain Metropolis, and

possibly others. Fighting American #6 has about the most unambiguous coming

out scene you're ever likely to see in a code-approved comic.

In the Vertigo line, there are numerous gay characters. Offhand, Hazel,

Foxglove, Judy, Cluracan, and Hal 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. Justice's father was gay, but in the main Marvel

timeline he closeted himself due to pressure/abuse from his father and

passed to the degree of marrying and having a kid.

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 gay.

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.

In DC Comics Presents #87 (Maggin written, Schwartz edited), Superman is

transported to Earth-Prime, which, pre-Crisis, was supposedly our Earth.

His thoughts are:

"The Earth's there all right...but everything's out of place! New York is

sprawled out all over where Gotham is supposed to be...Boston suburbs cover

Star City...and Metropolis is...Metropolis is nowhere to be seen!"

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 three San Diego

Comicon trivia contests has gone by the name of the Black Ink Irregulars

(and won all three 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

tyg@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".

As of August 1994, Baker stated that he only has one copy of it, and had

thought about reprinting it when he does a new book.

17. Are there pros on the net?

Yes.

Oh, you want details? OK, first let's get the three people who sometimes post

here who are likely to be mistaken for comics pros out of the way. If you see

a post by Art Adams, Kevin Maguire, or Michael Collins, as of the latest

update of this FAQ it is *not* by the comics creator of that same name, but

rather by people who happen to share the name in real life (i.e. they are not

trying to be confusing by assuming an alias).

The first pro on the net was probably Henry Vogel of the late, lamented,

Southern Knights. He's not been on for a few years, but one scene in the

Knights involving breaking into a computer used an r.a.c.er's name and site as

username and password.

For a number of years, the only pro on was Peter David. He's worked a number

of net references into his work, including a reference to Suicide Squid in the

dialogue of Spider-Man 2099 #20, page 3 and the following from one of his

Psi-Man books, 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 Jeff

Meyer and Jerry Boyajian have shown up as security guards in Classic Trek,

ST:TNG, ST:DS9, and the Hulk). It's considered bad form to ask for him to do

this for you.

Starting in late '93, a lot of other pros started coming onto the net, in

addition to a few others who came on after Peter but before then. A probably

incomplete list includes, in alphabetical order: Steve Addlesee, Bill Amend,

Kyle Baker, Steve Blevins, Tom Brevoort, Fred Burke, Louis Bright-Raven, Steve

Campbell, Dan Chichester, Steve Conley, Dwight Decker, Diane Duane, Mark

Evanier, Steve Gerber, Mike Heisler, Matt High, Jay Hosler, Marie Javins, Rich

Johnston, Jeff Lang, Jim Lee, Christian Lichtner, Steve Lieber, Roland Mann,

Tom Peyer, Richard Pini, Dave Rawson, Scott Saavedra, Walt Simonson, Garry

Trudeau, Gary Upshaw, Dan Vado, Martin Wagner, Mark Waid, Lawrence Watt-Evans,

Bob Wayne, Paul Witcover, and Wayne Wong. Neil Gaiman is occasionally

forwarded posts about Sandman, but is not directly on the net.

The following etiquette has developed around the presence of pros. First off,

they are under no more obligation to read or answer posts than any other

r.a.c.er. It's nice if they do, but they're not paid to do so any more than

anyone else here. It's also considered bad form to ask a question specifically

of a pro about a book or topic with which they have no special association.

For example, it's fine to ask Peter David a question about the Hulk since he

writes it, but not about the Superman books since he doesn't and hasn't

written them and has no special knowledge of them.

There are, unfortunately, fairly common debates about whether r.a.c.ers either

suck up to or gratuitously flame pros. Probably both are true to an extent. In

general, most r.a.c.ers feel that efforts should be made to treat pros the

same as other r.a.c.ers. Just as you wouldn't gush at or insult a non-pro

poster, you shouldn't do it just because the poster has had work published.

For pros who are both particularly active on r.a.c. and who generate a high

volume of queries or comments about their work, a convention has developed to

call their attention to such posts. Prefix the Subject: of such posts with

their initials or logins in all capital letters, followed by a colon. For

example, if you wanted to address a query to Peter David, you'd have:

Subject: PAD: When will Aquaman encounter Suicide Squid?

The ones this seems to happen with are:

Dan Chichester: DGCHI:

Peter David: PAD:

Mark Evanier: ME:

Steve Gerber: SG:

Steve Lieber: SL:

Mark Waid: MWAID: or WAID:

Dan Vado: DV: or DANSLAVE:

Finally, general compliments/fan mail should be sent to creators via email

rather than posted. Unless the post will be of interest to someone other than

you and the creator, it's bad netiquette to post rather than email.

18. 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?"

19. Where can I get JPEG/GIFs or other scanned comics art?

With a few exceptions (Generation X #1, Cerebus: Operation Crazed

Ferret, and Tom Tomorrow all described in Part 5 of these Welcome messages),

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. Before posting

about this or other copyright related issues, you are urged to read the

misc.legal copyright FAQ as past evidence has shown that most people do

*not* understand even the basics of copyright law, let alone the nuances.

Hint: If the words "Berne Convention" have no meaning to you and you're

not aware that under it any work is automatically copyrighted as soon as

it is in a fixed form, go read the FAQ first.

Note: there are people watching for this. An r.a.c.er got a cease and desist

email, with a cc: to Marvel, from a Berkeley Systems representative when he

posted images taken from Berkeley's Marvel Screen Saver.

Only images for which the copyright holder provided permission for posting

will be listed in the Welcome messages.

20. What are the email addresses of comics companies?

The following is an alphabetical list of either official company addresses or

addresses of someone who works at the company who's willing to accept email.

Antarctic Press can be reached at:

antarctic@delphi.com

Dark Horse Comics can be reached at:

dhc@teleport.com

DC Comics can be reached at:

dcconline@aol.com

Double Diamond Press can be reached at:

hepcats@eden.com

Harris Comics can be reached at:

smb25@columbia.edu

Image Comics can be reached at:

kellyimage@aol.com

Malibu Comics can be reached at:

rolandmann@aol.com

Marvel Comics can be reached at:

marvelcomics@genie.geis.com

Sky Comics can be reached at:

souder@rs4.tcs.tulane.edu

Slave Labor Graphics can be reached at:

danslave@aol.com

WaRP Graphics can be reached at:

rpini@delphi.com

Westfield Comics (subscription service) can be reached at:

JWEGERT@DELPHI.COM

will send a free catalog if you send name and address.

