Who’s Who 1989 Annuals – Vol. 2

Shag and Rob finish up the WHO'S WHO 1989 Annuals! We take a look at characters from the pages of Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Justice League International, The Question, and more! We wrap up with YOUR Listener Feedback!

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36 responses to “Who’s Who 1989 Annuals – Vol. 2

  1. Shag – didn’t you and the Question share the same hairstyle?

    How I organized my loose leaf Who’s Who – alpha by category

    Also, we never see/hear about Young Rob Kelly’s flaxen days. Mullet? Mohawk? Wally Cleaver?

    My money is on Flatliners-era Keifer Sutherland

  2. So, how are my Who’s Who looseleafs stored, you (actually did) ask?

    In a binder, issue by issue, in the order they came in.

    That is the vanilla answer. The vanilla with sprinkles answer: before I bought into Who’s Who, I was collecting the Marvel handbooks. And when I scooped all all those looseleaf editions, I made a point to organize everyone by (first or only) name. I also discarded the cover pages.

    About a year later, I wondered if I had every issue.
    That was 15 years ago.
    I still don’t know if I do.

    So when it came to Who’s Who……I played it safe, but wise.

    But safe.

  3. Shag, mine are stored alpha by first name in two binders with all the front and back covers at the back of the second binder.

    BUT, that is not how I want you guys to approach the run. I have had my folders out ready to re-sort them into the release issue orders. I think that gives more episode content variety and also reflects the real time changes occurring in the DC Universe and at DC creative at the time.

  4. Hey geniuses,
    You can become mayor if you’re married to the mayor and the mayor dies.

    Didn’t you watch She’s the Sherrif?

    And why didn’t Rob sing any Pat Benatar? His missed his damn cue.

  5. HEY!!! Rick Veitch’s run finale in issue 88 with Swamp Thing meeting Jesus was never published, despite being long planned and editorial approved. It led not only to his angry departure, but also led Neil Gaiman to bail on the book as he was the next writer lined up (he wrote a fair chunk of Swamp Thing Annual 5). Tragedy all around with this decision. Issue 88 took months to come out and led to around 4 years of mediocrity for the book, only broken when Mark Millar came on.

    1. The plan had been for Gaiman, Morrison, and Bissette to write the book with a rotating schedule, I think. Everyone involved in Annual #5, which was setting up the things they were planning to do with the book. (We eventually saw a Matango, although I doubt it had much to do with what they were planning with that name. We never did find out much about the Forest Lords.)

  6. Incredible to think this is the end of the newsprint Who’s Who. Interested in seeing how you are planning to cover Legion Shag. There are opening stories, many entries, etc.

    As for looseleaf, I still have volume 1 but lost volume 2. So I can follow along for anything A-L. But for M-Z, I am SOL. I simply alphabetized my binders for ease of finding. Although I have to say some of the entries are wonky if I recall. Are the Legion ones under their real names (because in 5YL there were no code names). Is Lightning Lass under Ayla Ranzz?

    As for this show, a couple of comments.

    Question: I read this Question book as it was coming out. As a teenager, this liberal/Zen/dime store philosophy book made me feel oh so erudite. It still reads fine and I like it. But back then I looovvved it. Vic did occasionally don the trench coat in this series but mostly was in fighting togs as seen here.

    Rodor: I never understood the change in Prof. Rodor. If I recall, he almost died once and after that shed the stuffy look for this more hippy rendition.

    Myra: I love this Myra is pic for what it is … pure Big 80’s. Definitely liked her character in the book. I am pretty sure there was some obscure law in the town that allowed her to take office in an emergency (they flashed back to a gunfight in the old west where something like that happened.)

    Shiva: And Rob … I don’t think Denny O’Neil is the only guy to have tossed off with Lady Shiva. I worry that Shive has de-evolved to what I call a yardstick character. She is now the measuring stick people use to show how tough another character is. “How tough is the new Huntress? She beat Lady Shiva!” “How tough is Danny Chase? He beat Lady Shiva.” It is a shame.

    Mayer Agency: Wilshire did the Power Girl secret origin story. Ryan had a great guest host for that story if memory serves.

