I had this page sent to me yesterday of a research guide for the wiki that has been around since the early days. We are deleting it but I thought I would post the stuff here as an homage to those that built the wiki before us. Anyway it is fun to look back but DO NOT take any of the advice herein as license to do anything with the wiki. Some of it is still the same but a lot has changed. It just didn't feel right deleting CV history though
This page does not tell about a hero, villain, place, object, concept, etc. This page is a Comic Vine guide. If you are a new user or even someone who is a good submitter (just not a Fesak-like robot), you will find this page invaluable. This page is a research guide-how to do good research to write the best possible Comic Vine page.
Just because you are a great submitter doesn't mean this won't help. I only learned how to research beyond basics (i.e, Wikipedia, Marvel.com, etc.) when I had over 5000 points! There are lots of useful strategies in here. And if you find a method to submitting that I haven't mentioned, you must put it in-this needs as many good strategies as it can get.
This page also will include little tricks and tips and how to do certain things on the Vine. Many different users have originated their own methods which were quickly adapted. I've tried to find and explain them all.
Enjoy! I hope this will help you in some way-this would have helped me.
The Basics
The first thing to do is find out what you're good at. Are you a writer, like Buckshot or Prodigious Man? Are you good with images, like Fesak or Mighty Magneto? Do you like short, low submissions (with a huge number of them), like Shatterstar? Or do you like them all? I happen to be a writer, so that's where this guide is most aimed. But images and others are detailed.
Let's say you want to do a submission. I'll do this in steps.
One-Find a page that needs work on whatever area. Maybe you noticed that your favorite character's page is empty. or that there's barely any info on a major character. Most of the time, this won't happen. My favorite character is Batman, but ZeroEdge wrote a huge page on him and there's nothing for me to do. So I did Captain America. If you happen to be a fan of smaller publishers, this is easy. MShades got loads of points off Vertigo characters and pages-he loved Vertigo, and no one else had heard of them. So he wrote a huge Jesse Custer page and a giant Tulip page and a Saint of Killers page, and got huge points just by knowing the characters. Buckshot also did this with Wildstorm. He's a huge Wildstorm fan, so he wrote a giant Helspont and Mr. Majestic. Even if you aren't a big fan of small ones-it helps if you are.
Two-Start the research process. I will detail research later, but basically, get as much research done as you can. More on research later.
Three-Start writing. Once you've got an idea of how much information you have, start with your outline. For the Captain America page, I took a basic structure and made the outline of each section. For instance, I was going to have a small intro in the beginning, so on Word, I wrote-
Captain America
//Incomplete//
Then I figured I would do his origin and World War II years. So I made a heading-
History I
//Incomplete//
I later changed it to "1940s World War II Cap", or something like that. But I basically went through, making a heading for each section with "Incomplete". Then I started to fill in each section. This helped because it meant I could write it in any order.
Four-Write it. This step just means taking all of your research and writing the page. If you followed Step 3, you can do the sections in any order you like. How you submit it is up to you. Some people have different ways. Once I've got my outline, I submit that, then submit whatever I did that day a bit at a time. So while writing, the actual Comic Vine page will have some headings "//Incomplete//". Some people like to do it all in one submission. Writing place also varies. I personally like to write on Word. Some people like Appleworks. Some people use the Comic Vine page instead of pasting it in. It's up to you. I recommend trying different methods and seeing which you like best.
Five-Little touches. Once it's written, there are only a few small touches to add. Link it up (this will be detailed later). If it's big enough, do a Select Your Destination thing (again, this will be detailed later). Then sit back, look at the page, count the points, check your standing, and grin, satisfied. Maybe brag a little to yourself. And then start over.
Internet Sources
As the name implies, this is a research guide at heart-because research is probably the most important step. This section details how to research and different resources.
Wikipedia
Link: Wikipedia
This is it. The big one. The site that is probably the biggest shadow over Comic Vine. Wikipedia is a huge site. Gargantuan. Amazingly packed with information. Imagine Comic Vine with every page having over 1000 points worth of information. That's Wikipedia. Many Comic Vine pages have been written using only Wikipedia as a resource. Here are some tips to using Wikipedia at it's best.
Don't just use the main character page-Many times, people look, see a big page on a random hero on Wikipedia, and use that as the only resource. For instance, for the S.H.I.E.L.D page, I used many resources-one of which was the Wikipedia page. But here's a list of the Wikipedia pages I used for S.H.I.E.L.D.
The S.H.I.E.L.D Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.H.I.E.L.D
The Nick Fury Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Fury
The HYDRA Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HYDRA
The AIM Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Idea_Mechanics
The List Of S.H.I.E.L.D Members Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S.H.I.E.L.D._members
The S.T.R.I.K.E Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.R.I.K.E.
And remember, I used more places then Wikipedia. Many times, researching a character's enemies will tell you about the character.
Paraphrase Well-Many sites, including Marvel.com and Answers.com, are nearly worthless for comic information? Why? Because it's members basically just get the Wikipedia page, paraphrase it badly, then write an article in the same order and with the same information as the Wikipedia page. They're Wikipedia-clones (henceforth referred to as W-Cs). If you don't paraphrase well enough, people will look at our beloved Comic Vine and think, "Just another W-C!"
Wikipedia Is Not Your Only Resource-This seems obvious, but you must remember it. There are lots of Wikipedia pages that are huge enough that you could write a 400 point Comic Vine article on them using that page only. Doing that seems easy-but don't do it. The Mary Marvel page is huge on Wikipedia-but Prodigious Man used loads of other resources and wrote a 2000 point article on Mary Marvel. Don't limit yourself, or we'll be a Wiki-clone.
Marvel.com
Marvel.com is a site similar to Comic Vine in that it's a user-submitted wiki site with an encyclopedia. Marvel.com only has Marvel characters, so that's a minor setback. Overall-it's an okay site-but there are major flaws that bring it down. Here's some tips and notes on the site.
Don't Waste Time-The link to Marvel.com is here-http://www.marvel.com/. This is the page most people immediately go to on Marvel.com. However, Marvel.com is largely a news site-plus a place to peddle toys, comics, video games, advertisements, and more-plus have blogs, podcasts, and more. Remember, it's the official Marvel site, so a lot of it is merchandise. The place you're looking for with research and bios would be here-http://www.marvel.com/universe/?utm_campaign=front page tracking&utm_source=universe nav link&utm_medium=nav link&utm_content=universe. It's Marvel Universe-and this is where to go to actually get information.