World Comics can be reached at:

megalon@teleport.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.

23. What are the Ages of comics?

If you read comics for any length of time, you'll encounter references to

Golden Age and Silver Age comics. While I'm personally fond of the science

fiction definition of Golden Age ("The Golden Age of science fiction is

twelve" i.e. whatever you read at that age was your Golden Age), in comics

it's generally used to refer to comics from the 30s and 40s and those

superhero comics that continued into the 50s. There is then a gap of a few

years with no real name for the comics published in that period. The Silver

Age is generally considered to have begun with either the first appearance

of the Martian Manhunter in Detective Comics, or the Barry Allen Flash in

Showcase, both around 1955. However, Marvel's Silver Age is considered to

start with the publication of Fantastic Four #1.

As for the ending date of the Silver Age, it gets fuzzy. Pretty much all of

the 60s and little of the 70s are included. Two events suggested for the

end of the Silver Age are Jack Kirby's move from Marvel to DC and Mort

Weisinger's retirement as editor of the Superman line.

There is no clearly defined Age after the Silver Age, although a number of

possibilities such as Platinum, Bronze, Independent, and (in more depressed

moments) Mylar have been suggested. A number of different events signifying

the start of new ages have also been suggested, such as Giant-Size X-Men #1

(new X-Men introduction), Cerebus and Elfquest #1 (start of major

groundlevel/self-publishing), Pacific Comics startup (first major independent

line), DC's Crisis, and even as late as Image Comics startup (first creator

owned books to fight it out with Marvel and DC for the top of the sales

charts). It can be amusing to chat about it, but it's doubtful that any real

conclusions will be reached; they haven't been so far, and there've been a

*lot* of iterations of this discussion over the years.

24. How can I become a pro comics writer or artist?

Let's start with the bad news. Right now, there are basically four ways

to become a pro comics writer.

1) Get a job with a comics company. This way, you'll know of needed stories

the day they're needed, the editors will know you, etc. Notice how many new

Marvel writers are Marvel assistant editors or have other jobs at Marvel?

2) Get a reputation for writing outside the comics field. DC seems more

open to this than other companies (Nancy Collins, Rachel Pollack, Lewis

Shiner, Paul Dini, Sam Hamm, etc.), but if Stephen King walked into Marvel

and said he wanted to write a comic, they'd fall over themselves getting

him one.

3) Learn to draw. Sort of like one, but wartists are becoming more and

more common these days. But see below for artists.

4) Start your own comic or comic company. Expect to lose money. But you'll

get to write your own comic without company constraints, and you'll have

a portfolio if you decide to go for the big time. And who knows; it might

even take off and make money. But don't count on it or quit your day job

until you're sure based on several issues worth of sales.

Notice that none of these say "Write up one page story submissions and

mail them to a company". To be blunt, in the current market, your odds of

getting in doing that are incredibly low. You might, and I'll be the first

to congratulate you if you can pull it off, but frankly the four ways

mentioned here are *much* more likely to succeed. And note that none of

them offer great odds either.

Becoming a pro comics artist is a lot easier, but still tough. As the old

joke about making chicken soup goes, first catch a chicken. Or in this case,

actually be able to draw at a professional level of quality. What you need

to do is make up a portfolio showing that you can draw comics, and not just

pin-ups. Do about 4-6 pages of storytelling, with multiple panels on the

pages showing that you can work with the flow of a story. Don't skimp on

backgrounds; show you can draw buildings, cars, trees, civilians not in skin

tight suits, etc. Also, when you do this, note your speed. If you can't draw

one professionally ready page per working day, you're too slow for a monthly

book. Keep this in mind when looking for work; you can kill your rep by

claiming to be much faster than you are and then blowing deadlines due to

the lie catching up with you.

Then you can either mail (photocopies) of your art to companies, or, if you

can, go to any major comics conventions in your area and show your work to

editors and possibly artists at the company tables. At the very least,

you'll get some useful criticism of your work. At the best, you may end up

getting an assignment.

There's also the Joe Kubert School in New Jersey, founded by long time

comics artist Joe Kubert. It's oriented towards producing comics artists,

and a number of alumni have gotten jobs in the industry. Doesn't hurt in

making contacts either.

* 25. When is the 1995 San Diego Comics Convention

The 1995 convention takes place July 27-30, and is the 26th anniversary

show. This is the largest comics convention in North America, with

literally thousands of pros, a huge dealer's room, and interesting

programming. Not to mention that the r.a.c. trivia team, the Black Ink

Irregulars, has won the trivia bowl the last three years, resulting in

two members being banned from the '95 competition (but it looks like we'll

be going up against a pro team as a special event)

San Diego Comic Convention

P.O. Box 128458

San Diego, CA 92112-8458

Tel: (619) 491-2475

Fax: (619) 544-0743

There is a World Wide Web page with up to the minute information at

http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/jtait/sdcc.html

(currently about the '94 con, but you can see the programming and

get a feel for the scope of the con)

(see part 5 of the Welcome messages for information about WWW)

26. Where can I buy original comics art?

OK, so strictly speaking, this isn't a FAQ. However, the following

strikes me as useful enough info to include here.

Four Color Images, the comic art gallery, sells original art by a large

number of comics artists. You can get a catalogue from them for $3

by writing: F.C.I., 524 Broadway, Suite 602, NYC, NY, 10012. Phone:

212-431-4234 (Prices range from $50 to $5,000)

27. What letter columns can I e-mail to?

DAREDEVIL: send to the writer, Dan Chichester, at dgchi@aol.com

Include "Red Lines" or "DD Letter Column" in the subject header.

Include real name and snail address.

DON SIMPSON'S BIZARRE HEROES: 73613.1376@compuserve.com

Note: the letters can be inserted directly from CIS into his publishing

program, so he requests that you include a greeting (Dear Don, etc.)

and use paragraphs and tabs, followed by your name and email address.