    Poison Ivy: rather a tepid picture. Cue Frank going ‘scorched Earth’ on Chris Wozniak’s art.

    Take another mini Victory Lap guys. Tremendous.

  7. How did I organize my loose-leaf Who’s Who? Well, it’s a bit complicated. I may have related it before, but here you go anyway:

    I had both official binders. I used the Perez binder to house the entries of the “main” DC heroes who had their own titles, like Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. I would put every related entry behind that character, in their order of importance. The heroes and allies would come first (Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, etc.), then the villains (Luthor, Brainiac, etc.). I put the characters with one (or just a few entries) in alphabetical order behind the big guns; Adam Strange, Animal Man, and so on. And after the heroes, there went they free-floating villains that didn’t belong to one specific series.

    I used the Bolland binder for teams, and included characters who belonged to that team, but didn’t have their own series behind the main team page. So Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Martian Manhunter went with JLA. Starfire and Cyborg went behind Titans, etc. I cheated a bit and threw some of the weird supernatural characters (mostly Vertigo) that weren’t part of a series, and/or weren’t really hero or villain at the back of the book.

    And I had one more binder I used. I found a small black plastic binder with the 1989 Batman movie Bat-symbol on it (the metallic one used on the movie poster). I put all the Batman-related entries in this binder. Hey, I’m a Batman guy, plus I found there were almost too many entries for the two binders to close properly!

    In each binder I taped a typed table of contents so I could quickly reference who went where. As storyl ines progressed and characters and teams changed, I did shuffle things around a bit, but never went back and retyped the table of contents, so the binders don’t quite match up now.

    I had a LOT of fun organizing these, and in a way, it was like a paper version of my setting up an action figure display. I always have to group characters in a fashion that makes sense to me, and I did the same here. Me at perhaps my most nerdiest.

    More on the Who’s Who annual entries shortly.

    Chris

  8. Comments on this episode:

    JLI Annual:

    • I didn’t know Clark Kent worked for the JLI? I really dislike Giffen’s art during this period. Bleh.

    • The Tasmanian Devil bit is funny.

    Question Annual:

    • I miss the fedora and trench coat. It’s such a great visual image, it’s a shame to ever abandon it, even if it doesn’t make lots of sense for an action-oriented character. And yes, the character was great on JLU! Great stinger.

    • Lady Shiva got an entry in the 87 update, and it was a full page. Odd that she got downgraded here. Seems odd that her involvement in “A Death in the Family” was left out completely. Batman suspected she was Robin’s mom!!!

    Green Arrow Annual:

    • This Green Arrow entry is great! No one can seem to decide if Ollie wore the original Golden/early Silver Age costume during this period, but we see it here.

    • Black Canary’s entry…wow…how do I say this without Cindy whacking me (even though she’s not here), Dinah’s leotard is very…thin at the bottom. WOW!!! Don’t let the door hit you where your costume split you!

    • Grant Miehm was vastly underrated. He did some really solid work at DC in the late 80s/early 90s. Not sure what happened to him, but I always liked him. Great job on Speedy.

    • Rick Stasi does capture that Golden Age vibe with the original Canary. The idea of there being two Black Canaries does indeed originate with Roy Thomas’ bat-crap JLA retcon. I wonder if he hadn’t introduced this notion, would the post-Crisis Universe give us two Canaries? I’m not sure.

    New Titans Annual

    • These entries are nice, and Grummett is tops at drawing young characters convincingly. But I will say there is something off on Troia’s eyes in her current state. But Grummett was still pretty new at this at the time. He’ll soon be firing on all cylinders.

    • The Titans of Myth backstory was decent, and probably about the best way to go, since, as Tom pointed out, it didn’t destroy Wolfman and Perez’s touching “Who is Donna Troy?”. Besides, wouldn’t Wonder Woman have to have been in action a LONG time to have rescued Donna as an infant? That part never worked out to well in Pre-Crisis continuity.

    Swamp Thing Annual

    • Not much to say here, although I do think Broderick drew Swampy for a bit. Not a bad piece, but Swampy and Abby are kind of lost over to the sides. It seems more about those two supporting players and Constantine.

