| Russ Allbery > FAQs and Documentation |
Maintained by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>
Original by Jeff McCoskey
Last modified March 2, 2024
If you're reading this on Usenet, this FAQ is formatted as a minimal digest. If your newsreader has digest handling capabilities you can use them to navigate between sections. In rn variants, you can use Ctrl-G to skip to the next section; in Gnus, press Ctrl-D to break each section into a separate article. For other newsreaders, see the documentation.
The latest version of this FAQ is available on the web at:
Please send any comments, suggestions, or updates to eagle@eyrie.org.
Welcome to rec.arts.comics.creative!
1.1. What is RACC for?
1.2. What isn't RACC for?
1.3. What is the RACC official charter?
1.4. Where are the stories about Wolverine(tm)?
1.5. Where are the old stories?
1.6. How can I read RACC via e-mail?
Writing for RACC (How do I get involved?)
2.1. Cool! Okay, how do I post?
2.2. Format! I'm nothing without format!
2.3. How 'bout them imprints? What's up with that?
2.4. How do I archive my stories for posterity?
2.5. What do copyright laws I pay taxes for do for me?
Welcome to rec.arts.comics.creative, the newsgroup which could have been named rec.prose.shared-universe but wasn't, the newsgroup which has, to date, produced well over 30MB of entirely free original fiction (and that's compressed!), the newsgroup which has nearly nothing to do with your favorite comic books at all!
You're about to go insane. Don't worry, it's fun.
rec.arts.comics.creative (henceforth RACC) is a moderated newsgroup for comics-related original fiction and discussion of same, originally created unmoderated by Martin Phipps and a cast of thousands (well, dozens at least) and later converted to moderated to keep out the spam. Don't worry, even though it's a moderated group, it's still friendly, chatty, and not at all formal, and we go out of our way to keep it that way.
The first group of this sort on the Internet was the Superguy mailing list, which is still in operation to this day (you'll see posts from it on this group from time to time). Later, the Legion of Net.Heroes (LNH) sprung out of a free-form thread on rec.arts.comics and spawned another newsgroup (alt.comics.lnh). They were quickly followed by a wide variety of other comics-based shared universes, including the Patrol, the Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade, and Omega. All of these organizations, in parallel, gathered together authors in shared universes and strongly influenced the nature of RACC.
First and foremost, RACC is a site for people to post comics-related fiction. Stories about long-underwear vigilantes, anthropomorphic animals, SF, westerns, even Kleen Teens if anyone is so moved. As long as it relates to comics it's okay. So whether you're a reader, a writer, or that fabled creature the critic, or even all three -- welcome to RACC: it's all the story, none of the art! (yet)
For the official charter, see section 1.3. Here's the long, readable version.
One term that you'll see a lot is "shared universe." This is a shared story background, co-created by multiple authors and used as the "universe" in which multiple different stories are set. This is a trademark characteristic of most comic books (seen in its clearest form in the ubiquitous crossover, a story written by multiple authors at once and involving multiple characters who all have their own stories), as well as appearing in some other published fiction (such as Wild Cards, or Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars). Most (but not all) of the stories posted here take place in one of the established shared universes (there's a list later on in this FAQ), to the point where this style of writing is nearly characteristic of the group.
Another term you'll see is "comics-related." Nearly all of the authors writing here drew their original (if not primary) inspiration from comic books. As a result, nearly all of the stories are on-going (published a chapter at a time), divided up into "issues" and given numbers, and organized into "imprints." Many people also describe covers or design ASCII graphic logos.
There is no restriction on types of fiction. (That'd kinda take the creative out of RACC, wouldn't it?) You'll see stories run the gamut from slapstick comedy to grim'n'gritty Real Life Supers (TM). As long as it's about comics, set your pen free. (You'll see a lot of superhero fiction, but that just means that those of us who like reading other things as well are anxiously awaiting your non-superhero stories.)
