There’s the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary, and even the leviathan called the Oxford English Dictionary. But there is only one SUPER DICTIONARY!
Put out in 1978 as a kids dictionary featuring DC Comics characters, this amazing work became internet famous sometime in the 2010s. (Full disclosure: every dictionary is an amazing work, this one is just extra amazing). Not least because of this absolutely wild definition of forty:
And now, because nothing and no one in comics stays dead for ever, the SUPER DICTIONARY has an update.
As you can see from the definition of forty, part of the charm of the SUPER DICTIONARY is its repetitive language. It seems like the book was written for young children. And the internet could not resist the meme potential of the images and definitions in the book. You can find more of them at this old tumblr dedicated to the SUPER DICTIONARY.
The update is brought to us by Line It Is Drawn, which is a feature by Brian Cronin that runs on the Comic Book Resources website. The feature has comics artists draw answers to a theme or question put out by Cronin on social media. It’s a great feature and if comics and culture are your thing, you should check it out.
The question that Cronin put out last week was a 2022 update to the SUPER DICTIONARY. So readers would send in a suggestion and the artists would pick their favorites to draw. The feature is meant to be funny and some of the jokes here might require some higher-level comic book industry knowledge, but a familiarity with the original work and internet humor will get you far enough. I think my favorite one is either male gaze with Power Girl or @!$%& with Hit-Girl. Go check out the rest of them here: https://www.cbr.com/2022-super-dictionary-update-gallery/
Speaking of the original SUPER DICTIONARY…. it had this very interesting definition for sandwich:
That’s right, losers. The SUPER DICTIONARY solved your silly “Is X a sandwich?” question over 40 years ago. Bet you didn’t see that coming.