    Dr. Fate Annual

    • I subscribed to this Fate title, but I still lament DC let Giffen trash what made Fate cool JUST as he was finally getting a mini and series of his own. And the Eric/Linda relationship is as creepy as Barry/Iris on the Flash…maybe even more so! Brrr.

    Nothing to say about the Wonder Woman Annual entry, so moving on to…

    Detective Comics Annual

    • LAUGHING Fish Rob. Not DEVIL Fish. That’s a boat in the old G.I. Joe RAH line, and a Legion of Super Heroes character!

    • Shag, DC did indeed jettison all of Catwoman’s pre-Crisis history, including her costumes, at this time. When Catwoman showed up a few times in the Bat-books proper during this period, it was weird. It seemed no one knew what to do with her. It wasn’t until Knightfall and the launch of the Jim Balent-drawn series that they seemed to get a handle on her in the Bat-verse.

    • Good call on that Mazzuchelli swipe Rob. I glossed over that somehow!

    • Riddler’s ponytail still baffles me. Joker gets on in the early 90s too for a very brief period.

    • Joe James does not come up under a search on Mike’s Amazing World. Not sure if this was his only DC Comics work. If so, it’s too bad. It’s good stuff.

    • Wozinak’s Poison Ivy isn’t that great. She looks a bit too bulbous, and not where you’d think she’d be.

    • Breyfogle…what can I say that hasn’t been said? He brought an energy to the Bat-titles that had been missing for years. He did some interesting things to make Robin look more formidable and menacing, like hiding him in the shadows here.

    Onto other show topics:

    • I recall seeing the Bat Lash ad in a comic, but not as a poster.

    • Rob, congrats on getting in Aqua-Rob shape. Now I hate you, because I’m in nowhere NEAR that shape! All us nerds are supposed to be doughy, dammit!! Its’ in the bylaws!

    • I remember Lady Viper very well. The storyline where she changes Batgirl into a snake creature was quite disturbing to me as a kid. The benign, bland Jose Delbo art made the horror even worse! This was around the time Batman and Robin were turning into vampires in Detective and Batman as well, so lots of strange body horror going on in the Bat-books! Great work as always, Xum!!!

    Great show guys. I’m really sorry to see this version of Who’s Who go, as much as I loved the loose leaf. I remember waiting for more Who’s Who in the 90s annuals…and nothing. It seemed like it was a decade between these books and the loose leaf, but of course, it wasn’t.

    Chris

  9. So yeah, as expected, omissions-wise I’ve got nothing. I mean, gun to my head, I’d say Mad Hatter is in the same tier of Batman Villain as Scarecrow and the Clayfaces, I guess.

    Also, I never picked up the looseleaf Who’s Who, so I can’t say how I sorted it Ask me about the looseleaf D&D Monstruous Compendium, though…

  10. I also pulled out the Legion ones, as well as the Earth-2 related ones. Beyond that, it was alphabetical by the color codes, I think. Haven’t looked at them in over 20 years.

    Bob is Anatole, or Claude?
    Tas’s origin seems like an Ambush Bug entry instead,
    It seems like the JLI ones were something done as part of the original International pitch, and feel like throw-ins.

    Hub City was later overtaken by Bludhaven as DC’s #1 Urban Shithole.
    If you look closely at the detritus in the background, there’s a magazine cover with a fedora.
    The Question on JLU was riffing on Superman the Movie.

    Just ask Sonny Bono’s wife.
    Mal Jones was the inker on the book at the time. I still prefer Rick Magyar.
    Izzy O’Toole is a cross between Harvey Bullock and Quentin Lance from Arrow, if that helps you place him.

    I think the two Canaries were in one of the JLA Incarnations issues as well.
    Love that GA Canary logo.
    Zaftig is the word you want, Shag.

    One bit of continuity that Jeffty Johns missed was making Star Boy’s map of the multiverse costume being the same as Troia’s.

    Chester! That’s the hippie’s name. Broderick drew ST from 90 to 100, plus a couple annuals.

    Linda Strauss has a bit of that Nagel look as well.

    There’s a lot of Myndi Mayer in Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant.

