Masters of the Obscure

MASTERS of the OBSCURE

Want to join the few, the proud, the...people who know a lot about a bunch of useless trivia on guys that most people have never heard of?

If so, then maybe you can join the Masters of the Obscure

Mark Gruenwald...the original Master of the Obscure. One of my favorite writers, he always used the little guys and stayed true to continuity. He is greatly missed.

Snood (1888++++ as of 5/19/2013)...Jeff Christiansen. Author/Owner
Born 7/15/70. I'm the author of the site and have done somewhere close to 1/4 of the profiles (this percentage keeps going down, now that I'm getting more and more contributors (and since I'm currently swamped with work from Marvel)...If it doesn't have someone else credited, then I did it. With most of the others, I put in the images, and/or did a lot of the editing). I'm a boarded Veterinarian Surgeon. I'm married and currently live in Melbourne, Florida (on the East Coast, just South of Orlando). I started collecting back in 1978 and I've got a collection of over 24, 000 currently. I've always loved the various incarnations of the OHotMU, and wanted to get the obscure characters some time. I got further motivation by working with the Beetle and the folks at Spider-Fan. After reading a "Website for Dummies" book, a little trial and error, some help from some friends, and a few thousand curse words, my website has come true.
When the site started out (and for quite awhile) I did everything. Then some profiles started trickling in, and I added images and missing info, converted them to HTML, etc. Eventually, I started getting so much stuff and was doing so much editing that I no longer had time to do my own profiles. So now I've got 12-15 people regularly submitting profiles, a couple of editors, and I'm starting to figure out the delegating responsibility is a good thing. Fortunately, I've got good help!
In addition, the work of the Appendix has gotten me an "IN" at Marvel.
I was:

The head writer/researcher for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2004, Hulk 2004, Daredevil 2004, and Book of the Dead 2004, Women of Marvel Comics 2005, Marvel Knights 2005, Teams 2005, Fantastic Four 2005, Avengers 2005, Alternate Earths 2005, Horror 2005, all twelve 2006 A-Z Handbooks, the Marvel Legacy specials, A-Z Updates#1-4, Hulk: Gamma Files, Marvel Zombies, 2008's massive A-Z Hardcover project, most handbooks since, and others I can't announce yet.
The head writer/researcher on the Fantastic Four Encyclopedia, head researcher for the Marvel Knights Encyclopedia, as well as the writer of the Punisher section
A major researcher on the Spider-Man Encyclopedia, including writing several dozen entries.
Co-Head writer for the Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the Monster Hunters, Spider-Man: Back in Black, Mystic Arcana, X-Men: Messiah Complex
Writer for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2005, Outlaw Files, Annihilation: Nova Corps Files
Proofer for Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2004, X-Men 2004, Wolverine 2004, Golden Age 2004, Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury, Secrets of the House of M, Planet Hulk: Gladiator Guidebook, and others I can't announce yet.
Continuity Advisor for the Marvel Tarot
e-mail: jchristiansen2@cfl.rr.com

Bad digicam. Markus Raymond (494 +++) EDITOR
Markus has taken over the arduous task of our adding all of the profile links to our multitude of pages. This is a ton of work, and it takes a BIG load off of the rest of the editors!
Real Name: Markus Raimund Ettlinger
Identity/Class: Human (really)
Occupation: Salesman
Affiliations: Feneberg, Masters of the Obscure, OHOTMU
formerly: Gallus, Marvelmaniacs
Enemies: Dr. Ötker, Mr. Nobody (MC2 character), NFL SuperPro, Wasps, the sun
Aliases: Markus Raymond
formerly: Amanda (don't ask), Dark Blood, Kartmän, Mr. Nobody, OMCDerStinker (and variations of this one), among others
Base of Operations: Bregenz in Voralberg, Austria
First Appearance: 28.05.1981
History: I was raised to become a Marvel Zombie. Before the age of 7 my grandmother read Care Bares (Marvel licensed) to me. My own comic reading career started with He-Man (Marvel licensed), Transformers (Marvel licensed), Mask (DC, how could I) and Spider-Man (Marvel). Spidey was joined by the Avengers a short time later and then I became addicted. As a collector I entered comic-shops with the maniac laugh of a super-villain. In the last couple of years I began to buy more original comics than translated ones and thanks to E-Bay I got some nice little packages from the 80s and 90s like Marvel Comics Presents, Strange Tales Vol.2, Sensational She-Hulk, Hellstorm and so on. Sometimes I'm lucky and older stuff gets sold as well, but for each title I get there's another one I miss (like the original Namor series). My collection is growing and for the first time in my life I'm really gaining weight (which is a good thing for a weakling like me).
Comments: Created by my mother and a judicially undefined contributor.
Clarifications:
I have no known connection to:

Ettlingen, a city in Germany
Mark Ettlinger, Moving Man#2 @ Beetle Juice (1988)

e-mail: markus.raymond@aon.at

Prime Eternal (1320+ + + + + + + +)...Michael Hoskin...EDITOR
This is the guy I ask for information when my own sources are lacking. He is a wealth of knowledge on most aspects of the MU. He did the quite impressive and thorough Encyclopaedia Olympianna and contributed info on Warlord Kaa, Godzilla, Fat Man, and a bunch of others. Now he's joining the group and going to contribute some Cowboys, Monsters, and other characters. In addition, Prime Eternal is one my Editors, helping to polish up and double check the profiles before sending them on to me. Much appreciated!
The Prime One is also one of the editors, adding content and reformatting the profiles before they reach me, in order to dramatically cut down on my workload!
Michael is also a contributor to the new line of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
Michael has served as:

Head writer for Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone, Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files, and Annihilation: Nova Corps Files
Contributing writer to the Marvel Encyclopedias Vol.4-6 (Spider-Man, Marvel Knights, Fantastic Four)
Contributing writer to Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury, Secrets of the House of M, and New Avengers: Most Wanted Files
Contributing writer to the Marvel Legacy handbooks: 1960s, and 1970s volumes
Contributing writer to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 2004 (Avengers, Hulk, Daredevil, Book of the Dead Golden Age)
Contributing writer to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 2005 (Women of Marvel, Marvel Knights, Teams, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Alternate Universes, Horror)
Contributing writer to the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #1-12

Michael's own website: mh_prime
e-mail: dusky@nucleus.com
Prime's long list of profiles can be found here: http://www.reocities.com/mh_prime/appendix.html

Loki (106+) EDITOR
Another great resource for the Marvel UK! He started out clearing up the whole continuity mess of the Special Executive, added some excellent info from their Dr. Who stories, and then started doing profiles for the Captain Britain characters. Once he started, he decided to really move quickly. He racked up seven profiles in his first 3 days as a Master of the Obscure.
Real Name: Stuart Vandal
Affiliations: Masters of Evil,...erm, the Obscure
Base of Operations: London, UK.
First Appearance: Scotland, 1970
Powers/Abilities: Sad and growing knowledge of superhero characters from around the world. Disturbing amount of knowledge of the Doctor Who universe.
History: Started collecting comics in the late 1970's, the stereotypical Marvel zombie. Read some British stuff, mainly 2000 A.D. In the early 1980's evil local comic shop owner introduced me to independent comics and broke my resistance to DC - resulting in me becoming the single biggest customer at both of the major comic shops in the area. Early ninties saw me leaving comics purely for financial, spacial and temporal related reasons, with only the occasional return to the comics world. A chance comment on an American message board disparaging non-US superheroes got my back up, leading me to start researching them, which in turn led me to the Appendix.
Comments: During the 1980's I collected virtually every Marvel universe title, as well as much of DC and various independents. There is a room in my parent's house which contains nothing else but my collection, and there is literally no space in my flat for me to bring them down.
e-mail: loki@midgaard.demon.co.uk
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!

