Help / Style Guide

This page is here to help you with some of the intracies of wiki-coding (the page syntax has extra, detailed information - if in doubt, keep it open in a new window as you work). Various versions of wiki software have slightly different variations in how they work. This site, for example, runs on Dokuwiki, which does not use exactly the same coding as Wikipedia.

Describe the stories!

Other sites will tell you dry facts and lists of story titles, here we want to know about them! Obviously if you have a large collection you won't have read all of it yet/ever. In that case at least give a brief description of what a story is, a school, western or detective story, for instance?

Be Brief!

On the other hand, webspace and bandwidth doesn't grow on trees, so don't describe every tiny intracy of a story. Try to keep under 500 words for a serial instalment, and under 1000 for a long complete story (like a Commando or Halfpenny Marvel). The first instalment of a serial may also have a longer description to set the scene, if required. If a story stars a 'famous' character like Sexton Blake or Wilson, don't describe all about that character. There is (or will be) a seperate page for them which does that for you.

Add what you know, leave what you don't

So you don't know who wrote a story, or who edited an issue, if you have the issue write what you do know about it, every little helps!

Be Biased

British Comics are, obviously, the best thing since the automatic bread-slicer. Don't dwell on any nasty out-of-date stereotypes, poor print quality or mistakes, gloss over or better still ignore them. Of course some stories are so insufferably awful you just have to say something (most of the Halfpenny Marvel, for instance), but try and keep it upbeat wherever possible.
Of course, debate on the relevance / britishness / cultural worth of something or other is bound to arise. In all cases remember that the admin's decision is final. And that the admin is an old-fashioned jingoist who really does genuinely love this stuff, and has nothing but contempt for cash-in, marketing-led, “advertainment” m_cculture.

No Guardian-reading, ivory-tower smugness

Any sign of a “lol it's so bad it's good” attitude, or “this story obviously reflects the socio-genderpolitical zietgiest and was intended to keep the proletarian reader in thier place” waffling will be met with a ban. No exceptions.

Stay Relevant

The London Evening Standard has, no doubt, interesting facts surrounding it's editors and orgins and the like. BUT none of that has to do with British Comics. All we are interested in is the fact that Modesty Blaise appeared in it. And Sexton Blake did once too. Additionally we don't want to hear about those oh-so-interesting adverts for Corgi cars, or the fact a bike used to cost £3 10/-

No Copying!

Wikipedia or other sites will seem to have a ton of “ready made” information that can simply be transferred over, don't do it. For a start wikipedia has a much more neutral style and unnessescary waffle that is not wanted on this site. Secondly website articles about a comic are likely to be longer than nessescary. Taking information from only one source will multiply mistakes too. Find several sources of information (if possible, info about some titles is scarce to nonexistent) and use that. Wherever possible refer to original issues of the comic itself that you actually have next to the computer as you type. That way the information is there in black and white.
You will notice that the referencing style of this site is rather simple compared to wikipedia, so any copy and paste jobs will be easy to catch anyway, unless you spend so much time editing them you might just as well have written something yourself anyway.

Please paste in and edit this coding at the top of a page (underneath the title at any rate. The title should be in “H1” size (click the H1 button)) relating to a comic title (ie an overview of the entire title, not a single issue).

 ^      Comic title       || 
 |      Cover image       ||
 ^ Type           | XXXX   |
 ^ Format         | XXXX   |
 ^ No. of issues  | XXXX   |
 ^ First issue    | XXXX   |
 ^ Last issue     | XXXX   |
 ^ Fate           | XXXX   |
 ^ Incorporations | XXXX   |
 ^ Publisher      | XXXX   |

This will produce:

Note: when you copy and paste in the code for the table, remove all spaces in front of the lines (so that the table code is right up against the left of the text box), otherwise it will look a mess. And remember, if in doubt, use preview!

Don't worry about the width of the table! just replace the XXXX entries with whatever you need to type and it will all sort itself out when you save the page. If in doubt, use the “Preview” button. For the “Format” section, please put the format that the comic ran in for most issues. If you only one one issue of some obscure publication, just put the format that issue is in. For more unusual/unique formats, just provide the width and height of the paper in cm's. If a comic was originally/later in a different size format (ie Nipper, which started off as A5 sized) then mention this fact in the main article.

If you don't know or are unsure of a certain detail, leave the XXXX in place. This will indicate to other users who do know that information that it needs inserting.

The cover image of a typical issue of the comic should be just that - a typical issue. Try to avoid using issue 1, or some celebratory number. Though cover scans of those issues are wanted for the issue pages, the general overview article should just provide a randomly-chosen “ordinary” issue. Remember to provide a copyright notice for images - either the current copyright holder or, if unknown, the copyright holder that is named on the issue (to keep on the safe side. Also give copyright notices for things that “should” be in the public domain due to copyright expiry, to again keep on the safe side).

