If you would like an in-depth guide on how to submit Comic Vine pages, go to the Research Guide.

Trying to untangle the vine

Comic histories are insanely complex and convoluted, more so than any other popular entertainment medium. Realize then that the guidelines we've set here are merely an attempt to provide some standard conventions for an industry that has none. Characters often have multiple personae, time-lines, allegiances, agendas and god knows what else. Remember, half of the major characters from DC and Marvel have literally come back from the dead a couple times. We KNOW these rules won't cover every scenario out there, so please, if you think there's something we can do to improve the system, let us know. Just please be patient with us, we've tried to make Comic Vine both intuitive, yet flexible enough to cover the chaos of comics.

Trust based user-submission

Comic Vine uses a unique system for content submission that involves heavy moderation for new or anonymous users and gradually opens up more options to the individual user as they continue to submit quality data to the site. Most users can gain live edit access (where submission show up on the site immediately) within a week or two of submitting approved content. Until that time submissions go through a moderation queue that is monitored by the staff, or most likely, volunteer moderators from the community. We try to get to new submissions within 24 hours. You will receive a private message once your submission has been approved or rejected and a history of your submissions can be accessed at anytime from within your profile.

How we deal with disambiguation of characters, teams and universes

Comic Vine centers around the costumed crusader or team first and the separate universes, volumes and personae they inhabit second. In this way there is no character named Ultimate Spider-Man on CV. There's just plain old Spider-Man, who is attached to issues in volumes called "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Ultimate Spider-Man". Of course we realize these two characters operate in different universes and there are some differences. Those differences should be covered in the description text on the single Spider-Man page. Doing so keeps all Spider-Man info in one place and makes the site much easier to use.

The exception to this is that some alternate reality characters that are both big and different enough can have their own page, for example Powergirl has a separate page from Supergirl. Other examples are Superman Prime, Bloodstorm and Maestro.

The same rule goes for characters who have had multiple personae such as The Flash, Bat-Girl or Robin. There should only be one Flash on Comic Vine, not three. We handle the separation of the character by allowing for alias pages such as Wally West and Barry Allen (two of The Flash's personae) attached to The Flash where specific info can be stored. You're also encouraged to explain and discuss the differences between these personae on the main Flash page.

The exception to this is when a character have used the same name, but have nothing else in common - for example Spider-Man 2099.

For characters who have come to the world of comics from television or movies, it's not unusual for more than one publisher to be attached to the same character i.e. Number Six from the new Battlestar Galactica or various characters from Xena: Warrior Princess. In this case, we serve the character first and the publishers second. As such, regardless of the publisher, there should be only one character page per character. Any differences between the incarnations or adventures of a hero/heroine from different publishers should be noted in the text of the character page.

Cardinal rule for characters and aliases!

The main rule: Each superhero character, in every form or person to take on that name gets one and only one page.

Corollaries

ExampleThere's only one Spider-Man and only one Flash.

ExampleThere's only one character that's been translated from television or movies to comic books. There's only one Xena, one Buffy, one Lisa Simpson.

Example There's only one The Flash in the database despite there being multiple people that wore the mask.

Example Tim Drake is the real name of Robin, not Dick Grayson.

ExampleDick Grayson was Robin, and should be listed an alias of the character.

Example If you see a page with Black Canary and another with Dinah Lance with recent comics and or information on it edit us a comment and we'll merge the two.

How do I create new pages on Comic Vine?

Pages on Comic Vine are split into the following searchable page types.

Add a Character

The heroes, villains and people that inhabit comic books. They must exist in at least one comic book.

Add a Team

Teams are groupings of multiple characters that fight or work together. Teams can not be a part of other teams.

Add a Writer, Artist or Editor (aka. Creators)

A creator is a living human being that designs, writes or edits comic books.

Add a Story Arc

Story arcs are major comic events comprised of at least 2 issues.

Add a Volume

Volumes are a collection of numbered issues that make up a comic book.

Add a Publisher

Publishers are the companies or brands that comic volumes are released under.

Add a Comic Object or Thing

Objects or things are pages that concern something inanimate that exists in a comic universe. One example of an object is adamantium.

Create a Concept

Concepts are ideas or beliefs that exist in a comic universe. "Mutant" or "Gamma Rays" are good examples of concepts that might benefit from their own pages.