RACC is also for discussion of stories, both specific ones and in general. The critic and reader is one of the most sought-after types of people around here; if you give us feedback on our stories, good or bad, we'll love you forever.
Finally, if you want to announce your free web strip here, we welcome those posts too. If you're trying to sell it, though, please try rec.arts.comics.marketplace or rec.arts.comics.strips instead. (And rec.arts.comics.strips may be a better group in general, as RACC readers are mostly interested in text fiction.)
A lot of things. We're not for wars of attrition, Third World starvation, 45 mph speed limits, and brussel sprout toothpaste. Closer to home, RACC is not for any of the following:
Discussion of existing, "professional" books (except as they relate to our fiction)
Marketplace-type I-wanna-buy/I-wanna-sell postings
Flames and personality conflicts. Critiques, yes. Flames, no.
Fiction about established, trademarked characters and universes, unless you created them or have written permission.
Erotica, no matter how much spandex you put in. There are other groups for that.
This newsgroup welcomes any form of comics-related original fiction and discussion of the same, including but not limited to stories in the many established shared universes. Discussion of on-line fiction as a whole is also welcome provided that it is related to the stories on the newsgroup. If they choose to write in an existing shared universe, writers are strongly encouranged to follow the existing continuity and rules of that universe. "Comics-related" will be interpreted very broadly, as has been traditional on the newsgroup.
Each posting to rec.arts.comics.creative should include a keyword on the subject line either designating which shared universe the posting refers to or marking the general subject of the post (ADMIN, META, MISC, etc.). If a submitted post does not have a keyword, the moderator will add an appropriate keyword, but posters are encouraged to add keywords themselves to save moderation work.
Large binaries, such as artwork, will not be allowed on the newsgroup. Instead, binaries can be made available in the newsgroup archive (subject to the discretion of the archivist) and a pointer posted to the newsgroup. Pointers to Web pages are also welcome, provided the content of the page is related to the purpose of the group.
Stories using copyrighted or trademarked characters are explicitly not within the charter of this group and may be rejected unless the author owns the copyrights and trademarks or has written permission from the owner. Networking posts (artists seeking writers or writers seeking artists) are inappropriate in this group and should be sent to appropriate mailing lists or other groups in the rec.arts.comics.* hierarchy (rec.arts.comics.misc if there is no other more appropriate group).
This is very important, so I'm going to yell it. RACC IS NOT THE PLACE FOR FICTION ABOUT ESTABLISHED, TRADEMARKED CHARACTERS. This includes all Marvel, Image, DC, what-have-you characters. RACC's charter expressly FORBIDS such fiction.
The reason for this is the ongoing legislative battles about intellectual property and the Net. rec.* groups are picked up worldwide, and sysadmins do not want to draw lawsuits because someone wrote a story that violated trademark laws. Note that fanfic stories may or may not be lawful and/or prosecutable, WE JUST DON'T KNOW. They're still writing the laws.
To forestall any confusion or debates, and to protect sysadmins from inadvertently becoming the test case, this provision was adopted as a key requirement for RACC's creation. If you really must write about existing, trademarked characters, there is alt.comics.fan-fiction waiting to receive you. alt.* groups get picked up by sysadmins voluntarily, so they presumedly know what risks they're taking.
Nothing will draw this group's ire faster than violating this requirement.
Thanks to the tireless efforts and bottomless disk space of Russ Allbery, all stories posted to rec.arts.comics.creative are archived! This means stories will be preserved for future generations of readers, providing a link to the past. It is difficult to over-praise this contribution.
(Note: Lest you think I would be so crass as to praise myself, I want to make sure you know that Jeff wrote that last paragraph. 'course, I didn't delete it either.)
Older stories are sorted by universe and series and are available at:
All of the stories are compressed using gzip, but most browsers can automatically decompress them for you. This archive unfortunately hasn't been updated recently, but it does have all of the older stories.