Madison Carter (215)... EDITOR
a strong interest in the golden age/Kirby Monsters, among others.
e-mail: mdcarter5001@aol.com

Real Name: Madison Carter
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Wanderer; independent video store manager; freelance writer
Aliases: Madman; Mad Dog
Base of Operations: Dallas, Tx
First Appearance: May 5, 1976
Powers/Abilities: Though he has no superhuman powers of his own, Madison apparently is watched over by a being who keeps him safe from fatal injuries. When delivered, he was showing no discernable heartbeat or breathing. Over the years since, he has fallen head first off a second-story balcony onto asphalt, fallen out of the back of a truck moving at least 30 mph, been thrown 30-40 ft. from a go-cart, been shot at numerous times, fallen down three flights of stairs (missing every single step until the last one in one incident), fallen out of a 25 ft. tall tree, been involved in over a dozen vehicular crashes, among other events. He has yet to break, crack or fracture a single bone. Perhaps he is just injury-prone and really #*@!ing lucky.
History: Never officially "began" to collect comics, they were just always around. Ended up running my own comic shop, which lasted from 1992 until 1998. Original claim to Marvel fame was getting my name in OHOTMU Update '89 #6, in the Data Update section. Also did a write-up on the later adventures of the "Jack Kirby Monsters" in JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #28. A website on the Kirby Monsters can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/comics/kirbymonsters, though it hasn't been updated in about three years. Since joining the Appendix, I have managed to snag a swanky gig working freelance for Marvel, like many other Appendix contributors. So far, my work has been published in Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the Monster Hunters#1 (where I was the primary, though not head, writer), the All-New OHOTMU 2006 A-Z#1-12 (and Update 2007#1-2), Legacy Handbooks 1970s-1990s, Spider-Man Handbook: Back in Black, Outlaw Files, and Civil War Files.

Comments:
Madison Carter, male, should not be confused with:

Dr. Madison Carter, female, @ Virtuosity (Paramount Pictures, 1995)

Chad "Chadman" Anderson (826)

Real Name: Chad Anderson
Occupation: Marriage and Family Therapist, Addictions Counselor, Social Worker, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist
Group Membership: Marvel Comics Official Handbooks team
Enemies: Loud trucks on freeways and that annoying operator lady who talks after people's voice messages
Known Relatives: Megan (wife), Ken & D'Anne (Dad and step-mom), Sheryl and Frank (Mom and step-dad), Kareen, Kathy, Susan, Sheri (sisters), Brett (brother), various in-laws, nieces, nephews
Aliases: Chadman, Chadley, Chadford, and various other Chadisms
Base of Operations: Coeur d'Alene, ID
First Appearance: Springfield, Missouri (November, 1978)
Powers/Abilities: Multi-tasking, balancing, swimming, and sleeping.
History: After Archie Comics cancelled their Ninja Turtles and Mutanimals series, I picked up an X-Force comic on a whim and became an X-Men fan for a few years. Quickly disenchanted with the dozens of titles out each month in that group, I picked up Avengers 1 by Busiek and Perez and discovered the rest of the MU! I'm now a HUGE fan of back issues, and a current collector of Avengers, Thunderbolts, She-Hulk, Invaders, the Pulse, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four. I've done my share of creative writing, but am probably best 'known' for various Survivor competitions staged on the comicboards sites. In 2006, I joined the Official Handbooks team and got the pleasure of seeing my name and entries in comic ads, the books themselves, and even a couple of Essentials books I helped proof.

E-Mail: hellochadman@yahoo.com

Proto-Man (590)
Real Name: Jacob Rougemont
Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Administrative Assistant, freelance writer/researcher; former retail associate
Affiliations: Masters of the Obscure, OHOTMU
Aliases: Art, the Rouge, "Big Tuna;" formerly Safety Monkey, Aquaman, Jacobey, Jacobo
Identity: Publicy known
Citizenship: United States
Place of Birth: Clarksville, Tennessee
Education: BS in Internet and Web-based Technology
Base of Operations: Clarksville, Tennessee
First Appearance: June 22, 1982
Powers: Able to superhumanly multi-task; able to locate and find the most trivial bits of information, especially pertaining to Marvel Comics
Equipment: A Mead #2 0.7mm Mechanical Pencil; a Dell Dimension E510 w/Windows XP; many old video game systems
History: Growing up, the first comic I ever owned was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures SC (which collected TMNT Adventures#1-3 mini-series), published by Archie. The first Marvel book I ever bought was Uncanny X-Men I#392, from back in 1992. I remember buying Fantastic Four I#370, also back in 1992. Of course, the arcade game "Captain America & the Avengers" introduced me to the Avengers and I began collecting Avengers West Coast. Once Avengers volume 3 came out, I was collecting any Avengers book and my collection is going strong, with its weakest point being the first issues of volume 1. At a time I collected a lot of first appearance books, which got me to pick up X-Force#116 in 2001 and instantly, I was hooked and collected the entire run of X-Force/X-Statix from X-Force#116 until X-Statix#26. Currently, I collect any book with Avengers in the title, X-Factor, New Mutants, Wolverine & the X-Men, Defenders, and a few books from the competition, such as Batman, DC Universe Presents, Dial H, and Invincible, from the other competition.
Comments: Created by my parents
Proto-Man's Appendix Profiles Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!
e-mail: extremev@hotmail.com

Grendel Prime (423+)
Real Name: Marc J. Riemer
Identity/Class: Extradimensional human technology user
Occupation: Editorial assistant on academic papers & stuff; long-term comic reader
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight, Avengers, Exiles, Fantastic Four, Inhumans, Micronauts, Shi'ar Imperial Guard, U-Foes, Alien Legion
Affiliations: Bengal, Fantomex, Living Lightning, Malekith, Monkey King, Namor, Northstar, Protector (Noh-Varr), Quasar (Vaughn), Rom, Swordsman (all), Grendel, Midnighter
Annoyances: Red Skull, Impossible Man and deadlines
Enemies: The Hood profile updates
Alternate Earth counterparts: Boomslang
Base of Operations: Melbourne, Australia; occasionally mobile across alternate dimensions, esp. the Ultraverse
Comments: I'd lurked on this site for a couple of years before deciding to take the plunge into the dire (wraith) world of html and submit the occasional profile.
e-mail: grendelprime7@yahoo.com.au

Spidermay (Giuseppe Mainardi) (347)
Real Name: Giuseppe Mainardi
Identity/Class: (Marvel) Zombie
Occupation: Dreamer
Group Membership: Masters of the Obscure
Affiliations: Formerly Andrea Stefani, Marco Polo, Giuseppe my comics seller
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: Unrevealed
Aliases: The Scientist, Spider
Base of Operations: Foggia, Southern Italy
formerly Rome;
formerly Southern Italy
First Appearance: May, 1970
Powers/Abilities: To shift between the reality and the Earth-616 Universe with extreme ease.
History: (Sub Mariner I#57) - @1980 - Namor the Sub-Mariner fought Ares to defend Venus. My first remembrance, the Marvel Universe entered in my life (before 1980).
(Avengers#167) - @1983 - The Avengers explored the Guardians of the Galaxy's spaceship. Charlie-27 mistook the Beast for a space monkey. George P?rez ruled! It was my transformation in True Beliver: I said: "These are the comics I like far more than the others"; the others were: Superman, Batman, Tex, Disney(s), Asterix and many others.
(God Loves, man kills) - @1986 - After years without a publisher house in Italy, the Marvel Comics were back !
(Unknown X-Man#1) - @1991 - My first Marvel fan fiction comic.
(The Wondrous Wasp#1) - @1999- My first web site, in honor of the Wonderful Wasp.
@2011 - I have 70% of the Marvel Comics production printed in Italy. It translates to about 10000-11000 issues of the USA production.
Comments: Spidermay tends to forget "spaces" before the # sign, and to miss some "not to be confused to" entries :-).
e-mail: ragnodimaggio@yahoo.com Big Thumbs up for sending his own images.

John Kaminski (299)
Real Name: John Kaminski
Occupation: Professional Ne'er-do-well
Base of Operations: South Bend, Indiana, USA
History: He started collecting comics 30 years ago, and HE JUST CAN'T STOP!
Favorite characters: Marvel monsters, Fantastic Four, Invaders, 1950's Avengers, Avengers
email: jjkaminski@hotmail.com
The biggest contributor to our request list / upcoming profiles, I finally just asked him to start writing some profiles himself...

