Comments on: What are the names of some fictional cities?

Question: What are the names of some fictional cities?

kbanas — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:14:11 -0800

I'll phrase this as succinctly as I can - I'm looking for fictional US cities featured in comic books. Can you help?

Ok, I employ a particular naming scheme with my home computers. How I settled on this scheme, I couldn't really say, it just sort of came to me one day when I was trying to give all my devices unique identifiers that weren't totally pedestrian (like, you know, "MY LAPTOP", "MY DESKTOP", etc..)

Because I used to read comic books when I was a kid, and a teenager, and, ok, I still kind of read them today, I settled on the fictional cities that I remembered being featured therein.

For example, my laptop is named Metropolis (Superman) and my desktop is named Gotham (Batman). However, I took out a piece of paper and a pen last night to write a more complete list of possible monikers (because Christmas has gifted me with a couple new devices) and I found, much to my astonishment, that the list was actually pretty short.

In fact, the only other city I could come up with is Coast City. Hal Jordan lived there for awhile when he was the Green Lantern, and then it blew up.

So, I come to you, hive mind, to look for more of these, because, honestly, I know there have to be more, and I must be suffering some sort of immense brain blockage. Maybe I'm having an stroke, but that's another AskMe question altogether.

If my recollection serves, this wasn't big in the Marvel Universe - I think most of their heroes tended to reside in real places. Spider-Man, for example, kicks around NYC.

So, that said, I think there may be more a more plentiful bounty in the DC and (maybe) Dark Horse universes.

The only criteria I have is that there be a remote possibility I have heard of said places - I mean, I appreciate your friend self-published his own comic for two issues twenty years ago, but it would be encouraging to me if I'd actually heard of the fictionalized residence before.

US cities would be preferable, just because it would fit the Gotham City, Metropolis, Coast City mold, but if the list is too short to be useful, go hog wild.

And, while we're at it, if I have wildly over-estimated, and the list of fictionalized cities used in comic books is just not that long, feel free to expand your scope to pop culture in general - TV shows, books, movies, things like that.

I hope this makes sense. Maybe the stress from the holidays has finally taken its tool.

By: kbanas

kbanas — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:15:50 -0800

TOLL!

Toll!

*sigh*

By: phil

phil — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:19:06 -0800

star city

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:20:22 -0800

Star City

By: mds35

mds35 — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:20:29 -0800

Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Moose and Midge live in Riverdale.

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:20:31 -0800

Oh, curses.

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:20:57 -0800

By: box

box — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:20:57 -0800

Have you seen this wikipedia page already?

By: mds35

mds35 — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:21:20 -0800

Richie Rich lives in Richville.

By: phil

phil — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:23:10 -0800

basin city

By: box

box — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:23:21 -0800

Also, I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook, and it put them on the map.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:23:35 -0800

DC Comics Towns and Cities

There's not a corresponding Wikipedia entry for Marvel, probably because Marvel was never as big on fictitious cities. (There are some Fantastic Four references to Central City, but that also names a DC city.)

Fictional towns and cities in the US has more, but the majority aren't from comics.

By: bitteroldman

bitteroldman — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:24:04 -0800

Simpsons: Springfield, Shelbyville, Ogdenville, Capitol City
Family Guy: Quahog
South Park: South Park

By: almostmanda

almostmanda — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:25:54 -0800

Smallville!

By: utsutsu

utsutsu — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:26:49 -0800

You could go with GTA cities

Liberty City
Carcer City
Vice City
Los Santos
San Fierro
Las Venturas

By: Slothrop

Slothrop — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:31:12 -0800

Besides the DC lists, there's also Astro City from the comic of the same name. Marvel, as you mention, is mainly set in New York, so the place names are tied to particular buildings, such as the Baxter Building or Four Freedoms Plaza (both home to the Fantastic Four) or Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters or The Pit (for GI Joe).

By: kbanas

kbanas — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:31:16 -0800

I poked around through Wikipedia, thinking their might be a list, and I totally could not find it, because I am dumb. Thank you for that.

By: legotech

legotech — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:32:04 -0800

Kim Possible lives in Middleton and their high school rivals are Upperton and Lowerton

:)

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:36:40 -0800

The Mystery Men [try to] defend Champion City!

By: essexjan

essexjan — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:44:20 -0800

Bedrock.

By: survivorman

survivorman — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:53:09 -0800

Metropolis was based on Toronto (not a US city, I know) and I believe Gotham was based on Detroit.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:53:44 -0800

Duckburg

By: anaelith

anaelith — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:54:25 -0800

Sunnydale. (Well, graphic novel, but certainly superheroish.)
Raccoon City might also fit in, although not a comic (that I know of?).

By: anaelith

anaelith — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:59:17 -0800

Oh, and Gotham? Definitely based on NYC. Gotham was a nickname for NYC well before Batman, and according to Wikipedia the first Batman comics were actually set in NYC--although obviously Gotham City (DC Comics version) has diverged a lot from NYC since then, enough that I think you can call it a fictional city in its own right.