In other words, send email exactly as you'd like it to appear in the

letter column.

HAWKMAN: send to the artist, Steven Lieber, at 72674.2012@compuserve.com

Note: This costs Steve $.15 per message, which he's paying for himself,

so only send him publishable letters at this address.

HEPCATS: hepcats@eden.com

26. What was the first #0 issue?

Zap Comix #0 came out in the late 60s/early 70s. Apparently the art to what

would have been Zap #1 was stolen, and Robert Crumb did new art that became

the published Zap #1. The art was later recovered, and printed as Zap #0.

27. Whatever happened to D'arc Tangent, Grimjack, Big Numbers, Miracleman,

Akira, and 1963?

These are all series at least seemingly vanished without having actually

been cancelled, and in the midst of an active storyline. There are different

reasons for each.

D'ARC TANGENT: One issue of this came out back around 1982 from the team of

Phil Foglio, Connor Freff Cochran (who at the time went only by Freff), and

Melissa Singer. It was good and is missed. Foglio and Freff had a serious

falling out by the time of issue two, leading to lawyers. I won't try to

explain that, as both sides still have very different explanations. Instead,

here's the current, legally determined, status. Foglio has rights to do a DT

comic as of April 20, 1995. DT ideas from Freff and Singer are not to be

used. Should there be a movie, Freff and Singer control any comic book

adaptation of it. Freff has original novel rights, and Singer has all

secondary rights. As of 1993, Freff was working on DT screenplays, but I've

no further knowledge of this. As of late 1994, Foglio stated not to expect

any D'arc Tangent work from him until at least after the current 8 issue

Buck Godot series wraps up, as he's busy with that, Xxxenophile, and doing

work for the Magic:The Addiction people.

GRIMJACK: Creator John Ostrander would like to start up Grimjack again, but

the rights are held by what's left of First Comics after various corporate

buyouts and mergers. He's said that he gets the rights back after five years

without publication though. There may also be a question about the ownership

of Cynosure, since it was both created by someone else, and used extensively

within the First "universe". Cynosure is also the name of a new comic by

completely separate people, so it's not even clear what the trademark status

is. On the other hand, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is currently

working on a script for a Grimjack feature film. It'll be an adaptation of

the Demon Wars/Dancer storyline, and JMS plans to be as true to the source

as possible. He's a long time comics fan and should do a good job.

BIG NUMBERS: Two issues of the twelve issue series came out, written by Alan

Moore and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz. It's unclear whether #3 with art by

Sienkiewicz was completed or not. At any rate, the book went on hiatus in

order to build up inventory. Sienkiewicz left the project, and was replaced

by his former assistant Al Columbia. Columbia apparently finished the art

for one issue, and then destroyed it (the two most common stories are either

he burned it or tore it up and make a collage out of it). Moore would like

to see it finished, but hasn't found an artist for it.

MIRACLEMAN: Was published by Eclipse Comics, which basically disentegrated

for both market and personal reasons. The problem is that Miracleman is

owned by a combination of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham (most recent

creators, and owners of Alan Moore's original share), Eclipse (which is

apparently about to go bottom up as a company), and possibly by the original

British publisher although the last is less certain. At any rate, in order

for it to be published again, all owners would have to agree as to where,

when, and under what terms. This is unlikely to happen any time soon.

AKIRA: According to its US editor, Marie Javins, Akira #34-38 will be

monthly and finish in mid-'95. #38 is half story and half pinups. #39 #39 is

a tribute issue by Western artists and writers, including Moebius, Mark

Texeira, Alex Toth, Kent Williams.

1963: The mini-series finished, and was supposed to be wrapped up in an

80-page Giant with artwork by the Image founders as the 1963 characters

crossed over with the present day Imageverse. This hasn't happened, and it

is rumored that the delays lie with the artwork. It's not on the schedule,

and no one seems to know when or if it'll be coming out. Meanwhile, the

1963 characters were used in an issue of Shadowhawk.

27. What's this about X-Men being cancelled?

Marvel has announced that it's "discontinuing" all the current X-Men family

titles in January and replacing them with new ones set in an alternative

world based on a changed event of 20 years ago. Rumor has it that the books

will revert back to normal after four months, possibly with spun-off new

series set in the alternative world, and possibly taking advantage to make

some changes/patches/retcons to X-continuity. Peter David has called this

"Xerox Hour" after DC's recently completed Zero Hour, along with an X pun.

The books affected and their "replacement" titles are:

X-Men => Mutants

Uncanny X-Men => Uncanny Mutants

Wolverine => Weapon X

X-Factor => Factor-X

Excalibur => X-Calibre

X-Force => Gambit and the X-Ternals

Generation X => Generation Next

X-Men Unlimited => X-Men Chronicles

Cable => X-Man

All of the replacements start at #1. X-Force's replacement was originally

called X-Posse, but due to everyone's reaction being "You're kidding,

right?" it will have a different title of Gambit And The X-Ternals.

Generation Next was originally New Mutants #101, but was changed for

unknown reasons.

Discussion of this event should take place on rec.arts.comics.xbooks only.

For at least the time being, its name will *not* be changed to

rec.arts.comics.mbooks. :-)

[end of part 3]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."

-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach

tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uunet!leafusa!tyg

From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: Netiquette

Message-ID: <comics-faq-4-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

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Reply-To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Organization: Black Ink Irregulars

References: <comics-faq-1-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4

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: 9/6/94]

4. guidelines for posting articles

Lesson 1. This is Usenet. It is not AOL. It is not Compuserve. It is not

a BBS. You are posting to/reading a newsgroup, not a bboard, not a board,

not a base, etc. It is your responsibility to learn the customs of your

new environment. Practices which may be accepted on BBSes, AOL, Compuserve,

local systems, etc. may not be here. And there's usually a good reason.

First, if you haven't already done so, go read the articles in the newsgroup

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) Posting For Sale ads anywhere but r.a.c.marketplace.

3) Quoting an entire article being responded to.

a) And only adding what amounts to "I dis/agree" or "Me too!" at the end

b) Quoting less than the entire article, but not by much.

c) Quoting a .sig without commenting on it.

4) Posting what should have been email.

