Monday, December 28, 2009

Belated/Early Holiday Greetings and Rambling about the DC Comics Encyclopedia

A Belated Merry Christmas, and an early Happy New Year.

My $&*# external hard drive died over the holidays, taking most of my files with it, including an awesome scan of Ma Hunkel dressed as Santa Claus punching out a burglar in a Santa Claus mask.  (Which was, incidentally, going to be my Christmas post.)

Oh, well.  At least the hard drive's under warranty.


In an unrelated note, I got the DC Comics Encyclopedia for Christmas.  I'm amazed at how bad the editing is.  On one page, it says that Dr. Light killed Sue Dibny . . . and on another it says Jean Loring is the killer.  How did the editor let such a blatant contradiction slip by?  My guess is either laziness or incompetence.  Or both.  (And that's an error I noticed while flipping through the thing.  I haven't even read through the book yet, and I've already noticed at least one other major mistake and several nitpicky ones.)

Come on, DC.  I expected better, especially considering the price of the book.  Heck, next time you need something edited, let me do it.  My vast comics knowledge, nerdiness, and my ability to utilize an amazing resource known as the Internet will result in much better editing than what's displayed in this book.  And I guarantee my prices are much more reasonable.

2 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you got a copy of the DC Comics Encyclopedia for Christmas, and sorry to hear of your frustrations with the book's errors. As the writer of the updated and expanded edition I share your frustration as I would have liked a version as error-free as possible but last-minute deadlines prevented the level of proofing passes I was hoping for.

    I hope you enjoy the book despite its flaws. I posted some thoughts on it here:
    http://geekosity.blogspot.com/2008/10/dc-comics-encyclopedia-revised-and.html

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  2. Actually, I like the book a lot . . . which is why the errors stand out so much. (Especially the error about who killed Sue Dibny, considering that it's one of the most (in)famous recent storylines in the DCU.)

    Given what the cover price of the book was, I expected better editing. I like the book, but I'm glad I didn't pay for it myself.

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