Every message to rec.arts.comics.creative, story or not, is archived at:
in the form of a more traditional mailing list archive, so you can also look there if a story hasn't been saved in the story archive. This is the best way to find anything posted in the last few years. You can search the archive by prepending "site:lists.eyrie.org" to a regular Google search.
Please note that stories will be removed from both the list archive and the story archive at the author's request if the author wants to take them down. This has happened in the past, sometimes because the author wanted to sell the stories to a professional venue.
Everything that shows up in RACC also shows up in its associated mailing list (and vice versa), so if you want to be sure not to miss anything, or if you just prefer e-mail to Usenet, you can subscribe to that mailing list.
To do that, go to:
and fill out the form to subscribe. Alternately, you can subscribe via e-mail by sending mail to racc-request@lists.eyrie.org with the word:
subscribe
in the subject of the message. You then can read and reply to posts just as if the newsgroup were a mailing list. It's all the same to us.
Write a story. Post it. You're involved.
This assumes you want to create your own universe to write in. If you want to join a pre-existing shared universe, it's a little more involved.
Many of the imprints have FAQs of their own (OMEGA, Superguy, LNH, Crossroads to name a few). These get posted periodically. The first thing you should do is read these documents to get a feel for what these specific universes are like.
The next thing you should do is _read_ the universe in question. This includes tapping the archives for back issues. No one would suggest you read the entire Superguy or LNH archives before writing, but definitely try to sample a large cross-section.
Lastly, email some of the creators you see writing under a specific imprint. They will be able to tell you if your concept fits with their universe or not, and perhaps refer you to a more appropriate universe if necessary.
THEN write a story and post it.
RACC is a moderated newsgroup, which means that every post goes to the moderators first. If your site correctly has the group marked as moderated, you should be able to post just like you post to any other group and your news server will take care of the rest. If you have a Unix shell account, you can check if the group is correctly marked as moderated by typing:
nntplist active | grep rec.arts.comics.creative
If the last character on the resulting line is an "m," congratulations, you have a good news administrator. If it's a "y," send mail to your local computing support people and ask them to convert the group to moderated like it should be.
If you don't have a Unix shell account, some newsreaders will also tell you if the group is moderated.
If, for any reason, you have trouble posting or your site doesn't have the group marked as moderated, you can mail your post to racc@eyrie.org instead and it will be posted for you.
Because the group is moderated, it can be up to a day after you post before your article is actually posted, and it can take a few more days for the article to propagate back to you. So don't be surprised if it doesn't show up right away.
Formatting is pretty loose. Since this is a comics newsgroup, you will hear people refer to their stories as "issues." Postings tend to run in numerical order just like comic books, and many people write continuing series. For example there are 25 "issues" in Drizzt's _Continuity Champ and the Drizzt's Defenders_ series.
Stories don't have to be series though. One-shots, mini-series, maxi-series, crossovers -- all of these have been done before and will be done again.
The subjects of postings should follow the convention of naming the imprint the title and the number. For example:
LNH: System Corruptors #15, The Bard's Tale
imprint --^ ^ ^ ^
title --------------| | |
number -------------------------| |
subtitle/comment/etc [optional] -------|
Since the archive mechanism relies heavily on this format (not to mention the format-accustomed eyes of this group's readers), please follow this strictly, including the use of the #-sign. Subtitles, alternate titles, and title comments should follow the number if they are used at all. If you want to, you can use [TAG] instead of TAG: at the beginning of the subject; it's all the same to the archiver. (TAG: causes a few fewer problems than [TAG] with Google Groups.)
Occasionally, instead of (or in addition to) a number you will see "TEB." This stands for "Trade EtherBack." It means the posting is actually a collection of previously posted issues -- usually cleaned up and relating to a single story arc.
Inside your story do what you will. Some folks run fake ads, others use cheesy ASCII graphics, some just use text. A word of advice: On older/more primitive newsreaders your text is MUCH easier to read if you space between paragraphs. On the other hand, some newer newsreader readers find the spaces jarring. The moral? You can't please all the people all the time. In general spaces seem to be more preferred.