After this table, provide general information on the comic. It's general content, how it changed over the years, who edited it and any other interesting bits of information. Please DO NOT copy and paste from other sources like Wikipedia or other comic pages! try to keep information as brief as possible too, so read the other sources you are getting your information from, cut it down and provide links to it at the end of the article. References to other titles / writers, artists and editors / important characters or stories that are also part of this wiki should be made into links, like so:

 [[Comic]]
 [[comic_with_more_than_one_word_in_its_title|Comic with more than one word in it's title]]

Note the usage of upper and lower case, and punctuation. Keep titles of comics, characters etc that are one word between a set of square brackets, and capitalise. Any link to an article with more than one word in it should be in all lowercase, the spaces replaced by underscores (_) and without punctuation. Then type a vertical line (|) and type the actual title as you would normally. The text before the | is the link to the article, and the text after the | is what actually appears. Like so:

 [[the_schoolboys_own_library|The Schoolboy's Own Library]]

Generates

The Schoolboy's Own Library

Don't worry about linking to pages that don't exist yet! they will just become links to a blank page that can be filled in later.

The next section should be on paticularly notable characters and stories for that paticular comic. For instance The Beano is especially remembered for Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids.

The section after should be the list of stories that appeared or dissapeared in the comic, by decade. Include pages for a “complete” decade even if the comic did not run for the full 10 years. For instance Adventure story list 1960's exists despite that comic coming to an end in 1961.

The next section is for issue-by-issue listings of comics. Please break them up into 250-issue sized chunks (where a comic ran for that long), for instance:

Somecomic Issues 1 - 250
Somecomic Issues 251 - 500
Somecomic Issues 501 - 567

On the issue list pages themselves, please use the following format:

 [[comic_title_1234|Comic Issue 1234]]

Note the use of all lowercase. Some of the older story papers, and even some modern comics, re-launched with a “new series”, those should be written in this format:

 [[comic_title_n_1234|Comic Issue (new series) 1234]]

For comics that came in volumes (such as Chatterbox) with new numbering for each volume (if the numbers continued in spite of volumes, just ignore the volumes), use this format:

 [[comic_title_vol1_1234|Comic Vol. 1 Issue 1234]]

Also, divide the issue lists up by volume and not into 250-issue chunks.

Writing long lists of links to issues can be boring, for a quick way, follow this guide: Click!

The final section should be the references you used. Provide external links to other websites (try to aim for the relevant page of a website!) or references to books, in the following formats.

 [[http://www.anothercomicsite.com/blahblah|Another Comic Site's Name]]

for websites and

Title
Author
Date

for books.

The “model” comic article is Adventure, so please go there and follow it's format for the creation of other comic pages. If you can IMPROVE the article on Adventure, though, please do so.

An Issue page is a page relating to a single issue of a comic. They should be headed by an H1 heading also, and then the following table:

 ^      Comic title & Issue Number  || 
 |      Cover image (see notes)     ||
 ^ Date          | XXXX              |
 ^ Day published | XXXX              |
 ^ Format        | XXXX              |
 ^ Pages         | XXXX              |
 ^ Price         | XXXX              |
 ^ Editor        | XXXX              |

This will produce:

Again, don't worry about the width's etc in the table, it will sort itself out. Cover images should only be provided for first, last, and “milestone” (significant numbers, birthdays) issues. And remember to include a copyright notice of some kind. Please provide the price as it appears on the issue, don't try and “translate” old money into new. If there is sections you don't know, just leave XXXX in the space, for the information to be added by somebody else.

Follow this with a section on the stories in the issue. Please provide brief descriptions (it is story descriptions that seperate this site from the others! we need them!). If it's a story you happen to have not read, then simply provide a brief overview, such as:

Western story about the Mexican war, features Kit Carson

Note a link provided if a significant character features in the story. For stories you have read, provide a brief description of the events in that story. No more than 500 words, please! as this site is likely to grow very large and space/bandwidth isn't free! Some story-papers / comics encompass only one long and complete story, for these longer descriptions may be added, but please try to stay under 1000 words.

For story serial instalments, only provide information about what happens in that paticular instalment, there's no need to describe all of the characters and background. Only do this in the description of the first instalment! A note to say if a certian instalment is the first or last would be helpful too, so that people who wish to only collect a certain story know what issues to look out for.

The next section should concentrate on the features / articles. Please keep these as brief as possible unless they are paticularly interesting (for instance a 'celebrity' writing in to a letters page!)

