THE DC CHRONOLOGY PROJECT FAQ

The DC Chronology Project is an important part of the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe, that works both as an integrated part of that site as well as a working site all of its own. The DC Chronology Project (DCP) is an ongoing attempt at chronicling every actual appearance by every character and team in the DC Universe, and place them in their proper chronological order. In the mid-eighties Independent Comics Group (ICG) published a number of official DC Comics Indexes edited by Murray Ward. These indexes included before and "before and after" appearances of each character in each of the indexed issues. The DCP can be seen as a sort of companion piece to these indexes and an attempt to pick up where they left off. While the main purpose of the DCP is "only" to list the appearances of the characters themselves in chronological order, these lists will be crossreferenced with the Unofficial DC Indexes that are also part of the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe and bear a closer resemblence to the ICG indexes.

The DC Chronology Project hope to answer the question: What is the "before and after" appearance for every significant character in every story of the DC Universe? And if you're one of those who thinks it can't be done, watch us.

Anyway, this web site is intended as an information resource. If you want to read every story with your favorite character, in order by that character's perspective, this is the place to start.

   All characters in the DCP are listed alphabetically, with characters whose super-hero names are essentially normal names (i.e. Guy Gardner and Adam Strange) listed first name first. Where there are several versions of a character (i.e. Golden Age, Silver Age, etc.), they are listed in the order of the particular ages (typically with separate entries for each). Characters who are primarily known by a single name and a title, such as Madame Xanadu and Queen Hippolyta, are listed under the first letter of their titles (M for Madame, etc.).

   Some listings will include a [...] occasionally. This means that this part of the character's chronology has not yet been investigated and a number of appearances might very well be missing.

As the DCP is still in its very early stages there's a good chance we haven't gotten around to that particular character. However, there might be other reasons as well. So before contacting us about the omission please ask yourself these questions first.

1. Was this a reprint of some other story? If yes, we should have the appearance listed in the book where the story was originally printed. We don't track reprints, since they have no impact on a character's chronology.

2. Was this appearance a flashback to some previous story, with no new information imparted? If yes, we'll have the appearance listed where the flashback was originally told.

3. Was this really an appearance, as opposed to a dream sequence, a remembrance, or an apocryphal story? Many web pages elect to list these kinds of appearances, which is fine. But remember: we're the DC Chronology Project, not the DC Appearances Project.

If you've gone through these three questions, and still think this appearance deserves to be listed, then please let us know at the DCU Guide Message Board and we will take a closer look.

Well, it might be because he's not a DC Universe character. It might be because we thought he wasn't very important or it might be we just haven't gotten around to him yet. DC has been publishing comics for over 60 years and as we've just recently started this project there are still quite a number of characters that haven't been investigated. Chances are, if that last one is the reason, we'll change our mind and add him, just because you asked nicely.

Generally, heroes and villains with codenames are listed regardless of their importance. Characters who appear in more than one title are listed, regardless of their importance. Characters who only reveal their first names are genrally not listed, unless they have been making a lot of appearances in a certain book. The listing of characters who reveal both their first and last names is basically a judgment call. The questions we ask ourselves are: How likely is this character to appear in some other story? and: Is this character significant?

Although they have crossed over with the DC Universe Milestone and Wildstorm are not considered part of the DC Universe. However you might be able to find some Milestone characters in the listings as the crossover issues were listed in the old version of the DCP.

For the time being we are concentrating on DCU proper. This includes the current DC Universe, and the various pre-Crisis Earths. Elseworld appearances will probably be added at a later time on a page of their own but don't expect this to happen right away. While Wildstorm now seems to be considered part of the overall DC Multiverse Wildstorm titles won't be added to the DCP at this point.

Some Vertigo series such as Preacher for instance are creator-owned projects that have nothing to do with the DC Universe and are therefore not listed.

If you experience the site or any of the pages loading very slow this might be a server problem. However, some of these pages have very much information and as a result they take some time to load.

The reason we chose to list the cover dates and story titles as well is first of all because I think it looks good. Secondly the cover dates gives some indication of the logivity of the character and the story titles might give you a clue as to what the story is about or just remind you of the story itself in case you should want to try and look it up.

Yes, provided some basic conditions are met:

• Let us know
• Provide credit to the DC Chronology Project
• A link to the DCP or the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe, although not required, would be appreciated
• Come back to the DCP on a regular basis, to make sure that our updates are reflected on your web page

As often as humanly possible.

We try to respond to every email that we receive preferrably within a day or two. However, sometimes we get so much mail that just sorting through it takes a lot of time and for some reason it might get lost in the crowd. Should this be the case we are very sorry, but it doesn't mean we didn't want to answer you. The best way to ensure we read and reply to your message or question would be to post it at the DCU Guide Message Board which we check out and respond to almost daily.

If you were rude, or in any way abusive, your letter or message will be dumped without a second thought.

Demanding that a specific character is done won't get you anywhere. We are all working on the DCP for the fun of it and as long as we're still missing as much as we are people are free to do whatever character they want to and therefore demands will not be dignified with an answer.

Maybe something got fried on the internet, and we never received your message. Please try again.

Make sure the "Reply To" field on your web browser has your correct address. Many times, we respond to correspondent's email, only to have my reply bounced back to me as undeliverable. *shrug*

To add something to an existing entry, sign up on the DCU Guide Message Board and write your entry in a post on the DC Chronology Project sub-board.