William Uchtman (240++)...aka Thor2000
The resource for any mythological character, able to contribute the real world "histories" to any of the "gods." William's been submitting some profiles on the more obscure gods of the Marvel Universe, complete with their history in mythology, as well.
Real Name: William Uchtman
Occupation: Struggling Writer
Identity/Class: Human ("technically")
Aliases: Thor2000, William Collins, William Donner, Jason William Uchtman, et al.
Base of Operations: Hendersonville, TN
First Appearance: Germany, 1967
Powers/Abilities: Sad and growing knowledge of mythology, haunted houses, zoology, crypto-zoology, true crime stories and obscure TV and movie trivia. Four years of art, twenty plus years in writing fiction, also dabbles in improvisation, mimicry and acting. Can act out scenes word-for-word from It's a Wonderful Life, Hogan's Heroes, Saturday Night Live, Paint Your Wagon, et al
Limitations: Attention Deficit Disorder
History: A little bit about myself -- I was born in Heidelberg, Germany and have been reading and studying mythology since I was 11 and started reading comic books. Some of my first comics were AMAZING SPIDERMAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, SUPERGIRL, JUSTICE LEAGUE, MIGHTY THOR and the Marvel/DC adaptation of THE WIZARD OF OZ. None of these comics exist today, but they'd be worth a fortune if I still had them. When I'm not reading mythology books, ghost stories or true crime novels, I watch television for inspiration (sit-coms and horror movies, mostly), build models, draw and create cartoons. I've got my own strip called HORROR INC. I've been trying to get out there. I collect comics, movies, books, music, celebrity photos and parts I can "MacGyver-ize" into other objects. I'm also a mimic and do stand-up and improvisation for my friends. I've got two websites: The Collinsport Ghost Society, a fictional website dedicated to fictional haunted houses and The Guide to the Mythological Universe, a more myth-oriented companion to the Marvel and DC Appendices in addition to Movie Reviews at the IMDB and my own Fan Fictions . In fact, I've left my part on so many different websites out there that I've lost track of the majority of them. Unfortunately, the curse on the Uchtman family tree pretty much remains as strong as ever.
Email: aesgaard41@hotmail.com

Stunner (173++)...Gabriel Shechter...former EDITOR
Gabriel formerly added all of the profile links to our multitude of pages.
Where to start about me?...well, I was born at a very young age, as is the tradition in my family :) I was born 7/27/87. Aside from comic books, I enjoy gymnastics, wrestling (amateur not professional), and writing poetry and music. I have been reading comic books since 1997. My favorite heroes would have to be Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Captain Marvel. I have too many favorite villains to name. My dream is to write for Marvel Comics some day, and as a teenager already have so many ideas that I have trouble keeping track of them. My among my favorite writers are Kurt Busiek, Peter David, Chris Claremont, Stan Lee, Jim Starlin, Tom DeFalco, J.D. Demattais, Paul Jenkins, Roy Thomas, Steve Englhart, Roger Stern, and Mark Gruenwald among many others. Until I came into contact with people from this site, I had never met anyone who knew more about comics than I do. But now I realize how little I really know. I'm not a huge authority, but I really enjoy the site and writing whatever profiles I can.

Stunner has also been kind enough to reformat several of the Spider-Fan profiles to the Appendix, including some I had done before starting this site!He's also reformatted some (with permission) from Henrique at Spider-Fan, and from the Leader's Lair.

Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!

Stunner553@aol.com

Beetle...(143) Kim Henckel...MY FIRST CONTRIBUTOR.
Kim is the moderator at the Marvel Universe message board and author of the Marvel Guide, a great resource for tons and tons of characters. The Beetle's page was part of my inspiration to start this site.
How did I become interested in comics: I actually don't remember I think I got my first Anders And [Donald Duck] comic when I was about 2 years old, and I've collected comics ever since. I do remember when I began reading Marvel Comics thou. I got a Fantastiske Fire [Fantastic Four] #4 from my maternal grandfather in summer '83. I was hooked and the next day I went out buying my first Edderkoppen (Spider-Man), and all other Marvel comics I could get my hands on, my very first american Marvel comic was Amazing Spider-Man #280, featuring the Sinister Syndicate
Favorite Marvel Characters: Spider-Man, Daredevil, Human Torch II, Wasp, Hawkeye, Nova, Beetle, Electro, Death-Stalker, Cobra, Baron Zemo II, Moonstone II and a dozen of other well known and especially obscure ones like Goldbug, Boss Morgan, Ani-Men, White Rabbit, Walrus, Shades and Commanche
Favorite Comicbook Writers: Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, David Michilinie, Kurt Busiek, Christopher Priest, Peter David, Joh Ostrander, Keith Giffen, Mark Gruenwald, Stan Lee and Doug Moench
Favorite Comicbook Artists: George Perez (no one above no one even close to being beating Perez as my favorite artist)
All-time Favorite Comics: Spectacular Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, , Master of Kung-Fu (Moon Knight, Tomb of Dracula, Avengers, West Coast Avengers, The Man Called Nova, Thunderbolts, Black Panther, Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, Suiside Squad, Star-Man (the series by Roger Stern), Teen Titans/New Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, Bat-Man, Detective Comics (okay I admit a few DC titles have been good) ;-)
My monthly list of must haves: Avengers, Spider-Girl, Thunderbolts, Black Panther, Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker: Spider-Man and Captain Marvel
e-mail: Kim Henckel

Minor Irritant (122)
Rob London

Patrick D Ryall (98)

Patrick D Ryall (the "D" is for "the Blazing Skull") has declared himself an independent nation, but he is currently located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He promises not to limit himself to the lame, strange and silly characters of the Marvel Universe, but they are his specialty. His own web site, Book of PDR, the Official Nonsense Homepage is a testament to his own strangeness.
And Patrick's added a page collecting all of his profiles at the Contains2 website!
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!
E-Mail: patrickdryall@yahoo.com

Zerostar (89) Bill Lentz.
Bill boldly covers such things as the Brotherhood and Morlocks series, Generic Super-Hero, etc.--so no one else has to! Thanks Bill!
Bill also has been quite helpful in editing profiles into a format I can use. Thanks!!
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images.

Real Name: Bill Lentz
Enemies: Howard Mackie; Writer X (aka Howard Mackie or Devin Grayson)
Known Relatives: A lot, to be sure.
Base Of Operations: Here and there, mostly here...
Powers: If I had powers, I wouldn't tell you...
Pretending to be Kakashi from Naruto in profiles
History: Well... Again, there's a lot. Some interesting... Some not...
Interests: Way too many current comics, 2099 comics, alternate future/reality comics of all kinds, really... Reading Manga. Creating pro wrestling videos. Reading Manga. Recording super lo-fi "songs". Reading Manga.
Disturbing Comment: "X-Nation 2099 wasn't so bad, really. Well, the first 3 issues anyway."
E-Mail: ucbmember@yahoo.com
You can find all of the profiles I've worked on at http://reocities.com/ucbmember/appzeros.htm

AvatarWarlord72 (85)

Real Name: Michel Gariepy
Base of Operations: Penticton, B.C., Canada
First Appearance: February 2, 1972
Occupation: Customer Service Specialist, father and husband
I began collecting comics when I was 11 years old and it all started with GI Joe. I did have many others before that but not on a monthly basis. I then started my major comic collecting and began buying the Silver Surfer and within a few months of that I had to buy any Marvel comic on the racks I could find. I started playing the Marvel Superheroes RPG with friends and loved making the Character Stats up for new never-before seen characters to put into my games. Over the years, I began trying to complete as many past series as I could and by the time I turned 21, I had too many comic boxes and ran out of room to store them all. I ended up selling off some of my collections just to make space available; well that's when I met my wife ... I had to put my collecting on hold for a few years but with thanks to the Appendix site, I picked up where I left off and now my wife is into collecting comics and I have 2 wonderful children who seem to be interested in this phenomenon now as well. I collect anything Marvel or affiliated with Marvel comics and my favorite ones are in order of preference: Fantastic 4, Silver Surfer, The Avengers and Captain America. My wife collects A Nightmare on Elm Street, Marvel Zombies, Friday the 13th, Night of the Living Dead and any other horror comics. My kids collect Anime and Sonic the Hedgehog comics monthly. In a nutshell: I live in a small house and I need a bigger one to store my collection in, well someday, someday soon ...