    Lots of Dick Sprang in that Riddler piece. Joe James also drew some G’Nort stories, and did some work for Defiant.

    Don’t know why Doctor Destiny in in the Scarecrow piece.

    Mignola was post-Cosmic Odyssey by this point, so he was almost *MIKE*MIGNOLA*!

  11. It sounds like you are planning to cover the Star Trek and Legion volumes. Will you be covering the original DC Who’s Who that appeared in various DC Comics from 1944-1946?

  12. All good things must come to an end. Now that you’re done with the original format Who’s Who what about a wrap-up show sometime before you guys hit the loose-leaf? Like a bunch of your Top 5s? Top 5 Favorite listings….Top 5 Hated…Top 5 That Didn’t Get a Listing But Should Have…Top 5 That Would Have Been Better If Drawn By….? Just food for thought.

    How did I organize my loose-leaf? Two binders..The white one was all of the heroes and supporting characters and the maps. The black one was the villains and the supernatural. In the pocket in the white one was the !mpact Who’s Who.

  13. Very good episode Rob and Shagg. The only annual from this that I read was the JLI annual. The Who’s Who entries were humourous enough but given the animosity that Beetle was showing to Captain Atom in the main story in the annual, arising from events in Atom’s own series, probably was an opportunity to give an updated Who’s Who on Captain Atom. I remember seeing Beetle’s disdain for Cap and wondered about it as it was rare for Beetle to show that much anger. A Who’s Who entry would have helped readers who were not reading Atom’s own series (like myself) to know the reason behind Beetle’s fury. Other than that, not sure what they could have added in – maybe updated entries for characters who had joined JLE and had not been mentioned in update 88 – had Metamorpho and Elongated Man received updates?

  14. Bravo on finishing the newsprint era… wait… did you do Arg!Yle ? It’s been so long, I can’t remember.

    How are my loose leafs ordered?
    The original binder: All the heroes (red stripe) in alphabetical order, except Doom Patrol, Legion and LEGION
    The second binder: All the villains (black stripe) in alphabetical order, except Doom Patrol, Legion and LEGION
    Now in binders I had to buy (just plain monochrome ones):
    -Mystical characters (purple stripe) with the Doom Patrol and possibly other Vertigo character thrown in
    -Legion and LEGION entries (heroes, villains, supporting cast, etc.)
    -Supporting cast, places and equipment
    All entries are coupled with their DC Heroes RPG page when possible; the Update issues are ordered with the original run as if all part of the same.

  15. I happened upon this podcast through the Legion of Super Bloggers. Great show, and thanks for your dedication. I, too, am looking forward to the loose leaf edition, not least because it covers two of my favorite runs in comics–Grant Morrison & Richard Case’s Doom Patrol and the “Five Years Later” Legion of Superheroes.
    What would be on the table for when you finish the loose leaf edition? Will you be calling it a day? Have you considered doing a podcast on DC’s trading card sets from the 90s? It seems like a continuation of the same subject matter from Who’s Who, but the endeavor might grow tiresome fast.
    Thanks again!

    1. Hi Travis! Thanks for your feedback. Along with the Loose Leaf, we’ll cover the loose leaf updates, Impact, and Mayfair RPG supplement. That will complete the WHO’S WHO PODCAST. Probably sometime in 2024 (or at least it feels like it).

      Regarding the cards, Rob doesn’t have history a with them. However Shag and Michael Bailey covered the first set on an episode of Views from the Longbox. Had a blast! We plan to do the second set someday too!

      http://fortressofbaileytude.com/viewsfromthelongbox/episode-208-dc-cosmic-card/

  16. *sigh* Lady Viper…why did it have to be Lady Viper?! First of all, hats off to Xum who did a lovely/horrifying job on his latest Xum’s Who. Secondly, Shag said something like “…probably Stella’s favorite story.” NOOOOOOOOOOOOO NONONO! The story taking place in Det. #514-517 was close to the worst story I have ever read. Let me put it this way: Barbara Gordon/Batgirl turns into a snake-woman and is assisted by some homeless people living in the subway. WHAT?! Lady Viper actually recently reappeared in Rebirth’s Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #3…WHYYYYYY?! Finally, I always love Shag’s short songs (Swampthing…you make my heart sing) even if Rob does not!