It's A W-C-Marvel.com is one of many sites that falls victim to the same thing-it is largely a W-C. Most of their pages' only research comes from Wikipedia. Only occasionally will you find a major page that isn't directly-and badly-paraphrased from Wikipedia. Often, most of the reason it's not total plagiarism is because of long, flowery things and pointless extra details-while Wikipedia is short and concise. Use Marvel.com as a secondary resource-most of the information can be found on you-know-where.
Don't Overlook It, Though-Marvel.com is useful in certain scenarios, though. I often use it for "Other Aliases"-because it has every other name that character has ever been called. It has great descriptions of powers, weapons, and abilities-usually better then other places. And, when you're starting research, it's always worth checking out Marvel's page. I've found a few times pages on there that weren't W-Cs and were extremely helpful. Also, apply the Wikipedia rule about using more then one page.
DCcomics.com
This site is entirely a news, merchandise, and downloads site-avoid it completely. Here's the link in case you would like to check it out-
http://www.dccomics.com/
The Unofficial Guide To The DC Universe.com
This is an extremely valuable site when it comes to DC matters. Nearly every DC character imaginable is in here. If there's a DC character you need information on, he will be in here. The link is here-http://www.dcuguide.com/
But the place you really want is here-http://www.dcuguide.com/Who_Home.php.
How It Works-This is basically a huge index and grouping of DC characters. There are two kinds of articles. There's the small Who's Who articles-these have the character information and a few lines of description. And then there's the Biographies, which they do on major characters. The Biographies have much more text and information. The Biographies will only be on characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman-so don't go looking for small characters with loads of info.
Not a W-C-This is very important. The Unofficial Guide To The DC Universe.com is not a W-C. All text in here is mostly researched from previous knowledge and the DC books. That means that this site is always worth checking when you want information about a DC character.
The Problem-The problem with this site is this-there is not a huge load of information on here. Even on huge characters, the entire thing is maybe 100-200 points. If you are looking for a site that will support an entire Comic Vine article, then you will either have to write a very small article or look elsewhere. Also, the site only does DC characters-I know that's the point, but it is a flaw.
Still, it's not a W-C, and there's a little information on nearly every character. If you are doing a DC character, then this site is definitely worth checking for extra information that you might not have found elsewhere.
About.com-Comic Books
About.com covers just about everything imaginable-comic books included. It has it's own little comic book site, here's the link-
http://comicbooks.about.com/
Barely Any Info-There are exactly 31 profiles of comic characters on Answers.com. These characters are only heroes (no villains), largely paraphrased from Wikipedia (although relatively well), and there is barely any information on them. This is not a good site. Check it as a last resort only-don't waste your time looking for good info when you could be at a multitude of better sites.
Spiderfan.org
This site is totally devoted to our favorite web-slinger, Spider-Man. Through this guide, I'm not including pages devoted to single characters-the Superman, Batman, Captain America, and other pages are being ignored. They've got great info-on only one character. Besides, all three of those Comic Vine pages are pretty full. But Spiderfan.org actually has info on every character in the Spider-Man "universe". Here's the link-http://www.spiderfan.org/index.shtml. But the page with all the information is here-
http://www.spiderfan.org/characters/index.html
Not A W-C-I actually emailed the guy who created this site about this. Spiderfan.org is entirely researched by books, like Ultimate Guides and Handbooks. It actually predates the creation of Wikipedia itself. If you don't have the books, or even if you do, Spiderfan pages are always worth checking.
Strength-This site's greatest strength is in small, 100 point articles. There is enough info for 100 points on nearly every character there, and there's often information not found on other sites. It is best used if you are not working on something huge-just a little group of articles you can write very fast. It's also worth checking if you're writing a big article-there's usually some info there you wouldn't be able to find elsewhere.
The Problem-This will seem obvious, but it's the big problem with Spiderfan.org-only Spider-Man characters make it in. Any DC or any non-Spidey related character will not be found anywhere near this site, and if it is, it'll be a tiny article. The Spider-Man article itself simply tells you to read the comic books along with some quick facts-it doesn't come close to ZeroEdge's 2000 point juggernaut on the Comic Vine article.
This site was something I discovered just now while writing this guide-this is even helping me, too. It's a textbook example of a site created by one guy that gained staff members-and through research and hard work, became a respectable site. It's on the Top Ten results if you Google "Spider-Man". It's a site we should aspire to be-just with more characters and longer articles.
Hyperborea.com-Flash
This site is very similar to Spiderfan.org-it is a detailed profile of one character and all characters related to him. This time, the character is Flash. It has detailed information on all four Flashes, his enemies, people around him, other heroes, events, etc., etc.
Look at the three things on Spiderfan.org. Many of these are the same here.
Here's the link-http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/
Where It's Useful-This site is useful in writing small, 40-50 point articles about characters related to Flash. There is a multitude of characters-and although there isn't much text on them, you can write okay articles using the info here. The place they're most useful is in Flash's Enemies, and Friends And Family pages. I'm currently working on both of these, but if you need a quick article, this is an okay place.
The Problem Revisited-This is the same problem as with Spiderfan. Only Flash pages are detailed, and the articles are too small to get big stuff off. The pages on the four Flashes are okay.
However, this is definitely not a W-C-the info must have come from previous knowledge and actual comic books. This is a good site and is useful in certain scenarios.
Answers.com is our last website, and it doesn't even get a full heading. Why? It's the quintessential W-C. On the other W-Cs, it's paraphrased badly. On Answers.com, it is literally copied and pasted from Wikipedia. Every single comic book article. Never go there-it's a waste of time.
Non-Internet Sources
These are the sources that aren't on the Internet, that you have to go somewhere other then your computer chair to check. These can be extremely helpful, too.
The Marvel/DC Encyclopedias
These two are actually books. They come in expensive, so it's better to already have them. But they're okay sources.
Not Much Info-The Marvel Encyclopedia and the DC Universe Encyclopedia both are full of characters-they have a little information on nearly every character and a lot of information on some of the big ones. However, with all the characters, they can't put in too much info for each one. No character, not even Superman, has an article above maybe 150 points-at the most with chars like Superman. Most clock in at 10-20. It also isn't very updated-2004 or 2005 is the cutoff. This problem could not be avoided in a book, but it still applies.
