History ShownTheirWork / Comicbooks

* In James Stokoe's comic [[{{Main/Godzilla}}]] The Half Century War, during a fight between Godzilla and Anguirus, the latter doesn't curl up into a ball like he did in Final Wars or any of the other comics, he instead turns around with his spikes pointing at his enemies and launches himself backwards. Also there's a lot of references and MythologyGags to show Stokoe is not only a huge fan of the franchise, he also did a vast amount of research. Not only that but the way he designs the environments is very accurate to the time periods they happen to be set in.
* In Godzilla Ongoing, it's mentioned by Boxer that the Endinburgh Castle is set over an extinct volcano which they [[spoilers: use to defeat Anguirus]].

* In James Stokoe's comic [[{{Main/Godzilla}}]] The Half Century War, during a fight between Godzilla and Anguirus, the latter doesn't curl up into a ball like he did in Final Wars or any of the other comics, he instead turns around with his spikes pointing at his enemies and launches himself backwards. Also there's a lot of references and MythologyGags to show Stokoe is not only a huge fan of the franchise, he also did a vast amount of research.

* Before writing the ''ComicBook/MegaMan'' comic, Ian Flynn heavily researched the series, and it shows. [[http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Chest,_Plum_and_Ripot Chest, Plum, and Ripot]] from the obscure MascotRacer ''Battle & Chase'' appear in the first issue reporting on Light's new robots, that issue's ''Short Circuits'' has a MythologyGag to both the [[WesternAnimation/MegaMan cartoon]] and the hilariously bad American box art of the first game, and Fire Man retains his Southern accent from ''MegaManPoweredUp''.

* ''YTheLastMan'' can get annoying when it Shows Its Work. Such as when characters randomly start spouting statistics about exactly how many women are involved in which professions in which parts of the world.
** Though this is probably the kind of thing lots of people would know, given the setting.

* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'': Stan Sakai likes to have an occasional story where he features various craftwork of Japan depicted in detail like swordmaking, cheating at gambling, kite making and pottery. It went even further when he devoted multiple chapters in a major arc to the legendary history of the famous sword, Kusanagi, ''before'' the eponymous hero came into the story. This devotion to proper research has earned Sakai a Parent's Choice Award for the comic for its educational value.
** He often literally does this by including a few paragraphs summarising his research on whatever was depicted in the comic in the letters section.

** A similar example exists, though not based in mythology when he did research for ''Literature/AmericanGods''. Having researched various cons for his con-artist character, he made up entirely the most overtly criminal of the cons - namely, stealing several thousand dollars from a bank. He was very surprised to find when someone actually copied the plan from the book and stole several thousand dollars from a bank.
*** [[Film/CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abagnale Jr.]] did that in RealLife decades before Gaiman put it on paper, though it's unclear if he knew about it while writing the book.
** His ''{{Marvel 1602}}'' really shows how much research he did into Marvel history, or just knew off the top of his head. For example, Nicholas Fury describes his organization as England's "shield", a reference to his "S.H.I.E.L.D." organization in the regular comics. However, he also mentions that [[{{Spider-Man}} Peter Parquagh's]] parents used to work for him.

*** Not to mention this universe's version of Iceman: the change between "Bobby Drake" and "Roberto Trefusis" is ''far'' from being made up. There's actually a lengthy explanation for this, which you can find in the ''{{Marvel 1602}}'' article.

*** [[CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abagnale Jr.]] did that in RealLife decades before Gaiman put it on paper, though it's unclear if he knew about it while writing the book.

** ''DuckTales'' especially demonstrated scientific principles quite often -- possibly to make up for the fact that the main character was a talking duck.

* GarthNix does something similar to the above, but it largely amounts to him throwing in every bit of cool-sounding mythology he can find. [[RuleOfCool No one minds]]. In one of his books, he says how surprised he was when his editor informed him he couldn't use Aboriginal elements in his story [[UnfortunateImplications because he was a white Australian]].

* LarryHama is a Vietnam veteran, military expert, and Japanophile. This is apparent in the level of detail that appears whenever he writes a comic book dealing with those topics, such as ''GIJoe'' and ''ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja''.

** In one X-Men story involving the space shuttle nearly everything was correct - and this comic was written before the first time a shuttle actually went into space. Props to ChrisClaremont!

* Like the Flash, a lot of the Silver Age Atom stories were heavily grounded in science and spent quite some time teaching it to the kids. One particularly extreme example is a story that essentially told the story of the telescope with a teensy bit of super heroism thrown into the middle.

** His ''{{Marvel 1602}}'' really shows how much research he did into Marvel history, or just knew off the top of his head. For example, Nicholas Fury describes his organization as England's "shield", a reference to his "S.H.I.E.L.D." organization in the regular comics. However, he also mentions that [[{{Spider-Man}} Peter Parquagh]]'s parents used to work for him.

