Gregory Hecht

Comics for Ukraine was a Zoop crowdfunding project from last year. Took a while, but it was eventually fulfilled... but it doesn't seem to have made it into the database. So I finally sat down and got the data entered and submitted. Some items to be aware of: • There are four different covers. I used the same A, B, C, and D designations as the indicia page. • All four covers are available in hardcover format. I submitted these as Book 1/A, etc. • I know that covers B, C, and D are available as softcover, and I submitted those as regular issue 1/B, etc. (It is possible that cover A exists as softcover, I just haven't been able to verify that) • "Sunflower Seeds" shows up as a sub-title on the spine and on the back cover, so I entered that into the "Item Title" field. IIRC, at one point the crowdfunding campaign used that title as well. So depending on how persnickety you want to be re: the Item Title field, you might consider leaving that field blank. • No publisher listed in the indicia. I listed Zoop as the publisher, especially since they have copies of the book available for sale post-campaign. Proceeds from the book go to Operation USA, but I don't think that they are an actual publisher whereas Zoop does publication services for the creators who use their crowdfunding platform. • No cover price or UPC. Listed cover price as $0.00 accordingly. For the Price field, I used $60 for the hardcover versions and $40 for the softcover versions (these are the post-campaign prices as shown at the weblink above). • Cover date: I accidentally left this blank. Based on the indicia page, the cover date should be 7/2023. COMPLETISTS TAKE NOTE: This anthology book includes short stories featuring American Flagg, Astro City, Chew, Grendel, Rocketeer, Scary Godmother, Star Slammers, and Usagi Yojimbo.

The new edition for Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men #2 came out recently. As per the discussion above, it looks like the silver & black edition should be #2/D and the marble edition should be #2/E. These have also been submitted. As with the above, somebody will need to submit a cover scan and UPC # for #2-D. Full info plus scan were submitted for #2/E.

Ufda, time flies! I finally got around to submitting this. Please delete Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #2/A (2nd print). The silver & black new edition has been submitted as #2-D (somebody who has a copy should submit a scan and UPC) and the marble new edition has been submitted as #2-E (complete info including scan has been sent).

My biggest concern here is that some variant comic books differ only by their printed cover price. By assigning a cover price to a comic that doesn't actually have a cover price listed, we run the risk of a database user looking at their copy of Captain Crowdfunder #1 and seeing no cover price and seeing the Captain Crowdfunder #1 entry in ComicBase as having only a version with a $25 cover price. User then proceeds to submit a new entry to ComicBase with $0.00 as the cover price. If that correction entry is accepted, then all of a sudden you're looking at two entries in the database for the same thing. I think it is an unnecessary burden on the CB editorial team to have to keep straight which crowdfunded comics actually have a $25 cover price and which ones cost $25 to get but didn't have any cover price printed on them. There is a separate field in the database where users can enter the price that they paid for specific issues, and I would suggest that is the better place to put the crowdfunding platform price for those people who obtain the comic in that manner. IMO the ideal would be for the cover price field to be an objective reflection of what the cover price is on the comic, not necessarily a reflection of what it cost to get the comic. As a compromise, I suppose you could put the crowdfunder price in the Cover Price field *IF* something is added to the Notes field indicating there is no cover price on the issue.

This week's update added the title Great Gatsby, The: An Illustrated Novel. I think that this was meant to replace the misspelled title Great Gatsby, The: An Illsustrated Novel. The incorrect version still needs to be deleted from the database.

Cover price should be the price printed on the book. Otherwise you’re muddling the definitions of the Cover Price field and the Price field. If there is no price printed on the book, then the contents of the Cover Price field should be $0.00. is this philosophy different than how CB treats the Cover Price field for incentive variants? I assume that for those comics CB still lists the printed cover price for that field rather than the initial cost to obtain the book.

