Comments on: The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded

By: Dan Wallace

Dan Wallace — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:56:45 +0000

Hi — just wanted to put it out there again that if there are any errors you’ve noticed in the DC Comics Encyclopedia that you want to see fixed, please let me know at danwall88 [at] gmail.com. I’m really trying to get as many as possible fixed for future printings.

By: Pedro Passaporte

Pedro Passaporte — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:48:38 +0000

First thing I went to check on the Encyclopedia was Fearsome Five’s roster. They have an image of the group, drawn by Tom Raney, as it appeared in an Outsiders comic.

The names under each figure are wrong. They call Jinx Gizmo,and so on.

By: KC

KC — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:51:32 +0000

Hi Daniel — now I’ve made contact with all four DC Encyclopedia writers!

Thanks for your comments about the book. Between your thoughts and those of Brian Hughes above, I’ve gotta wonder about DK’s quality control for their updated volumes.

I did enjoy the updated text and your blog post about your favorites. Besides, I gotta thank you for getting the Inferior Five in there. I know they don’t mean diddly to the current DCU (Giffen notwithstanding), but they are a part of its history and that oddball stuff is a major reason why I’m such a big DC fan.

And thanks for trying with the Legionnaires! Sorry I messed them up in the first place!

Please keep us posted on upcoming projects.

By: Daniel Wallace

Daniel Wallace — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:33:12 +0000

Hi KC — as the writer for this new edition of the DC Comics Encyclopedia I feel your pain. I wrote an expanded entry for Cat-Man and Donna Troy and others, but the updated text didn’t make it into the final, and the pages got out of my hands before I could make my own proofing pass (I definitely would have caught Jean-Paul Valley). I’m sorry for this, wish I had a better explanation for you, and hope that you enjoyed the updated material. At the start of the project I pushed for the inclusion of characters that had gone neglected in the original edition, many of whom were Legionnaires (e.g. Bouncing Boy), and admittedly this got complicated working within the confines of a set layout — Lightning Lad, Live Wire, or both? I usually did my best to write around it.

Again, sorry about the errors; I’ve asked DC to fix them if such a thing is permitted via a second printing.

Here’s some of my thoughts on the final book:

http://geekosity.blogspot.com/2008/10/dc-comics-encyclopedia-revised-and.html

By: Brian Hughes

Brian Hughes — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:41:35 +0000

I don’t know what’s going on at DK. The first edition of the DC Encyclopedia from several years back was fantastic, but when the Marvel version came out a few years later, it was riddled with the exact same sort of errors you mention above. It also had a weird tendency to list female supporting characters by last name only, for no apparent reason. Now it seems that they went out of their way to screw up the DC edition as well ?!? Good grief.

By: Ed Sizemore

Ed Sizemore — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:47:14 +0000

KC,

Sorry to hear they did such a poor job on this book. The fact that no one proofed the final copy before it went to the printer is amazing. I’m really disappointed in DC and DK.