Links to selected web sites
Context
Back in the 1990s when writeups.org started, having a page with links toward similar resources was de rigueurDemanded by custom or fashion.
This usage faded as people increasingly relied on Google. But IME, finding niche content on Google has become increasingly difficult in recent years. Heh, may we should bring back web rings .
So here’s a little list, of society offenders who might well be… No wait, wrong song. But here are some sites anyway.
Updates
This list had an overhaul in late 2018.
Then another in late 2021, since the 2018 additions were insufficient.
The links added in 2022 and later have their own separate section at the end. It’s more convenient for people already familiar with this page, eh ?
We welcome more ideas on our groups.io discussion space. Even extinct sites that we missed, if you can find them in the Wayback Machine.
Main appearance lists sites
Lists of which comics characters appear in are indispensable for writeups.org work. Using the huge amount of work that went into compiling those, we can pore over the material for recap and analysis.
It’s always best to use multiple indices when doing research. This is all volunteer work across massive amounts of data. Therefore every site (including writeups.org) will have missed something somewhere, or have false positives.
Marvunapp’s Master List
The main classic of online appearances indices. It covers the Marvel Universe and its suburbs. The entries are listed using the same abbreviations as in the Marvel Chronology project.
The Master List is no longer fully maintained. But it remains useful for older material, and was an important forerunner.
The Comic Book Database
This used to be the tits. Then it was bought. Now it’s gone.
The Marvel Chronology Project
The Marvel Chronology Project .
Now that’s a project that takes courage… The MCP (no relation to the Tron evil software) works to place all material, per-character, in an order that makes sense.
This is of course precious to us. For historical reasons we’re a bit more Marvel-centric (since DC characters already had Mayfair stats).
The DCU guide
Useful lists of DC Universes appearance, to double-check others. Was overhauled in 2018 so it’s now much nicer to use.
Grand Comics Database
Like Marvunapp or Writeups.org, a 1990s open Internet non-commercial project that has painstakingly assembled a tonne of comic book data.
Their search engine isn’t always easy to use, but it’s indispensible for characters from minor and/or defunct publishers.
Other appearance lists sites
These see less use, but our need for appearances list is endless.
Comic Vine
ComicVine used to be an important source for complementing appearances indices. It can still can reference issues other sites missed.
But as of this writing the UI is a pain in the arse. And other sites have grown so much in recent years that checking ComicVine is less of a priority than it used to be.
Mike’s Amazing World of DC comics
Mike’s Amazing World of DC comics .
A key research site for pre-Crisis DC material. Especially since Mike distinguishes Earth-1, Earth-2, etc. appearances. Which can save a lot of time.
DarkMark’s Comics Indexing Domain
DarkMark’s Comics Indexing Domain .
Extensive and useful annotations for many older DCU series.
Comic Book + and the Digital Comic Museum
Large archives of Golden Age comics that are now in the public domain, and thus free to download.
Marvel Comics Reprints
Lists which books have been reprinted and how. Or rather listed, because it’s now gone.
SuperMegaMonkey’s Marvel Comics Chronology
SuperMegaMonkey’s Marvel Comics Chronology .
Another heroic attempt at chronologically ordering the Marvel Universe. It went all the way to 1994 before it stopped. Note that the character names near the end of the issue recaps are clickable.
2021 edit – it has since slowly restarted, and is now reaching the year 1997.
The Complete Marvel Reading Order project
The Complete Marvel Reading Order project .
A big community project about placing Marvel Universe comics in chronological order. So yes, another titanic pile of meticulous, free work from super-fans.
I don’t use it much, because the other appearances list are sufficient for my needs. And I’m not sure I share their view of ordering. But if other bigs lists ever die, like the GCD did…
Super-hero RPGs sites
Siskoid’s Collection
Early on this site had DCH/MEGS/Blood of heroes writeups as Siskoid went through his comic books collection.
It has since become a more general geek news blog, but still with RPG content. And the old writeups, many of which have no WORG equivalent, are still there.
Knight of Shadow site and Eric Padua’s JLA site
These were the two main DC Heroes homepages back in the day, and were swept into oblivion when Geocities closed.
After checking with the authors, the full content has been archived on writeups.org.
DC Heroes community site
That‘s where we live and chat.
Technohol 13
One of the Grizzled 1990s Survivors™ among super-hero role-playing games blogs. Lots of material, primarily Marvel Super-Heroes stuff.
DC Heroes RPG Wiki
Artigos ilustrados e fichas de personagem sobre os caráteres de DC de todas eras. The site is in Brazilian Portuguese.
DC Heroes RPG character database
DC Heroes RPG character database .
Lots and lots of DCH stats with comments.
Surbrook’s Stuff
The classic site for Champions players has entries for hundreds of characters. It was one of our inspirations when creating writeups.org back in the 1990s.
Jes86’s M&M sourcebooks
Jes86’s M&M sourcebooks part #1 .
Jes86’s M&M sourcebooks part #2 .
The two thick volumes of Jes86’s omniverse sourcebook. Hundreds of pages of M&M stats presented using the Green Ronin layout and production values.
MEGS Arrow-Earth
Arrow-Earth for the DC Heroes RPG .
Stats for the characters in the popular Arrow TV show, plus some background stuff. This was done in 2018.
Marvel Superheroes – the MEGS experience
Marvel Superheroes – the MEGS experience .
