Artist Nicknames

[Adam Sternberg]

Apologies if this has been brought up before and I missed it:  what's the policy on artists and their nicknames?  I've seen a lot of nicknames used in artist credits that I've been correcting when I see them (keeping the nickname in the item description), but I don't want to waste time (mine or the editors) if that's not the policy.  For example, correcting Lesley "Leirix" Li to be Lesley Li  and making sure the credits read Cover by Lesley "Leirix" Li.

Can someone provide some guidance?  Should I keep making these corrections?

 

Thanks.

[Randall J. Paske]

I'd like to see more guidance on this, too. I think artists' real names have been preferred over pseudonyms in ComicBase in the past, but that policy may have evolved. I also know that work has been done recently to standardize names in the creator fields to include characters like é and ñ.

But I'm not sure how much standardization has been done for other naming quirks. Many artists use pseudonyms and different forms of their names at different points in their careers. Maika Sozo is sometimes credited that way, but other times as Sozomaika. The artist whose real name is Danai Kilaidoni has been credited variously as Dani K, Dani Strips, DaNi, and Dani. The real name of Disney cartoonist Vicar is Víctor José Arriagada Ríos. Jackson Guice and Butch Guice are the same person. Chynna Clugston Flores was credited as Chynna Clugston-Major during her first marriage, and I think I've also seen just Chynna Clugston. The artist known as Jok is not the artist known as Jock. There's Stanley Lau, Artgerm, and Stanley "Artgerm" Lau. The artist Justine Frany is more often credited as simply Frany, especially lately, but it isn't like her first name is a secret. I think the correct style for InHyuk Lee is just that, but I see In-Hyuk Lee (with hyphen) all the time in ComicBase.

Those are just a few quick examples; there are plenty more (like Lesley Li, Leirix, Leirix Li, Lesley "Leirix" Li...). Sometimes I'm not sure how to handle these naming differences, and it would be nice to have a reference that included the preferred form in ComicBase as well as the pseudonyms and variations. Of course, that means dealing with thousands of names and variants thereof, so it may not be feasible. Ideally the credits in the comics would be consistent, but in reality they're not.

[Fred Slota]

Dealing with names is something that is being worked on.  With the recent addition of a full unicode(?) alphabet, so ability to use many foreign alphabets, diacriticals, etc, they've been working on standardizing spelling, accenting and various other multiple naming.  I'm not sure if the final form is to have a in-program list of aliases backing up a single, definitive form of a name, or if that is something to be cleaned up in the mothership's editorial.

 

Feedback is a good thing.  Ideas is a good thing.

[Gregory Hecht]

There have been recent discussions about standardizing creator names in such a way that all of a particular creators' works are returned from a search of the database but also somehow indicating when a pseudonym has been used.  I am guessing that nicknames won't be included (Smilin' Stan Lee would be just Stan Lee and Jack "King" Kirby would be just Jack Kirby)... but that is just a guess on my part.  

[Mark J. Castaneda]

On 8/4/2023 at 7:32 PM, Adam Sternberg said:

Apologies if this has been brought up before and I missed it:  what's the policy on artists and their nicknames?  I've seen a lot of nicknames used in artist credits that I've been correcting when I see them (keeping the nickname in the item description), but I don't want to waste time (mine or the editors) if that's not the policy.  For example, correcting Lesley "Leirix" Li to be Lesley Li  and making sure the credits read Cover by Lesley "Leirix" Li.

Can someone provide some guidance?  Should I keep making these corrections?

 

Thanks.

In the case of this creator, the name is listed so many ways it gets confusing. We've decided to list her as Lesley “Leirix” Li

[Mark J. Castaneda]

On 8/5/2023 at 3:48 PM, Gregory Hecht said:

There have been recent discussions about standardizing creator names in such a way that all of a particular creators' works are returned from a search of the database but also somehow indicating when a pseudonym has been used.  I am guessing that nicknames won't be included (Smilin' Stan Lee would be just Stan Lee and Jack "King" Kirby would be just Jack Kirby)... but that is just a guess on my part.  

the question we ask initial is what is the most common name people know them as. With these 2, its just Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

[Adam Sternberg]

On 8/7/2023 at 12:46 PM, Mark J. Castaneda said:

In the case of this creator, the name is listed so many ways it gets confusing. We've decided to list her as Lesley “Leirix” Li

If it's not already too late, I'd really love to standardize on <first name> <last name> and put any nicknames in the item description (if appropriate), but I defer to the editors' decisions.

[Margaret Walsh]

On 8/5/2023 at 1:35 AM, Fred Slota said:

Dealing with names is something that is being worked on.  With the recent addition of a full unicode(?) alphabet, so ability to use many foreign alphabets, diacriticals, etc, they've been working on standardizing spelling, accenting and various other multiple naming.  I'm not sure if the final form is to have a in-program list of aliases backing up a single, definitive form of a name, or if that is something to be cleaned up in the mothership's editorial.

 

Feedback is a good thing.  Ideas is a good thing.

Another example that comes to mind is Dennis Hopeless.  He decided to use Dennis Hallum for Sea of Stars, a creator-owned series at Image.  In the CB Writers Search, he comes up as Dennis Hopeless (599 entries), Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum (86 entries of which Sea of Stars shows up), and Dennis Hallum (19 entries).  I think this is also a good example of needing to merge a creator's lists together.  And the suggestion above is a good one to list aliases for a creator so that no matter how one searches, you find everything by that creator.

Related to this, I'm glad there's been a cleanup of names to make sure they're correct.  That's been one of my frustrations trying to find someone's full list when there's misspellings, etc.

[Margaret Walsh]

On 8/16/2023 at 9:14 PM, Adam Sternberg said:

If it's not already too late, I'd really love to standardize on <first name> <last name> and put any nicknames in the item description (if appropriate), but I defer to the editors' decisions.

When you say <first name> do you mean a person's given name?  And <last name> do you mean their family name?  But what about those creators who have their family name first?  In some countries, that's how it's done vs the family name last.

[Adam Sternberg]

15 hours ago, Margaret Walsh said:

When you say <first name> do you mean a person's given name?  And <last name> do you mean their family name?  But what about those creators who have their family name first?  In some countries, that's how it's done vs the family name last.

Whichever is appropriate.  Honestly, I didn't put that much thought into it.  <Given name> <Family name> is the format for most of the creators in the database, but there's nothing stopping the reverse order if that's what's called for.

All that being said, I'm fine with whatever the editors decide (it may not be my preferred solution, but that doesn't make it wrong).