More generally:

* 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 Foo 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 Foo; 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.

The rule of thumb here is to think about whether anyone outside of yourself

and the person you're responding to would have any interest in your post.

There is no reason to subject the thousands of other readers to general

interest content free posts consisting entirely of "Thank you", "I liked

your post", etc. If only the person you're responding to would be interested,

email, don't post.

* 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 r.a.c. 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.

jrd@frame.com

[end of Part 4]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."

--Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach

tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uunet!leafusa!tyg

From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: FTP Resources

Message-ID: <comics-faq-5-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc

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Reply-To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Organization: Black Ink Irregulars

References: <comics-faq-1-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 23:54:34 GMT

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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4

Archive-name: comics/faq/part5

WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.COMICS (part 5 of 7: ftp and WWW resources)

written by lots of different people

edited by Paul A. Estin 1990-1993

Tom Galloway 1993-present

[last update: 9/12/94]

Note: I plan to radically change this part, probably by next month

and possibly affecting Part 6 as well. Instead of classifying by

sites then contents, I plan to change it to contents, then sites.

So, for example, you'd see

SANDMAN:

Annotations ftp to foo.bar, directory /pub/comics/sandman

I think this will make this section a lot easier to use. Comments

are welcome.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW THIS MONTH: 2000AD Mailing list archives

Sandman WWW site

Dilbert & Dr. Fun on the Web

Generation X #1

Cerebus WWW page

Shawn Petren's comics WWW page

Forbidden Planet Review WWW page

UPDATED THIS MONTH:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

5. FTP and WWW 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 ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com

and ftpmail@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 ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com

Subject: <return>

help <return>

quit <return>

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" <nobody@pa.dec.com>

To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com

Subject: your ftpmail request has been received

We processed the following input from your mail message:

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.

The following is an edited by tyg write up by Marty Ward on the World Wide

Web (WWW). Recently, a number of r.a.c.ers have been setting up WWW

accessible means of information, thus a brief intro into what this is all

about is in order.

The WWW project started by CERN seeks to build a world wide distributed

hypermedia system. With hypermedia, it's possible to "click on" an object to

traverse a link to where more information about that object is located.

To access the Web, you need a browser program. The browser can read

hypertext documents and can access documents from other sources by

traversing links and accessing files by ftp, (Usenet) news, gopher, and

other methods. By selecting an object with a link, you can view text and,

depending on your browser, possibly related sound and images as well.

In order to start traversing the web, you need the name of a place, or page,

in the WWW to go to using your browser. Locations in the WWW are called

Uniform Resource Locators or URLs, which are a standard for specifying an

object on the Internet, such as a file. They look like the following:

gopher://gopher.internet.com/msdos/text/manual1

ftp://ftp.sun.com:1100/pub/games/trek

http://info.cern.ch:80/start.html

The first part, before the colon, specifies the access method, e.g. a

gopher, ftp, or hypertext document (http). The second part is specific to

the access method, and in general, two slashes after the colon indicate a

machine name, e.g. gopher.internet.com.

There are two main browsers; Mosaic and lynx. Mosaic is the more powerful

of the two, and is how you can view images and hear sounds on your screen.

However, this requires a fairly major Internet connection. If on a dialup

connection or account, lynx is a browser which works with the text

components of the web.

In general, you should ask your local sysadmin about what WWW browser(s)

your site has, and where to get more information about how to use them.

However, the basics of using Mosaic are simple enough to include here.

Mosaic will open as a window called "Document View". It will have four pull

down menus to use: File, Options, Navigate, and Annotate. Under "File",

select "Open URL" and type in the URL of the file you want to view. See

below for some comics-related documents and their URLs. Under "Navigate"

you can select "Add Current to Hotlist" to add the current file (document)

to your hotlist. Then you can select "Hotlist" and select from a listing of

all the documents that you have viewed and added, saving you from having to

type in that URL each time you want to access it.

For lynx, just type the command lynx, followed by the URL you want to

connect to.

If you need more help, a great newsgroup to post questions to is

comp.infosystems.www

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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?

[9/94]

Marvel has put GIFs of all story pages of Generation X #1 on the net for

FTP. They're available at alpha.vyne.com in directory pub/marvel

Warning: this site has an almost unbelievably slow transfer rate, and

it will literally take several hours to get all 40 or so files transfered.

[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).

It is also available on WWW via the URL of:

http://student.dhhalden.no/studenter/jonal/Comics/rac.home.html

The administrator is Jon Lovstad <jonal@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 cerebus.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:

ftpserv@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: starback@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: goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb)

[10/93]

Sandman annotations by Greg Morrow (morrow@fnal.fnal.gov)

Books of Magic annotations by David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu)

Watchmen annotations by Doug Atkinson (douga@yang.earlham.edu)

Suicide Squid discussions (all Suicide Squid posts from Day One; LONG)

David Wald (wald@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 WWW: http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~wald/comics.html

(note: no markup on the files, but some may prefer the Web interface)

BY EMAIL: send mail containing the line "send wald sandman/filename" to

archive-server@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

davidc@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

[6/94]

Comic Ground: source of uploaded art, scripts, etc. by wannabe comics

creators on the net.

Artists can place files on the Comic Ground ftp/gopher site. Writers can put

sample scripts in the 'Writers' directory. Letterers can put samples of

their lettering in the 'Letterers' directory, etc.. You can put anything

from requests for collaboraters, to work fragments, to full works of art.

(I am not responsible for copyright infringements! I suggest using sample

fragments.)

To *view* the stuff on the Comic Ground, you should use gopher or a

World Wide Web client (such as NCSA Mosaic). The gopher site is

cerebus.acusd.edu, and it's in the 'Comics' folder, and then the 'Comic

Ground' folder. If you're familiar with this stuff, you can use the

following gopher info:

Type=1

Name=Comic Ground

Path=1ftp:pub:Comics:Comic Ground:

Host=cerebus.acusd.edu

Port=70

Using a World Wide Web client, use the URL

gopher://cerebus.acusd.edu:70/11ftp:pub:Comics:Comic Ground:

To *put* stuff on the Comic Ground, you'll need to use FTP. FTP to

cerebus.acusd.edu.

cd Comics

cd "Comic Ground" <--- if you can't handle spaces, use 'cd Comic*'

cd artist <--- replace 'artist' with the name of the

folder that corresponds to the type of art

you're putting here: 'Writer', 'Penciler', etc.

put filename <--- replace 'filename' with the name of the

file you want to put here.