In order to accommodate a near-infinite number of different potential universes, RACC has adopted the reasonable convention of flagging fiction. This allows uninterested parties to skip some genres, and others to quickly find their niches of interest. The flag goes before the title of story issues, related FAQs or universe-specific discussions. Many flags refer to existing shared-universes. New ones will come up all the time. For the current list, see section 5 of this FAQ.
Once you pick an imprint name, stick with it. The Archive and your legion of new fans will both be happier if you don't make marketing name changes.
Regardless of flags all SEXUALLY EXPLICIT or PROFANITY-RICH stories should have huge warning labels at the beginning of text. Last thing we need is a Florida DA bringing us all up on charges. ;] Besides, it's only common courtesy. Note that if a story could reasonably be posted on alt.sex.stories, you've probably strayed a bit far from this group's interests.
Some sort of flag, either an imprint name or a more general tag, is required on all posts and one will be added by the moderator if you don't provide one. Leaving one off requires the moderator to edit your post, though, which takes time and means your post will be delayed. So please save them the trouble and remember to add the tag yourself.
Good news! It's already being done for you! (Or at least it will be if Russ ever catches up with the archiving.)
In theory, every story posted to rec.arts.comics.creative is archived at <https://archives.eyrie.org/racc/>. Most imprints have their own directories, with the stories stored in directories under that (depending on the size of the imprint, the directories could be very structured or just one directory for each series). Some imprints may be collected in the misc directory.
Unfortunately, this archive is substantially out of date. Russ hopes to eventually find time to update it.
The exception is Superguy, which has its own archiving mechanism. The Superguy archives are at <https://archives.eyrie.org/superguy/>, but one of the best ways to access them is through the Autocollector at:
I don't even play a lawyer on TV, but there are some things you should know about Copyright laws.
Anything you write is copyrighted immediately, whether you flag it with a copyright notice or not. Furthermore, the copyright protection is international under the Berne Copyright Convention, which has been signed by nearly every country with access to Usenet.
If you label your text as copyrighted, it preempts a possible "unintentional infringement" defense from plagarizers. The copyright notice is considered legal notice that you intend to retain your rights. The legal format for such a notice requires three things: Your name, the year, and one or more of the following: "Copyright," "Copr.," and/or the c-in-circle symbol. Note that there is no firm legal precedence for (C) or (c) as having any special copyright meaning. Example notice:
Copyright 1994 Jeff J McCoskey
The only way to get full legal protection (at least in the United States) is to register your work with the government (forms are free, filing fees apply). This guarantees an archived, dated copy should future legal action be necessary. Other forms of dating, like mailing yourself a copy or archiving (to get a date stamp), are of dubious and unproven legal value.
An excellent resource for Copyright information is misc.legal, where a FAQ is posted monthly.
Another excellent resource is the U.S. Copyright Office home page at:
As a rule of thumb, everything you've heard elsewhere about good netiquette applies here. We hate spammers (more in a minute), expect smilies when joking (except in stories of course), and in general expect you to conduct yourselves as good net.citizens. There are three things you need to know after you've mastered Basic Netiquette:
The only times flames are accepted on RACC are when they are both morally defensible and amusing. Flames are not welcome if they do not meet the above criteria. Here on RACC there is one organization that acts as moral compass for acceptable flames: the Order of St. Doomas.
The Order has defined one activity that is worthy of flame: spamming. One member of the Order (usually the first to his/her keyboard) will have the honors. Repetitive flaming by multiple members is frowned upon by the Order.
To join this righteous crusade, all you need do is select a net.persona and flame. Incorrect flaming (i.e. at non-sanctioned targets, or with unamusing effect) will result in ostracization and excommunication. Watch the Order in action before joining and all will be clear.
Now that the group has been moderated, most opportunities for flames are gone. But watch carefully; new ones may arise.