FUTURE (81) former EDITOR

Artist, janitor, comic enthusiast
Art Website: SD Studios (Shattered Dreams Studios, SDS Mark 2)
E-mail: Deadend4l@aol.com

Skullogeist (76)
Real Name: Zen Harawada...not really
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: student
Affiliations: Amalgam Comics: The Archives ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amalgam_Archives/ )
Enemies: (currently) Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek: TNG); The Olsen Twins; Senator Trent Lott; the Peanuts Gang; Michael Bolton; Mr. Snuffalupagus;
(formerly) the population of Banksville, Nebraska
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: New Brunswick, NJ
First Appearance: a hospital (January, 1979)
Powers/Abilities: Skullogeist possesses the uncanny ability to spend hours upon hours trying to figure out the component parts of Amalgam Comics characters.
History: Skullogeist began reading Marvel and DC Comics as a kid in the early 1980s after compulsively watching episode after episode of SUPER FRIENDS. He never regularly collected any title, but rather bought various mini-series and story arcs that he found particularly interesting. Among his favorite comic "events" were REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN,
BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL, AGE OF APOCALYPSE, KINGDOM COME, JOKER: LAST LAUGH (well, the core titles, anyway) and, of course, DC VS. MARVEL and the subsequent AMALGAM COMICS.
AMALGAM COMICS changed everything for Skullogeist, who thought that it was the most original and refreshing idea to come out of the comics industry in years. Skullogeist, who always knew a good deal of information about the "big guns" of DC and Marvel, began to learn about the more obscure characters in his obsessive quest to accurately catalogue the component parts of every character in the Amalgam Universe.
Comments: Created by Ron Zimmerman; retconned by John Byrne
e-mail: skullogeist@hotmail.com
Big Thumbs up for covering most of his own images!

Per Degaton(72+)...John McDonagh, aka Doc Savage

...always there to contribute real world history and literature info into entries, where appropriate. He gave great back history on the members of the fourth Lethal Legion, and a bunch of others. Now he's started doing profiles that cross-over with other media.
e-mail: docsavage80@yahoo.com
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!

David Lawrence (68)

Real Name: David Lawrence
Base of Operations: American Southeast

Changeling (62)...
another voice from the UK, with a specific interest in the Marvel UK characters. He's also been kind enough to shoulder the Sleepwalker load!.
Real Name: Richard Green
Class: Human Mutant/Technology User, UK citizen
Occupation: Health Care Assistant, Musician
Affiliations: Cornerstone (a local covers band), the Love Cult (a tribute to the Cult), previously S.T.R.I.K.E. Psi Division
Base of Operations: Cannock, Staffordshire
Powers: Limited psionic potential, including mental communication with fellow band members, and to a lesser degree other musicians. Ability to attract the most bizzare happenings.
Equipment: Westone Bass, Ibanez Ergodyne Bass, Ashdown Max 300 Amplifier, Boss Overdrive Pedal, Tascam Porta Ministudio07
History: As a boy I was very much into Dr Who. I then got into the Transformers comics, which had back up strips like Spider-man and Iron Man. During my years as a music student I began collecting more and more. My favourites are Daredevil, Spidey, X-Men, New Warriors, Ravage 2099, Cardiac, Deathlok (Michael Collins), Sleepwalker, Alpha Flight, Cloak and Dagger, Generation X, Ghost Rider, Blade, Power Pack, pretty much all the Marvel UK characters, including (of course) Captain Britain (During my time at S.T.R.I.K.E I worked closely with his sister Betsy honest). I now juggle work and music when not trying to fill the large gaps in my comics collection.
e-mail: changeling616@btinternet.com
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!

Darc_Light (61)+...
Real Name: Michael King
Identity/Class: Human/Brood
Occupation: Archivist of Brood History/ Brood Propaganda Minister
Affiliations: Agent of the Brood Imperiatrix, member of the Brood Propaganda Ministry, Member of The Fang Liberation Front (Down with Shi'ar Aerie Domination!), Member of The Masters of the Obscure, Member of The Noh-Varr Legal Defense Fund. (Free Noh-Varr!), Supporter of Wild Child, Ally of the Atanteans, Devlor, The Doctor, The Morlocks, Neophyte, Runner, Squidboy
Enemies: Anyone who ever hurt Kyle Gibney/Wild Child, The Church of Humanity, The Cockroach Conspiracy, The Cybermen, Cyclops, The Daleks, All Demonic Entities, The Devil (by all his names), The Director, Frieza (DBZ, DBGT), Galactus, The Grandmaster (Elder Of The Universe), Hoppered The Gauntlet (Trigun, Manga Only), The Marauders (particularly Scalphunter), Mesmero, Mister Sinister, Mistress Death, Mystique, The Obliterator (Elder Of The Universe), People who hurt/kill children, Sabretooth, The Secret Empire (For what they did to Kyle Gibney/Wild Child) The Sentinels, The Shi'ar Military, SHIELD, Sire Hate, Storm, Thanos, Trunks Briefs (Future Trunks only, DBZ, DBGT), Valerie Cooper, (for what she let the Secret Empire do to Wildchild), Vegeta (DBZ, DBGT),Weapon X (For killing Tar Baby and Ape and turning Kyle Gibney/Wild Child into a whatever-the-heck-he-is-now), Nicholas D. Wolfwood (Trigun, Anime Only)
Known Relatives: Classified for their own protection
Aliases: Darc_Light
Base of Operations: A top-secret base in Northwest Florida
First Appearance: July 31 1977, in Grand Forks, North Dakota
Powers/Abilities: Incredibly Obsessive. I also like to draw all kinds of characters and creatures.
Favorite Characters: Adam X The X-Treme, Adric, Ape, The Brood, The Brood Empress, Cannonball, Champion (Tryco Slatterus), Changeling (Garfield Logan, DC Comics), Chapel The Evergreen (Trigun, Anime Only), Kogu AKA Gokua (DBZ), King Cold (DBZ), Deathbird, Devil Dinosaur, Devlor, Prince Dezan, The Doctor (Doctor Who), Ego The Living Planet, Fang (Of the Shi'ar Empire, all of them), Godzilla (Dark Horse, Toho and Marvel), Jeice (Ginyu Force, DBZ), Kaite Trevisick (Trigun), Moon-Boy, Morlocks, Namor the Submariner, Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy), Pretty Boy (Reavers), Rictor (Julio Esteban Richter), The Reavers, Runner (Elder Of The Universe), Skin (Angelo Espinoza), Skrulls, Son Goten (DBZ, DBGT), Tar Baby, Vash The Stampede (Trigun), Wild Child (Kyle Gibney), Yamcha, (DB, DBZ, DBGT) Zarbon (DBZ), Zazie The Beast (Trigun) and lots of minor characters like Batwing (Jimmy Santini), Bliss, Berzerker, Bobo (The Atlantean), Giganto, Gnork (Ogron), the Neophyte, The Ogron race, Primal (Adam Berman), Scaleface, Shinobi Shaw, Squidboy, (Samuel Pare), Sugarman, Wolf Cub (Nicholas Gleason), Wulff and most of the people and creatures listed on this site.
e-mail: kingdrclght@aol.com

Darc_Light has no known connections to:

Father Darklyght, ally of the Cockroach Conspiracy

Arclight, Philipa Sontag, a murderous female scumbag, member of the Marauders

Blacklight- son of former Shi'ar Majestrix Deathbird, brother of Whitenoise, and member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard @ X-Men: Spotlight on Starjammers#2

SQUEAK (57)...
I started reading comics in 1977 with Marvel Two-in-One #36. The cover had superheros, dinosaurs, and rockets, everything a 13-year old needs in life (and yes, the villain of that issue, the Jaguar Priest, has never again appeared, dooming me to a lifelong appreciation of the obscure). Many many years later, I'm still reading, and even had the good fortune to marry a woman who reads comics too!. Our collection is up to over 16,000 comics, nowhere near the owner of this site, but still on the unwieldy size. At the moment, we're tucked out in Pullman, Washington. When I returned to grad school a few years back, I started a Marvel Two-in-One web site, The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Home Page, as a stress release, and then got sucked into working on Marvel's Fantastic Four Encyclopedia and a couple years worth of their Handbooks. As my "real" job required more attention I mostly left the Handbooks, but I still occasionally hang around the Appendix here and fill in a few holes with some of the under-appreciated MTIO villains or personal favorites (here's a list of my Appendix entries). I can be contacted through marvel2in1 -at- gmail.com

Omar Karindu...(47++)
...he takes his name after the former guardian of the Star of Capistan, @ Defenders I#42...and now you know as much as I do! Omar has extensive knowledge of the MU, and also supplies a wealth of background info on characters as they relate to other forms of media, past literature, etc. Omar was one of the first contributors to the site.
e-mail: kweberg2000@yahoo.com

LV (43)
Graham Weaver
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images.

Ronald Byrd (42)
Ronald Byrd has job experience in education, journalism, and state legislature (none of which, so far, apparently sounds quite good enough on a resume for a better job). He's been reading Marvel comics for over twenty years, coming on board just in time for Phoenix's funeral. He is the creator (but not the maintainer) of the Unofficial Wolverine Chronology (http://www.reocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/byrd.html , which WILL eventually be updated (the site manager has a life, after all) with, among other things, information from "Wolverine: The Origin" despite that title's total waste of a fascinating character's potential history) and has contributed information to http://www.reocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/gaguide.html , http://www.reocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/toc.html , http://ratmmjess.tripod.com/gold/page.html , http://www.reocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/annos.html , http://www.reocities.com/jjnevins/pulpsintro.html , http://www.reocities.com/jessnevins/vicintro.html , http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/index.php , http://www.vortex.bridgwater.ac.uk/mtlg/ , http://blaklion.best.vwh.net/time_links.html , and http://www.reocities.com/cash_gorman/index.html . A contest-winning short story of his can be read at http://www.aristotle.net/market/freep/1053/feature/tnf.html . He has submitted plot synopses to several Marvel titles and, although unsuccessful, at least received positive feedback from a number of Marvel editors, including the late Mark Gruenwald; with the permission of Jason Liebeg, he submitted a set of potential resolutions for "Heroes Reborn," which Mr. Liebeg did not use but did call "a hell of a read."
e-mail: ronaldhbj@angelfire.com

Kyle Smith...(40) former EDITOR (corrections/additions)
He was the second contributor to the site. He was the first contributor with whom I had no previous association.
Kyle passed away in 2009. Read his Obituary and below how he presented himself.
My real name is Kyle SIMS. I use the name Smith to increase the likelihood that somebody will recognize from where I reference my former e-mail address, stinkpalm@yahoo.com. When this is read or heard, the only person, thus far, to give me a response other than, "Stinkpalm?" after all the years I've had this address has been the fine designer of this obscure web-site (hint: go watch Clerks).
I reside in Las Vegas, Nevada, born and raised here the span of my entire life, that being 23 years. Despite what's portrayed so often in the movies, not everybody lives in a trailer here (I really hate it when they do this, especially with strippers since some of them live in upscale neighborhoods because of the amount of money they make). I'm a graduate assistant at UNLV working on my masters in criminal justice. My specific area of study is the relationship between crime and religion. I do this just in case my dreams of becoming a comic bookwriter/artist don't pan out so that I have something to fall back on.
Comicswise, my interest mainly lies with superheroics, specifically with Marvel characters, but
that's not the only thing I know about. Currently, I read anything by Frank Miller, Garth Ennis, and Neil Gaiman. I'm more selective with other writers but I like certain works done by Morrison, Busiek, and Larsen just to name a few. Personally, I think that Millar and Bendis are overrated (what's so great about these guys?). Maybe my knowledge of things criminal colors my outlook with Bendis, seeing how simple, predictable, and straightforward most of his stories are.

Sammy7D (39)...

My name is Sam. I started collecting comic in 1998. I read most of the comics that are published but my favorites are Avengers, Thunderbolts, and X-Force. After I started reading comic books I started looking on line for many of the characters I read about. When I found this website I started posting lots of requests until I got offered to write some profiles--and I did, even though I only know about pretty recent obscure characters.
e-mail: Sammy7D@aol.com
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images

Jean-Marc Lofficier (38)
He wrote for Marvel, among many other stories, most of the wonderful "Book of the Vishanti" back-ups that gave such great details on many, many obscure and otherwise forgotten characters. He often supplies us with great inside tidbits on these characters.
He's also given us permission to publish two "lost stories," intended for publication, but which just never made it:

The Secret History of Cagliostro: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/cagliostrosecret.htm

The Secrets of ICON: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/jmlshamrockperegrinemcpstory.htm

Check out his official site at http://www.lofficier.com/ that has all his Marvel, DC, Image, etc. credits (and more).
e-mail address: jean-marc@hollywoodcomics.com

G Morrow (65)

Greg O'Driscoll (33)...
Formerly our Swords and Sorcery Editor. INACTIVE. After giving lots of good supplemental info in mythology and other literature, he's jumped in and started doing profiles from the Conan Universe, and other areas as well. Then he faded from existence...
In addition, he writes his own line of comics under Cyborg Caveman Comics. Check it out!
e-mail: cyborg_caveman@hotmail.com
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images!

Gauntlet: Dark Rider (28)
I've been reading comics since about as long as I could read, discovered Marvel through Transformers, GI Joe and mid-'80s Spider-Mans, found a comics shop in '93, and got hooked on collecting.
Realising the implausibility of my lifelong dream of becoming a supervillain and/or a robot, I settled for mastering as much useless trivia on them as I could, while spending as much time living on the net as possible, becoming something of an authority on villain-teams and early '90s stuff that nearly everyone else hated.
e-mail: gauntlet_dark_rider@hotmail.com

Elf with a Gun (25)

Hi there. My name is Chris Biggs. I am a woman (aauuhhgg! A girl! Run for the hills! :D ) living in the state of Indiana, USA. I have a degree in Commercial Photography, though finding work out here is a little hard sometimes, since everyone wants to hire 'experience' rather than someone straight out of school. :(
Currently I'm working at a small paper where I'm getting some exposure and some 'experience' in one of my chosen fields of endeavor. (My other choices are artist and writer; in fact one of these days I may yet achieve one of my dreams of working on some of my favorite comic book characters, _if_ I can get myself to stop cat-vacumning and start working on developing my talents. . . . . :)
My current pay-the-bills-while-waiting-for-my-big-break job is working as a cashier at McDonalds. Anyone wanting to send me brickbats, bouquets, barbs, and bribes can send them to catlin1156@yahoo.com. Anyone wanting to send letterbombs and viruses can sent them to the Department of Homeland Defense, since they have been getting a little bored over there recently, or so I've heard. :D And that's probably more info on me than you ever really wanted to know. . . . . :)

Chuck D (18)
*INACTIVE*
Let's see, I'm a 25 year old lawyer currently living in Cincinnati. I was raised on Marvel comics by my dad and always loved the OHOTMU (except for the ones on the little cards! ugh!). Glad to be able to contribute to a GOOD version of the OHOTMU.
e-mail: pred8tor69@hotmail.com

The Squid (17)...Nick Hill...
is currently pursuing his masters in business degree and has lived in Salem, OR his entire life. He has collected comics for about 9 years now, 90% of which are Marvel. He is an avid Marvel Comics action figure collector, his favorite line being the underappreciated Secret Wars line. He also enjoys customizing action figures, having over 120 custom figures, all Marvel of course, ranging from Surtur to Hammerhead. Outside of comics his interests are history, mythology, and watching bad movies.
e-mail: NHILL@WILLAMETTE.EDU
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images.

Henrique Ferreira (16)
a native of Portugal, Henrique writes for the Spider-Fan website. He has done several characters for Spider-Fan, as well. He's been kind enough to reformat some of these to post to the Appendix site as well...and Stunner's been nice enough to reformat others of his.
e-mail http://www.spiderfan.org/mail.html?Henrique%20Ferreira

caliban...(16+)
caliban, was one of my editors, helping me out by putting images with files that are sent in, and doing any necessary editing. He is currently inactive:
Name: Eric Timothy Engelhard
Born: 1/28/78
Lives: Urbana, IL
Works: Grad student in astrophysics, University of Illinois. Also part time at G-Mart comics, http://www.g-mart.com/, the rockingest comic store in central Illinois.
email: engelhrd@uiuc.edu
Started Collecting: late 1991. I was in the 8th grade. Never stopped.
Size of Collection: Every Marvel super-hero comic from 1973-present. That's my goal anyway, I'm about 300 issues short. So that translates to about 48 long boxes worth, ~13,000 total.
Favorite Marvel Chracters: Warlock, Silver Surfer, Thanos, Spider-Man, Caliban, Thor, Avengers
Number of Different Marvel Index/Handbook Issues owned: ~170. Only thing ever published that I'm missing are the great Olevshky indexes, vol. 1 & 2
Favorite Marvel Creators: Jim Starlin, Mark Gruenwald, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, J.M. Demattetis, Steranko, Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, Paul Jenkins, John & Sal Buscema, Kurt Busiek, and of course, Winslow Mortimer.
World Authority On: Spidey Super Stories. No one comes close. Of course, no one has ever challenged my knowledge. You can read my ridiculously in-depth (and just ridiculous) reviews at http://www.spiderfan.org/
Stupid Comic Geek Party Trick: Seriously, if I'm drunk enough, my friends and I play this game where they shout out a random number between 1 and 470, and I'll describe the exact cover of Amazing Spider-Man for that issue, and then I go to my collection and pull it out and show them.
I've only been wrong once in the past year.
e-mail: engelhrd@uiuc.edu

Donald Campbell (14)

After months of supplementing and correcting errors in profiles, Donald jumped in feet first on the monster-sized Werewolf by Night profile
E-mail: donaldac@hotmail.com

Spaceknight(12)...

Noggin. OmegaTherion (11)

Real Name: Martin A.
Occupation: Teacher
Base of Operations: Southern Connecticut;
   formerly Western Massachusetts;
   formerly Pittsburgh, PA;
   formerly British Columbia, Canada;
First Appearance: October 1970
Powers/Abilities: Able to spend a whole day trying to figure out who that was in Galactus' stasis chamber way in the back of a single panel of of one issue of Last Planet Standing. Can buy more comics in a day than I can read in a month.
History: While I'll admit to a brief childhood fascination with Superman, I've been a Marvel fan nearly from day one. One of my earliest memories is my copy of Marvel Treasury Edition#18, where the reprint of the first meeting of Spider-Man and Ghost Rider (from Marvel Team-Up I#15) scared the pants off me. When the Orb whipped off his helmet to reveal his mutilated face, I completely freaked out. Nightmares for weeks: thanks, Ross Andru! After that, it was lots of Spider-Man and X-Men, with Alpha Flight and the New Mutants both big parts of my teen-age years. There was a period of inactivity, when my 20s coincided with a period in comics history known as the 90's, but I've been going strong and catching up ever since. For whatever reason, being Canadian, my favorite hero is now Captain America, and I've been putting together MC2 profiles lately for the Appendix.

e-mail: omegatherion5000@gmail.com

Flank McLargehuge(11)

has been extremely helpful in the computer know-how department, establishing a group e-mail, and helping us to figure out some of our HTML problems.
He hails from sunny, glorious Fairbanks, Alaska, where he's a Theatre student in his fourth year at the University of Alaska Fairbanks: http://www.uaf.edu/, with no graduation in sight, or intended either. The fact that, behind the blue hair and hawaiian shirts he's a comic geek isn't something he bothers to share with many of his friends -- most of them simply wouldn't understand. Besides acting and comics, Flank is a college radio DJ under the name MC Escher at UAF's student station: http://ksua.uaf.edu/, where he plays quirky, charming, underplayed bands with names like The Weakerthans, Soul Coughing, Man or Astroman, The Impossibles, Prozzak, Ugly Duckling, jimmy eat world, and Plastilina Mosh, on a show called Mastering the Art of Falling Down. Flank's special section of Marvel Universe obscurity is the home of Marvel's early-'90s teen heroes the New Warriors, and includes Power Pack, Darkhawk, Cloak & Dagger, and the heroic Green Goblin, among others. His current favorite books include Thunderbolts, New X-Men (though the continuity freak in him would rather ignore that), and Captain Marvel.
fsbts1@uaf.edu
The return of... the NEW WARRIORS?: http://www.as.uaf.edu/~mcescher/warriors

Alexander Knowles (10)...hails from the Bahamas and has an interest in the Olympian gods of which he provides profiles on.

e-mail: bigwoids@hotmail.com

Luis Olavo Dantas, the Daevanator (11)...
Our Formatting and Image Coordination Editor (apparently on a leave of absence). Another guy who started out with lots of helpful info, and then finally decided to jump in himself! I'm also suspecting he may become our technical expert. He also uploads profiles and helps train others.
Best know to his fellow Counter-Strikers and Warcrafters as Epistemologia Escatologica ("because philosophy has cultural value too!"), Luis' best resource is his persistence at web searching. He has a strong, vivid memory of comics read years ago. This has proved useful time and again. His secret is a strong love for 1970s comics. He was born at January the 9th, 1969. He may be found at luis@dantas.com, which is something of a prodigy, since Dantas is a rather common brazilian surname. He's known for his strong personal opinions on child parenting and for his interest in compared religions. As of late he has taken to comment on Buddhism and Hinduism, leading to his choice of alias as "The Daevanator".
Luis' list of profiles can be found here: http://www.dantas.com/marvunapp/history.htm

Mick Martin, The Anti-Grimm (9)-
Mick was an assistant editor, helping me out by putting images with files that are sent in, and doing any necessary editing. Makes my job much easier, and gives me more time to do my own files! Mick is currently on hiatus from the Appendix, but we hope to have him back soon.
...I've been reading comics for twenty years and I'm a foaming mad Hulk nut. Most of the characters I provide will probably be Hulk and/or Defenders related. One of my goals is to get as many Defenders related profiles done before Omar Karindu can steal them from me. I post quite a bit on the Hulk and Defenders message boards at the Alvaro Comic boards under the name "The Anti-Grimm," so feel free to say hi if you're ever in the area. Anti-Grimm

Mikel Midnight(13)...
Mikel has offered us profiles of members of the Captain Britain Corps, Evan Dorkin characters, and a smattering of metafictional heroes. He also kibitzes a lot.
Place of Residence: Northern California
Real World Ambition: Get a real job
Favorite Marvel Character(s): The Captain Britain Corps
Favorite Mid-Afternoon Snack: Mixed Nuts
His Origin in 20 words or less: Born Queens NY, then on to Florida, Arizona, the United Kingdom, Michigan, and California ... with diversions along the way.
The first Marvel comic he reads when he gets home is: Supreme Power
And when he's reading that comic or writing profiles he listens to: Reel Big Fish and various other members of the worldwide ska community, or my new favorite band, The Used
His email address is blaklion@blaklion.best.vwh.net and his website is at http://blaklion.best.vwh.net/comics.html

FortMax(7)...
Name: Mike McTighe
Location: Charleston, SC
Nicknames: FortMax, Mikey, Doom
Class: Marvel Expert (still learning more everyday)
Areas of Expertise: Daredevil, X-Men, Cyclops, X-Factor, Wolverine, Pre-WWII history, and Dr. Doom
Bio: I was born in Boston. My first Marvel comic was X-Men #160 when I was five years of age. At age 18 I still read, only much more so. My knowledge of Marvel is more like a historic knowledge. I can tell you about the time when a bandaged Dr. Doom (pre-Iron suit Von Doom) went back into the past to WWII and wreaked some havoc on Hitler as "Hans". But for the life of me I can't tell you what issue it happened in. Guess thats the breaks. I joined the site last year and love it. This is the only place where I know people who know more about marvel than me, its cool. Plus the best part is I wrote the bio for the most obscure character of them all "Bronek".
e-mail: FortMax01@aol.com

Cisco (7)...Francisco Araujo da Costa
A Brazilian student of Advertising who learned much more than he should have from comic books. He permanently hunts for and reads old and obscure comics, reads fiction he will only understand when he's older and more experienced, and writes fanfiction for the Marvel Dark Lore (http://digilander.iol.it/heroestales/mdl). His favorite characters are the Black Panther, Captain Ultra and Daredevil.
Yes, Captain Ultra. Does anyone have problem with that?
Cisco also redesigned the index page and helped out by fixing lots of broken links.
e-mail: ciscocosta@uol.com.br
Big Thumbs up for sending some of his own images!

