Superman Through the Ages! Forum

As founder/administrator/webmaster/programmer/graphic-artist/graphic-designer/editor-in-chief/
writer/former-soapbox-ranter/etc of Superman Through the Ages!, I still receive many submissions intended for the website.  But I am only one person.  I am way behind on fan art pictures, essays and articles, reviews, book excerpts, even guest book entries.  I've been doing this for a while and, while still fun, it's not quite as exciting for me as it once was.

Yet here is Supermanica, a full-blown powerful WIKI dedicated to Superman.

I don't even have a full-blown proposal worked out yet - just the inkling of an idea, and here it is:

What about expanding the mission of Supermanica.  Instead of just limiting it to the Fleisher book concept, we could somehow open it up a bit.  Give people a place to post their own articles, reviews, fan artwork and rare pieces (like the Shuster painting that is already there).  Sort of an open STTA.

It could be something along the lines of the old Kryptonian Cybernet; or it could be something competely different.  Perhaps just open up the continuity rules to include all media - the movies and movie serial, the Reeves show, etc -  thus allowing articles on, say, Ro-Zan and his few appearances in various media; Henderson in both the TV show and the comics, etc.

Or we could also include scholarly articles, analyses, pictures. Turn it into a more expansive complete Superman encyclopedia - covering Earth-Prime analysis of Superman as well as the events and characters of Earth-1.  Like I said, I'm not sure just how - or if - to go about this.

We'd need to figure out:  whether or not to change Supermanica; if so, then what are the new rules; and we'd certainly need quality control - more editors to take a bigger, hands-on enforcement role in order to limit the hordes of inane nattering trolls currently cursing the internet.

Just a thought.  Comments - yay, nay, or otherwise - welcome.

:s:

We should included perhaps Superman centric characters which took place pre-crisis which did not take place in the canon books.

Maybe All-Star Superman, once it is over.

I might be open to including the Serials, TV show (Reeves), and films which might include the new film, once that is release. Maybe the classic cartoons too. Maybe the Superboy series.

What not to include:

I really don't think we should include any Man of steel post-crisis superman stuff at all, and no elseworlds stories. No Lois and Clark and no Smallville. I think they have no place whatsoever at the Supermanica.



I don't see the point of that, articles can be posted here. Same with reviews and fan art.

man this is depressing, no one even cares enough to chime in. I would hate to think that I did all that work for nothing.

 :(

Well, quite a bit has been done already, I think those of you that have put all that work in did a great job...

I like the idea of expanding to some other pre-Crisis story elements and characters that tie in less directly to the "canonical" sources, but I have to admit that I don't work on Supermanica, so I don't really think I have much of a right to an opinion...

By "here", do you mean the forum, or STTA?  The problem with posting something on the STTA site is that instead it sits in my inbox for a year until I finally just delete it.

And although people are certainly encouraged to post things here on the forum, it's not as powerful and flexible as a wiki is.

:s:

I mean the board which people are doing now.

Some of the best critical writing on Superman ever is right here on the boards.  And what isn't here eventually gets linked to.  But I also think there may be a place for longer articles, a la the "Theorectical Concepts" or the analysis of Clark's character from Fleisher in Supermanica.  There is a magical spell or illusion about the format of Supermanica that I would hate to see broken.  What other kinds of articles were you thinking of Rao?

It seems to me that what you are suggesting in part is a messageboard/fan-site where everyone has image uploading priveleges.

Expanding Supermanica to other pre-Crisis comics sources has my blessing --that would solve any haggling over what is canonical.  I'm just not that interested in the other media versions (except where they had a direct influence on the comics --and I don't mean catch-phrases from the TV shows) and see them as taking away from the primacy of the comics.  The canon as it is makes a strong case for the Superman family comics as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the mid-20th Century.

Given how Supermanica is currently languishing (I haven't posted or edited anything in weeks myself --thank Rao for Super-Monkey, Dr.Johnny and Not Super!), I find it hard to believe that expanding its range would encourage more participation.  But maybe its stated limitations (quite broad IMHO) and format are keeping editors away?

Maybe a wiki-format fan art "page" is in order?  The Super-Sketchbook?

Though I haven't been able to do any work on it since Christmas break, I do enjoy it, and I think it's important to keep Supermanica as an expansion of the Fleisher book. There are, however, really important non-canonical Superman stories that can't be documented in Supermanica:

The Adventures of Superman, by George Lowther (novel)
Superman's Christmas Spectacular, by Jerry Siegel
The Max Fleischer cartoons
Superman and the Mole Men
Atom Man vs. Superman (radio)

These are stories that are really important to Superman history, but aren't canonical. I'm not really sure what to do with them.

IMHO, Supermanica should stay devoted to the Pre-MAN OF STEEL comics canon. However, I see no problem with including the Superman of Earth-A or other characters and info from Pre-Crisis comics outside of the Superman family of titles.

So what is the outcome of this?

Where do we stand now?

I kind of assumed that we left it that we'd stick with the pre-Crisis Superman comic books.  Some people seem open to adding a few other classic sources, but it looks like my original suggestion (http://superman.nu/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2379) of an analytical, artistic, outside-the-Supermanverse mega-site (analytical articles and analysis, tribute art, reviews, etc: sort of an open-source STTA) is a non-starter.

As far as adding more canonical sources, I suppose it's a question of figuring out which of them, if any, to consider for addition.

Any motions and seconds?  Anything moved and 2nded could be up for a vote...

:s:

One source which is in the The Great Superman Book but somehow escape the website is NYWF : New York World's Fair Comics.

I think it should be added ASAP.

I have an entry ready to go.

Yeah, I say go for it on that, SM.

He might be one of if not the most obscure Superman villians of them all, he dies at the end of the story.

I will go ahead and add him, then you can add him to the Canonical sources, or I can :)

It's from the The Great Superman Book, so I don't think anyone would object.

There may be another solution to the problem. We may be purist about Supermanica's purpose, but that also doesn't change the fact that you, Rao, have too much to do. Just delegate responsibilites and take more of an editorial role. I'm sure that forum users would like to help out, in order to keep things rolling.



Here's an idea, for example- get volunteers, and create different email addresses. To one address, forward mailsack messages, to one forward scans, etc. Then give different people access to those addresses, who will be responsible for that particular job at their own pace. (One of the jobs could be transcribing the Great Superman Book, to keep that project rolling.) You could rotate on a quarterly basis, like many forums do.



As for me, just give me superboy.superman.nu so I can make a giant Superboy through the Ages website and post my Superboy Annual #1 scan! *Not so discreet giant hint* *hint*

I think it's safe to assume that if Fleisher uses a source in TGSB, then we should consider at least that usage of it to be canonical.

:s:

All hail Fleisher!  :)