Numerous notes and profiles, chiefly about converting Marvel Classic stats to MEGS.
Karridian’s campaign notes
Older DCH campaign notes with a vintage look.
EN World and RPG.net
EN World .
RPG.net .
Sites to read about new super-hero RPGs and follow indie production.
Wayne’s Books’ DCH page
Wayne’s Books RPG reference – DC Heroes .
Covers and content descriptions for all of Mayfair’s DCH books.
Paper Friends character stand-ups
Paper Friends character stand-ups .
The original Marvel RPG had these neat little character standups to use as miniatures when playing out combat on a map. This site offers many stand-ups along the same lines, making me all nostalgic.
The Green Ronin (M&M) forum
We used to chat and work there, for the M&M stats part of our work. But these official forums are now dead as a doornail.
Exponential Heroes
http://mayfairexponentialrpg.blogspot.com/ was among the few DC Heroes RPG blogs, though they apparently hated our guts.
It was abruptly closed in 2021. But perhaps you can find something in the Wayback Machine .
Encyclopaedia-like sites
These are sites similar to writeups.org, though not generally with a role-playing games angle.
Marvunapp.com
Extensive coverage of obscure Marvel characters (and sometimes not-so-obscure ones). They have even more articles than we do, and not too many folks can say that. 😺 Hi guys!
DC Cosmic Teams
Large, content-heavy site with a lot of high-quality stuff about the DC Universe. Plus minor publishers whose creations ended up in the DC Universe.
Golden Age Heroes directory
This site went dead a decade ago, but its content — by genre historian Jess Nevins — is still invaluable. Numerous notes about fascinating Golden Age characters.
Jess Nevins’ encyclopaedia of pulp heroes
Jess Nevins’ encyclopaedia of pulp heroes .
Jess ported one of his books over as a free web site. A bunch of short articles about stuff that tends to be real obscure.
International hero
An international catalogue of super-heroes .
Brief notes about a huge variety of characters, good for inspiring further research into non-US material.
Cool French Comics
A large site by comic books and TV scripts veteran Jean-Marc Lofficier. It lovingly covers decades of French sci-fi, adventure stories, fantastic stories, etc. – in English.
DC Database and Marvel Database
DC database and Marvel Database .
The usual Fandom stuff. Resistance is futile.
After the Comic Books Database died I started using it much more. Particularly the Marvel version, which lists appearances in chronological order.
During much of the 2010s it wasn’t all that, but these appearance lists are now robust. Albeit with a significant number of false negatives.
Public Domain Super Heroes
A wikia about characters in the public domain. Usually it’s Golden AgeSuper-hero comics from the late 1930s to the early 1950s fare, though many have been used by small publishers since they became available.
Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe and the Green Lantern Corps Webpage
Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe .
These were two of the classic sites from the 1990s. These have since been turned into wikis and expanded to cover quite a bit of ground.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia, of course. We suggest caution – comics are the type of subject where Wikipedia‘s weaknesses are more apparent. Entry camping, injection of original content by certain fan fiction writers, versions of real-world events that do not match the recollections of the professionals who were actually there, etc. are recurrent issues.
Herogoggles
Another Golden Age of Comics research site for that old time rock ‘n’ roll.
Video
TheEvilDM’s DC Heroes video series
TheEvilDM’s DC Heroes videos .
24 episodes presenting the game and how it works.
Dungeon Musings actual DCH play
Dungeon Musings actual DCH play .
Two entire DCH game sessions.
Comic book blogs
Firestorm Fan
As the name implies, a blog energetically keeping the Firestorm flame alive. They also produce the Fire & Water Podcast.
The author also runs the Once upon a geek super-hero and science-fiction blog, but that died during the early 2010s.
Steve Lopez’s Big Blog o’ Fun
Steve Lopez’s Big Blog o’ Fun .
Steve writes about many hobbies, but super-hero role-playing and Golden Age comic books are a common subject for his chronicles.
Writeups.org readers who like our articles about 1940s characters should definitely check his blog for its reproduced stories and extensive commentary.
As with many fan sites listed here, it now has been inactive for some years.
Titans’ Tower
We have very few Titans entries, since the team was well-covered in Mayfair‘s books back in the day. To fill this gap, Titans fans should definitely check the Meeting Room at the Titans‘ Tower.
Fanzing’s archives
Fanzing.com was a fan magazine that ran from 1997 to 2003 and talked about the DCU. Many of the DCU Info and Hall of Champions columns were good and may interest writeups.org readers…
… except that the site is now dead, so you’ll have to go a-fishin’ in the Wayback Machine .
Legion of Super-Heroes reference file
Legion of Super-Heroes reference file .
Vanishing Point remains plenty useful – but for a narrow subset of profiles. Definitely worth a link though, especially since our LSH entries are popular.
Social media
Our social media presence is now listed on a separate page.
There also exists a subreddit we’re not associated with — /r/MEGSDCHeroes .
And I guess I should mention the Discord again — Discord server .
2022+ additions
Comics Beat
News about the comics industry (and related) plus blog-like columns about comics, reviews, series recap, etc..
Sequential scholars
Bite-sized bits of academic analysis of super-hero comics. Usually about some classic material, or about a theme.
Grant Morrison’s Substack
Xanaduum – the multiversity annotations .
The link above is an example of a *specific* search among the material, as a use case of sorts. As often with Mr. Morrison, it’s easier to show than to explain. 😺