Caesar Godzillatron (6)...

Mnaketcham@aol.com

Reddie (6)

The Voice of Doom (5)
Real name: James Murton
Identity/class: Normal human
Occupation: Schoolboy (sob)
Affiliations: None
Enemies: All who dismiss obscure characters... mwah ha ha... oh, and Scrappy Doo
Known relatives: Way too many to mention here
Aliases: Slug-Man, Scooby-Doo II
Base of operations: Derby, England
First appearance: Derby, England, (March 1989)
Powers: Disturbing amount of trivia on the 'Avengers under Siege storyline, as well as the ability to find countless ways to annoy my friends and family.
History: I got into comics through the animated series' of Spiderman and X-Men, and became hooked! Sure, I started late, but my uncle, the internet and the old black and white Essential reprints helped me make up for lost time. I currently collect 3 British comics which reprint Spiderman, X-Men and the Avengers from 3 or 4 years back.
Comments: Do not dismiss 60s comics as poor near me. Just don't.
E-mail: Jrkmrams@aol.com

DragynWulf (4)
Real Name: David Wiltfong
Relatives: Wife and beautiful daughter
First Appearance: Nixon was President, Monday Night Football debuted on ABC, the Beatles broke up and Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin both die drug-related deaths. Some movies released that year were M*A*S*H, PATTON, LOVE STORY, and AIRPORT.
Favorite Marvel Characters: Taskmaster, Thunderbolts, Thunderbolts (Counter-Earth), Thunderbolts (CSA), U.S.Agent, She-Hulk, Yellowjacket (Pym), Moonstone (Sofen), Baron Zemo (Helmet), Hawkeye (Barton), Squadron Supreme (Earth-712), Sinister Squadron, and others.
My Monthly Must Have: Any Taskmaster appearance, THUNDERBOLTS, EXILES, ASTONISHING X-MEN, CABLE & DEADPOOL, and all Handbooks. I buy other comics when I can afford them these days.
Marvel Comics Recommendations: THUNDERBOLTS, CABLE & DEADPOOL, MOON KNIGHT, EXILES, and ASTONISHING X-MEN
Other interests: Wrestling and movies (horror, suspense/thrillers, sci-fi, comedy)
Comments: I'm the owner/webmaster of the TaskmasterSite.com and big time Taskmaster fan. I handle the Data Corrections for the OHotMU Handbooks, a moderator for the Marvel.com online encyclopedia as well as the message boards. I've also been a moderator at various other message boards online over the past 6 years as of 2006.
e-mail: dragynwulf@hotmail.com

Nyssane (6)
Clint Theron

Peteparker (4)

Real Name: Nathan Elliott
Class: of 2010
Occupation: Nuclear Physicist; Grad Student
Affiliations: Masters of the Obscure
Aliases: AnotherPeteparker, Spidy207
Base of Operations: Albuquerque, New Mexico
First Appearance: November 17, 1979
Powers: Able to use comics or the web to put off doing any work that really needs to be done, a.k.a. procrastinate.
Equipment: Thousands of digital comics and a trusty copy of GIMP
History: I was always a fan of heroes, beginning with being an avid watcher of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only infrequently was able to get comics when I was sick or on family road trips. (Some of which included various parts of the Maximum Carnage Saga, just try reading that sporadically with no prior knowledge of any character but Spidey). The first series I specifically purchased was the Death of Superman, hopping on the '90s bandwagon of collecting books that seemed like they would be worth more money someday. It wasn't until the late '90s X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons that I converted back to buying Marvel books, and it's been a torrential love affair ever since. For several years, I was able to buy every comic I wanted to read every week, which resulted in a 'collection' of more than 5000 mostly worthless books. My most recent interests are in alternate realities, most notably the Exiles and What If? books.

Kevin Garcia (4)
Also one of the writers for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

BKole (3)....

Wolfhead (3)...Valerio Pastore...
He writes the Shogun Warriors profiles, in exchange for my covering some wolf-type characters, so he can write about them for his fanfic.

Peter Kroon (3)...
from the Netherlands. Peter writes for the Spider-Fan website. He's contributed the White Dragon and Photon, although that'll probably be it for him.

Nemedian Chronicler (3)

Real Name: Thomas Person
Occupation: Retirement Center, Security & Safety Officer. Air Force Veteran
Aliases: Crom, Mitra, Aesir, Set, and the list goes on like that. Whatever the Hyborian people choose to call me.
Affiliations: Loki (Stuart Vandal)
Enemies: Outside Thoth-Amon I hope nobody.
Base of Operations: Goose Creek, SC
1st Appearance: Watertown, SD
History: My 1st comic was a fresh right off the rack issue of the Amazing Spider-Man. A short while later I picked up an issue of Conan. From that time on I would pick up an occasional issue of whatever seemed interesting at the time. At the age of eleven, I had about 25 comics. At that time I felt like I had every comic in the world. As I got older I joined the Air Force and my mother stuck about 200 comics of mine in her attic. After 10 years and two major military operations later (Just Cause [Panama] and Desert Storm [Kuwait]) I got out. By this time my collection was around 5 to 6 thousand issues and hundreds of titles. Marvel, Image D.C., etc. Now I actually have time to read them. I found the Appendix while searching for info on Umbu the Unliving. I choose to do profiles on Conan characters because (1) He's my favorite character and (2) He kills 90% of everyone he meets, so each issue there is always a fresh supply of new obscure characters around....for a while.
Favorite characters: This is just a sampling of who I like.

Marvel: Conan, The Fantastic Four, Juggernaut, Red Sonja, Spider-Man, and Thanos.

D.C.: Aquaman, Batman, Darkseid, Dolphin, Green Arrow, Nubia and The Teen Titans.

Others: Witchblade, Purgatori.

Favorite comics: Stray Bullets, Sin City, Teen Titans (The Judas Contract), Savage Sword of Conan, Preacher, and any comic with the above characters. Still I love all my comics and graphic novels.
Other interests: Movies (new and old), Star Wars, Star Trek, PC Games, basically any girl repellent activity which I guess is O.K. cause I'm happily married to one. Helping my kids with homework then teaching them useless info about comic characters, 80's music. Also writing, because I would not be doing this if I didn't like it so much. Finally driving and caring for my 16 year old Mercedes-Benz 300E.
E-Mail: loststarfleet@msn.com

Monzo (3)...
Matt Karpowich
E-Mail: hyperion@gte.net

Mark Caithness (2+)...
hails from the UK and helped expand the puny, incomplete Night Raven entry into the extensive work in progress it now is. In addition, he's now going to start doing some profiles on the Marvel UK characters (well, Yi Yang and Dr. Claw, anyway).
e-mail: markcaithness@hotmail.com
Big Thumbs up for sending his own images.

Fatum (2)
Base of Operations: Hungary
History: I have collected comics since kindergarten.
I was born in the same month and year as Spider-Man's black suit debuted or the first issue of the Secret Wars and the Ninja Turtles (according to the cover dates).

