Comic Book Resources

Oh, man, this is a WAY cool idea! I don’t know how to connect them, though! AH!!!!

Easy! Katchoo and Groo teamed up in episode #3,920,482,403 of Comics Should Be Good: The Comic, by Rob Liefeld and Stan Lee. I love that comic! Nobody draws Brian Cronin’s enormous pecs like Liefeld, man!

Hells bells man! Talk about internet comic book searching!

I think I know the connection, but I’m most likely wrong.

I’ll give this one a try.

I, too, have a hunch about the first link…and if I’m right, it relies on a remarkably obscure fact about Katchoo’s comics appearances. But I can’t really work out how to complete the chain.

Sorry, “Anonymous” was me.
My computer crashed recently, and how. Now I have to re-set everything!

Ok, wait… the links have to appear in the same comic, but not necessarily the same story?
The question then becomes: for our purpose, what counts as a ‘comic’? A Graphic Novel? Prestige format? Trade paperback?

I have a ‘Bacon Number’ of 3. This is going to be a fun game.

Damn – I can’t think of a single non-Groo comic that Groo has appeared in (with one possible exception) or a non-Strangers in Paradise book that Katchoo has appeared in. (or anyone from outside those books who has appeared in them)

With a limited acquaintance with the two characters, I think I’ve got a great answer (two steps) thanks to an educated research. Hope I didn’t jump ahead too fast, but already have a Six Degrees suggestion in mind.

I’m thinking that so many of these will have “that one issue of Xombi” as a link that it should be excluded. Or does that issue consist of cameos and not official appearances thus excluding it already?

Hmm, this would be pretty easy if we allow cover appearances without corresponding interior appearances, but the Popeye example makes me think that would be against the spirit of the exercise.

Hey Brian, does the link it have to be the characters appear in the same STORY together, or just the same comic?
Like does a TMNT backup feature in Grimjack count? OR separate stories of characters in anthologies like Action Weekly, 2000 AD, etc ?

From what I’m getting from the example, yes, they need to have been in the same story. Which is difficult.

@TomerS, I too had 2 steps for my guess, so NOT SO FAST! hee hee

I wanna see everyone else’s guesses once Brian reveals the winner(s).

@Da Fug, which issue of Xombi are you talking about?

The potential problem with this game is that comics are a lot more connected than movie stars. For the most part, there isn’t a movie equivalent to JLA/Avengers, which makes most paths between DC and Marvel reduce to finding the appropriate JLA member and the appropriate Avenger to connect to get a path of length 3, then doing some work to make it shorter.

(There’s nothing special about JLA/Avengers: pick your favorite comic about a massive crossover involving all of the characters of two shared universes, then work from there.)

Hey Brian, does the link it have to be the characters appear in the same STORY together, or just the same comic?

Same story. I’ll allow other stuff for now, though, because I didn’t say otherwise.

I’m not sure how to frame the question without basically giving away the answer…. If… um… irregular numbering counts, I got it in three. (I think.)

I think there are going to be about 4-5 books that will eventually need to be thrown out on this, because they’re “everybody shows up” items.

I had it down to three, but a couple of the links were same issue but not same story. I may update that to two once I check something…

Would a pin-up count, for that matter?

No to pin-ups. No to shared covers. And no to appearing in separate stories in the same comic. They have to each appear in the same comic book story. They don’t have to actually interact with each other, but they have to appear in the same story in the same comic.

And yeah, Eric, I definitely considered eliminating certain books (like JLA/Avengers or DC vs. Marvel, to name two), if only so that you couldn’t link up pretty much any DC character to any Marvel character in one fell swoop. Perhaps I might do so in the future.

Also, whoever wins each round has to first prove to me that their suggestion CAN be done in less than six steps before I run with it.

OK, no pin-ups.

And I’ve just sent you my updated version. Two stories.

Does “the GCD says so” count as proof?

Will there be a separate post with the winner and answer, and can we then post our answers (if we don’t win, that is)? I also want to point out my second, same issue different stories and shared cover guess, because I yam nerdy.

And yeah, Eric, I definitely considered eliminating certain books (like JLA/Avengers or DC vs. Marvel, to name two), if only so that you couldn’t link up pretty much any DC character to any Marvel character in one fell swoop. Perhaps I might do so in the future.

A more flexible solution might be to exclude books that contain a certain a character. For example, something like find a path from Batman to Lois Lane without using a comic that features any version of Robin or Superman would be an interesting game. (Well relatively interesting. I have no doubt that connection can be done in 1 or 2 comics, but you’d actually have to look for it.)

Damn you, Cronin! No more Internet for me from now on!

Eh… Had to revise my answer, but still got two degrees.

@ Travis: I have a terrible memory about such things but I think it’s the last issue of the Milestone series. I think at least Concrete, Bone and Cerebus appear in that issue. They aren’t licensed appearances but they aren’t hidden in the background if I recall correctly.

A more flexible solution might be to exclude books that contain a certain a character. For example, something like find a path from Batman to Lois Lane without using a comic that features any version of Robin or Superman would be an interesting game. (Well relatively interesting. I have no doubt that connection can be done in 1 or 2 comics, but you’d actually have to look for it.)

Batman and Lois teamed up in The Brave & the Bold #175, with their buddies nowhere to be seen. I’m pretty sure that’s not the only instance, but it’s the one that leapt most readily to mind.

@Da Fug: Thanks, that seems possible, certainly. GCD doesn’t have much info on the contents of Xombi, so I couldn’t figure it out. That’s a book on my list of “gee, I gotta get more of that!”

re: Thok’s idea: I was thinking something similar, although focused more on the books like Marvel vs DC and so on. You could use one of those, but with MvDC, you could link, say, Lobo and Wolverine, who actually interact with each other, but you couldn’t link Lobo and Spider-Man, who don’t interact (iirc). You’d need an extra step to get from Lobo to Wolverine to Spidey.

And with that book, actually, it’d be interesting, because that’s Ben Reilly, iirc. I’m sure there are comics with Ben Reilly and Wolvey, but I’m not sure which ones they’d be.

(psst, that’s your cue, buttler!)

Heh, Travis. I’d have to google it, because unlike my voracious The Brave & the Bold fandom in the ’70s and ’80s, I wasn’t reading Spidey comics in the Ben Reilly era. Not because of Ben in particular–I read very little Marvel in the 1990s. DC vs. Marvel may have been my introduction to the character. But yeah, I’m sure they must have met. The idea of Wolverine not having met ANYONE in the Marvel universe is pretty far-fetched.

Just had to chime in when I read the question about Ben & Logan, they appeared together and even interacted in X-Men/Spider-Man #3 (2009) and in at least one other crossover where Ben (as Spider-Man) visits the mansion and meets Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean and Bishop, for the life of me I can’t remember what issue that was right now, but I think it was in one of the team up books.

Just curious, would alternate reality stories count (such as What If and Elseworlds). Like would the What If Wolverine met Conan count to link those two?

My feeling is that for this game to work, What If/Elseworlds would have to count, because it’s very rare for intercompany crossovers to be considered “canon” in the respective companies’ continuity. Not that it never happens, but the default seems to be for those crossovers to exist outside continuity.

So since Brian gave us free reign to do so, from what I remember, my link was

Katchoo was in Shi/Cyblade, as was Megaton Man

who was obviously in the normalman/Megaton Man special, as was Groo.

My alternate, doesn’t really count answer was that Katchoo was in Cerebus 186 (a preview of SiP), and Cerebus was on the cover of Amazing Heroes Annual 4 with Groo (tempting him with cheese dip). It’s a great cover, you should take a look at it. (That mag wasn’t listed on the GCD, and Fantagraphics doesn’t seem to list it on their site. Maybe there’s a scan online somewhere.)

maybe it’s just me, but I think finding the shortest connection is only half of the fun.

see, when I made the Katchoo – Grunge – Savage Dragon – Destoryer Duck – Groo connection, that was good enough for me. I didn’t even bother to look further.

Originally, I had it in two degrees: Katcoo to Cerebus (Shi/Cyblade #1), Cerebus to Groo (Cerebus #155).

After Brian cleared the rules, had to try again and once again it was two degrees: Katchoo to Megaton Man (Shi/Cyblade #1), Megaton Man to Groo (Ultraforce/Avengers #1). Same as Travis, except for the second issue.

Holy crap what? Ultraforce/Avengers features something that cool? Wow. Looking at it on the GCD, I see what TomerS is talking about, which makes me want, no, NEED to have this issue now. Day-um!