Walt Grogan

One of the things I'm noticing in ComicBase is inconsistency in naming titles. I'm also providing how the Grand Comics Database (GCD) does it. Here's an example: GCD: Metal Men (1963) / ComicBase: Metal Men GCD: Metal Men (1993) / ComicBase: Metal Men (Mini-Series) GCD: Metal Men (2007) / ComicBase: Metal Men (3rd Series) GCD: Metal Men (2019) / Comic Base: Metal Men (4th Series) The problem comes in if you choose to use labels either for identification or pricing or even finding the title in a list if there are multiple series. Because Metal Men (Mini-Series) isn't titled as Metal Men (2nd Series), it doesn't alphabetize in the correct order with the other series. This is compounded on labels due to the lack of the date of publication not being included, so it's difficult to determine the order from the label. I see one of two solutions to this: Use the GCD style which identifies a series using the year of first publication. (I'm sure this is problematic due to legacy issues) Maintain a consistent CB style which skews towards (2nd Series), (3rd Series), (4th Series), etc. Personally, I prefer the GCD style because, at least, there's some semblance of date on the label. If the series identification choice must be maintained, can an outlier like Metal Men (Mini-Series) be corrected? Thanks, Walt

Never mind. I figured out what happened. I added a couple of issues via Add By Barcode and it chose the comic book version.

I'm still seeing the comic book version of Back Issue in the drop down. If I select the comic book version, I see two entries: #131 and #132. Was there a setting I missed?

I was just about to create a topic on the same thing regarding Back Issue when I noticed that you had started one @Gregory Hecht! Good show and I agree!

Thanks, Mark! That would be true if you've installed a label printer's drivers but the Label types dropdown only displays label types for Avery and Dymo. At this point, it doesn't matter as I've bitten the bullet and bought a Dymo 4XL. Thanks again, Walt

I ended up getting a Dymo 4XL. Looking forward to printing labels.

Hi, I'm reaching out to see if ComicBase supports label printers other than Dymo. Thanks, Walt

Hi, Gregory, sorry, I missed this before posting my rant. I have about 10 years of DC Coming Comics and, unfortunately, no, there are no issue numbers nor indicia, which is really strange, especially since the prior incarnation, DC Coming Attractions, had them. Best, Walt

The downside of this decision is that I can't enter nor scan covers for prior issues that I have unless, by some miracle, a first issue is discovered for a title that doesn't have issue numbers nor indicia. The current starting item number of this title in ComicBase is 1 with a cover date of June 1988. I have seen online scans dating as far back as April 1985 (over 3 years earlier). If the current decision stands, I'm basically at a stand still entering this title and, quite frankly, it doesn't give me a lot of confidence going forward when I next hit a similar road block. I've already run into a situation in ComicBase where I had issues of a title (without indicia) whose numbering continued from another title yet was indexed under the original title. I had to research outside of ComicBase to discover what the original title might be -- which seems crazy. It was Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain which were indexed under Spider-Man Comics Weekly because that's where the numbering originated. A note says "Title sometimes known as Super Spider-Man". I don't know how that helps. At any rate, I'm feeling a little frustrated here.

Thanks, Mark! I'll hold off on proceeding any further until I hear back.

Another question. I'm in the process of changing the numbering and scanning in covers. I did notice that there were a few issues that rather than having a month were identified as Holiday or Winter with a year. How should these be handled? Thanks, Walt

Thanks, Gregory-- I wasn't sure of the process but this helps! Best, Walt

Hi, Gregory, that's what I was thinking, too! But there are already issues out there with item numbers starting with one. How should this be handled? Best, Walt

I'm going to try and track this down. We'll see... but if finding the starting point is key, it will prevent me from accurately entering my earlier issues. Thanks, Walt

Hi, all-- I have a pretty good collection of DC Coming Comics dating back to Oct. 1985. However, when I look at ComicBase's list, it starts in 1988 with #1, which can't be correct. From what I can tell, DC Coming Comics don't have an indicia at all due to it primarily being a retailer-oriented publication with only a cover date and year to identify it. I'd like to fill-in some of the missing issues with what I have but don't know how to proceed given the issue # problem. I would think something along the lines of 198510 or even 8510 would suffice since I believe it ended around 1995 prior to 2000. What would be the guidance in getting this problem sorted out? Best, Walt

Here's a more useful example that would get a majority of the first-parts of the annual JLA/JSA team-ups in Justice League of America -- although not perfect since I'm only checking against the month of August. strftime('%m',I.[CoverDate]) = '08' and (I.CoverDate BETWEEN '1963-08-01' AND '1987-05-01') AND i.Title = 'Justice League of America'

Steven, thanks for checking the timing on that. While slow, strftime can still useful if you want to do a query like this where you want to find all issues of a title that came out in a certain month. Here are all the issues of the 1973 series SHAZAM! that have a cover date of April. Note that the month has to be a 2-digit value. strftime('%m',I.[CoverDate]) = '04' and (I.CoverDate BETWEEN '1973-01-01' AND '1978-12-31') AND I.Title = 'SHAZAM!'

Here's another way to retrieve all cover dates for a year... Find all comics with a cover date of a specific year strftime('%Y',I.[CoverDate]) = '2022'

Okay, so if I hit the capslock key on my keyboard, I get uppercase characters which works for now. I'll come back to this BUT it's working! Eventually, I'll create a Taotronics guide for those that have that kind of scanner. Best, Walt

I'm close! I had to configure it to read CODABAR. Unfortunately, the leading and trailing character is lowercase. Almost there. Best, Walt

Hi, Mark-- It looks like the scanner is dropping the first and last characters. I'm getting 4009513 from the scanner but I've confirmed the barcode is B4009513D via a barcode reader app and successfully looked it up in ComicBase. I'm using a TaoTronics scanner and successfully set it to UPC with 2 and five supplements but I haven't found the configuration yet to get it to read the leading and trailing alpha characters. Thanks for your help! And thanks to Steven for the suggestion. I had gotten that far but scanning into NotePad++. Best, Walt

Hi, I'm looking into using Identification Labels but after positioning back to the Find textbox with a Ctrl-J and scanning the barcode, I get a different title each time I scan it. I think I have my barcode scanner set correctly and I'm assuming that I'm scanning correctly. I'm assuming that if I type the Id number in the Find textbox, it should bring me to the issue. Am I correct and is there a way to see what the Id number is for any given issue? BTW, I have no problem scanning an issue's UPC + 5. Thanks!

Is there anyway to see what the identification number should be for any given issue? Thanks!

Thanks, Steven!

After reading another thread that convention programs should go under the magazine category, I have another question. Since convention programs are generally not numbered, should each program be entered as a separate title (e.g. Chicago Comicon 1977, Chicago Comicon 1978, etc) Thanks, Walt