Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is there some easy way to select just credits in US comic books (or alternately, comics published outside the US)?
A: We have instituted a special search that will return all known credits in comic books sold in the US. Use
This will also include some comics from the UK and Canada that have received US distribution. The default sort (biographical) lists the publishers under each creator in the order: small press, alternate press and mainstream publishers. This trichotomy is somewhat arbitrary but it may prove useful.

In a similar manner, one can return all known comic book credits published outside the US. Use
The results will list the countries alphabetically, including the general category 'Overseas comics'. You may wish to add a search for
This will catch important credits in foreign comics circulated in the US.

Caveat: For additional comics items of interest (including items in Canada, Australia and the U.K.) don't forget the following standard searches to find items not included under either of the above special searches by TYPE, viz.,
These standard categories will include some items from other English-speaking countries.

Q: Can one access the list of all scans available and view two scans for comparison?
A: Select the SCAN option from the main page. Find the scan of interest and choose the 50% link to view the scan. You will see the full image. If you reduce the window size and move it to the left, you will then be able to click on the listing of scans to make a second selection. The two scans can be placed side by side for easy comparison.

Please feel free to help identify the scans marked UNCREDITED ART.

Q: Is there a way to pull credits by comics pencilers as distinguished from artists that do both pencilling and inking?
A: All job descriptions in the CREDIT field are indicated by abbreviations that end in a slash (/):
(wr/) writer, (pen/ink/) penciler and/or inker, (pen/) penciler etc.
First, return all pencilers by searching for “pen/”; then remove the records containing “ink/”.
This second step will also eliminate any ghost artist “ghost pen&ink/” or assistant artist “asst pen&ink/”, leaving pure pencil credits.

Q: If a name cannot be found, what should one do?
A: Try a part of the name, an altered spelling or a nickname. For example, you won't find the name "McWilliams" because it is listed as "MC WILLIAMS". If you can't recall how "Louis Cazeneuve" spells his name, try "lou caz". If you can't find a "Robert", try "Bob" (or vice versa). With abbreviations, like "Dr." and "Capt.", try spelling out the words (and vice versa). For foreign names, drop special accent marks and tildes. We use only the 26 letters of the English alphabet here. Even if you only know a pen name or initials, you ought to get a result that will give you a lead.

Suppose a work is signed "B.P." on a cover at DELL COMICS. First, find
Then sort by name, and try
in order to narrow the field. Remember that you cannot search on a single character and you need quotation marks if you want to include a space.

If none of the above works, try these options: