MCP Stylebook

[Russ Chappell]

By popular demand, this stylebook will give a detailed overview of the structure of the listings.

Some of this is intentionally stated as concisely as possible. Don't be afraid to ask, if you don't understand what we mean.

We'll start with an appearance key:

APPEARANCE STYLE:
[{TITLECODE ISSUE/STORY (PAGE&PAGE:PANELpanelinset:WORDBALLOON:SENTENCE:WORD:LETTER - PAGE&PAGE:PANELpanelinset:WORDBALLOON:WORD:LETTER)-FB...-VO|OP|BTS} | cf TITLECODE ISSUE/STORY] ~/= ...

The above key contains every possible element to an appearance.

1. TITLECODE is the only required element.

2. If it's a one-shot with an issue number 1 or with no issue number, ISSUE is not used.

3. /STORY is only used if the story is not the first story in the book.
In the case of flip books, STORY 1 is the story closest to the indicia. Count the stories until the book flips, then flip the book and resume counting the stories from the "back" cover.

4. Use &PAGE for multi-page spreads. In the case of a triptych, use PAGE&PAGE&PAGE.

5. Don't go any deeper into these partitions than you have to. Application of this rule: When a sequence begins with the first panel of a page, do not include a panel number, UNLESS the sequence ends before the last panel of that same page. Likewise, when a sequence ends with the last panel of a page, do not include the panel number, UNLESS the sequence begins after the first panel of that same page.

Let's say that page 3 of Avengers 1 has 6 panels.
Proper: A 1 (3:1 - 3:5)
Proper: A 1 (3:2 - 3:6)
Improper: A 1 (2:2 - 3:6) / Should be A 1 (2:2 - 3)
Improper: A 1 (3:1 - 4:2) / Should be A 1 (3 - 4:2) (assuming page 4 has more than 2 panels)
Improper: A 1 (2:1 - 3:6) / Should be A 1 (2 - 3)
Improper: A 1 (3:1 - 3:6) / Should be A 1 (3)

6. Between VO, OP and BTS, we do not foresee the need to use more than one in any given appearance. OP trumps BTS, and VO trumps both.

7. The ellipses after -FB and after ~ in the stylesheet above indicates the sequence can be repeated as often as needed.

8. If the appearance is the first published appearance, and is NOT the first appearance in a chronology, enclose the entire appearance--with the exception of items #9 & 10 below--in curly braces. Do not give any weight to where the appearance occurs in an issue. For instance, if a character appears in two stories in one book, and the second story occurs chronologically before the first story, it is the appearance in the SECOND story that receives the curly braces.

9. If the "segment" (and here we mean STORY/PAGE/PANEL/etc range) has NOT yet been entirely analyzed and every character included in the MCP, enclose the entire segment in square brackets.

10. If the BTS appearance is not immediately apparent from a reading of the appearance itself, the appearance is followed by "| cf" and the story that reveals the nature of the BTS appearance. It is NOT necessary to detail the page/panel references where this information is revealed.

11. The ~ is used in two instances:
a. Concurrent appearances. The same scene is shown in multiple books, published at the same time. For our purposes, "at the same time" means books that are intended to be current on the stands at the same time.
b. The exception to instance "a" would be time travel stories. The classic example is the FF 19/WCA/DS/ROA sequence.

12. The = is the same as the ~, with one further stipulation: It is the EXACT same scene: same art, same dialog. The panels are exactly the same, as if they've been lifted from one book and dropped into another. These could also be backup stories that are published concurrently in more than one title. All other restrictions are the same as those applied to the ~.

13. panelinset
Rarely, a single panel can show more than one flashback scene. This is most commonly encountered when a panel displays multiple television or computer monitors, each showing a scene from a different time. These "mini-scenes" can be notated, if necessary, by lower-case letters, starting with a. The monitors are counted left to right, top to bottom, the same as panels in a comic book.