ExWhaler (2)
Real Name: Jim Mullins
Identity/Class: Human (?)
Occupation: Professional fool
Affiliations. Masters of the Obscure; others classified
Enemies: 90% of the world's population, at large
Known Relatives: More than I could name, honestly
Aliases: HartWhale, "J"
Base of Operations: Boston, MA
First Appearance: Milford/Hopedale Regional Hospital; October 1979
Powers/Abilities: ExWhaler is has no true superpower, but is remarkably talented in the usage of sarcasm and humor as weapons; and is very adept at missing the obvious.
History: ExWhaler learned to read through comics, and hasn't looked back since. He shamefully admits to have slightly fallen from the fold recently, and hangs his head.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. Despite popular belief, "ExWhaler" is not a reference to hunting actual whales; it instead refers to the late, lamented Hartford Whalers of the NHL. In my opinion, ExWhaler was an inspired creation; but has been mishandled by other creators since.
E-Mail: exwhaler@msn.com

Barry Reese (2)
I got to work with Barry on the Marvel Knight Encyclopedia (he wrote the Ghost Rider / Blade sections), and then I drafted him into the Handbooks

Technarch (3)...

Spiderpool (2)
Real Name: Kevin Smith (no, not the director! It's my real name!)
Class: Borderline human
Occupation: Video game store guy
Affiliations: Proto-Man; Masters of the Obscure
Aliases: Spidey, Hal, 129, Merc-with-a-Mouth
Base of Operations: Clarksville, Tennessee, sometimes referred to as Hell
First Appearance: October 31, 1980
Powers: Extensive knowledge of video games and occasionally, comics. Ability to magnetically pull other automobiles into his own.
Equipment: Nintendo DS and pretty much any video game system; a Game Informer magazine, as well as Tips & Tricks; Wizard and ToyFare mags too...basically, any magazine in print that relates to fanboys
History: My first comic was a ratty issue of Amazing Spider-Man that someone gave me. It was missing a cover. A bunch of random Marvel issues later, I began collecting Deadpool base

Merzah from Prague (1)

Cheyne (1)...
Name: Mike Cheyne
How Did I Become Interested in Comics?: For a Christmas present one year, I got one of those "Big Box of Comics from One Particular Year." It turned out that most of these were Marvel from the Acts of Vengeance crossover. I didn't understand anything, but I reread every one of those stories time after time trying to make sense out of it. Naturally, the box did not contain the ending stories
Favorite Marvel Character: Spider-Man, although it is very easy to write bad Spidey. I also like villains, especially the lesser-known, not-so-powerful guys, such as the Trapster. He's cool.
My Specialty: Umm, not much. I'm not a comic authority, just a fan that specializes in writing one-shot character profiles. Why one-shot? Because my collection is so miniscule, and I don't collect much comics anymore. In fact, that's what stuns me as I read through the profiles on this way-cool site, finding out such tidbits that the Fox OF ALL PEOPLE came back, while the poor old Baron Zemo imposter schlub is still in comic book limbo. I do know a lot about the early Silver Age period, know a ton about G.I. Joe, have a pretty good knowledge of Spidey, and saw about every episode of X-Men on TV. Oh yeah, I know all about Secret Wars I. Yeah, take that.
Why Are You Writing Profiles?: Well, I dunno. I just acquired and read the entire Atlantis Attacks series as a lark, read a cool backup story, and decided to write a profile. I'm just happy to find this place so many beloved characters!
Website: Um, none. You're a mite late I used to work at the fabulous NitCentral, dedicated to nitpicking everything and everywhere. But time got in the way, and that regular gig is no more
Other Interests: The Avengers (not the comic, the British TV show); Major League Baseball; and in a neither so obscure nor unimportant vein, Christianity.

Hugo V. Negron (1)...
Birthday 12/25/68. Reside in Illinois. Currently finishing up the thesis requirements for an M.A. in Clinical Psych while working as a Forecast Specialist for a silver jewelry importing firm with the intent to go on for a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psych (there's more of a return on your scholastic investment using psychology in the business world, I've learned!). I've been a Marvel/Iron Man fan since I was 8 years old (thanks Dad for hooking me into comics). Used to be a big medieval/fanstasy buff (anyone still remembers how to play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons out there??), so the concept of a modern day knight in shining armor really took hold of me - and it's never let go! Soon to be married on 10/12/02 to a fellow psych major. Hobbies? Besides reading Iron Man, that is - chess, basketball, biking.
email: hvalnegron@hotmail.com

Al Sjoerdsma (1)...another guy from Spider-Fan, kind enough to share a profile with the Appendix

Somebody (1)
Real Name: Gerard McMenemy
"Bio": Hails from somewhere in Scotland, started reading US comics regularly through UK reprints [came in in the depths of the Clone Saga - and liked it! :)], and spends too much time making banners for comicboards :) [Archived at http://sbanners.port5.com]
gerardmcm@graffiti.net

Cypher (1)
Graham Willis
WillisCrln@aol.com

Odd Rob (1)
Rob Pickering

Paul Allen (1)

Mike Podgorski (1)

Clay Jodee (1)

Mike Fichera (1)

Kevin Garcia (2)

Bob Almond...

Bob was the inker for the Black Panther, one of our favorite titles, for an outstanding run of over three years. In addition to helping to convince his co-storytellers to use the obscure characters we enjoy so much, he's also given us lots of inside information on the characters as they've been used, and why or why not things went they way they did. We're very thankful for all his info...plus its pretty frickin' cool to a Marvel Zombie like me to be able to communicate directly with a member of the House of Ideas.
In addition, Bob has been mind enough to provide some nice images for some of the Black Panther, Hostess, and other characters.
I've been a Marvel Zombie since '76 and my fave title is the AVENGERS of which I own every issue of all the volumes. I'm fairly competant with Marvel obscura but things get fuzzy around the late '80s, early 90's. I have some of the Marvel indexes, I'm trying to find and own all the Olshevsky ones, and I own all the OHOTMU editions except the last one(36) to the 3-ring binder version. I was lucky that Marvel sent me 35 of these free in my comps but cut the comps before 36 arrived:-( My fave artist is George Perez, who inspired me to become a pro artist in the first place, but other faves include John Byrne, Frank Miller, Michael Golden, Klaus Janson, Josef Rubinstein, Terry Austin, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Jim Steranko, Mark Framer, Tom Palmer, Bob Layton, Gene Day, Adam Hughes, Bernie Wrightson, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Carlos Pacheco, Jeff Jones, Alex Ross, Sal Velluto(of course!) and numerous others. I enjoy the stories of Grueny, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Peter David, Roger Stern, Priest(of course!) among others as well as many of the Marvel writers in the '70s and early '80s like Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, David Michelanie, Bill Mantlo, Doug Moench, Chris Claremont, Jim Shooter, and some I'm certain I forgot. While I have very long runs of many/most Marvel titles over the years I've cut back over time. My present books I'm buying (as opposed to 'reading' since I'm 2-3 years behind due to deadlines!) include: Avengers, Defenders/The Order, Thunderbolts, Captain Marvel, Thor, Black Panther(duh!) and usually a couple of related limited series and a few cool trade collections each month. Just a few past projects I've worked on include Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Bloodshot, JLA, a bunch of Malibu series like Siren and Foxfire, Star Trek: DS9, Ultragirl, and even Starmasters by Grueny (too bad it ranks among my early horrific work:-P). Presently I'm marking the third year on the critically-acclaimed Black Panther title which has been my most enjoyable experience to date. And please visit The Bob Almond Inkwell at http://www.almondink.com/

Wayne Lenihan...
he gave me lots of great info on the Conan characters...appearances and chronology, and clears up anything that confuses me in my surface knowledge of the Hyborian era.
Wayne says: "I'm married with a daughter, 18 , son 16. I'm 45 yrs old , work as a train driver, live in Toowoomba Queensland Australia although I come from further west. Ive been interested in conan comics since 1980 & until the age of the internet was the only conan fan I knew of. my other interests include motorcycling,fishing,gym& bush walking."

Carycomix (Greg) - always happy to provide...interesting/random tangent concepts on dozens and dozens of profiles: e-mail address: Carycomix@aol.com

Want to join the few, the proud, the...people who know a lot about a bunch of useless trivia on guys that most people have never head of?

If so, then maybe you can join the Masters of the Obscure