By: kbanas

kbanas — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:12:03 -0800

Yeah, I think I had a comic or a book or an article (or I had a dream) that discussed how Gotham has diverged from New York City over the years to become a kind of fictionalized place in its own right.

I think, really, that Gotham and Metropolis are the "heavies" - they've been around the longest, and have more history than plenty of *actual* places.

By: kbanas

kbanas — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:14:40 -0800

Another thing I was thinking about was cities from the Dark Tower series - You've got Lud, and Tull (which was a town, but hey) and Gilead.. Hrm.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:15:21 -0800

The Flaming Carrot lives in and patrols the Palookaville neighborhood of Iron City.

By: Maastrictian

Maastrictian — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:17:13 -0800

Marvel does have some fictional cities: e.g Doomstadt.

Say it with me. DOOOMstadt!

--Chris

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:31:50 -0800

Londinium from Batman (tv series, anyway)
New New York from Futurama, which has comic books
Also Simpsons: North Haverbrook and Brockway.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:45:31 -0800

If you want to stick with the DC Universe, it might be easier to use the names of fictional planets:

Earth Prime

Krypton

Apokolips

Thanagar

etc...

By: sandra_s

sandra_s — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:48:35 -0800

Central City (the Flash)

Argo City (Where Kara/Supergirl is from)

Kandor (Kryptonian city-in-a-bottle stolen by Brainiac)

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:51:39 -0800

The Powerpuff Girls protect the city of Townsville, and the Tick is the defender of the aptly named The City. Patriot City is the home to Freedom Force. And who can forget Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average?

--Chris

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:51:57 -0800

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch lives in Greendale.
And Harvey Pekar lives in Cleveland.

What? That's not a fictional city? I refuse to believe that until somebody proves otherwise.

By: tracert

tracert — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:38:43 -0800

From the Judge Dredd Comics:

Mega-City One
Mega-City Two
EastMeg One
EastMeg Two
Texas City
Hondo City
Undercity
Umar
Simba City
Luxor
New Jerusalem

Also, Gibson likes to reference The Sprawl in his novels a lot, I always thought it was a cool name.

By: idb

idb — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:14:52 -0800

Adding to the Judge Dredd cities, the full list is on Wikipedia.

By: Zarkonnen

Zarkonnen — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:33:21 -0800

The City from Transmetropolitan.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:01:09 -0800

America's Best Comics represent:

Indigo City from Greyshirt
Neopolis from Top Ten
Millennium City from Tom Strong
Queerwater Creek from Jack B. Quick
Coffeeburg from Splash Brannigan

By: martinX's bellbottoms

martinX's bellbottoms — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:52:58 -0800

Arkham from Batman

By: faster than a speeding bulette

faster than a speeding bulette — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:24:23 -0800

Bah, you guys (and Wikipedia) are only naming the easy ones.

Waymore, Nebraska -- hometown of the Elongated Man (near Blue Valley)
Calvin City, Connecticut -- home of the Golden Age Atom
Civic City -- original base of the JSA
Elmond, VA -- Hawk & Dove
Fairfax, Maine -- Dial H for Hero (the 2 kids)
Littleville, Wyoming -- Dial H for Hero (the 1 kid)
Middleton, Colorado -- home of the Martian Manhunter
Farmville, Missouri -- birthplace of Barry Allen (the Flash)
New Carthage -- were Robin went to college (and Amethyst of Gemworld lived on Earth)
Pittsdale, Iowa -- birthplace of Lois Lane

There's a lot more if I bother to dig into the boxes of JSA/Earth-2 comics I have lying around. There were a lot of throwaway city names (used once and then forgotten) in the 1940s -- I seem to recall Cosmopolis and Riverton.

Getting away from DC Comics: The Mask was set in Edge City, and Barb Wire is from Steel Harbor. Sin City's "real name" is Basin City.

Also, nobody mentioned Atlantis. Hello?

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:53:58 -0800

What, no love for the X-Men? Xavier's Institute, a.k.a. the X-Men school and mansion, is located in Salem Center, Westchester County, New York, but there's no real town in Westchester County by that name. There is a North Salem, though, and it's approximately where the school would be. Presumably Stan Lee picked the name because of the associations with the Salem (Mass.) witchhunts, making a point of how the X-Men are similarly feared/hunted for baseless reasons.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:02:00 -0800

Looks like you have lots of choices, but The Dictionary of Imaginary Places is totally cool.

By: Doctor Suarez

Doctor Suarez — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 10:00:17 -0800

Lovecraft:
R'Lyeh

Tolkien:
Rivendell, Osgiliath, Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, Hobbiton, Edoras, Isengard, etc.

Lot 49:
San Narciso

WoW:
Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Exodar, Ogrimmar, Undercity, Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon City, Shattrath