[Russ Chappell]

Appearances can be appended by the following notations:

FB-An appearance that occurs at some point prior to the "current" time. Flashbacks can be remembrances of events/dialog, videotapes, audio recordings (with a VO tag), or newspaper photographs (assuming they show an event, rather than just a portrait). Events relayed purely through dialog ("I went to the circus last week") do NOT count as flashbacks. Dreams are NOT flashbacks, unless a character has the power to show actual events in dreams. To receive a listing in the chronologies, the flashback must contain some previously unseen event or dialog. FB is the only notation that can be recursive.

VO-The character's dialog is on panel, but the character does not actually appear on panel.

BTS-The character does not appear on panel, but
a. has a direct impact on events; or
b. we are told on panel of the specific CURRENT wherabouts or actions of the character; or
c. is psychically controlling a character on panel; or
d. we KNOW the character is present, yet hidden from view (behind a door, in a vehicle or aircraft); or
e. another character on panel is acting under their direct orders. In this last case, only the first appearance of the on-panel character under orders warrants a BTS appearance, unless it is clear that the on-panel character CONTINUES to operate under direct orders in subsequent appearances.

OP-Off Panel. The character is not shown, but is, literally, off-panel, outside the edges of the panel. In the past, we've used an instance of Thing saying to Torch, "Johnny, pass the salt." We don't see Johnny, but we are safe to assume that Johnny is right there, off-panel. This has led to some confusion, though. Is it only a case of where a character speaks to another character? Well, not necessarily.

Look at this way. Comic books are somewhat like movies. In a movie, the director has complete control over what we're allowed to see. Utilizing camera angles, we only see the characters that he wants us to see, regardless of who's in the scene. Comics operate under the same premise, where writers and artists have complete control over what we see.

But take just a moment and think of a comic sequence as a scene in a play, rather than a movie. Now, our audience has much more control over who they see. If a character is in the scene and on stage, we should be able to see it.

So ask yourself this question. If we were watching a play, rather than reading a comic, could we see this unseen character? If the answer is yes, it warrants a OP notation. If the answer is no, there is no OP.

With the exception of FB, all of the above are mutually exclusive.

Any of the above (including FB) can be preceded by FB.

Examples:

ASM 1-FB-BTS
ASM 1-FB-OP
ASM 1-FB-VO
ASM 1-FB-FB
ASM 1-FB-FB-BTS

[Russ Chappell]

Character Key

Characters with codenames:
CODENAME ENUMERATION/HONORIFIC FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAMES MAIDENNAME PREVIOUSLASTNAME LASTNAME SUFFIX (nee BIRTHNAME)/"ALTERNATENAME"/... | REALITYID [DISAMBIGUATION]

Characters without codename:
LASTNAME, HONORIFIC FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAMES MAIDENNAME PREVIOUSLASTNAME SUFFIX (nee BIRTHNAME) ENUMERATION /"ALTERNATENAME"/... | REALITYID [DISAMBIGUATION]

The above keys contain every possible element to a character.

1. ENUMERATION is only used to distinguish between characters of the exact same codename or real name. Enumeration is expressed using Roman numerals, and follows the order of existence in the Marvel Universe (not necessarily their publication history). For example, in the future, we will undoubtedly discover other iterations of the Black Knight that occur between the Middle Ages and the current era. In that case, this new Black Knight will receive the enumeration that places him in the proper timeframe, and all subsequent Knights will be "bumped up" to accommodate him. Enumeration is only used for "II" and above.

2. HONORIFIC refers to a title, and is almost always abbreviated. It must be the kind of title that would follow a character into their retirement. Allowed titles are:
Medical/Academic: Dr., Prof.
Religious: Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Rev.
Heraldry: Sir, Lord, Baron, Count
Military/Police/Fire etc. rank: Pvt., Sgt., Cpl., Capt., Maj., Col., Gen., Cmdr., Adm., Chf. Use the highest military rank achieved by the character.