  17. The Joker being an Iranian ambassador was eventually retconned to being an ambassador of the fictional country of Qurac in a batman: gotham knights storyline in 2003.

  18. Another great episode guys. I’m bummed the “traditional” Who’s Who is over. But I’ve been feeling this way since 1989.

    I organized my loose-leaf by issue. I couldn’t bring myself to take the pages out and sort it.

    I am looking forward to the Star Trek and Legion coverage, though. I was never a Legion fan, but I am a Who’s Who fan, so I loved reading the issues.

    Star Trek, though…I was a *huge* Star Trek fan at that point in my life. So I was all over the Who’s Who in Star Trek. It’s been years since I looked at it. But I remember being fascinated with the ST universe, and how it worked between comics, movies, and TV.

    One last thing – I’m a little bummed that comments won’t be until the loose-leaf starts up. I know I wouldn’t mind a “comments” episode.

  19. I can’t remember how I organised the Loose Leaf Who’s Who. I think I stuck them in the files alphabetically, rather than by group or concept or whatever. That way you have just one system to look through, rather than multiple groupings.

    Anyway, top episode, with some fun entries once you get past the likes of Vicki Vale as a paper lampshade and the frankly execrable Lady Shiva. I could’ve done without all the Bat entries, mind, how many times do we need to be told about the Joker or Penguin? Bring on the obscurities!

  20. The JLI Annual entries seem like the notes creators make to squirrel away ideas for world building but often never get back to once they focus on the specific stories they’re telling. Alternately, DC wanted Who’s Who pages to sell the annuals and someone hacked these out for a paycheck. They’re all terrible and many are at least a little offensive.

    I have most of The Question’s run and have read about a quarter or more of it, but this Annual doesn’t look familiar. The Vic Sage entry is nice, and the Tot is better than I expected based on Shag’s description & Bove’s involvement. The Question was revised necessarily and pointedly from the Ditko original/Rorschach, and while good I think a lot of characters could fill the role of O’Neill’s protagonist while Ditko’s is more unique. Myra Fermin was the best character in the book (excepting Lady Shiva, who transcended the book in the wake of “A Death in the Family”) and it’s too bad she never had a life outside the run (ditto Hub City itself.) Great look for her entry. Not so much O’Toole and Shiva. I’m not aware of Shiva getting beaten by anyone but her daughter, though I haven’t followed her adventures since the first Birds of Prey volume ended.

    I tend to forget Dan Jurgens worked on Green Arrow following his non-career building turns on Flash Gordon, Sun Runners, etc. before landing on Superman. Good looking entry for a run I dislike for being a slightly gaudier version of Sable with corporate subsidies (all apologies to the Sutherlands.) Randy DuBurke drew Black Canary’s Action Comics Weekly strip, and I was drawn to his work thanks to its melding Paul Gulacy with Bill Sienkiewicz. I seem to recall that strip surviving on art with a low key, meh script by a woman writer (Newell?) I don’t DuBurke’s he’s turned up anywhere in comics since the early ’90s, when he was doing covers for some off-brand DC series (!mpact maybe?) Shado = Crying Freeperson without the main selling point of Ryoichi Ikegami art (G.O.A.T.) I’m skipping the rest except to say I like the Golden Age Canary look & logo.

    I don’t want to talk about the Wolfman/Perez re-teaming non-Renaissance on New Titans except to say the book had been worse than that tedious retconning business but would also get much better after it blessedly ended.

    Still can’t figure out if it’s more weird that Pat Broderick had a brief run on Swamp Thing or that a guy so geared for fantasy/horror didn’t do more of it.

    Jim Fern popped up a lot in my comics reading of the early ’90s, but I most remember him from one of those corporate/creator ownership split books DC experimented with incorporating into their mainstream line, but abandoned after Sovereign Seven. Can’t remember the name (Google: “Scarlett”) but Tom Joyner wrote it and it was a proto-Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Nothing about this period of Doctor Fate ever enticed me.