Create a Location

Locations are the places, both fictional and real, that exist within comics. Daredevil resides over Hell's Kitchen and Superman lives in Metropolis.

How to combine, delete or re-name pages

Often you'll find pages, characters or teams that need to be combined, deleted or renamed on the site. Both are possible but can only be handled by someone with staff or moderator privileges. You can either contact us directly or leave a note on the Delete/Combine boards that describes the problem and we'll try to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Uploading Images

PLEASE only submit ACTUAL comic covers when doing submissions for new comic issues. NO PREVIEW IMAGES. If you can't find an image online, scan it yourself. If you can't find the image or don't have a scanner, don't submit it.

When adding images for characters, teams, creators, etc. please check the galleries for the image you're going to upload to make sure it is not already in the gallery. Please don't submit full cover scans for anything other than the actual issue. Either crop the image to focus on the character, team, etc. or find another image. Full comic interior page scans are not allowed in the galleries.

If a character has multiple galleries with specific categories or themes, please upload your image in the appropriate gallery. For example, submit pictures of zombie Spider-Man in the zombie Spider-Man gallery, not the regular Spider-Man gallery.

Also think about what pictures you upload. Don't google for images of Gambit and upload all 10.000 results here, upload quality pictures.

Avoid adding images tagged or watermarked with other sites' URLs.

No nudity/hentai in the galleries. No photoshopped repaints of nude or nearly nude models as your favorite characters. No dollz/minis/micro-heroes in the galleries.

When removing images or entire galleries please provide a note to the moderator explaining why you're removing it, is it a duplicate image, is it too small, does it not display correctly, etc.

Plagiarism On the Vine

What is Plagiarism

For the purposes of the Vine, plagiarism can be defined as submitting someone else's work and taking credit for it as your own. This can be as large as a paragraph, or as small as a sentence. Taking something that someone else wrote and simply changing a few words is not enough. Everything you submit must be in your own words, or occasionally words taken directly from the actual comic book. While there are going to be marked similarities between two different accounts describing the same comic book event, each author has a unique "fingerprint" in the way they write. As a Vine contributor you want your work to sound like you and be your own.

Why do I care about Plagiarism?

Good question. Plagiarism is a very important topic in any academic endeavor. The Vine is meant to be an all-encompassing source for comic book knowledge. We are not Wikipedia, the Marvel Directory, Marvel.com, DC.com, or any other site out there. We do not want to be another carbon copy of other information. We are different from other sites and want to keep it that way. What's the point if all sites on the web had the same exact information. Put it in your words, give it your slant. While we are looking to thwart Plagiarism specifically, a 50 or 60 year character history can definitely be looked at from several different angles. We don't want our bios to necessarily reflect the same major events, paragraph structure, etc. We don't mean for you to change a character's history, we just want to reflect how our members reflect these events. Also remember that just because some website says something doesn't mean that it is necessarily correct. Just because some Wikipedia vandal reported on the "Robin" bio that after the Secret Wars he acquired Norman Osbourne's Oz formula, and in an insane rage devoured the entire Justice League and the WildC.A.T.S. doesn't mean that our Robin's bio needs to reflect this little piece of information.

Examples of Plagiarism

An example of Plagiarism with re-wording (from the Spider-Man bio Feb 6, 2008):

Original Text:

Plagiarized Text:

On the surface, this example may seem fine. When we analyze the similarities and differences, we discover all that was changed was some minor word choices, and word order. In the first sentence the word "science" was removed, and the clause "spider bathed in radiation" was simply changed to "radioactive spider". In the second sentence the word "proportional" was also removed, and the order of "agility" and "strength" was swapped. In the last sentence the clause "found that he" was added, the word "cling" was changed to "stick", "any surface" was changed to simply "surfaces", and the word "any" was added before "danger".

Note that in this example there is no change in sentence structure, tone, or even the basic ideas of the passage. There were some words changed to other words with similar meaning, clauses and words swapped in the same manner, word choice is switched slightly, and a few new words added. Despite all of these changes, this passage is still plagiarized, and does not reflect what we, as a community, want to see in our site.

