Essential Superman Encyclopedia

Author, editor, and Westfield columnist Bob Greenberger has worked on such books as the Hellboy II: The Golden Army adaptation, Predator: Flesh & Blood (with Michael Jan Friedman), the Essential Batman Encyclopedia, and Wonder Woman: Amazon, Hero, Icon. This month, he and co-author Martin Pasko bring us the Essential Superman Encyclopedia. Westfield’s Roger Ash recently contacted Bob to learn more about this book.

Westfield: What can you tell us about the Essential Superman Encyclopedia?

Bob Greenberger: Many people see the current series of Essential Encyclopedias to be merely updates of the Michael Fleisher encyclopedias from the 1970s. Nothing could be further from the truth. As wonderful as those books were back in the day, they were many years out of date by the time the books saw print. Additionally, Michael made certain decisions which narrowed the scope of the books, virtually ignoring satellite titles such as Superboy, Adventure Comics, etc. and avoiding any discussion of the multiverse.

These three books started off as fresh concepts and having worked on two of the three can take some pride in saying I helped set the tone and approach for them. These current volumes include all appearances in the canonical publications from first appearance and going forward. In the case of this book, we take into account Superman, Action Comics, More Fun Comics, Adventure Comics, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl and so on. We make it clear which events are in which incarnation of Earth and trace where things diverge and go off on their own.

From Abdul to Zynthia, we cover the people, places, and things that are a part of Superman’s world. We annotate our sources so Marty and I cannot be accused of making this stuff up (although Marty did write many of the stories referenced within).

The book is also lavishly illustrated and a tip of the hat to our editor, Chris Cerasi, for tirelessly researching materials. Additionally, when Chris got stumped, we turned to ace researcher (and Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia coauthor) John Wells, who used his vast resources to conjure up hundreds of additional images. All your favorite artists, and many forgotten ones, will be represented.

Westfield: Superman is a well known character. Did you learn anything that surprised you while researching the book?

Greenberger: We all know those early Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster stories where Superman was a force for social justice and of course adore the Mort Weisinger-era when the mythos really exploded. In between, though, are a softer, gentler Man of Steel who, apart from Lex Luthor, had to deal mainly with con men, common crooks, wayward professors and misunderstood aliens. There’s a good decade of stories that are fun and accessible to all ages that rarely saw Superman requiring the full array of his vast powers.

Beyond that, the common questions such as “Does Earth need a Superman?” and the sense of loss felt by the Last Son of Krypton is a recurring theme that is fascinating to see explored by different generations of creators.

Westfield: You’re working with Martin Pasko on the book. How did the two of you collaborate?

Greenberger: Marty began his researching and writing shortly after I got started on Essential Batman Encyclopedia but then took time to pen the wonderful DC Vault among other projects so suddenly found himself confronted by the one thing even Superman couldn’t prevent – the Dreaded Deadline Doom. It was decided that he would continue to do his fabulous wordsmithing on A-I while I tackled the balance of the alphabet. While I wrote thousands of words, his elegance will be missed in my half of the volume. Marty and I compared research when things overlapped and made certain we were aware of how the other was approaching common events  such as the first Crisis on Infinite Earths or even the vexing Pocket Universe reality. We then saw one another’s edited manuscript. But after that, Marty was needed on another project so I wound up completing the proofreading and updating. The nice thing is the DelRey deadlines were adjusted so we could bring events current with the end of May’s War of the Superman storyline, essentially bringing the status quo current to the beginning of the J. Michael Straczynski era in July.

Westfield: You’re also writing Batman: The Brave & the Bold #20. Anything you’d like to say about that?

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Greenberger: Buy it! I adore the show and when Michael Siglain expressed a willingness to have me, a relatively inexperienced comic book writer, pitch a story I jumped at the chance. Seeing who else had been used to date, I glommed on to Mister Miracle and Big Barda and the subtext here is that they have everything in a relationship Batman denies himself. Seeing them together gives him pause. Of course, the main effort is to keep the Female Furies from killing him! It was tremendous fun to write.

Westfield: Are there any other projects you’re working on that you’d like to mention?

Greenberger: We’re in a wonderfully collaborative field so just as John Wells helps me with research and I helped Marty on this book, I wound up coming to Peter David’s assistance on the forthcoming Spider-Man Vault which proved an interesting bit of research. Beyond that, there are various and sundry pitches out in the ozone while I await getting back to work on the somewhat stalled Who’s Who.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Greenberger: Nah, I just hope those who choose to buy the Encyclopedia find it a worthwhile reference tool.