Uses-These two books do have their uses, however. Both have good powers descriptions-although both Marvel.com and Wikipedia have better ones. Also, they both have such an array of characters that you can always find info about someone in there. Overall-both good-both worth a shot. Maybe not worth the money if you don't have them, though.
This applies for the Ultimate Guide series and the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, too. Many of these books are held down by the fact that they cost money and are books-you can't have half the info there is on a site like our friend Wikipedia.
Actual Comic Books
Mary Marvel. Drizzt Do'urden. Arwyn. Hank Pym. Booster Gold. Mr. Majestic. These huge pages all have one thing in common. All of these were researched using the greatest resource-actual comic books. No matter how much info you find, unless you're writing about Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman, you're not getting above 1000 points using only the Internet. It might be possible. I doubt it. No, the best place to go in real comic books.
Use Your Own-If you happen to have a huge comic book collection, then dig through and find every single comic book that whatever character was in. Then, arrange them in chronological order. Once you've done that, seperate them into storylines. For instance, you might have four comic books in a row dealing with a certain major event. So that event is one section with a heading, and those four comic books are your research tools. Write out a plan-write your headings and which comic books will be used for which headings-then put it on Word. Then fill it all in. And submit it.
Depending on the number of comic books you had, your point total could range from 400 to 1500. But you're not done. Time to web-crunch. Use above sites to fill in additional information about the character. Once you've done all this, you should have a huuuuge article. That's how they all were built, and it's the easiest, quickest way to get points.
I Don't Have A Huge Collection-Me neither. I don't have enough comic books to write anything more then 100 points on any given character. Oh well. There's other resources.
And A Tip-If you just need a few more comic books for information, buy em'. Coldblood-6 used a huge collection of Avengers books and the Net on Hank Pym. But he didn't have the early Hank stories-so he bought Essential Ant-Man and got enough info to help make a huge, 2000 point page. Don't try and buy enough to do a whole character if you don't have the ca$h-it's just a smart move.
Previous Knowledge
Combine It-This combined with comic books can be one of your most potent weapons, and it's the only way to break 2000 points. Do you love a character? Know everything about him? Have loads of comic books about him? If he doesn't have a huge page already, you can write a large page with only that.
You Can Use It Without Other Resources-If you don't have the comic books, it's still possible to collect 500 points off background knowledge and do no research whatsoever. I know-I've done it. I've never bought a Star Wars comic book in my life-and yet I wrote Obi-Wan Kenobi without doing any research. It's possible.
Comic Vine Techniques
There are many techniques on Comic Vine that can be used to get points. These are detailed here.
Pictures
These are one of those things that Fourpower is no good at (I'm speaking in third person). This is the first big hole in the Guide-I don't know how to add pics to a character's main page. But...many people do. If you do, and you're reading this, then add it. Please. This has gotta be ultimate, and it ain't ultimate without pics on pages.
However, doing images on the image galleries is pretty simple, so I'll explain it.
First-Go to Google and go to Images.
Second-Type in a keyword for what you're trying to find a picture of-i.e, if you're doing Hulk's Image Galleries, then type in "hulk". Remember to use many keywords. Don't just do Hulk. Try "bruce banner", "incredible hulk", etc., etc. Also, be imaginative. Make other galleries, so there's Ultimate Hulk pics, black and white pics, movie pics from Hulk's movie, stuff like that.
Third-Go to the page of just the image (just a blank screen and an image, the link is at the top on Google Images). Drag it onto your Desktop.
Fourth-Go to that character's Image Galleries page and click Edit. Then go down to the right gallery and click Select Your File (or something like that). Choose the file from your folder. It will upload it, then the file will be on there! Simple as that.
You will recieve TWO (2) points for each image you upload. This is not a big point getter. Also, the file uploaded must be a .jpg.
Note: That's how you do it on a Mac. If it's different on Windows, then someone please add it on.
Images on Pages-//Incomplete until someone helps out//
I suggest reading Xerox-Kitty's Unofficial Guide to Using the Galleries before uploading any images.
Enemies and Friends and Family
When you look at a page, often what you see immediately is the main summary. But if you look to the left, there's a list of other things on the character. There's Issues, Enemies, Friends and Family, Trivia, etc., etc. What people often don't realize is that there's a gold mine of points in those little ones.
Enemies are the easiest. Again, I'll do steps.
First-Find a major character without his enemies page filled in. There are loads. Let's say you pick Silver Surfer.
Second-Do web searches. Type in different keywords, like "Silver Surfer", "Silver Surfer's enemies", and "Defenders enemies". What you want to do is find as many enemies of Silver Surfer as you can. Just find the enemies themselves. Remember, just because they mostly fight other people doesn't mean you can't put in them as a Surfer enemy as long as they've ever fought Surfer. For instance, Doctor Doom mostly fights the Fantastic Four. But he has fought Silver Surfer occasionally, so he's an enemy. Defenders enemies also count, Surfer was in the Defenders.
Third-Submit them all onto Silver Surfer's enemies page. If they don't have a Comic Vine page, create it. Just make sure you've got as many enemies as you possibly can on the page.
Fourth-Time to start writing. Do a quick websearch on each enemy-Wikipedia is helpful. Then fill in information on times he's battled Silver Surfer. Try and write enough that a little scroll bar shows up on each enemy. It takes longer, but it's worth it.
Your point count will depend on how many enemies and how much you wrote for each one.
Onward to Friends and Family...
First-Friends and Family is not so easy. If it's a Marvel character, go on Marvel.com, they have a list of every character related by family to your character-especially if it's a major character. If it's DC, use other Internet sources-The Unofficial Guide To The DC Universe is helpful here. Just write down all the family. Now think of all the superheroes your guy has ever been friends with, worked with, or been on a team with. Technicalities help-like, if a character worked for S.H.I.E.L.D for a while, S.H.I.E.L.D members count as their friends.
Second-Now, submit all of those names on the page. If they don't have a page, create it-it's easy and helpful.
Third-Use the same principle as with the Enemies. Here's the instructions again-"Do a quick websearch on each person-Wikipedia is helpful. Then fill in information on times he's battled your hero. Try and write enough that a little scroll bar shows up on each enemy. It takes longer, but it's worth it."
