Template:Infobox comics species/doc

This template is designed for fictional creatures that appear in comics stories. This includes Earth-based creatures, such as Cat People (comics); extraterrestrial creatures, such as Kleggs; and deities, such as Olympian Gods (DC Comics). For artificial life forms use Infobox comics artificial species.

Usage


Common elements
'''. Jack Kirby
 * Most of the parameters are designed only to show in the infobox if something is entered. They can be left in the template and empty if the item does not pertain to the article or if the information is not known at the time the template is added.
 * The species field is an exception. If left empty the infobox will not generate a title. If the title for the infobox is the same as the title of the article, species can either be deleted or commented out. The later is preferable since the name of the article, or the preferred name of the infobox may change.
 * For multiple items in one field, '''separate each with
 * Example: creators=Stan Lee
 * Placing images in the infobox uses two fields:
 * image which is just the filname of the image. The template will add the markup to show the image.
 * Example: image= example.jpg
 * imagesize which is the width the image will display at. The template will only accept a number here. If left empty or if a string (such as "225px") is entered, the image will default to 250px wide.
 * If you find the image to be too tall, reduce the size below 250px.
 * The parameter is capped at maximum width of 250. Entering values grater than this will result in the default setting being used.
 * The image will also cap at 450 in height.
 * The caption will appear below the image. Keep it short, but indicate the original source published source of the image and the artist(s).
 * Example: A comic book issue cover would be captioned as "Wolverine vol 2, #17. Art by John Byrne."
 * To keep in line with Alternative text for images, alt needs to be updated with the "text alternative" of the image. This is not the same as the caption. It should also be kept short, but needs to be descriptive of the image.
 * For debut, provide the first appearance of the species.
 * debutmo and debutyr can be used in conjunction with debut. When this is done:
 * debut is only the title, volume number, and issue number
 * debutmo is the month, season or week specified in the issue's cover date. This field is optional so it can be left out if no "month" is part of the cover date.
 * debutyr is the four digit year noted in the cover date. This will automatically link the year to the appropriate "Year in comics" list article. If this field is not present, only the information in debut will show up in the infobox.

Specific elements

 * deities should be used if the infobox is being used with a pantheon, in whole or in part, of gods. The pantheon should be listed here.
 * homeworld is a catch all for the place of origin of the species. Previously this has been listed as both "base" and "location".
 * members are characters that are notable examples of the species. These lists should be kept short as they are meant to be examples, not an exhaustive catalogue.
 * powers include significant inherent powers and notable abilities of the species. This should be a short list, without description. Keep longer prose for the article text.

Categories
This infobox has been designed to automatically place articles its added to into appropriate categories under Category:Fictional life forms or Category:Fictional deities. To do this the following parameters are used.
 * subcat is used to specify a particular subcategory of Category:Fictional life forms or Category:Fictional deities. This can be a publisher or imprint. Please review the noted categories for which subcategories exist. The deities parameter will switch the category choice from the default "life forms"/"species".
 * altcat is used for cases where "life forms", "deities", or "species" is not the ending of the appropriate category.
 * Note: subcat and altcat are mutually exclusive. If both are left empty, the article wil be placed into Category:Fictional life forms or Category:Fictional deities by default.
 * sortkey is the title by which the article will be sorted in the categories placed by the template. This sorting will default to and will override  listings in the article. Due to markup limitations, this parameter will not recognize a leading space.
 * Please note, as per standard sorting guidelines the following character types should not be used in the sort argument:
 * non-English letters (e.g. Δ, Θ, Д, Ж, מ, ي);
 * accented English letters (e.g. Á, Ö, Ñ); or
 * symbols (e.g. ¢, ₤, $, ♥).
 * "A", "An", and "The" should be dropped from titles and most subtitles in the srot argument.
 * All words in the sort argument should be capitalized.
 * Additional categories similar to the one set by either subcat or altcat can be added with addpubcat#. Replace "#" with a number (currently the template is set up for 3 additional categories) and list the full category title. Please list the categories in publication order.

Types list
This is a list of the logical fields the template currently supports for additional subchategories. Each entry lists the line to be entered into the template and the base category type the template will add. Note that:
 * If something other than "Fictional" is listed, that can be used with subcat and fine tuned where the article will be sorted.

Related infoboxes

 * Infobox comics character
 * Infobox fictional location

Composite infoboxes

 * Infobox comics artificial species
 * Infobox comics species and title