* ''KingdomCome'' couldn't possibly have been made without the most intimate understanding of every facet of the {{DCU}}.

*** [[CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abagale Jr.]] did that in RealLife decades before Gaiman put it on paper, though it's unclear if he knew about it while writing the book.

* Just about every SilverAge ''{{Flash}}'' story is solved using a random law of physics, expressed by Barry Allen (a forensic scientist) as a "Flash Fact". Wally West, thankfully, remembers the lessons from his days as Kid Flash, though now he has the Speed Force to help him with all the stuff that can't be done by physics (like breathing while running at near-lightspeed).

** His ''{{Marvel 1602}}'' really shows how much research he did into Marvel history, or just knew off the top of his head. For example, Nicholas Fury describes his organization as England's "shield", a reference to his "S.H.I.E.L.D." organization in the regular comics. However, he also mentions that [[{{Spider-Man}} Peter Parquagh]]'s parents used to work for him. Most people ''don't'' know that Richard and May Parker were SHIELD agents.

* In ''FiftyTwo'' the writers intended to have [[GothamCentral Renee]] [[TheQuestion Montoya]] be an actual alcoholic, not a light-hearted HardDrinkingPartyGirl. To help illustrate this, in one scene she takes a pair of aspirin while on a stakeout. The panel where she puts the pills in her mouth was specifically drawn to give the impression that she was chewing the pills and not just swallowing them; this is, apparently, "an old drunks trick."

* George Woodbridge was a ''MadMagazine'' artist for over forty years. He was also one of the world's foremost experts on historical military uniforms. Every time he drew military personnel, their uniforms were accurate down to the right kind of buttons for the time period.

* In ''FiftyTwo'' the writers intended to have [[GothamCentral Renee]] [[TheQuestion Montoya]] be an actual alcoholic, not a light-hearted BottleFairy. To help illustrate this, in one scene she takes a pair of aspirin while on a stakeout. The panel where she puts the pills in her mouth was specifically drawn to give the impression that she was chewing the pills and not just swallowing them; this is, apparently, "an old drunks trick."

* ''American Flagg'' included a recipe for each story that showed Reuben Flagg's cooking Italian food.

** In the collected edition of ''TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', Rosa notes out that he found specific points in time where certain historical figures would be in the same place. He also mentions when he has to "bend" the facts at certain points to make a better story, but it's fairly rare.

** ''{{The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen}}'' has annotations online that include paragraphs of text explaining single panels.

* ''{{Tintin}}'': A comic famous for its research, such as when Tintin and the gang go to the moon with all scientific plausibility that the cartoonist, Hergé, could create. In fact, Hergé was notorious for his early [[TheThemeParkVersion Theme Park Version]] travelogue stories, until a friend convinced him to do serious research, beginning with ''The Blue Lotus''. The result is a story in China that has been praised as an excellent primer for the China of the 1930s.
** The best thing is walking through the Art/History Museum in Brussels and discovering e.g. the fetish statue from the "The Broken Ear" album.
** Herge's drive for realism probably culminated in ''The Calculus Affair'', where the amount detail put into background art and scene composition would have put a movie cinematographer to shame. In fact, in planning for a minor scene in the story where enemy spies force Tintin's car off the road into Lake Geneva, Herge actually sent a employee to drive along Lake Geneva to find a location where assassins might plausibly force a car off the road.

* Before writing the ''ComicBook/MegaMan'' comic, Ian Flynn heavily researched the series, and it shows. [[http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Chest,_Plum_and_Ripot Chest, Plum, and Ripot]] from the obscure MascotRacer ''Battle & Chase'' appear in the first issue reporting on Light's new robots, that issue's ''Short Circuits'' has a MythologyGag to both the [[Series/MegaMan cartoon]] and the hilariously bad American box art of the first game, and Fire Man retains his Southern accent from ''MegaManPoweredUp''.

*** Of course, such thinly-veiled [[AuthorTract Author Tracts]] invariably [[ComicBook/JLAActOfGod have a possibility of going wrong...]]

* ''UsagiYojimbo'': Stan Sakai likes to have an occasional story where he features various craftwork of Japan depicted in detail like swordmaking, cheating at gambling, kite making and pottery. It went even further when he devoted multiple chapters in a major arc to the legendary history of the famous sword, Kusanagi, ''before'' the eponymous hero came into the story. This devotion to proper research has earned Sakai a Parent's Choice Award for the comic for its educational value.

* Many of Mike Mignolia's {{Hellboy}} stories are essentially retellings of documented folktales, often using details that would usually be lost in modern versions. For example, "The Corpse" is mostly derived from "Teig O'Kane and the Corpse," which originally appeared in a compilation of Irish folklore edited by William Butler Yeats.