This isn't worth as many points, but it's still useful.
Character Creation
Creating characters is a simple manuever, but it's helpful to get points no one can steal...unless the page is already created...
How To Create Characters
First-Go down to the bottom of any Comic Vine page. You should see a row of links in the black-About Us, EnemyKite.com, etc., etc. Go down to Submission Guidelines and click it.
Second-Scroll down the page until you see How To Create Characters. There will be a bunch of links saying "Create A Hero" or "Create A Concept" or Object, or whatever. Click on the one relative to the sort of page you want to create.
Third-You'll see a list of things you see on a normal Comic Vine page-Name, Aliases, Description, etc.,etc. Fill it in however you want. You can write nothing or the whole page. Either works. If you need to, explain why you're creating the page. Then click Submit.
Even if you have over 1000 points and live edit, you will still have to wait 24 hours for your page to come up. Once it does, you can get started.
Writing New Pages
Now, this is different. You don't actually get points from creating a Comic Vine character. You get the points from writing.
It depends on the character you created, really. Viz is a small, independent publisher that does manga. JB3R was a big manga fan, so he created Viz and a whole bunch of manga characters no one who doesn't read Viz has ever heard of. He must be a fan, so he filled in 400-500-600 point pages on all of them (and higher on some). He didn't have to do research because he already had all the manga comic books.
Are you a fan of independent publishers such as Viz? If so, there's a gold mine of points. Create the page for all of your characters-then just use real comics and your knowledge to write pages on them.
This is extremely useful and a very quick way to get a lot of points.
If the page you are creating is a character from Marvel or DC, then you won't get nearly as many points-there won't be as much information. Just put in as much as you can-your point total will vary.
Character creation is a skill that most don't use right off, unless you're an indie fan. If you are, use it well. If not, oh well-it's useful for Friends and Family and Enemies pages, plus if you notice a hole in the Comic Vine database.
Issue Summaries
Issue summaries are the quickest way to get points if you have a huge comic book collection. Even if you don't, it's still worth a lot of points.
How To Write A Summary
First-Find the comic book you want to do a summary on. I'll detail finding it later. Just get the comic book you want directly by you.
Second-There are two ways to write a summary. You can either do it page-by-page or whole book. Page-by-page is when you read a few panels, then summarize them, then read a few more, then summarize them. This takes about half an hour to do a whole book, but you average about 100 points an issue. Whole book is to read the entire comic book straight through, then summarize it. This isn't worth as many points, but it's easier and faster.
Third-If you're doing page-by-page, then do what's mentioned up there. Read a little, write a little, read a little, write a little. It takes a while, but you will get more points.
Fourth-If you're doing whole book, again, do what's shown above. Read the whole book then summarize it as best you can.
Finding Comic Books
There are many different ways to get comic books to summarize.
-Your Collection: This is the easiest. You have a collection, right? (If you don't, you're in the wrong place-you should at least have three or four). Find the comic book (you may have to create it). Then do your summary. Unless you have a large collection, this will wear out fast.
-Buy New Ones: New comic books come out every Thursday. Go buy a comic book, add it, and summarize it! G-Man almost has a monopoly on the new ones, but there's no reason you can't do one he doesn't have on already. As for scanning covers, I have no idea. If you know how and you're reading, this is an order-GIVE AN EXPLANATION OR I SHALL EAT YOUR SOUL!
Explanation On How To Scan Covers-//Incomplete Until Someone Helps Out//
-Collections: Marvel puts out collections of old comic books all the time. The Ultimate series is useful for this. I bought Ultimate Daredevil (after saving for four weeks) and plan on writing a summary on all 25 issues. There's also a million little books that have three or four comic books you can buy. DC is less thorough and has less of them, but there's still loads to find and do.
-DVD-ROMS: Marvel has put out a series of $50.00 DVD-ROMs of major series such as Fantastic Four, Avengers, Spider-Man, etc. These DVD-ROMs have every issue of that series from it's beginning to 2004! That's over 400 issues per DVD-ROM-in color and with all advertisements and pages. If you have the cash, BUY THESE! IT's an amazing amount of comic books and summaries sitting right on your computer. 25 issues of Daredevil for 20 bucks, or 450 issues of Daredevil for about twice that. Hmmmm...
Linking
Linking is not something that will get you a lot of points. Linking is a necessary part of writing large pages, though, so it's recommended that you know how to link and can do it quickly.
How To Link
First-Go on a page where the proper nouns are not linked. Find a proper noun that isn't linked that you can link to another Comic Vine page. Let's say Batman is mentioned but not linked. Go down to the Link Builder and click "Create A Link".
Second-You will see a search bar with some text under it. The search bar should say Type Your Link, or something like that. Delete that and type "Batman". Type it quickly. If you stop typing, even just for a second, it will look for "Batm", which will find nothing. Get "Batman" all the way out before it starts to search.
Third-You'll see a list of pages with "Batman" in the title. Batman's page, the Batman comic book series page, Batgirl, etc., etc. Click the top one, Batman's page. Click the black text that says "Batman". Just once. Double click and it will take you to the Batman page and you'll lose all work on that edit, unless you saved it.
Fourth-The page will then delete itself. You will see in the search bar on the Link Builder-two [[, the name of the page, then char:, four numbers, then [[. Highlight the whole thing and copy it. Then paste it over "Batman" in the normal description. It will look text-y. But when you save it, it will be a link to Batman.
There are a few tips on linking, too.
Don't Overdo It
If you link a page once in an article, that's enough-once. Don't link every time that character is mentioned. If Batman was mentioned again in the aforementioned page, you would not link it. Just link once. You'll notice tht I've got more then one link on the same page here. That's on purpose. You might need to see a page for this Guide more then once. I don't want you to have to scroll all the way up to the link to get to that page and see whatever I want you to see on it. Unless you have circumstances like this, DON'T OVERLINK.
Write First, Link Later
Don't link while in the process of writing. If you use the Comic Vine page, then don't do it. If you write it somewhere else then paste it in, it's impossible. Linking is part of the "Final Touches" stage. Linking as you write will slow you down.
