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Walt Grogan

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Posts posted by Walt Grogan

  1. 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:

    1. Use the GCD style which identifies a series using the year of first publication. (I'm sure this is problematic due to legacy issues)
    2. 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

     

     

     

    Metal Men.jpg

  2. 1 minute ago, Mark J. Castaneda said:

    There's a handful of printers and labels the software supports when you look the Software's Print Window's drop down menu.

    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 

    Dymo.jpg

  3. 1 hour ago, Gregory Hecht said:

    That is how I interpreted Walt's OP. 

    I believe that this title has no indicia and the only indication of a date is that the front page logo area includes a mention that the catalog is for "[month] cover date [year]" comics.  (This would explain how the earliest issue currently in the database got pegged with issue #1 even though it is apparently not even close to being the first issue.)  

    Walt, can you confirm?

    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

  4. 51 minutes ago, Mark J. Castaneda said:

    Unfortunately after confirming with the editorial team, we gotta use a traditional numbering scheme on this so it's important to find out when the series really began so we know where to start that first issue.

    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.

    • Like 1
  5. 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

  6. 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'

     

  7. 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!'

     

  8. 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

     

    POS_048 Label.jpg

    POS_048 ID.jpg

  9. 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!

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