What is not Plagiarism

Quoting Important Text

Sometimes there is something said in a comic book that just needs to be repeated exactly as it occurred originally, or it would risk diluting its original meaning and context. In many cases it is desirable to quote something said by a character (or otherwise stated specifically in a comic book). The correct format in this case is to simply use double quotation marks to surround the offending text:

From Spider-Man:

This was an important piece of advice from Peter Parker's Uncle Ben, and stating it any other way simply would not do it justice.

Comic Issue Overviews

At the top of many comic book issues there is an "Overview" section. This Overview is typically pulled directly from the publisher's website or solicitations. This practice is O.K. because it is a general convention on the Vine, and is expected in comic book issue submissions. One such example would be Marvel's "The Story".

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Another good question is how do we avoid plagiarism. One key suggestion is to avoid using all other sources all-together. Even for experienced members, the temptation is often too great when you are simply rewording something that someone else has written. Many users on the Vine, even some of the top contributing users, take this approach. There are plenty of ways to contribute that avoid plagiarism. First of all lists of comics come out every week that need their information added to our database. Second, comic books can be found for cheap if you know where to look. Great comic books can routinely be found for well under a buck a piece at many comic book shops, yard sales, flea markets, swap meets, and can be traded or borrowed from friends. There are literally thousands of books that have not been added to the database, and as many bios that have much less information than they deserve. Simply put, if you do desire to use other sources you run the risk of plagiarism. We understand that mistakes happen, but we still must take this issue very seriously.

If you feel you are ever in a grey area ASK SOMEONE! The Mods on the vine can be found around the forums (with Moderator under their names). Feel free to P.M. them discreetly if you have something that you feel may be approaching that fine line. They are here to help, not to judge, and they're not going to steal your submission from you. Remember, these are the people that will be approving your submissions, so they are always a good source on any Vine-related topic.

What to do About Plagiarism

If you discover an article that has plagiarized text contact a mod immediately. Give them a link to the bio you are talking about, the source the information was plagiarized from, and a brief description of what you see. This can either be done directly by PMing a specific Mod, or by replying to the Plagiarism forum thread. This thread can be found pinned at the top of the "Delete/Combine Pages" Forum, and one of the Mods will take care of it promptly.

What to write

Overview

The overview is used for information about that character. That character's comic history, information about their powers and abilities, alternate reality origins, movie information if they've had a movie made. Pretty much basic information about that particular character.

Friend's and Family / Enemies

The Friend's and Family / Enemies section is for information about why these two characters have the relationship they do. For example, lets say we add Mary Jane into Spider-Man's friends and family section, we would then proceed to add information on why these two are family, like Mary Jane is Spider-Man's wife. When did they meet, where did they meet, what issue did they meet etc. Information that involves THOSE two characters only, not general background information of each character. All relationships cross reference. If Rhino is added as Spider-Man's enemy, Spider-Man will automatically show up on Rhino's enemies list.

Do not add characters as having a relationship just because they met briefly in one comic book, it has to be a significant preferably ongoing relationship. Remember that team members are not necessarily friends.

As for something that should NOT be done is pasting text from random Comicvine wiki pages (or any page for that matter) and posting it in the boxes. The repercussions for such an action can lead to point removal and being banned from doing submissions. This means that if for example you were describing Foggy Nelson and Daredevil's relationship you do not copy and paste some random text from one of the character's pages. But if somewhere in the bio the relationship between the two character's is described it can be used but then should be deleted from the page afterward seeing as it is now in the relationships section. Or if you find mention of an encounter between the two characters you can add it to the relationships section but rewrite it in your own words, summarizing it.

Team Affiliation

Add information about that character's relationship with the team that is selected. Information such as when did that character join, what significant roles they played while a part of that team, and if that character is no longer with that team, when did the character quit the team would be perfect information.

Key Story Arcs

Story arcs that have a significant role in that character's history. Information should be about what that character did during the story arc. For example, in Witchblade, I would add First Born then write information about the Witchblade creating a baby with the Darkness, and that the Angelus are after that baby.

Pivotal Artists

Pivotal artist is for significant artists and writers who have played a part in establishing or changing that character's history. For example, I would put Stan Lee and Steve Ditko on Spider-Man's page and add information about how and when they created that character. Avoid adding every creator that every drew a character, the key word is pivotal.

Because we have user-based editing, occasionally a spelling or grammar mistake falls through the cracks. Making a correction helps others to understand and enjoy the site and will get you a few points at the same time.