Don't Expect Crazy Pointage
Linking is not worth a tremendous amount of points. Even if you're doing a crazy overlinking job. I once, before I learned not to overlink, did links for every page in a 1000 point article and got 150 points. Linking is a little touch, nothing more.
This page does not tell about a hero, villain, place, object, concept, etc. This page is a Comic Vine guide. If you are a new user or even someone who is a good submitter (just not a Fesak-like robot), you will find this page invaluable. This page is a research guide-how to do good research to write the best possible Comic Vine page.
Just because you are a great submitter doesn't mean this won't help. I only learned how to research beyond basics (i.e, Wikipedia, Marvel.com, etc.) when I had over 5000 points! There are lots of useful strategies in here. And if you find a method to submitting that I haven't mentioned, you must put it in-this needs as many good strategies as it can get.
This page also will include little tricks and tips and how to do certain things on the Vine. Many different users have originated their own methods which were quickly adapted. I've tried to find and explain them all.
Enjoy! I hope this will help you in some way-this would have helped me.
The Basics
The first thing to do is find out what you're good at. Are you a writer, like Buckshot or Prodigious Man? Are you good with images, like Fesak or Mighty Magneto? Do you like short, low submissions (with a huge number of them), like Shatterstar? Or do you like them all? I happen to be a writer, so that's where this guide is most aimed. But images and others are detailed.
Let's say you want to do a submission. I'll do this in steps.
One-Find a page that needs work on whatever area. Maybe you noticed that your favorite character's page is empty. or that there's barely any info on a major character. Most of the time, this won't happen. My favorite character is Batman, but ZeroEdge wrote a huge page on him and there's nothing for me to do. So I did Captain America. If you happen to be a fan of smaller publishers, this is easy. MShades got loads of points off Vertigo characters and pages-he loved Vertigo, and no one else had heard of them. So he wrote a huge Jesse Custer page and a giant Tulip page and a Saint of Killers page, and got huge points just by knowing the characters. Buckshot also did this with Wildstorm. He's a huge Wildstorm fan, so he wrote a giant Helspont and Mr. Majestic. Even if you aren't a big fan of small ones-it helps if you are.
Two-Start the research process. I will detail research later, but basically, get as much research done as you can. More on research later.
Three-Start writing. Once you've got an idea of how much information you have, start with your outline. For the Captain America page, I took a basic structure and made the outline of each section. For instance, I was going to have a small intro in the beginning, so on Word, I wrote-
Captain America
//Incomplete//
Then I figured I would do his origin and World War II years. So I made a heading-
History I
//Incomplete//
I later changed it to "1940s World War II Cap", or something like that. But I basically went through, making a heading for each section with "Incomplete". Then I started to fill in each section. This helped because it meant I could write it in any order.
Four-Write it. This step just means taking all of your research and writing the page. If you followed Step 3, you can do the sections in any order you like. How you submit it is up to you. Some people have different ways. Once I've got my outline, I submit that, then submit whatever I did that day a bit at a time. So while writing, the actual Comic Vine page will have some headings "//Incomplete//". Some people like to do it all in one submission. Writing place also varies. I personally like to write on Word. Some people like Appleworks. Some people use the Comic Vine page instead of pasting it in. It's up to you. I recommend trying different methods and seeing which you like best.
Five-Little touches. Once it's written, there are only a few small touches to add. Link it up (this will be detailed later). If it's big enough, do a Select Your Destination thing (again, this will be detailed later). Then sit back, look at the page, count the points, check your standing, and grin, satisfied. Maybe brag a little to yourself. And then start over.
Internet Sources
As the name implies, this is a research guide at heart-because research is probably the most important step. This section details how to research and different resources.
Wikipedia
Link: Wikipedia
This is it. The big one. The site that is probably the biggest shadow over Comic Vine. Wikipedia is a huge site. Gargantuan. Amazingly packed with information. Imagine Comic Vine with every page having over 1000 points worth of information. That's Wikipedia. Many Comic Vine pages have been written using only Wikipedia as a resource. Here are some tips to using Wikipedia at it's best.
Don't just use the main character page-Many times, people look, see a big page on a random hero on Wikipedia, and use that as the only resource. For instance, for the S.H.I.E.L.D page, I used many resources-one of which was the Wikipedia page. But here's a list of the Wikipedia pages I used for S.H.I.E.L.D.
The S.H.I.E.L.D Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.H.I.E.L.D
The Nick Fury Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Fury
The HYDRA Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HYDRA
The AIM Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Idea_Mechanics
The List Of S.H.I.E.L.D Members Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S.H.I.E.L.D._members
The S.T.R.I.K.E Page-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.R.I.K.E.
And remember, I used more places then Wikipedia. Many times, researching a character's enemies will tell you about the character.
Paraphrase Well-Many sites, including Marvel.com and Answers.com, are nearly worthless for comic information? Why? Because it's members basically just get the Wikipedia page, paraphrase it badly, then write an article in the same order and with the same information as the Wikipedia page. They're Wikipedia-clones (henceforth referred to as W-Cs). If you don't paraphrase well enough, people will look at our beloved Comic Vine and think, "Just another W-C!"
Wikipedia Is Not Your Only Resource-This seems obvious, but you must remember it. There are lots of Wikipedia pages that are huge enough that you could write a 400 point Comic Vine article on them using that page only. Doing that seems easy-but don't do it. The Mary Marvel page is huge on Wikipedia-but Prodigious Man used loads of other resources and wrote a 2000 point article on Mary Marvel. Don't limit yourself, or we'll be a Wiki-clone.
Marvel.com
Marvel.com is a site similar to Comic Vine in that it's a user-submitted wiki site with an encyclopedia. Marvel.com only has Marvel characters, so that's a minor setback. Overall-it's an okay site-but there are major flaws that bring it down. Here's some tips and notes on the site.
Don't Waste Time-The link to Marvel.com is here-http://www.marvel.com/. This is the page most people immediately go to on Marvel.com. However, Marvel.com is largely a news site-plus a place to peddle toys, comics, video games, advertisements, and more-plus have blogs, podcasts, and more. Remember, it's the official Marvel site, so a lot of it is merchandise. The place you're looking for with research and bios would be here-http://www.marvel.com/universe/?utm_campaign=front page tracking&utm_source=universe nav link&utm_medium=nav link&utm_content=universe. It's Marvel Universe-and this is where to go to actually get information.
