Other Profiles Sources: (or check these for profiles on your wanted characters. If you can't find it, then check with me)

What you'll see in these pages are the lesser known or even unknown characters, who most would think of as lost, losers, or morts. If you like those guys, then welcome aboard!

For more "mainstream", popular, current, or just better known characters there are plenty of places to look. In addition, there are many other websites that feature characters of a specific group.

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHotMU). Starting in 1982, this ran 15 issues and detailed the major characters and groups, alien races, as well as the dead (at least at that time), and technology. It also contained an appendix of characters, which is from where I took the name of this site. You'll find a few characters in here that you won't find anywhere else (ie. Belladonna, the Spider-foe).

OHotMU Deluxe Edition. Starting in 1985, this ran 20 issues and expanded on the original. It contained updates, new and more characters, alien races, and the dead, as well as glossaries, appendixes to other dimensions, etc. Again, you'll find a few "one-hit wonders" in here.

Official Handbook of the Conan Universe-1986. 1 issue. covered some of the major characters, locations, artifacts, etc. of the era of swords and sorcery.

OHotMU Update'89. This ran 8 issues, and instead of recovering old ground, it featured mostly new characters (or previously unfeatured), and only redid characters who had undergone major changes. Chock full of small time characters.

OHotMU Master Edition. This started in 1990, and ran for 36 issues. It featured a loose-leaf format, enabling you to add in any changes, etc. in alphabetical order over time. However, it was very dry, containing mostly raw data, and wasn't exciting to read. It also contained bibliographies. If they could have somehow combined the previous formats into this looseleaf pattern, it would have been nearly perfect. However, after this was discontinued, there hasn't been another published handbook since. There have been books for some of the more popular individual characters, though.

The current genre Official Handbooks (2004-2005), as well as the 'pedias (Spider-Man, Marvel Knights, Fantastic Four, etc.)...written by your truly, a select group of the Masters of the Obscure, and others.

INDEXES

The first series was The Marvel Comics Index, which started in January 1976, and was magazine sized. It ran @ 13 issues (there were a few 7A+7B, etc. going on in there). It indexed the major series, but also included the majority of those that had been written at the time. It also featured some descriptions for clarification, and covered a few Golden Age or Fifties series, such as Marvel Boy and the Yellow Claw.

Since then, there've been a few version for Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, etc. These versions also make an effort to chronologically place the characters' appearances.

WEBSITE PROFILES

GENERAL CHARACTERS SITES

Marvel.com
This has the potential to re-develop into an online, official handbook.

The closest to the OHotMU is the our companion site, the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe (UOHotMU). This covers all major characters, providing updates where needed. It also features a number of obscure characters, and takes submissions and input from the public. It links to the Appendix profiles to provide a thorough database. (We have removed to the link to this site, as its founder, Danny Wall, has closed it down for the time being.)

The Marvel Guide has short synopses on tons and tons of characters. The author, Kim Henckel, aka the Beetle, and I have collaborated on some of those, and Kim has begun to post some files to this site. Kim has been very helpful in providing guidance to me along the way. This site has brief entries on thousands of characters, and could eventually cover every single one in a relatively short time. It's also nicely divided into easy to find sections

MARVEL CHRONOLOGY and ATLAS SITES

Unofficial Chronology to the Marvel Universe. Not actually profiles, but contains good, detailed and informative history.

And for bibliographies/chronologies on nearly all of the characters of Marvel, you've got to check out The Marvel Chronology Project.

PRE-MARVEL UNIVERSE
(ie. before Fantastic Four #1)

The Invaders.

Guide to Marvel's Pre-FF#1 Heroes. Lots of good informative profiles, bibliographies, and some pictures of the heroes (includes both 1950s characters, as well as the ret-conned heroes).

Guide to Marvel's Golden Age Characters. pretty much ever golden age hero /heroine, and every thing you want to know about them, including bibliographies.

Atlas Tales: A great site on comics from Marvel's pre-Marvel days.

OTHER BROAD-SPANNING SITES

The Leader's Lair. Not only does this have lots of cool Hulk foes, but it also has links to a bunch of other sites, featuring characters of the Defenders, Thor, Thunderbolts, Captain Marvel, Namor, and the Pantheon.