Reviews of stories (even negative ones) are one of the most sought-after commodities on RACC. You will instantly win friends and influence people if you post reviews. But especially in the case of negative reviews, ensure you confine your review to the story and not the writer. Keep in mind as you write "that SUCKS" that someone worked long and hard on the text. They might want to know what worked and what didn't in their narrative but it's doubtful they want to hear how clever you can be in ripping them up.
It's certain the rest of us don't.
One of the best features of a shared universe is the opportunity to have your characters interact with others in that universe. This is a privilege, not a right. All characters on RACC (and their distinctive text-likenesses) are the full and exclusive property of their creators. This is not as dogmatic as it sounds, and we're all adults (or pretending to be). Cameos (non-speaking/non-plot affecting roles) do not typically require permission unless the creator desires it. Speaking roles should be previewed through email and approved by the creator before being posted.
These are terms you will see come up on RACC that have special meaning here. (For general net.terms and abbreviations, see the META RAC FAQ.)
Acraphobe RACC's version of adult warning label. Yes, with an "a."
Don't ask.
Arc A multi-issue storyline.
Archive ftp.eyrie.org, where nearly ALL the back issues live.
Crossover A storyline that involves several titles and/or authors. Also
the bane of all mankind.
Elsewhirls An imaginary story. (Yeah yeah, we know they're ALL
imaginary. How about "out-of-continuity"?)
Fanfiction Fiction about established, trademarked universes and
or fanfic characters that the author did not create -- in short, the
sort of stories RACC *wasn't* designed for. There's a good
list of newsgroups at the end of this FAQ that should help in
finding a better group if this is what you want to write.
Imprint The shared universe your story takes place in or subject your
posting relates to (we have many to chose from). This is
usually an all-caps prefix on the title of the posting.
LNH The Legion of Net.Heroes. The immediate father of this group
and the oldest of the Usenet-based writing universes (see
Superguy).
RAC* The rec.arts.comics.* hierarchy of newsgroups.
RACC rec.arts.comics.creative. You're soaking in it!
rACCIES The annual RACC fanfiction awards, as voted on by the readers or RACCies of this newsgroup.
Repost Story has been posted before, natch.
Superguy A mailing list that predates all other Internet comics-fiction
forums. There is a good-natured rivalry between the LNH and
this group.
TEB Trade EtherBack. This is a collection of previously posted
material, usually cleaned up and relating to a single story
arc.
Title A numerically increasing, continuing series. Usually
involving one character, cast, city, or unifying concept.
Here are some of the tags that you may see. This is not a complete list; people can, and do, start new tags any time they start a new writing imprint or comic series. However, if a tag from this list matches the topic of your post, it's usually best to stick with that tag for consistency.
If you see a need for a new tag, send mail to the FAQ maintainer so that it can be added.
First, the general tags:
ADMIN Administrative matters affecting everyone on RACC.
FAQ FAQs of note for the entire RAC* hierarchy. These will tend
to be crossposted here.
META Discussion about the newsgroup itself. This includes
or CHAT everything from general discussion of on-line fiction and RACC
in particular to recommendations on how long posts should be.
PRECOG Announcements of upcoming series, planned stories, and the or PROMO like.
WWW Announcement of a web page related to RACC or a free strip.
Now, all of the writing imprints. Note that new ones of these pop up all the time. Entries marked with (*) are in danger of being retired due to lack of activity. If you have any changes, please mail eagle@eyrie.org.
8FOLD A closed universe that encompasses serious superheroes, comedy,
memoir, and just about anything else: high-quality fiction of
any stripe is welcome.
ACRAPHOBE Mature stories that may or may not fit into other universes'
or ACRA continuity. Using this flag in conjunction with another is
not unheard of. (For example, Scav's _501 Blues_ is
LNH/ACRAPHOBE.) Think a meta-Vertigo.
ASH Academy of Super-Heroes. Dave Van Domelen's RPG-based future-
history stories. See <https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH>.
ELSEWHIRLS LNH stories that do not fit into LNH continuity. Think DC's or EW Elseworlds.