It's A W-C-Marvel.com is one of many sites that falls victim to the same thing-it is largely a W-C. Most of their pages' only research comes from Wikipedia. Only occasionally will you find a major page that isn't directly-and badly-paraphrased from Wikipedia. Often, most of the reason it's not total plagiarism is because of long, flowery things and pointless extra details-while Wikipedia is short and concise. Use Marvel.com as a secondary resource-most of the information can be found on you-know-where.
Don't Overlook It, Though-Marvel.com is useful in certain scenarios, though. I often use it for "Other Aliases"-because it has every other name that character has ever been called. It has great descriptions of powers, weapons, and abilities-usually better then other places. And, when you're starting research, it's always worth checking out Marvel's page. I've found a few times pages on there that weren't W-Cs and were extremely helpful. Also, apply the Wikipedia rule about using more then one page.
DCcomics.com
This site is entirely a news, merchandise, and downloads site-avoid it completely. Here's the link in case you would like to check it out-
http://www.dccomics.com/
The Unofficial Guide To The DC Universe.com
This is an extremely valuable site when it comes to DC matters. Nearly every DC character imaginable is in here. If there's a DC character you need information on, he will be in here. The link is here-http://www.dcuguide.com/
But the place you really want is here-http://www.dcuguide.com/Who_Home.php.
How It Works-This is basically a huge index and grouping of DC characters. There are two kinds of articles. There's the small Who's Who articles-these have the character information and a few lines of description. And then there's the Biographies, which they do on major characters. The Biographies have much more text and information. The Biographies will only be on characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman-so don't go looking for small characters with loads of info.
Not a W-C-This is very important. The Unofficial Guide To The DC Universe.com is not a W-C. All text in here is mostly researched from previous knowledge and the DC books. That means that this site is always worth checking when you want information about a DC character.
The Problem-The problem with this site is this-there is not a huge load of information on here. Even on huge characters, the entire thing is maybe 100-200 points. If you are looking for a site that will support an entire Comic Vine article, then you will either have to write a very small article or look elsewhere. Also, the site only does DC characters-I know that's the point, but it is a flaw.
Still, it's not a W-C, and there's a little information on nearly every character. If you are doing a DC character, then this site is definitely worth checking for extra information that you might not have found elsewhere.
About.com-Comic Books
About.com covers just about everything imaginable-comic books included. It has it's own little comic book site, here's the link-
http://comicbooks.about.com/
Barely Any Info-There are exactly 31 profiles of comic characters on Answers.com. These characters are only heroes (no villains), largely paraphrased from Wikipedia (although relatively well), and there is barely any information on them. This is not a good site. Check it as a last resort only-don't waste your time looking for good info when you could be at a multitude of better sites.
Spiderfan.org
This site is totally devoted to our favorite web-slinger, Spider-Man. Through this guide, I'm not including pages devoted to single characters-the Superman, Batman, Captain America, and other pages are being ignored. They've got great info-on only one character. Besides, all three of those Comic Vine pages are pretty full. But Spiderfan.org actually has info on every character in the Spider-Man "universe". Here's the link-http://www.spiderfan.org/index.shtml. But the page with all the information is here-
http://www.spiderfan.org/characters/index.html
Not A W-C-I actually emailed the guy who created this site about this. Spiderfan.org is entirely researched by books, like Ultimate Guides and Handbooks. It actually predates the creation of Wikipedia itself. If you don't have the books, or even if you do, Spiderfan pages are always worth checking.
Strength-This site's greatest strength is in small, 100 point articles. There is enough info for 100 points on nearly every character there, and there's often information not found on other sites. It is best used if you are not working on something huge-just a little group of articles you can write very fast. It's also worth checking if you're writing a big article-there's usually some info there you wouldn't be able to find elsewhere.
The Problem-This will seem obvious, but it's the big problem with Spiderfan.org-only Spider-Man characters make it in. Any DC or any non-Spidey related character will not be found anywhere near this site, and if it is, it'll be a tiny article. The Spider-Man article itself simply tells you to read the comic books along with some quick facts-it doesn't come close to ZeroEdge's 2000 point juggernaut on the Comic Vine article.
This site was something I discovered just now while writing this guide-this is even helping me, too. It's a textbook example of a site created by one guy that gained staff members-and through research and hard work, became a respectable site. It's on the Top Ten results if you Google "Spider-Man". It's a site we should aspire to be-just with more characters and longer articles.
Hyperborea.com-Flash
This site is very similar to Spiderfan.org-it is a detailed profile of one character and all characters related to him. This time, the character is Flash. It has detailed information on all four Flashes, his enemies, people around him, other heroes, events, etc., etc.
Look at the three things on Spiderfan.org. Many of these are the same here.
Here's the link-http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/
Where It's Useful-This site is useful in writing small, 40-50 point articles about characters related to Flash. There is a multitude of characters-and although there isn't much text on them, you can write okay articles using the info here. The place they're most useful is in Flash's Enemies, and Friends And Family pages. I'm currently working on both of these, but if you need a quick article, this is an okay place.
The Problem Revisited-This is the same problem as with Spiderfan. Only Flash pages are detailed, and the articles are too small to get big stuff off. The pages on the four Flashes are okay.
However, this is definitely not a W-C-the info must have come from previous knowledge and actual comic books. This is a good site and is useful in certain scenarios.
Answers.com is our last website, and it doesn't even get a full heading. Why? It's the quintessential W-C. On the other W-Cs, it's paraphrased badly. On Answers.com, it is literally copied and pasted from Wikipedia. Every single comic book article. Never go there-it's a waste of time.
Non-Internet Sources
These are the sources that aren't on the Internet, that you have to go somewhere other then your computer chair to check. These can be extremely helpful, too.
The Marvel/DC Encyclopedias
These two are actually books. They come in expensive, so it's better to already have them. But they're okay sources.
Not Much Info-The Marvel Encyclopedia and the DC Universe Encyclopedia both are full of characters-they have a little information on nearly every character and a lot of information on some of the big ones. However, with all the characters, they can't put in too much info for each one. No character, not even Superman, has an article above maybe 150 points-at the most with chars like Superman. Most clock in at 10-20. It also isn't very updated-2004 or 2005 is the cutoff. This problem could not be avoided in a book, but it still applies.
