ENCYCLOPEDIAS

THE DC COMICS ENCYCLOPEDIA: Originally published in 2003 by DK Publishing this super handy guide to all things DC is a great reference for old and new fans alike, it has amazing illustrations and data on every DC character from A-Z. Now the cover (above-left) is just amazing it features the DC heroes and villains posing for a company photo which is kind of funny to have The Joker in a picture between Batman and Wonder Woman. And even though the poses make some of the characters look a bit stiff, it is breathtaking nonetheless. In 2008, the publisher reissued this encyclopedia with new and expanded information and along with it came a new Alex Ross cover which you can see on the right. In this case, the heroes and villains have a more natural "fighting pose" and the blue hues make the characters look more natural, it's a big improvement over the previous one. I guess, they decided to update and expand all the book, even the cover. Check out the full wraparound covers below in high resolution.


THE MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA: Marvel decided to update their Marvel Universe handbook in 2002 and came up with this encyclopedia also published by DK. Now this one was called volume one, others followed but none with Alex's art. This volume features a very simple looking cover of an angry Hulk and a swinging Spider-Man but in reality, the cover features lots of Marvel characters in one of those George Perez-esque covers, Alex is so fond of doing, which you can see below. Now this cover looks awesome, there's a lot of action to it, but I'm not very fond of the color palette Mr. Ross uses on this one, it uses too much magenta-neon colors which make a few characters look weird, like Wolverine and Doctor Doom across the top of the art.



IN MY COLLECTION: None of these books are part of it, but I do have a poster of the cover of the Marvel Encyclopedia.