Last Minute Gift: DC COMICS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE

Look. Not everyone can be as organized as me and have already finished their holiday shopping. It’s a curse, I admit, to be so on track. But here’s where the good news comes: I have the perfect gift for you. And how do I know it’s the perfect gift? Because I have purchased it no less than seven times already. Basically, if you are under the age of 16, you have a copy of this book, from me.

DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide.

UltimateGuideIn stock and ready to ship in time for Christmas from Amazon for a mere $10, this book is your promised land of good gift for the comics fans among you.

Here’s the deal: first published at the tail end of the DC Universe prior to the New 52, DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide has roughly 200 heroes and villains with stunning art and fun summaries for all of your favorite iconic heroes. Want Superman and Batman? Of course they’re there. Oracle? Secret Six? Amanda Waller? All there.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

How do I know this book is the PERFECT gift for the kid (or kid at heart) in your life? My nephew had the entire thing memorized by his second birthday. He literally could go A to Z and name every character. You can watch that here.

Crafting this fun evergreen tome of DC mythology is writer Brandon T. Snider, author of other titles such as The Dark Knight Manual and My Little Pony: The Elements of Harmony — and big comics geek himself. I chatted with Snider to hear about the development of this book that’s made my nephew (and a slew of other gift recipients in my family) go crazy with delight.

Matt Santori: Brandon, so great to talk to you! Tell me how you got started on the DC Comics Ultimate Character Guide.

Brandon T. Snider: I had done some projects with the DC Comics Licensing Division, who handled all the licensed books DC put out through the various publishers at the time. I had done a few Superman Returns projects, and then a Green Lantern book and worked on the Smallville magazine.

DK Publishing had been looking to do a DC version of what Marvel had done, which was a condensed, “for kids” encyclopedia and ended up working with an editor name Frank Pittarese, who, as it turns out, had answered one of my letters I wrote as a kid to Adventures of Superboy in 1989.

It was a very special thing to have an opportunity to write. It was right before the New 52, and none of knew that was coming. We just did our own thing.

Batman

MSG: How did the process of deciding which characters to include go?

BTS: You know, there’s going to be the ones that everybody knows about: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. Then you get into the teams. Whoever was present in the DC Universe at that time and was important to things got in. And then there were people like Amanda Waller, who, even if she wasn’t appearing in any comic at the time, she’s always popping up in things. You’ve got to put her in there.

We really went with the most recognizable, the people who had visibility in TV and cartoons. We did also want to put in some wild cards. We couldn’t put in anyone we couldn’t justify, but we did manage to get in some interesting characters who were in books at the time, like Congorilla, Cyclone, and Detective Chimp.

There were some characters we wanted to include individually, but were ultimately told to keep to team pages.

Lady Blackhawk we were excited for. We also wanted people with interesting costumes who were bright and fun. We wanted diversity.

There were characters that were just so visually interesting, like Hector Hammond. You HAVE to put Hector Hammond in there because he has this giant, ugly head.

A few things were happening in the comics that we didn’t have much control over. For instance, you’ll notice Wonder Woman is in her pre-New 52 costume [from the J. Michael Stracyznski run]. But we did add her classic costume on the inside in a small inset with a gorgeous drawing by Nicola Scott.

I think we got everybody we wanted, though.

Shazam

MSG: So, there was no one that you asked for that you didn’t get?

BTS: I don’t think so. We got to do a handful of Legion of Super-Heroes characters. The big four, and Karate Kid, because you know, kids love karate.

In putting together the art for the book, I was able to use a lot of very specific references. I was able to ask for this specific image from that specific comic. Frank and I would put together this list of where we could find the best and most vivid images.

And because it needed to use art from so many different people, we wanted it to be diverse and have different styles. Some are painted. Some are sketchy. Some are bold. Some are evocative and moody. It’s a lot of different stuff.

MSG: Did you have a system to deal with what to include and what not to, given the small space each character had to work with?

BTS: Yeah. Because it was a book for kids, we also wanted to make it a primer. This was not going to be the completist’s guide to these characters in the way a giant encyclopedia would be. This is a fun, bright book, filled with images, with accessible, easy-to-understand details. It’s enough of a taste so that you can go off on your own afterward and explore the rest of the universe.

With the bios on each character, we wanted to make them broad strokes without getting too deep. Because, as you know, some of these characters have such convoluted histories. Sort of like, “Sorry, Timmy, but here’s the deal on Hawkman.” We wanted to make it simple so that kids can latch onto personality traits and simple backstory information. So that they can find something to connect to.

BeastBoy

Then we would include a little snippet of their history, like, “You’ll never forget that time when Batwoman was pumping iron!” or “Hey, Barda has this cool rod.”

The vital stats are pretty cut and dry. You know what? I took those from my bound collections of Who’s Who comics from way back in the day, for the most part. But the big part was getting the characters down to their essential essence. I think even with that tiny bit of test, I think we were able to do it.

MSG: One of the things I’ve noticed with my nephew, who knew this book backwards and forwards from age 2, is that now that he’s learning to read, he’s experiencing the characters on another whole level than just when he was entranced by their names and the art.

BTS: First of all, that is insane. After he turned 2? I don’t think you really understand how special that is to me. It warms my heart in a way that’s indescribable.

One of the things that was really funny is that when the book came out, fans were yelling at an interview I did DC posted on their Facebook page, “This book is FOR KIDS.” Um, yeah, it IS for kids. And it can be for you too, but it’s ok that it’s for kids. It’s meant to be a gateway, not necessarily to cater to every person who’s ever read a DC comic.

It’s meant to be something to spur children to discover these great stories. I mean, a two-year-old loving Amanda Waller? That’s so special.

If I was a little girl with a Latina last name and didn’t really think there were that many super-heroes who looked like me, seeing “Beatriz Bonilla DaCosta” when I turn the page to Fire has a great meaning. So, I take that really seriously.

AtomSmasher

MSG: Is there any talk of doing an updated version?

BTS: I don’t know if DK has anything on the books, but if enough fans cried out for one, I don’t know why they wouldn’t. I would love to write that book! I love that this book still has legs, but who wouldn’t want to put a fresh coat on it?

The DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide can still be in your kids’ hands by Christmas morning if you order on Amazon.com now!

 

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