Bring on the Bad Guys. Covers the majority of Marvel's "big-gun" villains. Slightly different approach, definitely very interesting reading. Nicely divided up into different classes of characters. You'll find a few obscure charcters here.

CHARACTER-SPECIFIC SITES

Alpha Flight: Alphaflight.net

Captain America: There are a few at The Star Spangled Site

Daredevil: Information, reviews, etc. about the Man Without Fear can be found at Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.

Eternals: For ALL things Eternal, check out: Encyclopaedia Olympianna (part of Sersi's loft)-They include everything, and miss nothing! (There's also a few full profiles under the main page)
courtesy of our own Prime Eternal!

GLA, a site about the Great Lake Avengers.

Iron Man: A great site about the Golden Avenger is also the the oldest of them all the Iron Man Armory.

Marvel UK, and other UK characters, hosted by our own Loki!

Ms. Marvel: Good site about Carol Danvers (Binary/Warbird/Ms. Marverl).

New Warriors: New Warriors Dot Com

Nova: There's a complete glossary and full profiles under Database: Dossier Files for major Nova related characters at: Nova Prime Page

Quasar: Interviews, issue summaries etc. can be found at the Quantum Zone.

Rom: Text profiles on just about everyone who ever bumped into Rom can be found at Rom, Spaceknight revisited

Spider-Man: while there are a ton of sites, you can find the best profiles (along with a boatload of other stuff) at:
Spider-Fan (in fact, I've got a few characters there as well, the Sorcerer II, A'Sai, the Spider-Squad). Thanks to they guys at that site for helping me figure out how to get my own site together.
Spider-Man Gallery. This site's profiles keep getting higher tech, and better looking. There are usually profiles on new characters (both classic and Ultimate) within minutes of a conclusion of a story arc.

Thanos: Among a wealth of info on Thanos, there's a great entry on the White Raven at http://www.corvusonline.net/thanos/

Thunderbolts: Visit great sites about the former villains!
Looks on their criminal careers and more at Thunderbolts: The Complete History
Many character information, reviews and more at Thunderbolts: Seduction of Good.

X-Men/Mutants: Uncanny X-Men.net (profiles, issue summaries and much more)

...and others I've lost...let me know if you've got a bunch of good, original (especially obscure) profiles, and I'll add you

Still can't find your obscure-o character?

Let me know. Send mail to: jeff.snood999@gmail.com
If for some reason you have trouble doing so, please check my entry on the MotO listing. Thanks!

Other Links:
Our own Conan character-profile-doer, Greg O'Driscoll, does his own comics under the title Cyborg Caveman Comics.
Bob Almond's *THE INKWELL AWARDS* are an all new, exciting award set up to celebrate the often overlooked and underappreciated artistry of inking within the comic book industry. THE INKWELL AWARDS have been established and overseen by a number of professionals from all aspects of the comic book industry, including such artists as award founder *Bob Almond* (/Black Panther/, /Annihilation: Conquest-Quasar/, /Warlock/), *Tim Townsend* (/Uncanny X-Men/, /The Amazing Spider-Man/, /Civil War/), *James Tournas* (/Full Moon Craze/, /Shylock/, /Epoch/) along with* Bill Nichols* (/Sketch /magazine) and *Daniel Best* (/Andru & Esposito: Partners For Life/) and fully supported by *Adam Hughes* (/Tomb Raider, Justice League, Wonder Woman, All Star Wonder Woman/) along with senior DC Editor *Mike Marts *(/Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine, All Star Wonder Woman/).

  Voting starts April 1st and ends May 30th. Results will be announced on the official web-site with further information on the first of July 2008. The web-site will also feature biographies and commentary about potential nominees, inkers of note and the role of inking throughout comic book history.

  There will be awards for favourite inker, embellisher and many others, along with a hall of fame award named after industry legend Joe Sinnott. These awards will be voted up by both the public and industry peers with physical trophies which will be awarded to the winners (or families in the case of a posthumous award) and the results posted on the site.

Appendix