Dictionary of Superheroes Circa 1989, Not Published by DC or Marvel?

February 23, 2004 10:35 PM

Sometime around 1989 or so, a friend of mine lent me a kind of Dictionary of Superheroes. I don't remember the title, but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't published by either DC or Marvel.

I only remember a couple of things verbatim from it:

-there were entries for such lesser "superheroes" as "Super Pickle", and an illustration from it.

-the entry for "The Black Knight" was critical of the comic because of lingual non sequiturs as "I owe him one!"

-it looked like there was an upcoming Dictionary of Super-villains, and that book had a similar name, though I never saw it.

-the book is definitely not by Jules Feiffer, because I already have that book.

Does anyone know what this book was? Thanks.

posted by interrobang to Society & Culture (3 answers total)

Best answer: A friend of mine is obsessed with a book by Jeff Rovin called The Encyclopedia of Superheroes, published in 1985 - could that be it? There are 7 used ones available at amazon, if that's the one.
posted by iconomy at 5:29 AM on February 24, 2004

I see by this page that he also wrote a book called The Encyclopedia (or Encyclopaedia) of Supervillains, so he must be the guy you're looking for.
posted by iconomy at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks, iconomy. I can't tell if that's the one or not, but at least now I have a lead.
posted by interrobang at 12:28 PM on February 24, 2004