    In my experience, most of the casual readers that talk up the Perez Wonder Woman run only read it through until about Challenge of the Gods before tapping out, as everyone remembers Cheetah but get fuzzy around Silver Swan and shrug over Myndi Meyers’ fate, which were among the last Perez drawn issues in the second year. Then Marrinan happened, and only the faithful remained.

    That’s a really nice Joker by Maguire, but I prefer Bill Willingham’s, along with all the other folks associated with the character in this period. Just a smidge too realistic for me. I liked the butch anti-heroine Catwoman better than the Duffy/Balent version that came out of Knightfall, but it was probably doomed by being stripped down realistic in Gotham City. Regardless of Denny O’Neill’s assertions, that town is never truly believable, and I prefer it surrealistic. The Birch Penguin isn’t too bad, though. Never heard of Joe James, and don’t mind him, but not thrilled either. I’m an outlier in never particularly liking Norm Breyfogle on Detective Comics, but not disliking his basic style. I hate the Mud Pack, though. That Mignola Two-Face is sweet!

    Chris Wozniak though is a candidate for my top ten worst mainstream comic artists of all time, so I’m just glad I wasn’t outright nauseated by his Poison Ivy. I’ve ruined comics before by vomiting on them over his art, but I’m seeing this on a tablet. After I wiped off the sick, the image would show up again and then I’d vomit again but each cycle is more watery so eventually the tablet would probably get fried by my bile. I even make a “Wozniak” sound as I hork.

    I was notified by the Yellow Dot nomination committee that after hearing the results of my Twitter data dump, a recall had been initiated on my award. Can you guys email me a packing sticker so I can ship the thing back? I would argue that Who’s Who’s decline in sales was due to standard attrition on any series, which is why no comic series lasts longer than a couple years anymore. People are too ignorant and lazy to vote responsib– er, find a jumping on point that isn’t a #1.

    I didn’t always have the official binders for the looseleaf, so I used to keep them in big chunky black numbers. Today, I have both.

    The Perez binder:
    Cover #1 (Superman) followed by male HEROes alphabetized by first name (real or assumed) beginning with Adam Strange and ending with Wildebeest (who was in the Titans section when such a division existed in the black binders.) Also includes characters I felt were mis-categorized like Deadman, Kid Eternity & The Spectre. Enclosed by #1 back cover.
    Cover #4 (Wonder Woman) followed by positive female characters (HERO, SUPERNATURAL, SUPPORTING CAST) beginning with Amanda Waller and ending with Zatanna (holes reenforced by tape due to wear from being at back of old binders) enclosed by #4 back cover.
    Cover #7 (Justice League America) followed by positive groups of two or more without regard for DC’s categorization beginning with Angel and the Ape and ending with Time Masters enclosed by back cover (as always, so I’ll stop mentioning it.)

    The Bolland binder
    Cover #13 (The Joker) followed by male VILLAINs plus miscategorized characters like Lobo and Wotan, beginning with Abra Kadabra and ending with Yuga Khan.
    Cover #8 (Lobo) followed by negative female characters regardless of DC categorization (such as the “HERO” Lady Shiva) beginning with Blackfire and ending with Velvet Tiger.
    #3 cover (Hal Jordan) followed by VILLAIN TEAMs, ORGANIZATIONs, & duos (plus Flaw & Child) beginning with The Brotherhood of Dada and ending with The Untouchables.

    Black binder 1:
    Mayfair Role-Playing Supplement cover (Maguire Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern & Flash) inserted into front sleeve. Cover to Update 1993 #2 (Darkstars) and #6 (Hawkman) enclose EVENTs.
    #2 (Flash) encloses male & female supporting cast who I did not regard as belonging in HERO sections, beginning with Alfred Pennyworth and ending with Wonder Woman Supporting Cast then progressing to related Mayfair RPG supplement pages.
    #12 (Aquaman) enclosing ALIENs & related supplements.
    #11 (Guy Gardner) enclosing GEOGRAPHY & related supplements.
    #5 (Batmobile) enclosing TECHNOLOGY & related supplements.
    #16 (Batman) enclosing positive female supplement pages.
    #14 (New/Team Titans, who once had their own section) enclosing hero teams/duos’ supplement pages.
    #10 (Robin) enclosing supplement introductory and HERO pages.
    Update 1993 #1 cover enclosing all Legion of Super-Heroes pages (mixed genders, alignments & teams plus supplement pages.)