If you can't FTP, you can e-mail me the file. Make sure you give me

enough information to know why you're sending me the file, and where you

want me to put it! E-mail to me at jerry@teetot.acusd.edu.

If you have suggestions for the Comic Ground, send them!

Jerry Stratton

jerry@teetot.acusd.edu

[?]

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

[5/94]

Marty Ward, 860099w@dragon.acadiau.ca has a general comics WWW page. The link

to it is:

http://dragon.acadiau.ca:1667/~860099w/comics/comics.html

[5/94]

Johann Beda also has a general comics WWW page. The link to it is:

http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~jb2561/comic.html

[9/94]

Kurt Adam's comics WWW page is at:

http://www.vt.edu:10021/cns/mage/comic.html

[9/94]

Shawn Petren's comics WWW page is at:

http://gopher.cs.uofs.edu/users/user1/student/jmp14/Ward/ward.html

[9/94]

There is a Cerebus WWW home page at:

http://iridium.astro.ubc.ca/~holland/cerebus.html

[9/94]

There is a reviews and other comics WWW page at:

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/mmm/ReviewsFromTheForbiddenPlanet.html

[5/94]

Krazy Kat resources available via WWW can be found:

For those of you looking for the "Krazy Kat Indeterminate Gender" article,

you can get it at...

http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/pop-cult.194.html/start.html

This is an article written by Elisabeth Crocker for the journal Postmodern

Culture v.4, n.2. This article is part of a Krazy Kat Hypermedia Project

(I assume this article is the home page of the project as there is no

indicator to a specific home page.) At the bottom, click on the "About"

icon to find out about the KK project, which says it is in development.

Two other icons at the bottom go to two KK strips and there is some

analysis of each 9-paneled strip.

Krazy Kat WWW pages are also available via Marty's page listed above,

and via going through Marty's page to Ken Small's Comic Page

[5/94]

Vernon Harmon has created an Legion of Super-Heroes page, linked to an

Omnicon (on-line LSH apa) Archives, Omnicom-info page, LSH FAQ, and a

Who's Who page. Vernon can be reached at

Vernon_Harmon@PROBACTO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU

The LSH page's URL is:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/afs/cs/user/vernon/www/lsh.html

[5/94]

There is a Mutant web server at:

URL="http://quercas.santarosa.edu/x"

[9/94]

There is a Sandman WWW site at:

http://www.uq.oz.au/mecheng/home/sandman.html

[9/94]

Dilbert and Dr. Fun (the latter a net only strip) can be found at:

http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/news/comix/index.html

[6/94]

Operation: Crazed Ferret is a lot of scans, animations, and morphs from

Cerebus the Aardvark. While normally such would be illegal and not listed

here, this project has the blessing of Cerebus' creator and publisher Dave

Sim. This is long, as there're a lot of different formats and locations of

the material.

Ferret Goes Morphin' is an animation based on Cerebus Walking on the Moon in

Cerebus 108, and Astoria's Trial in Cerebus 99. There is also a morph of

Gerhard to Dave, as well as associated sound files. Technical stuff on

Ferret Goes Morphin':, at last count, there were 119 frames, but it's

actually 23 sec. @ 5 f.p.s. (frames/second). You don't want to know why

the math doesn't work out. :) It's like 2.7 MB uncompressed, and fits on a

disk compressed (but only just). It's available at:

asylum.sf.ca.us

/pub/cerebus/incoming

373372 dave-ger.morph.hqx

1892676 ferret-goes-morphin.sea.hqx

6761 morphin.readme

The Macintosh and other versions of the Crazed Ferret animations are

officially available for ftp at the following sites:

asylum.sf.ca.us

/pub/cerebus/crazed-ferret (original QT and AVIs)

/pub/cerebus/incoming (morphs, gifs, MPEGs, Free)

Eventually, all files will be in crazed-ferret.

sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/multimedia/pictures/OTIS/animations/sim

aql.gatech.edu:/pub/OTIS/animations/sim

The relevant QT files are:

"A Well-Equipped Bar" Cerebus animation

1745002 bar2.qt.sea.hqx

"Add One Mummified Bat" Cerebus animation

1943167 bat2.qt.sea.hqx

A morph of Gerhard and Dave Sim, creators of Cerebus

373372 dave-ger.morph.hqx

"His First Sword" Cerebus animation"

1910410 sword2.qt.sea.hqx

"Ferret Goes Morphin'," the Cerebus Morph animation

1892676 ferret-goes-morphin.sea.hqx

Docs, fancy MS Word doc, and vanilla ascii, couple of Pict files

167212 ferret.docs.cpt.hqx

What to do with the bloody things once you've got them :) Ascii.

4531 ferret.readme

Doc describing the Cerebus morph animations.

6761 morphin.readme

At some sites, the '2' in the file names has been dropped.

Thanks to John Romkey, the Crazed Ferret files are available for DOS

machines (Windows), via ftp from the following location:

asylum.sf.ca.us:

/pub/cerebus/crazed-ferret

4489082 bar.avi

4669922 bat.avi

21369 cerebus.ps (PostScript version of the docs)

4531 ferret.readme

4553846 sword.avi

475770 vfwrun.zip (Video For Windows software)

/pub/cerebus/incoming

571834 qtw.exe (a DOS program to view QT files)

The animation files are sword.avi, bat.avi and bar.avi. They should be

transferred in image/binary mode. John also put up cerebus.ps, a postscript

version of the Mac Word document, and got ahold of vfwrun.zip, a ZIP archive

with Microsoft's runtime Video For Windows viewer.

We're now available via gopher and the World Wide Web (yeah!).

For Gopher, this from Ed Stasny, Most Holy OTISmeister:

You can GOPHER to sunsite.unc.edu and trickle down into the OTIS

archives by taking the menu-lar route of:

World of Sunsite

Browse All Sunsite

Multimedia

Pictures

OTIS

The WELL gopher (gopher.well.sf.ca.us) has a link to the aql.gatech.edu

gopher archives of OTIS, but doesn't always work for some reason.