Please DO NOT write about the adverts! Only do so if they are very very interesting. The fact that a bike used to cost £3 10/- or that Tony The Tiger used to look different are NOT interesting!

The page for Adventure Issue 1732 is up, and gives an idea of what i'm looking for. Note the short description of a story instalment (we don't want to make reading them redundant, after all). Also note that for not-yet-read stories a quick description is provided)

Begin with the usual H1 title, and this table:

 ^               Name                 ||
 |             Picture                ||
 ^ Born        | XXXX                  |
 ^ Died        | XXXX                  |
 ^ Nationality | XXXX                  |
 ^ Profession  | XXXX                  |

Which, after having the preceding spaces removed will produce:

Photographs are better, but if they appeared in their comics in (reasonably accurate!) illusutrated form that will do. If only illustrations of them exist those will have to be used. If a person's nationality is one of the British nations (England, Scotland, (Northern) Ireland, Wales &c) please name the nation, if known. The “profession” should be that in relation to comics! for instance though Chatterbox andEagle were started by clergymen, put “editor”.

After this, give a short biography. Try to concentrate only on relevant information to the subject at hand. For instance whilst Jules Verne was one of the inventors of science fiction, and wrote numerous literary classics, only a passing mention of those should be made and instead his contributions to The Boys' Own concentrated on.

After this, give a quick list of links to notable creations by a person, wether those be a paticularly good story, a publication founded or a famous character created.

After this, a link to a page listing all of thier known contributions (more than one page may be nessescary for large lists, broken up by alphabetical chunks or year, for instance).

About psuedonyms: Many old storypapers, and some more modern publications, used pseudonyms for some creators. For instance Frank Richards and Desmond Reid. Pages about these people should be created, with a note on thier origin. Stories attributed to these fake names should be listed in seperate lists, and also listed on a list of contributions by the real creator (if known). A note should be appended on each list as to the real writer, and the pseudonym the writer used, if known. For instance.

On a list of Martin Clifford's stories:
The Secret of the Tower - The Gem issue 1324 (real writer: Charles Hamilton)

And on a list of Charles Hamilton's stories:
The Secret of the Tower - The Gem issue 1324 (Writing as Martin Clifford)

Pages for years should be a simple link to the year in question, like so:

 [[1965]]

On the page itself, put the year in an H1 heading and then each month, seperated by a blank line, into an H2 heading. For significant events in each month, put the day number (if known) and then describe the event, with links to the relevant comic / person / story in question.

If day numbers are not known, simply put “unknown day” “X” or nothing. Some events may be “generic to the month” and so the exact day they happen on may be unknowable anyway. Entries relating to Annuals / “Books” should be put into December. This is because traditionally they were given as christmas presents, and so most readers will probably remember first reading them on that day. In modern times, of course, they seem to come out in June and parents probably even give them to thier kids for birthday presents, because they don't know how to “do it” “correctly”. BUT keep the annuals to december for simplicity. Also note that film / TV tie-in annuals don't count! (not even if they have one token strip in). Annuals not related to a specific comic that are primarily stories / comic strips do count, however.

For events that occurred in a certain year but on an unknown date, put them above all the months.

Events significant for inclusion in a year page include the first issue of a comic, the cancellation or merging of a comic, the death of a writer / artist / editor, the first appearance of a famous character / story, or a move of a famous character / story between publications. For annuals, the first and last ones are significant, don't just give a list of all annuals from a year!

No non-comic events either. I know we ought to remember 9/11 but it's got nothing to do with comics.

If a significant story appeared in only one issue of something (like The Missing Millionaire appearing in issue 6 of the Halfpenny Marvel) then simply link to the issue. If it was a serial that deserves to be remembered for whatever reason, then create a seperate page about it, give a broad overview (of reasonable length!), and state where it appeared. Also mention reprints, and if those reprints were edited (for instance Sexton Blake at School appeared several times, with changes each time).

Please do not copy images from other websites unless you absolutely have to (rarity, for instance). If you do, provide a link back.

Please don't make cover scans any bigger than around 800 pixels and “whatever” high. Please also make them .jpg format (MSPaint is terrible with resizing and .jpg saving. If you don't have photoshop or paint shop pro some free image tools such as Gimp and Painter can be found on google).

For all images, provide a copyright notice. Either for the current copyright holder (for instance Amalgamated Press is now, through many evolutions, Egmont), or, if unsure, the copyright holder that appears on the comic you have (better safe than sorry).

The copyright owners of Dan Dare appear to be employing bully-boy tactics across the internet against websites that show small pictures of him for the (perfectly legal) purposes of criticism or review. For any images of Dan Dare or Eagle that are uploaded, please provide a link to the FAQ page, where such ambulance-chasers are told where to go.