    Black Binder 2:
    Used to have more supplement covers in front sleeve (villains & supernatural by Maguire) but I’ve misplaced them.
    #15 (Doom Patrol) enclosing mixed Vertigo characters regardless of gender or category, beginning with Abigail Arcane and ending with Yankee Doodle Dandy plus supplement pages. Worth noting that I do not have a complete set of either the loose leaf editions (including one issue bought with pages missing) nor the Mayfair supplements, causing mismatches where a character is only represented in one or the other. All of the villain supplements are dumped into the back of the binder.

    !mpact Comics softcover binder:
    #1 & #3 in publisher-assigned page order because I.J.D.G.A.F. Missing #2, and this sits on a different bookshelf next to TwoMorrows’ MLJ Companion book or it would still be crushed between the weight of the real binders (including the “bibles” of DC trading cards in 9-pocket sleeves.) I also rack the two smaller DC binders with lighter landscape books like The Marvel Vault, The DC Vault and Wonder Woman: The Daily Comics.

  21. Howdy Friendos,

    I was listening to your awesome little show the other day and heard you two mention Joe Brozowski, JJ Birch and Joe James. The similarities in the names got me thinking that if Mr. Browzowski would use one pseudonym, why not two? So, I did some digging on “Joe James.” It looks like Joe James may be JJ Birch (Joe James Birch) who is in fact Joe Brozowski. I pulled this from the internet, and as we all know the internet never lies: “Joseph Brozowski, who uses the pseudonym Joe James Birch or simply J.J. Birch, began his career in the mid-1970’s.” I have since found that Joe James now owns his own ad studio-firm-agency thingy. This may be a comic mystery for years to come. Keep in mind that I am no Magnum PI or Scarecrow and Mrs. King, I just thought this was something to ponder.

    On the subject of the Loose-Leaf edition, I have my binders alphabetized by the color coded subjects and then alphabetically of course. Who ever doesn’t do it this way is just an idiot.

    Keep up the good work boys,

    Clark.

  22. I loved the Detective Annual from this summer. The story had a Post Crisis look at the character of Harry Harris and was a neat look at the still in training Bruce Wayne still trying to figure out how to be the Batman. The entries were the cherry on top of that sundae.

    The mention of Aristotle Rodor reminded me of an Easter Egg from 1988 that I didn’t get until a few years ago. In the first DEATH IN THE FAMILY trade (the one that was $3.95 and had paper thin enough to see through) there was a mock introduction (or maybe it was an afterward) by an academic in the future writing about the death of Robin. I read that thing over and over again but it didn’t click until I finally read the first half of the eighties Question series that Denny O’Neil was having a bit of fun with us by naming that academic Socrates Rodor. Amusing if only slightly so.

    THE BIG QUESTION – How do I file my binder Who’s Who entries.

    First, I have both binders. Actually I have all three of the binders if you count the IMPACT! Comics binder. So there’s that. The filing system is mainly by character and those associated with them . So you have…

    SUPERMAN
    Heroes (Guardian, Gangbuster, Agent Liberty, etc.)
    Supporting Characters
    Villains
    Equipment
    Places

    New Gods and Legion are behind Superman because they are spin offs of the Man of Steel.

    It goes on like that with Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Hawkman. Then it goes into teams like the JLI, the JSA, Infinity Inc., etc with the entries most associated with them behind the main team entry. Then, after all the teams are taken care of it goes into HERO, VILLAIN, SUPPORTING, EQUIPMENT, PLACES, MYSTICAL and EVENTS.

    I use the covers of the series as section dividers and I also cut out the one pronunciation guide and taped it to the inside of the Perez binder and taped the WHO’S WHO entry (as in the entry for Who’s Who itself) into the back of the Perez binder.

    This may seem complicated or unnecessary (or both) to some but it’s how I do it.

    I haven’t looked at my Impact entries in years so I forgot how I organized those.

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