Other OTIS gophers ('x' means I've confirmed them):

calypso.oit.unc.edu x

gopher.technet.sg

gopher.cic.net

gopher.ee.pdx.edu x

gopher.usask.ca (Canada) x

ftp.technion.ac.il (Israel ?)

wachau.ai.univie.ac.at (Austria)x

These will all show up on a JUGHEAD search for 'otis'. When you've fetched

the site, go into 'animations', and then 'sim', and fetch the files.

And here's Simon Boyle -- who's not affiliated with OTIS, but is taking it

upon himself to set up web access for comix stuff -- on tangling the Earth

Pig into the World Wide Web:

The Animated cerebus will be available immediately from

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/cerebus/crazed-ferret/cerebus.html

which will also provide a mirror for some of the other files at

file://asylum.sf.ca.us/pub/cerebus/

This is in progress. The QT files have been renamed to please

Mosaic (e.g. sword.qt becomes sword.mov, .mov is a common

extension many QT applications use and recognize).

OTIS, of course, is also on WWW, http://sunsite.unc.edu/otis/otis.html

the link to Crazed Ferret is:

http://sunsite.unc.edu/otis/ftp/animations/sim

There is also a Crazed Ferret WWW page at:

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/cerebus/crazad-ferret/cerebus.html

There are now MPEGs available of Animated Cerebus and Ferret Goes A

Morphin':

asylum.sf.ca.us

/pub/cerebus/incoming

485778 Ferret-Morph.75.MPG

232354 bar.color.70.MPG

251969 bat.color.70.MPG

245143 sword.color.70.MPG

The MPEGs are of smaller frame size and come with no sound, and the Animated

Cerebus movies are missing the headers and trailer portions.

For the MPEGs, the standard viewer mpeg_play works just fine. The average

frame speed with mpeg_play on a Sparc 10 is 4 f.p.s., or approximately the

original QuickTime speed. There is no fixed frame rate for an MPEG stream

so the speed will vary from machine to machine.

-=FREE Ferret=-

The disk sets are still available from me, but you're on the internet,

you're supposed to get it free! But, if for whatever reason, you still want

this, see the "mail-pak" info below, and e-mail me. I'll send you an

address and have a chance to talk you out of it. >B^) >B^)

The earlier DOS version of Free Ferret is currently available from Asylum:

asylum.sf.ca.us, login anonymous

/pub/cerebus/incoming/

23776 freecerb.a01

1456462 freecerb.arj

These are "arj" archives of GIFs, and a DOS program to view them. But, they

can be viewed on any platform that can do a "slide show."

But a newer, improved version will soon be available. The main difference

is higher quality scans and re-done text to make use of Dave's great

lettering:

>From Michael Lamps <mlamps@smtplink.rockford.edu>:

The new scans for Free Cerebus are almost done and they look great!

640 x 480 never looked so good ;-) As of now, Free Cerebus, Version

1.2, will be mostly in 640 x 480 grey scale. So, Free Cerebus will be

done soon. The new version will use Dave's lettering from the original

Free Cerebus (with some modifications). It looks like the new version

will take up 3-4 megs, but it will be worth it!

I will provide a "Macintized" version of this at some point. I had

thought perhaps to do it HyperCard, but the best might be a WWW page,

since it's available to all platforms. We'll see.

-=GIFs at Asylum=-

A number of Cerebus pics from various sources are available from asylum:

asylum.sf.ca.us:/pub/cerebus/incoming

162257 ascend.gif

61807 cer1st.gif

319123 cercrt1.gif

145983 cercrt2.gif

236013 cerdream.gif

79548 cerebu01.gif

122443 cerebu02.gif

162230 cerfly.gif

129653 cerjaka1.gif

134376 cerkil1.gif

132722 cerkil3.gif

121263 cerprmo1.gif

72157 cersleep.gif

232453 crberka.gif

191040 liljaka.gif

111040 sandrch.gif

[7/94]

San Diego Comic-Con is the largest con in the US, coming up August 4-7.

There's a WWW home page with information from the latest mail update, as

well as late breaking news, at the URL of:

http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/jtait/sdcc.html

[8/94]

Archives of the 2000AD mailing list (British comic starring Judge Dredd

and where much of DC's Brit Pack got their start) are available at

ftp.thepoint.com in directory /pub/text/2000ad

[end of part 5]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."

-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach

tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uunet!leafusa!tyg

From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: Email and Other Net Resources

Message-ID: <comics-faq-6-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc

Originator: tyg@valhalla

Sender: usenet@HQ.Ileaf.COM

Nntp-Posting-Host: valhalla

Reply-To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Organization: Black Ink Irregulars

References: <comics-faq-1-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 23:54:39 GMT

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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4

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: 9/19/94]

6. e-mail and other net.resources for comics information or discussion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW THIS MONTH: Phantom FAQ, Prince Valiant Index

UPDATED: X-Mush location

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 tyg@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)

[9/94]

[Note: UIndiana has discontinued their former post-by-mail service

referenced here]

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-comics-misc@cs.utexas.edu

[and similarly for the other r.a.c.* groups. Note that "."s should be

changed to "-"s in the group name for the address]

Other sites, with different address formats, are:

rec.arts.comics.misc-news@newbase.cs.yale.edu

rec.arts.comics.misc@decwrl.dec.com

to receive r.a.c.* by email in digest form, for people without a

newsreader, contact:

[6/94] Jimmy Aitken

jimmy@pyramid.com

jimmy@pyra.co.uk

[3/93] MJ Dominus "I don't guarantee anything."

mjd@saul.cis.upenn.edu

[10/93]

results of past years' rec.arts.comics polls of favorites from 1990-2

Mickey McCarter

mickey@bach.udel.edu

[6/94]

To Protect and Preserve: how to protect comics from damage

Grading Guide: how to grade comics correctly

Paul Adams

paul@erc.msstate.edu

[9/94]

the Legion of Net.Heroes FAQ (LNH) (also available via FTP, see part 5)

barnejd@wkuvx1.wku.edu

[8/94]

the rec.arts.comics.marketplace FAQ

Jim Cowling

scowling@angmar.dataflux.bc.ca

[3/94]