The Hunters (Paperfilms) lists four issues: #1, #1/A, #1/B, and #1/C. I think that #1 is a duplicate of #1/A based on the cover scans. I recommend deleting issue #1 and keeping #1/A. If you decide to delete #1/A and keep #1, I recommend changing the cover price from $25 to $0. All of these issues have no cover price on them (this was a Kickstarter project). The $25 reflects the pledge price (and therefore the Price field) but that is different from the Cover Price field.

Well, I do see that there are copies for sale on AA under both listings of the issue. Somewhere along the line (as in, years ago on the original CB/AA message boards) I got the impression that an extra step behind the scenes was needed if sales had occurred for an issue that needed to be deleted from the database. So maybe that is part of the explanation?

The 2023 Red Sonja FCBD comic appears to be in the database in two places, once under the Red Sonja (Dynamite, Vol. 6) title and again under the Red Sonja (Dynamite, Vol. 7) title. Since the story in the comic is continued in Red Sonja (Dynamite, Vol. 7) #1, I suggest that it should be catalogued under that title.

You know, at first I thought that this book might be a duplication of the I Am Gandhi title that is already in the database, but apparently it is something entirely different. Mycomicshop lists it a little bit differently. If anybody on these boards has these books, can you check the indicia to see how they are actually titled? A verification of the contents is also warranted, I think. Mycomicshop calls this an "illustrated book" whereas CB lists it as a comic book. Note that there is also a hardcover version of the Dial Books title.

This week's update added the comic title Axles infernal. Should that really be Axles Infernal [note the change in capitalization] ? Also added is the title I Am Gandi (DIal Books). That should really be I Am Gandi (Dial Books) [note the change in capitalization]. Dark Age: A Collection of Fantasy Art was added to the database as a Comic title. Based on the title, I wonder if this belongs in Magazines (more likely) or Books (less likely). Can anybody who has this item verify whether the contents are comics or artwork?

The Adventures into Terror (Fantagraphics) title is still hanging around. Either it missed deletion or somebody mistakenly resurrected it. Regardless, it needs to be deleted.

Direct market comics get added to the content updates bc Human Computing has accounts worth Diamond, Lunar, and PRH. They actually receive retailer solicitation information and physical copies of most/all non-incentive floppies from those distributors and use those to generate the bulk of the data for the database. (Collected editions are a lot more expensive, so HC relies on info initially provided by the distributors’ solicitation info and later on ComicBase users to submit scans of the final products and any necessary corrections.) For the various crowdfunding sites, there is no efficient way for gathering the equivalent data like there is from the direct market distributors. So HC is largely dependent on individuals to submit information for crowdsourced publications. Not sure that there is any way around that, any comic database program would face the same problem. Certainly HC *wants* to include info for crowdfunded comics, it is really an issue of getting the data.

This week's updated added the book title Hellboy: Odder Jobs. That title is still listed in the database as a comic title as well, but that is a holdover from the old days when there weren't multiple media categories. The new title should stay, the older comic title should be removed. Similar situation for Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors -- this week's update added a (correct) book title but the old comic title still needs to be deleted. [And in the same vein, Hellboy: Odd Jobs and Hellboy: Oddest Jobs are still listed as comic titles, but those need to be shifted over to the Books category.] Also added was the comic title The Return of Mister X. This is a duplicate of Mister X (Vol. 1) Collector's Set #1/A. The cover prices for the two seem to be different, so I'm guessing that the new entry is simply a later printing. In any event, this trade paperback reprints the first several issues of Mister X (Vol. 1) so I suggest that the new title isn't necessary and should be deleted. The comic title Tuff Shit was added this week. I thought that the CB policy was to use an asterisk for naughty words (such as f*ck), but maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy and missed the memo that the "s-word" is substantially more acceptable than the "f-word" such that it doesn't need to be censored. (Then again, the liberal in me and the purist in me both say that the "f-word" shouldn't be censored in the database, but what do I know?)

