THE HULK ENCYCLOPEDIA

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I picked up a copy of the Marvel Encyclopedia: The Incredible Hulk, which is the OFFICIAL (emphasis theirs) Marvel Guide to the Incredible Hulk that gives us “the people behind the Hulk, from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to the writers and artists who have shaped the character throughout the years, this is the story of the creators behind the myth.”

Out of curiosity, I checked the index. I offer the following statistics without comment.

Number of pages Stan Lee is mentioned on: 24.

Jack Kirby: 14

Ang Lee: 11

Bruce Jones: 9

Dale Keown: 8

Herb Trimpe: 6

Axel Alonso: 5

Bill Jemas: 3

John Byrne: 2

Todd McFarlane: 1

Peter David: 1

Roy Thomas: 0

Sal Buscema: 0

Al Milgrom: 0

Bill Mantlo: 0

Len Wein: 0

Bob Harras: 0

Bobbie Chase: 0

PAD

72 comments on “THE HULK ENCYCLOPEDIA”

  1. My problem with the recently released Marvel Encyclopedia was that it seemed to ignore the second string characters in favor of the X-characters. Something brought to the forefront when we got (yet again) another X-Men Encyclopedia. Now this…

    This is indicative of the current regime at Marvel. Why can’t Bush see about “regime change” there???

    Doesn’t surprise me given PAD and Waid’s treatment. After all, if you’re creative and smart and don’t permanently have your lips planted on Jemas’ butt you are pretty much persona non grata there.

    This is why I’m down to 3 Marvel titles and my be dropping those before long.

    Col

  2. I never really cared for the Hulk character. I have all the Spidey, DD, FF, Capt. Americas, Avengers, etc., from the 60s. The Hulk never grabbed my interest.

    I have 20 or 30 issues from before PAD took over the writing. Then I started buying shortly after Pad began writing it. I had to stop a few times when money got tight, but I always started buying it again. He made me care about the character.

    Peter has written 25% or more of the Hulk’s stories and at least half of the better stories. To receive so little mention shows a deliberate editorial decision to exclude him and many others, too. Shameful.

    The latest issue of Comics Buyer’s Guide arrived today. CBG’s annual awards are being announced weekly. This weeks category is Favorite Original Graphic Novel or Album. There are 18 books listed and the only one from Marvel is Hulk: The End. It finished in 10th position, but again, it is the only Marvel book listed. Congrats to PAD. The only great Hulk story of this century.

  4. I flipped through an open copy of the so-called Encyclopedia in my local Barnes and Noble. Once I saw that Sal Buscema and Doug Moench (writer of the 1970s RAMPAGING HULK magazine for more than 20 issues) were not even mentioned once, I was turned off.

    Then, seeing how this book gave Peter’s run nothing more than a passing acknowledgement–with a snide jab or two to boot–I was convinced that it was not a book worth having.

    I agree that the CBG guide is a far better resource (and not just because I was a contributing writer).

    Glenn Greenberg

    (writer, THE RAMPAGING HULK comic book)

  5. Why is it that official guides feel that they can be lazy and inaccurate and it doesn’t matter because they can label themselves as ‘official?’ Sigh.

  7. Thanks for the link to Morning Call.

    7 out of 11, and Marvel mentions him once.

    What a flaming pile of dung they are.

  8. And for the record, the deluxe version of the Official Hulk Movie Magazine has an insert on the comics, with a Top 5 Hulk comics list. Here is the magazine’s top 5:

    1. Future Imperfect (PAD)

    2. #417 (PAD)

    3. Hulk/Thing: Big Change (Starlin/Wrightson)

    4. #420 (PAD)

    5. #1 (Stan Lee)

    PAD has 3 of the top 5.

    Corey

  9. Why would Bill Jemas even be mentioned in an omnibus about the Hulk? He has nothing to do with the character.

    Bill’s a good business man, but he’s such a fûçk and a hack writer, that he should be removed from Marvel. Along with Joe “Bill’s right, you’re wrong” Quesada.

  10. Rick Jones wedding ranks above the Jim Wilson AIDs issue? I’m surprised. Both great issues, I would put 393 on that list instead of Hulk/Thing.

    I can see why you’d be irked, Peter. 12 years and 1 mention. What exactly has Jemas done to get 1 mention?

  11. I guess if the single mention was “Peter David single handedly revolutionized the Hulk and did more for the series &c. &c” then it would be alright.

  12. Quoted from the Hulk Encyclopedia by Corey Tacker:

    “Now is not the time to get into everything the Hulk endured in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Suffice it to say he went through the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy, a couple of Star Wars movies, the Godfather saga, Lost Weekend and A Beautiful Mind, with snatches of Monsters Inc. thrown in.”

    and

    “Maybe the best idea would be for the Hulk to be Tivo’d, so you could immediately skip the pathetic-loser Banner stuff and the messy psychological spills, and just have nothing but end-to-end Hulking.”

    and

    “Hulk comics of the 80’s and 90’s played up the ‘psycho’ in the psychodrama, sending the Hulk through incarnation as though he was Shirley MacLaine played on 78. These comics, like a lot of Marvel comics from that era, drifted a little too far afield. They were guilty of only one thing: they weren’t the Hulk.”

    SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

    Marvel has been seriously pìššìņg me, and a lot of other people off for some time. They’ve stopped doing letters pages. Their bios on their site are mostly incomplete. They refuse acknowledge much of anything that happened pre-2001. They treat the creators who made their books popular in the first place like šhìŧ. I mean, Christ, they’re even screwing STAN LEE over. Stan “The Man” Lee, creator of most of their most iconic characters, former President, and grandaddy of all that is Marvel. Worst of all, the Hulk movie is coming out, and Marvel are overhyping Bruce Jones’ mediocre stories, trying to give the impression that this is the greatest Hulk run ever, and if people don’t like it, they can just fûçk off, nyahhh. They’re refusing to acknowledge the great 40+ years that Peter David, Bill Mantlo, Len Wein, Stan Lee, Dale Keown, Herb Trimpe, and Sal Buscema, to name just a few, contributed. Kit Kiefer’s Hulk Encyclopedia is just a wank for Marvel and their stupid policy to disregard continuity and history. Thank God I didn’t buy the fûçkìņg thing. Tom DeFalco’s Encyclopedia, although not without its mistakes, is awesome. I’m only sticking with Marvel out of love for their characters, and I’m only buying Peter’s fantastic Captain Marvel series (go buy it!), Brian Michael Bendis’ fantastic Alias (go buy it!), and Greg Rucka’s fantastic Wolverine series (go buy it!)

    By the way, Peter (I can call you Peter, can’t I?), will you bring back Marlo at some point in Captain Marvel?

  13. It does seem like Marvel loves to blast the 90’s. Too bad. Peter’s Hulk run was way better bercause he wasn’t writing issues to fill a quote for a tpb. I picked up the 25cent issue and it really felt like 5 pages of story stretched out over the entire issue.

  14. In regards to the quote from the encylopedia copied above.

    That’s total bull. They clearly weren’t reading the issues, just looking at the pictures.

  15. HULK HATE CRAPPY ENCYCLO…ENCYCLOP…ENCLYCLO…BOOK. HULK WILL SMASH PUNY MARVEL! HULK WILL SMASH PUNY KIEFER!

    MARVEL WILL GET A NEW WRITER FOR HULK…OR HULK WILL SMASH!!!!

  16. Heh… the really stupid thing is that I think PAD is mentioned MORE in the X-Men encyclopedia than he is in the one for Hulk. In that they do a whole two pages on X-Factor.

  17. Chris. Please re-read my comment. I specifically stated that I knew appreciation of an artist’s style was perforce highly subjective. You like Buscema? Great. I don’t. I far preferred Byrne’s rendition. As for your comment about today’s comic artists, well, that’s another reason why I don’t buy them today. Although, if I did … I admit I do like John Romita Jr’s work on JMS’ SPIDERMAN. A friend lends me his copies and I admit it’s looking to be a solid strip.

  18. I’ll only say that most of the Hulk issues and features and elements were built on the stuff that Bill Mantlo wrote. Peter David spent 12 years fleshing out various ideas. Sal Buscema was an important and effective penciller. Len Wein was utlilitarian and introduced Wolverine.

    And the guy who spent two comparatively measily years making a less-than-three-hour film gets a greater total dedication of pages than all of these guys?

    And to be totally frank more media exposure has been dedicated to and derived from the Hulk written by Mantlo than to any incarnation afterwards or prior. All of those cartoons, mugs, cups, and “Hulk Rage Cages” owe their existence to that Hulk far more than any scant material will be derived from this one monster movie.

    I’m also annoyed that everything I’ve seen or heard about any of the prior Marvel Encylopedias suggests that these publications aren’t in an encylopedia format. I would enjoy an actual Marvel encyclopedia series like The Great Superman Book published in the seventies. Instead we get a bunch of thin, mislabeled, ‘Who’s Who Handbook’ crap in hardcover.

    Although I’m curious, how many references were there to Lou Ferrigno, Bill Bixby, or the Incredible Hulk television series?

  19. Although I’m curious, how many references were there to Lou Ferrigno, Bill Bixby, or the Incredible Hulk television series?

    Okay, since you asked:

    Number of pages where Lou Ferrigno is mentioned: 18

    Bill Bixby: 13

    Incredible Hulk TV show: 5

    PAD

  20. Wow. I take a few weeks off the chat rooms and look what happens! I cannot believe this lunacy. My indoctrination into the PAD Hulk was much like Robs. I was getting my bass set up, and the music store I was in also sold comics. Is asked the guitar tech if he read any, and he said the Hulk. I had been out of the comic loop since 1982 (for what I think should be obvious reasons), and I had to laugh at the tech. Then I went into the comic section and grabbed a few issues. This was the “Mr. Fixit” era. I was totally blown away. As a kid, I was way more into the artist of a book that the writer. Here was a book that didn’t have especially great art; but Oh My God the stories were amazing! I immediately picked up the PAD back issues, and I was even more surprised to see he picked up at the end of the assinine Byrne run that Al milgrom tried to fix. (To be fair, I did like Byrne’s Annual 7, and marrying Bruce & Betty).

    Peter, you brought me back to the place I was when I was a kid, anxiously waiting to get the next issue. You got me collecting comics again. And your run brought in the best art talent the book has ever seen; McFarland, Keown, Gary Frank,

    Liam Sharp, and Adam Kubert, just to name a few. Anyway, regardless of what Marvel’s problems with you are, I thank you for thinking more about satisfying me the reader than them the employer during your 12 years on the strip, as well as your work prior to and after it.

    dAN

  22. Yes, my friends, MARVEL chiefs had entered in a dark age of pettiness, ignorance and ingratitude!…
    I believe it

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