Canonical List of X-Men Dangling Plotlines

Paul O'Brien

prob@festival.ed.ac.uk, elfu43@srv0.law.ed.ac.uk

[5/94]

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]

Star Wars comics checklist [Star Wars comics (1977-present)]

Mark Martinez

mlbm@lanl.gov

[5/94]

X-Men History and Character List

Martin Phipps

cxmp@musica.mcgill.ca

[5/94]

Hispanic Supers List

jorge@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 (scav@eyrie.stanford.edu)

[9/94]

Canonical List of Excalibur Dangling Plotlines

Alan Davis comicography

Joe Helfrich

jbh@eden.rutgers.edu

[5/92]

Eddie Campbell Index

Marcus Brazil

matmnb@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

jimdean@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

jrd@frame.com

[6/94]

Prisoner mini-series archive

Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer

INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM

UUCP: {uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty

[9/94]

list of the episodes of the Flash TV series

Ernie Oporto

Ernie_Oporto@Warren.MENTORG.COM

[1/94]

James "Starchild" Owen interview

Jeff "Bone" Smith interview

Teri "Wandering Star" Wood interview

Martin "Hepcats" Wagner interview

Comic Book company addresses

USA r.a.c. comics store reviews

non-USA r.a.c. comics store reviews

Geoffrey R. Mason

jrm@elm.circa.ufl.edu

[11/94]

Phantom FAQ - Info about the Phantom comic strip & reprints.

Prince Valiant Index - History of the P.V. Sunday strip, excerpted from

my book "The Prince Valiant Companion."

Todd Goldberg

thg@vm.temple.edu

[4/94]

Gary Reed's Self Publishing Guide (originally from Cerebus #171)

Glenn Carnegy

lf7z@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

jym@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

jrm@elm.circa.ufl.edu

[5/94]

Batman: The Animated Series FAQ.

Contains cast list and credits, episode guide, guide to BTAS comic

book stories, guide to merchandise, and upcoming episodes and

scheduling information.

Jacob Huebert

aa363@yfn.ysu.edu

[5/94]

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 #elfquest channel has a fair number of Elfquest

fans.

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-ftp.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-ftp.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.

[5/94]

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 139.78.9.1 2996

telnet muds.okstate.edu 2996

The 139.78.9.1 is the machine address, and 2996 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]

Two Moons Elfquest MUSH

Located at lupine.org 4201 It's suggested you login as "Guest guest" to use

a Guest character at first. There's a mailing list for this MUSH which can

be subscribed to by sending "subscribe twomoons-l <your name>" to

listserv@char.vnet.net To post, email twomoons-l@char.vnet.net And to

unsubscribe, send the message "unsubscribe twomoons-l" from the same address

as your subscription.

[4/94]

Children of the Fall Elfquest MUSH

Located at children.lupine.org 2112 in the US and holly.ludd.luth.se 2222

in Sweden, it is up but as of late April character creation was not

enabled at either site.

[9/94]

X-Men MUSH

X-MUSH is at xmen.esi.com 1994. To apply for a character, write to

x-apps@xmen.esi.com with a brief character description, an overview of the

character (personality, big fights in the past, things like that) and if you

play other MUSHes, a list of your most prominent characters. There are now

guest characters as well.

[7/94]

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 domi@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 Dominique_Dumont@grenoble.hp.com if there are

any problems.

[7/94]

Tim Stroup, stroup@univrs.decnet.lockheed.com, is coordinating a grand

online comics database, with help from the Bay Area Comicbook Klub and

APA-Index. Email him for details on the project.

[end of part 6]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."

-- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach

tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info,rec.arts.comics.misc,rec.answers,news.answers

Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uunet!leafusa!tyg

From: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Subject: Welcome to rec.arts.comics: Mailing Lists

Message-ID: <comics-faq-7-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc

Originator: tyg@valhalla

Sender: usenet@HQ.Ileaf.COM

Nntp-Posting-Host: valhalla

Reply-To: tyg@hq.ileaf.com (Tom Galloway)

Organization: Black Ink Irregulars

References: <comics-faq-1-786412183@hq.ileaf.com>

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 23:54:43 GMT

Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU

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Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4

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: 10/21/94]

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 "+"

General Comics Mailing Lists:

*alt.comics.alternative digest of posts to alt.comics.alternative newsgroup

COMICS-L: a listserv discussion list

comix: "non-mainstream" comics

Comic Art Studies: newsletter of the Michigan State University Library

comics collection

Fit To Print: Cat Yronwode's CBG column

New Comics: what's scheduled to come out this week.

*Prophet's Wisdom reviews by John Holbrook

Specific Topic Mailing Lists (alphabetical order)

2000AD: discussion of the British weekly comic (Judge Dredd and

others)

Bone: discussion of Jeff Smith's Bone comic

Cerebus: discussion about the short grey aardvark.

COMICW-L comic writers workshop

Dilbert: newsletter from Dilbert creator Scott Adams

Disney comics: discussion of comics featuring Disney characters.

Elfquest: discussion of Elfquest and related WaRP titles

Gunk'l'dunk: moderated newsletter for fans of Tales Of The Beanworld

*Gutters discussion of comics art illustration topics

Kryptonian Cybernet: electronic magazine about Superman

Legion-L Legion of Super-Heroes mailing list

Lois&Clark: discussion of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of

Superman tv show.

Modesty Blaise: discussion of Modesty Blaise comics strip and novels.

+Omnicom: the online Legion of Super-Heroes APA (LSH mailing list)

Poison Elves: discussion of Drew Hayes' Poison Elves, formerly I,

Lusiphur

Small Press: discussion of being a small publisher (not just of

comics)

Stripe: Rogue fan club

Superguy: Interactive adventure fiction

Valiant Visions: discussion of Valiant Comics.