I know that there was some server maintenance going on over the weekend. Look again today to see if they show up.

In addition to the items discussed in this thread (a big thank you to @Randall J. Paske 🙂 ), this week's updated added the book title Strangers in Paradise. There is already a comic title Strangers in Paradise, so the new title (the book title) should probably be re-named to something like Strangers in Paradise (Graphitti). Note also that somewhere along the line the scan for Strangers in Paradise (the comic book title) #1 got replaced with the solicitation image of the Graphitti book. That should get fixed, too. Also added to the database is the new comic title Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies 1932-1935: Starring Bucky Bug and Donald Duck from IDW last year. Back in 2016 IDW released a book that appears to have had similar contents at the very least. Can anybody verify whether the 2023 release is a new printing of the 2016 book with a new cover, or are the contents different enough that this warrants a new title in the database?

Back in my college days, I navigated the original Can of Worms configuration quite a few times, so I have little fear on that front! 😂 (Mark and CB editorial, on the other hand, may be a tad more conservative! 😉 )

The database includes the following comic book titles: Threshold (1st series), Threshold (2nd series), and Threshold (3rd series). The first and second series are related to each other, so their titles in the database make complete sense. Threshold (3rd series) has nothing at all to do with the first two series by that name, its a completely different thing by different creators and coming out from a different publisher. I recognize that Threshold (3rd series) has been in the database for a very long time, but I thought I would float up a trial balloon anyway to see if there was interest in re-naming Threshold (3rd series) to Threshold (Avatar).

Depending on what type of ComicBase you have, you can use the Custom Fields for that. Check the CB product description page to see which editions of the program have the number of custom fields that you need.

The database lists second printings of issues #6 and #7 for Moon Girl. I don't believe that these ever came out... can anybody verify that they exist? (I can verify that second printings for issues #1 through #5 do exist as I have them in my collection.)

I was watching on Chrome, and I don't think that I have any ad-blockers on that browser. I didn't have any trouble. I was logged in to my Google account, don't know if that has any importance.

I see that the database includes one of the recent re-issues of Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #2, but it is listed as #2/A (2nd print). That issue should be deleted. In keeping with our discussion above, the silver & black re-issue of that book should be MM:TAS-M #2/D and the marble variant re-issue of that book should be MM:TAS-M #2/E. I will try to get those submitted in the next couple of days.

The database lists Book #1 as the sole issue for The Super Hero's Journey. The book is a hardcover, so I am wondering if this should really be listed as #1/HC. My reasoning is that if a paperback edition is ever published that might be a better candidate for the Book #1 designation.

Those titles have been moved to the Magazines category. Multiple ways to fix this, either of the below should work for you. Whichever on you choose, it should obviously be done in the database you are using to upload inventory to AA. My instructions here are for the CBLDF Defender title, you will need to repeat these same instructions for the CBLDF Defender (Vol. 2) title. STRATEGY 1: 1. Do a search for CBLDF Defender. 2. You should see multiple "hits", one of which is CBLDF Defender in the Magazine category. Go to the Magazine version of the title. Delete the title. 3. Go the to the Comic Book version of the CBLDF Defender title. Change the media type to Magazine. 4. Upload your inventory to AA. STRATEGY 2: 1. Do a search for CBLDF Defender. 2. You should see multiple "hits", one of which is CBLDF Defender in the Magazine category. Go to the Magazine version of the title. Enter all of your CBLDF Defender inventory information on that title (don't forget to check the "For Sale" box where appropriate). 3. Go the to the Comic Book version of the CBLDF Defender title. Change all inventory under that title to Quantity In Stock = 0. 4. Upload your inventory to AA. (The next time you do a content update on that database, the old Comic Book version of the title should be deleted if you have the proper settings checked off *AND* it contains no issues in stock.)

In the database that you are using to upload your inventory to AA, are the CBLDF Defender titles in the Comic Book media category or in the Magazine media category?