|
| The DC Comics Encyclopedia | 
 enlarge | Author: Dk Publishing
Publisher: DK ADULT
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy Used: $13.99
You Save: $26.01 (65%)
New (13) Used (30) from $13.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 39407
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.3
Dimensions (in): 12.1 x 10.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 075660592X
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.50973
UPC: 690472005926
EAN: 9780756605926
ASIN: 075660592X
Publication Date: October 4, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Good condition. Book shows outside wear on cover. Clean inside and highly readable/usable. Ready to ship quickly!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
As a unique, one-volume encyclopedia of more than 1,000 characters created by DC Comics, this is the book that all comic book fans have been waiting for! Featuring some of DC's most creative artists and heroes and villains from the world famous to lesser known one-offs, this thrilling, one-of-a-kind guide has comic book history exploding off every page.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
 Nice Hardcover Collection October 4, 2004
55 out of 59 found this review helpful
Many folks for years have been wanting DC to revisit their Who's Who series from the mid-80's, an A to Z covering of characters. This new hardcover fits that bill in a solid, colorful volume. The wrap around cover by Alex Ross is beautiful and eye-catching.
As for the book's interior, it is obvious a lot of effort was put into this. Four main writers handled the text portions, with art taken from hundreds of artists across the decades.
Naturally, there will be a few errors that creep into something such as this. I found characters in group shots mislabeled, and the occasional wrong fact in an entry. These things probably should have been caught in final proofing. I can forgive them though as they are few and far between.
The one thing that becomes painfully obvious to this long time comic reading fan is that the focus of this tome swings heavy to the post-Crisis universe (understandable as that is what the current continuity is - stuff reorganized and introduced since 1986). This tome makes it obvious that continuity is in fact constantly in flux, being rewritten and reworked. The book is uneven in that at times it takes both old and rewrites into account. Examples include the Legion of Super-Heroes stuff and the Doom Patrol relaunch from earlier this year.
Still, it is a nice coffee table tome and good for quicky research on characters and such.
 A nice guide to the DC Characters November 20, 2004
27 out of 34 found this review helpful
Some people may gripe over that their favorite character got only a small entry in the book but I was surprised at how complete this book was.
Lets face it, unless DC reprints Who's Who you are not going to get a complete guide to the DC characters, this book is made to represent as many of their characters as they could. I enjoyed the entries about the lesser known characters and being given updates on some of the heros and villians I had followed but lost touch with.
The DC Comics Encylopedia makes a nice gift for any comics fan.
A great source for all things DC universe. July 11, 2006
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
The DC Comics Encyclopedia is one of those books that in the past would've been issued by the publisher as a monthly comic issue detailing all the heroes and villains (major and minor) of the DC Universe. As much as I would've been ok with that type of format, I rather enjoy having everything collected, collated and put together under one hardcover edition.
This source book is only as up-to-date as of 2004. It won't include the Infinite Crisis and 52 story-arcs, but the encyclopedia pretty much includes every character from the Golden Age of DC Comics during the late 30's through 50's, through the Silver Age right after then up to the Modern Age of the now. Even the most minor character, such as Major Damage gets a full bio entry and explanations of abilities and weaknesses. Of course, the book makes large sections set aside for the major characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc...). From their entire history from the characters inception all the way to specific bio's for characters who have inhabited the mantle of a certain hero (Flash and Green Lantern being the two major examples).
The artwork included in the encyclopedia are lifted from issues from througout a certain character's history. You get artwork from that character's Golden Age look all the way to its modern incarnation. I can't really find any flaw in this sourcebook. It's succeeded in conveying the information it's suppose to give its reader. Here's to hoping they follow-up with a supplemental hardback detailing changes and additions since 2004.
 A very good try... November 20, 2004
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
As a fan of DC comics and a collector of its 'Who's Who' series from way back I was very pleased to see a large, hardbound encyclopaedia of the DC Universe. Flipping through it at my local bookseller's left me pretty pleased with the work overall and so I purchased it to go over in more detail later. The Devil, as they say, is in the details. Going over the book more closely the reality of a work this size hit home: they missed quite a number of characters (some obscure, others not so obscure) and the formatting left something to be desired. I'm an old-school fan, pre-Crisis in many senses, and some of my favorites were simply not there; any version of The Harlequin (NOT Harley Quinn), a number of the less-used members of the Titans (Teen, New or otherwise), just to mention a few. I recommend this book for the artwork, primarily, and for -most- of the information contained therein. With word of a second printing, I'm hopeful that then next one will have more space.
The best DC Comics reference book since "Who's who" October 29, 2004
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you even know what Who's who is, you should probably buy the book since you'll appreciate the obscure character entries. I found most of my favorite characters in here, but I'm disappointed that they chose to omit an entry for John Constantine. He's a part of the DC Universe covered in this book, and he's featured in a few side entries, but an individual entry is strangely absent. Considering that a movie starring the character is coming out soon I thought that was an odd choice.
Other than that quibble, though, I enjoyed reading about characters I've never heard of and catching up on ones I haven't followed in a while. A great deal of work was involved in the creation of this book, and you can tell. I would've given it a higher rating but I was left wishing they would've made it a little bigger and added a little higher detail to the entries in general. More space devoted to elseworlds stories and weapons/headquarters would've been nice as well.
It felt a little rushed and could've easily been the ultimate reference book, but as it stands it's still the best that's been released in a long while.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