HCC The High Concept Challenge, a continuous series of writing
contests. Each round, the winner, chosen by reader vote, gets
to pick the next round's concept.
LNH Legion of Net.Heroes, "The Friendliest Shared Universe
Going!(TM)" A mostly parody universe, though it does have its
serious side.
LNH20 On the LNH's 20th anniversary, a group of writers took it upon
themselves to create a new world, based in everything they
loved about the LNH, in the best spirit of comic book reboots!
LNH20 is just as friendly as the original, but easier to get
into! Hop right in, the adventure's fine!
LNHY An Imprint involving an alternate LNH universe called
Looniverse Y. The big difference between this and the Classic
LNH is that writers are allowed to have only one character of
theirs in this Looniverse's LNH.
NTB Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade. A bunch of Vertigo-like characters
that own stock in London Fog. Not tremendously active, but
they do have a considerable history. Implied Acraphobe.
OMEGA A serious psi-based shared super-world and once upon a time
RACC's third largest universe, now inactive. Created by the
legendary Matt Rossi.
OSD The Order of Saint Doomas. Items relating to RACC's anti-spam
cult. (See Section 3 above.) No posts have been seen from
this imprint in quite some time, but that doesn't mean they're
gone....
RACCCafe A continuity-free outpust where RACC characters can unwind
after a hard day of being mangled by their writers. Anything
can happen, as long as it's funny, and there are no
consequences!
SG Superguy. From Space Moose to the Bomb. Comedy superhero
writing with a far different background than LNH. Note that
only a small slice of Superguy stuff appears here; to see the
rest, go to <https://lists.eyrie.org/mailman/listinfo/superguy>.
SLIME A simple slice-of-life story focused on a group of slimes and
their friends. Main story told through daily comics.
STARFALL Lightly serious and seriously light superheroics, and better
because of it. ;)
SW10 SW stands for Superhuman World. 10 is an annual tag. The
comic has proceeded to 2011, but the tag has frozen at 2010
because that's when the series really interacted with RACC.
Scott Eiler has written the story of this universe since
before 1991, but 1991 is when the modern heroes of this series
start. His sources include adolescent male power fantasy,
superhero role-playing, comic-book satire, and dreams. See
<http://www.eilertech.com/stories/>.
MISC Stories not in the above categories or in their own universes
(authors are encouraged to make up their own headers as well).
To limit the number of imprints, and to keep this FAQ to
reasonable lengths, let's adopt this convention: One-shot
stories or series should use the MISC flag. Series that set
up shared universes should create their own, new imprint.
The major header contacts are listed below, who will be glad to answer email question. Also keep your eyes peeled for FAQs specific to particular imprints. The FAQs are also often in the archive in a directory named "FAQs" under the imprint directory.
Imprint Contact Email ------------ -------------------- --------------------------------- 8FOLD Jamie Rosen jamie.rosen@sunlife.com 8FOLD Tom Russell joltcity@gmail.com + ASH Dave Van Domelen dvandom@eyrie.org + LNH Andrew Perron pwerdna@gmail.com LNH20 Andrew Perron pwerdna@gmail.com + LNHY Arthur Spitzer arspitzer@earthlink.net + NTB Arthur Spitzer arspitzer@earthlink.net + RACChallenge Sean MacDonald mcdonald@vorteb.math.uab.edu + StarFall Ted Brock phantom_belcher@yahoo.com + Superguy Eric Burns eaburns@annotations.com SW10 Scott Eiler seiler@eilertech.com
The Archive Russ Allbery eagle@eyrie.org Moderation RACC Moderation Team racc-request@eyrie.org
+ indicates separate FAQs are available for these imprints.
If you need to contact the moderator directly, the contact information is:
Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>
If none of the above people help, or your questions are too general or specific, just email anyone you see posting here that seems to know what they're doing. (WARNING: This is rarely the case.)
| Russ Allbery > FAQs and Documentation |