Do not use the following honorifics:
A. Mr./Mrs. EXCEPTION: Only use these if both of the following two statements are true:
a. We only know their last name; AND
b. They are the parent or spouse of another character whose full name IS known.
B. Honorifics related to the job: Sen., Pres., Sheriff, Dean. EXCEPTION: Only use if all of the following statements are true:
a. We know their last name; AND
b. We don't know their first name.

PREVIOUSLASTNAME refers to married names of widowed or divorced women that were at one time taken by the character.

SUFFIX usually refers to Jr., III, etc.

nee BIRTHNAME refers to the name an adopted character was born with. This will usually (but not always) be only a last name.

ALTERNATENAME, enclosed in quotes, is a false identity adopted by the character. This must be distinguished from simply pretending to be another character. For instance, all of the characters that the Chameleon has imitated won't be listed under Chameleon. A character can have unlimited alternate names, separated by /.

REALITYID refers to the reality/dimension/universe/timeline that the character originates from, if other than "616."

DISAMBIGUATION is the non-human species of the character, or alternatively, some other distinguishing characteristic. Disambiguation is only used as a way of distinguishing characters of EXACT same names, with no other way of distinguishing them.

[Russ Chappell]

Alphabetization

These rules mostly only apply to me, but it'll help me follow the rules, and help everyone follow along.

Alphabetize on a character-by-character basis, which means don't give any thought to the second character in a name, until you've sorted everything by the first character.

Order:
space
! exclamation
" quote
# pound
$ dollar
% percent
& ampersand
( open parenthesis
) close parenthesis
[ open bracket
] close bracket
{ open brace
} close brace
* asterisk
, comma
. period
/ slash
: colon
; semicolon
? question
@ at
\ backslash
' apostrophe
+ plus
- hyphen
= equal
♥ heart
∞ infinity
0-9 digits (but see note)
A-Z letters (case insignificant)

In characters with code name, give no consideration to the character's real identity when sorting. Therefore, the "/" that comes between the code name and the real name is not sorted. Let's say we had a character named VOR/TEX. And we had a character named VOR, with a secret identity of Virgil Yuckenfuss.

The order would be:
VOR/VIRGIL YUCKENFUSS
VOR/TEX
since the fourth character in VOR is essentially a space, and the fourth character in VOR/TEX is a /.


EXCEPTIONS:
Exception 1: DIGITS are NOT treated on a character-by-character basis, but rather numerically, as a unit. If they were treated character-by-character, Agent 10 would come before Agent 9, which is anti-intuitive. Where numbers include a decimal, the decimal is considered part of the number, rather than alphabetically, as a period. This yields an order of
Agent 9
Agent 9.5
Agent 17
Agent 120.38
Agent 120.5

Exception 2: THE. Ignore the word "The" when it appears at the very beginning of a title or codename, or immediately following a colon; but in all other cases, alphabetize the word "The" as you would any other word.

Exception 3: ROMAN NUMERAL ENUMERATIONS are not part of the sorting formula. Characters who are distinguished with roman numeral enumerations are listed in roman numerical order.

Exception 4: MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF CHARACTERS.
List characters with exact same names in this order:
1. 616-verse
2. Any "knockoffs" of that version of the character
3. Roman numeral enumerations.

Example:
ANT-MAN/HANK PYM
ANT-MAN DOPPELGANGER
ANT-MAN DOPPELGANGER II
ANT-MAN IMPOSTER
ANT-MAN II/SCOTT LANG
ANT-MAN II DOPPELGANGER
ANT-MAN II DOPPELGANGER II
ANT-MAN II SHADE
ANT-MAN III/ERIC O'GRADY

Exception 5: When placing titles with multiple volumes in alphabetical order by Title Code in the KEY, the number representing the volume is placed after the space (near the top of the above list). This ensures that multiple volumes are listed together.

Example:
T THOR
T2 THOR VOL. 2
T:YSA THOR: YANCY STREET ADVENTURE