Uses-These two books do have their uses, however. Both have good powers descriptions-although both Marvel.com and Wikipedia have better ones. Also, they both have such an array of characters that you can always find info about someone in there. Overall-both good-both worth a shot. Maybe not worth the money if you don't have them, though.
This applies for the Ultimate Guide series and the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, too. Many of these books are held down by the fact that they cost money and are books-you can't have half the info there is on a site like our friend Wikipedia.
Actual Comic Books
Mary Marvel. Drizzt Do'urden. Arwyn. Hank Pym. Booster Gold. Mr. Majestic. These huge pages all have one thing in common. All of these were researched using the greatest resource-actual comic books. No matter how much info you find, unless you're writing about Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman, you're not getting above 1000 points using only the Internet. It might be possible. I doubt it. No, the best place to go in real comic books.
Use Your Own-If you happen to have a huge comic book collection, then dig through and find every single comic book that whatever character was in. Then, arrange them in chronological order. Once you've done that, seperate them into storylines. For instance, you might have four comic books in a row dealing with a certain major event. So that event is one section with a heading, and those four comic books are your research tools. Write out a plan-write your headings and which comic books will be used for which headings-then put it on Word. Then fill it all in. And submit it.
Depending on the number of comic books you had, your point total could range from 400 to 1500. But you're not done. Time to web-crunch. Use above sites to fill in additional information about the character. Once you've done all this, you should have a huuuuge article. That's how they all were built, and it's the easiest, quickest way to get points.
I Don't Have A Huge Collection-Me neither. I don't have enough comic books to write anything more then 100 points on any given character. Oh well. There's other resources.
And A Tip-If you just need a few more comic books for information, buy em'. Coldblood-6 used a huge collection of Avengers books and the Net on Hank Pym. But he didn't have the early Hank stories-so he bought Essential Ant-Man and got enough info to help make a huge, 2000 point page. Don't try and buy enough to do a whole character if you don't have the ca$h-it's just a smart move.
Previous Knowledge
Combine It-This combined with comic books can be one of your most potent weapons, and it's the only way to break 2000 points. Do you love a character? Know everything about him? Have loads of comic books about him? If he doesn't have a huge page already, you can write a large page with only that.
You Can Use It Without Other Resources-If you don't have the comic books, it's still possible to collect 500 points off background knowledge and do no research whatsoever. I know-I've done it. I've never bought a Star Wars comic book in my life-and yet I wrote Obi-Wan Kenobi without doing any research. It's possible.
Comic Vine Techniques
There are many techniques on Comic Vine that can be used to get points. These are detailed here.
Pictures
These are one of those things that Fourpower is no good at (I'm speaking in third person). This is the first big hole in the Guide-I don't know how to add pics to a character's main page. But...many people do. If you do, and you're reading this, then add it. Please. This has gotta be ultimate, and it ain't ultimate without pics on pages.
However, doing images on the image galleries is pretty simple, so I'll explain it.
First-Go to Google and go to Images.
Second-Type in a keyword for what you're trying to find a picture of-i.e, if you're doing Hulk's Image Galleries, then type in "hulk". Remember to use many keywords. Don't just do Hulk. Try "bruce banner", "incredible hulk", etc., etc. Also, be imaginative. Make other galleries, so there's Ultimate Hulk pics, black and white pics, movie pics from Hulk's movie, stuff like that.
Third-Go to the page of just the image (just a blank screen and an image, the link is at the top on Google Images). Drag it onto your Desktop.
Fourth-Go to that character's Image Galleries page and click Edit. Then go down to the right gallery and click Select Your File (or something like that). Choose the file from your folder. It will upload it, then the file will be on there! Simple as that.
You will recieve TWO (2) points for each image you upload. This is not a big point getter. Also, the file uploaded must be a .jpg.
Note: That's how you do it on a Mac. If it's different on Windows, then someone please add it on.
Images on Pages-//Incomplete until someone helps out//
I suggest reading Xerox-Kitty's Unofficial Guide to Using the Galleries before uploading any images.
Enemies and Friends and Family
When you look at a page, often what you see immediately is the main summary. But if you look to the left, there's a list of other things on the character. There's Issues, Enemies, Friends and Family, Trivia, etc., etc. What people often don't realize is that there's a gold mine of points in those little ones.
Enemies are the easiest. Again, I'll do steps.
First-Find a major character without his enemies page filled in. There are loads. Let's say you pick Silver Surfer.
Second-Do web searches. Type in different keywords, like "Silver Surfer", "Silver Surfer's enemies", and "Defenders enemies". What you want to do is find as many enemies of Silver Surfer as you can. Just find the enemies themselves. Remember, just because they mostly fight other people doesn't mean you can't put in them as a Surfer enemy as long as they've ever fought Surfer. For instance, Doctor Doom mostly fights the Fantastic Four. But he has fought Silver Surfer occasionally, so he's an enemy. Defenders enemies also count, Surfer was in the Defenders.
Third-Submit them all onto Silver Surfer's enemies page. If they don't have a Comic Vine page, create it. Just make sure you've got as many enemies as you possibly can on the page.
Fourth-Time to start writing. Do a quick websearch on each enemy-Wikipedia is helpful. Then fill in information on times he's battled Silver Surfer. Try and write enough that a little scroll bar shows up on each enemy. It takes longer, but it's worth it.
Your point count will depend on how many enemies and how much you wrote for each one.
Onward to Friends and Family...
First-Friends and Family is not so easy. If it's a Marvel character, go on Marvel.com, they have a list of every character related by family to your character-especially if it's a major character. If it's DC, use other Internet sources-The Unofficial Guide To The DC Universe is helpful here. Just write down all the family. Now think of all the superheroes your guy has ever been friends with, worked with, or been on a team with. Technicalities help-like, if a character worked for S.H.I.E.L.D for a while, S.H.I.E.L.D members count as their friends.
Second-Now, submit all of those names on the page. If they don't have a page, create it-it's easy and helpful.
Third-Use the same principle as with the Enemies. Here's the instructions again-"Do a quick websearch on each person-Wikipedia is helpful. Then fill in information on times he's battled your hero. Try and write enough that a little scroll bar shows up on each enemy. It takes longer, but it's worth it."
This isn't worth as many points, but it's still useful.