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.

alt.comics.alternative a.c.a. newsgroup posts via email digest

For those whose site doesn't carry alt.comics.alternative, or who

prefer email digests to newsgroups, Glenn Carnagey has set up a service

which regularly emails 26 or fewer a.c.a. articles per digest, sorted

by Subject:. Each digest starts with a Table of Contents of the Subject:

lines and instructions on how to post to a.c.a. via email. To subscribe,

mail to: grun@wimpy.cpe.uchicago.edu

COMICS-L a listserv discussion list

To subscribe, send a request to: listserv@unlvm.unl.edu

(address of list itself: Comics-L@unlvm.unl.edu or Comics-L@unlvm.BITNET)

comix "non-mainstream" comics mailing list

To subscribe: comix-request@world.std.com

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

cooganpe@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.

Fit to Print

FtP is a column by Cat Yronwode published weekly in the Comics Buyer's

Guide. It's also sent out by email the same week it's published in CBG,

usually on Fridays.

To subscribe, send mail to gpallen@bgnet.andy.bgsu with "Subscribe FtP"

as the Subject: and your email address as the body of the text.

New Weekly Releases

Early each week Lance Smith posts what Dreamhaven Book's distributor,

Capital City, has said to expect to be shipped that week. This may not

match up exactly to what your store gets, particularly if it uses a

different distributor. To receive this information by email, send a

request to Chris Conway at wombat@aquilagroup.com

Prophet's Wisdom

A weekly comic book review column which examines new releases of the week

from several different publishers, mostly mainstream. To subscribe, send

email to jbh@mail.msen.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. To subscribe, mail to:

mailserv@thepoint.com

with the body of your message consisting of:

sub thrillpower your-email-address-here

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.ers

and many creators.

To be added to the list send email to:

majordomo@erzo.berkeley.edu

with the phrase:

subscribe bone your-email-address-here

in the body of the letter (not the subject).

Cerebus mailing list

To subscribe: mail majordomo@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 cerebi@erzo.berkeley.edu

COMICW-L

A small workshop list for people who want to be comics writers. This is

limited to at most thirteen people. Members are required to submit

proposals, synopses, and scripts. They are also required to critique

everyone else's submissions.

If you're interested in joining COMICW-L, send email to Bill Hayes at:

ianr0@unlvm.unl.edu

Dilbert

This is an irregularly scheduled newsletter about Dilbert done by

Dilbert creator Scott Adams. It is not a discussion list.

To subscribe to the Dilbert List send e-mail to

dilbert-request@internex.net

and include ONLY the exact message below in the body of your message

(except put your real name instead of Joe Blow). Your e-mail address

will be picked up automatically, so you need not specify it.

subscribe dilbert_list Joe Blow

To unsubscribe, do the same thing except the message should be:

unsubscribe dilbert_list

Frequency is whenever Scott feels like it, roughtly 2-3 times a year.

Disney comics mailing list

To subscribe, send mail to:

disney-comics-request@student.docs.uu.se

Elfquest

A mailing list for Elfquest fans. Richard Pini is active on it

and messages posted here have appeared in the various Elfquest

titles' letter pages. To subscribe, send the message

subscribe equest-l <your name>

to listserv@psuvm.psu.edu

To post, mail to EQUEST-L@psuvm.psu.edu

Gunk'l'dunk

A moderated newsletter for fans of Tales Of The_Beanworld

Contact jeremy@stat.cmu.edu

Gutters

GUTTERS is for the discussion of issues related to creating comics art

illustration, including comic books, comic strips, minicomics, multi-panel

narratives, and any 'etceteras'. To subscribe, send a message with a blank

Subject: line and a body of

subscribe gutters Firstname Lastname

to listproc@pwa.acusd.edu.

You will be subscribed to the mailing list, and sent a Welcome file that

includes Frequently Asked Questions. If you want to get the FAQ before

subscribing, send the following message instead:

get gutters faq

When you actually subscribe, send mail for discussion to the address:

gutters@pwa.acusd.edu

Send questions to me: jerry@pwa.acusd.edu

Kryptonian Cybernet

A "magazine" about Superman. To subscribe send e-mail to

sykes@ms.uky.edu

with no body and a subject line which reads:

KC: subscribe

Legion-L

Another Legion of Super-Heroes mailing list. To subscribe, send

mail to:

legion-l-request@netcom.com

Maintainer is Don Hearth at hearth@netcom.com

Lois & Clark

To subscribe, send mail to:

listserv@vm3090.ege.edu.tr

with no subject and:

SUB LOISCLA <your name>

as the only text. To get a digest instead of individual messages, include

SET LOISCLA DIGEST

under the SUB command in the message. Run by tara@hydra.unm.edu

Modesty Blaise

Discussion of Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise comic strip and books.

To subscribe, send mail to:

modesty-blaise-request@math.uio.no

Omnicom

Online Legion of Super-Heroes mailing list. To subscribe, send

your email address and a subscription request to:

omnicom-list-request@andrew.cmu.edu

Run by Vernon H Harmon vh00+@andrew.cmu.edu

The Omnicom list also supports a digest of all LSH-related

rec.arts.comics.misc posts as culled by Greg Morrow.

Subscriptions to the digest are also obtained by mailing:

omnicom-list-request@andrew.cmu.edu.

Poison Elves

Mailing list for fans of Poison Elves, formerly I, Lusipher, by

Drew Hayes. To subscribe, send mail to:

n8943689@henson.cc.wwu.edu

Small Press mailing list

To subscribe send mail to:

small-press-request@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. You may

also want to check out the newsgroup alt.zines.

Stripe

The mailing list for the Rogue (X-Men character) on-line fan club.

To subscribe, send the message:

subscribe stripe-l

end

To:

listserv@netcom.com

The "end" will keep the list server from choking if a .sig is automatically

added to your mail. To post to the list, mail to:

stripe-l@netcom.com

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:

listserv@ucf1vm.cc.ucf.edu

Submissions to the list should go to:

superguy@ucf1vm.cc.ucf.edu

Valiant Visions newsletter

A newsletter about Valiant comics. It includes reviews, interviews

with Valiant staffers, contests, and information on upcoming events.

Valiant participates fully and has given us its support. Currently,

Kevin VanHook and Bernard Chang are subscribers. To join, send email

to the editor, Chris Vitek, at:

CVitek@Drew.Drew.Edu.

[end of Part 7]

"There are no net.gods, just some people with bigger mouths than others."

- Dan'l DanehyOakes, net.roach

tyg tyg@hq.ileaf.com

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