Okay. You've tried ALL the above. You've gone through every site on the 
net. You've even created your own, just to say you searched it. You've 
posted your question to racmx, even, and you didn't get an answer 
(well, actually, that isn't too surprising). What Can You Do?

You can do the last resort: emailing friendly netters! The following is 
a list of racmxers who have, out of the goodness of their hearts, agreed 
to be accessible net.help on any of the following topics. Please note 
that the only payment these people are receiving is the warm glow of 
seeing knowledge safely passed on, so please be polite and appreciative 
of them. If you aren't, they'll stop answering questions. And we don't 
want that.

Anyone who would like to be on this list can contact the FAQ keeper. 
Please include an area of expertise that you'd be willing to field 
questions on. And while it seems logical, please include your preferred 
email address in your summary of your talents--you'll be surprised how 
often this is forgotten. The listkeeper will tend to only put names here 
that are recognized as netters who have been around long enough to know 
that they know what they're talking about, but feel free to ask to be 
put on. This is mainly to insure that any questioning newcomers won't 
get shuffled off to some joker.

Here are the Friendly Folk, in their own (slightly edited) words:

  * Kate the Short (racmx@yahoo.com) and Aardy R. DeVarque
    (rgfdfaq@yahoo.com)

     I've been on the newsgroup since early 1993, and now keep all
     of the FAQs for the newsgroup. Aardy is my husband, and he
     has been around almost as long. He keeps the Exhaustive
     Completist's Supplemental X-Men Checklist and Annotated Index
     (that is, all appearances of X-men outside of X-titles,
     one-shots, and limited series), though it hasn't been updated in 
     a number of months.

     Our collection of X-titles is massive. We have complete runs of
     Uncanny X-Men from Giant-Size #1 to the present (and many issues 
     from the original run), New Mutants, Excalibur, Generation X, 
     X-Force, X-Factor, (New) X-Men, X-Treme X-Men, and most of the 
     current-continuity X-titles, as well as a number of one-shots and 
     limited series. We've dropped Cable, Deadpool, and Wolverine. We 
     own tons of the old "crossover" issues and and cameo appearances 
     in other titles. Aardy's best for the research while I usually 
     deal with the internet resources. 


   * Chris R. Barry, aka 23yrold3yrold (cbarry@pangea.ca)

     My love of the X-Books and characters stems from it's history, 
     so I have a huge and rapidly expanding collection going back to 
     Giant Sized X-Men #1, though I've only been reading since 1997. 
     My books of choice are Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine, Excalibur, 
     X-Force, X-Factor, Cable and Generation X. And X-Man just because. 
     In other words, the main stuff. I may not know the super-obscure, 
     but I got the mainstream history. Still gotta catch up on my New 
     Mutants back-issues, though....


   * Dwayne MacKinnon (dmk@freenet.carleton.ca)

     This man loooooooooooves Alpha Flight. Nuff Said.


   * Blair Maynard, aka Doody Family (doodymp3@esatclear.ie)

     My very own special area of expertise is obscure Wolverine guest 
     appearances in other Marvel books and a heap of Wolvie-related 
     awful one-shots and mini-series. I also have a scary interest in 
     Scott Lobdell, as I have most of his run on the x-books. Also, 
     if you have AoA questions I should be able to answer them.


   * Samy Merchi (samerc@mash.yok.utu.fi)

     I'm proficient in all X-books published from 1975 to July 1999. 
     My favorite stuff includes anything by Claremont, the X-Men's 
     Australian period, Peter David's X-Factor, Claremont's New 
     Mutants and Fabian Nicieza's X-Force. All X-books are my areas 
     of expertise, but I'm especially knowledgeable with the New 
     Mutants, X-Force and Sunspot.


   * Dan Miller (millerdan@earthlink.net)

     I *have*, readily available, several hundred issues of X-Men,
     virtually complete from about six years back through about Davis' 
     run, plus back issues.  Also, I've been on racmx for six years or 
     so and remember too much of what I've picked up. :)


   * Paul O'Brien (paul@esoterica.demon.co.uk)

     I'm a total continuity geek, me. You name it, I probably
     remember it. Unless it's something to do with the Brood, or
     early X-Factor, or the insanely convoluted pre-X-Men history
     of Wolverine. And don't even ask about Alpha Flight. Other
     than that, there's a pretty good chance I know it...



*** Continued in Part 2 ***


   Compilation Copyright 2000-2003 by Katharine E. Hahn
   SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO:  
   Kate the Short,  racmx@yahoo.com  (mailto:racmx@yahoo.com)


-- 
Kate the Short * http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/