Character Creation
Creating characters is a simple manuever, but it's helpful to get points no one can steal...unless the page is already created...
How To Create Characters
First-Go down to the bottom of any Comic Vine page. You should see a row of links in the black-About Us, EnemyKite.com, etc., etc. Go down to Submission Guidelines and click it.
Second-Scroll down the page until you see How To Create Characters. There will be a bunch of links saying "Create A Hero" or "Create A Concept" or Object, or whatever. Click on the one relative to the sort of page you want to create.
Third-You'll see a list of things you see on a normal Comic Vine page-Name, Aliases, Description, etc.,etc. Fill it in however you want. You can write nothing or the whole page. Either works. If you need to, explain why you're creating the page. Then click Submit.
Even if you have over 1000 points and live edit, you will still have to wait 24 hours for your page to come up. Once it does, you can get started.
Writing New Pages
Now, this is different. You don't actually get points from creating a Comic Vine character. You get the points from writing.
It depends on the character you created, really. Viz is a small, independent publisher that does manga. JB3R was a big manga fan, so he created Viz and a whole bunch of manga characters no one who doesn't read Viz has ever heard of. He must be a fan, so he filled in 400-500-600 point pages on all of them (and higher on some). He didn't have to do research because he already had all the manga comic books.
Are you a fan of independent publishers such as Viz? If so, there's a gold mine of points. Create the page for all of your characters-then just use real comics and your knowledge to write pages on them.
This is extremely useful and a very quick way to get a lot of points.
If the page you are creating is a character from Marvel or DC, then you won't get nearly as many points-there won't be as much information. Just put in as much as you can-your point total will vary.
Character creation is a skill that most don't use right off, unless you're an indie fan. If you are, use it well. If not, oh well-it's useful for Friends and Family and Enemies pages, plus if you notice a hole in the Comic Vine database.
Issue Summaries
Issue summaries are the quickest way to get points if you have a huge comic book collection. Even if you don't, it's still worth a lot of points.
How To Write A Summary
First-Find the comic book you want to do a summary on. I'll detail finding it later. Just get the comic book you want directly by you.
Second-There are two ways to write a summary. You can either do it page-by-page or whole book. Page-by-page is when you read a few panels, then summarize them, then read a few more, then summarize them. This takes about half an hour to do a whole book, but you average about 100 points an issue. Whole book is to read the entire comic book straight through, then summarize it. This isn't worth as many points, but it's easier and faster.
Third-If you're doing page-by-page, then do what's mentioned up there. Read a little, write a little, read a little, write a little. It takes a while, but you will get more points.
Fourth-If you're doing whole book, again, do what's shown above. Read the whole book then summarize it as best you can.
Finding Comic Books
There are many different ways to get comic books to summarize.
-Your Collection: This is the easiest. You have a collection, right? (If you don't, you're in the wrong place-you should at least have three or four). Find the comic book (you may have to create it). Then do your summary. Unless you have a large collection, this will wear out fast.
-Buy New Ones: New comic books come out every Thursday. Go buy a comic book, add it, and summarize it! G-Man almost has a monopoly on the new ones, but there's no reason you can't do one he doesn't have on already. As for scanning covers, I have no idea. If you know how and you're reading, this is an order-GIVE AN EXPLANATION OR I SHALL EAT YOUR SOUL!
Explanation On How To Scan Covers-//Incomplete Until Someone Helps Out//
-Collections: Marvel puts out collections of old comic books all the time. The Ultimate series is useful for this. I bought Ultimate Daredevil (after saving for four weeks) and plan on writing a summary on all 25 issues. There's also a million little books that have three or four comic books you can buy. DC is less thorough and has less of them, but there's still loads to find and do.
-DVD-ROMS: Marvel has put out a series of $50.00 DVD-ROMs of major series such as Fantastic Four, Avengers, Spider-Man, etc. These DVD-ROMs have every issue of that series from it's beginning to 2004! That's over 400 issues per DVD-ROM-in color and with all advertisements and pages. If you have the cash, BUY THESE! IT's an amazing amount of comic books and summaries sitting right on your computer. 25 issues of Daredevil for 20 bucks, or 450 issues of Daredevil for about twice that. Hmmmm...
Linking
Linking is not something that will get you a lot of points. Linking is a necessary part of writing large pages, though, so it's recommended that you know how to link and can do it quickly.
How To Link
First-Go on a page where the proper nouns are not linked. Find a proper noun that isn't linked that you can link to another Comic Vine page. Let's say Batman is mentioned but not linked. Go down to the Link Builder and click "Create A Link".
Second-You will see a search bar with some text under it. The search bar should say Type Your Link, or something like that. Delete that and type "Batman". Type it quickly. If you stop typing, even just for a second, it will look for "Batm", which will find nothing. Get "Batman" all the way out before it starts to search.
Third-You'll see a list of pages with "Batman" in the title. Batman's page, the Batman comic book series page, Batgirl, etc., etc. Click the top one, Batman's page. Click the black text that says "Batman". Just once. Double click and it will take you to the Batman page and you'll lose all work on that edit, unless you saved it.
Fourth-The page will then delete itself. You will see in the search bar on the Link Builder-two [[, the name of the page, then char:, four numbers, then [[. Highlight the whole thing and copy it. Then paste it over "Batman" in the normal description. It will look text-y. But when you save it, it will be a link to Batman.
There are a few tips on linking, too.
Don't Overdo It
If you link a page once in an article, that's enough-once. Don't link every time that character is mentioned. If Batman was mentioned again in the aforementioned page, you would not link it. Just link once. You'll notice tht I've got more then one link on the same page here. That's on purpose. You might need to see a page for this Guide more then once. I don't want you to have to scroll all the way up to the link to get to that page and see whatever I want you to see on it. Unless you have circumstances like this, DON'T OVERLINK.
Write First, Link Later
Don't link while in the process of writing. If you use the Comic Vine page, then don't do it. If you write it somewhere else then paste it in, it's impossible. Linking is part of the "Final Touches" stage. Linking as you write will slow you down.
Don't Expect Crazy Pointage
Linking is not worth a tremendous amount of points. Even if you're doing a crazy overlinking job. I once, before I learned not to overlink, did links for every page in a 1000 point article and got 150 points. Linking is a little touch, nothing more.
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