Gregory Hecht

While both of these items exist, their current entries in the database need clarification so that users (and especially Atomic Avenue shoppers) can tell them apart.

This week's update added Book #4 to the title Official Index to the Marvel Universe. I'm not sure what this book is (there is no scan). The full contents of the periodical issues are collected in the already listed Books #1, #2, and #3. As far as I know, there was never any collection of the entire series into a single volume, and certainly not at the same cover price as the already listed Books #1, #2, and #3. My guess is that this might be some sort of entry to cover one of the other Official Index to the Marvel Universe titles, but AFAIK all of those are already in the database. My recommendation is that the new Book #4 should be deleted.

In the database, the title Classics Illustrated (First) contains a note for the title "Reprints from Classics Illustrated (Gilberton)." This is incorrect, all of the Classics Illustrated issues published by First Comics were brand new adaptations.

There was a longer thread discussion on this at one point in the forum, but I think that the bulk of that discussion was lost during the server crash a month or so ago. Bottom line is that HC decided to move all periodical versions of titles such as OHOTMU, Who's Who, Official Index, etc to magazines for the reasons that Steven outlined. If there were collected editions for these titles, then I believe that sometimes they are listed under the same title as the periodicals. However, in some cases the collected editions have been posted under the books category (this happened with the Essential collections of OHOTMU). In general, this shouldn't be too big of a hassle from the ComicBase end of things. However, it does make it more difficult for folks to sell these titles on Atomic Avenue since (based on the last time that I checked) browsing an individual seller's store on AA shows only their comic book inventory and nothing from their book or magazine inventory.

Bump b/c this still has not been addressed.

How does your research on this title match up with what is posted on the mycomicshop site? (I see that Mile High lists only two of these, and that there are listed in incorrect chronological order, so I think the mycomicshop is likely a better place for research on this particular title.)

Make sure that you have run the most recent content update on your database. Some of the "unrecognized" titles may have undergone a change in the master database (e.g., presence/absence of a colon in the title, presence or absence of "the" in the title, and so on). I know that Wonder Woman: Black & Gold had a title change in a recent update to more accurately reflect the indicia. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (and all similar titles) got moved to the Magazine category (there was an active thread on this in the "Contents and Corrections" section of the CB msg boards). Individual variants may have also been changed in the master database, many of them are getting a "variant number" rather than a "variant letter" or (worse yet) an abuse of the "printing number" field. The other thing to do is to carry out a Rebuild Lists command. That often corrects problems like what you are describing when they start to pop up.

The following items have incorrect scans in the database: Weird Science (RCP): Issue #4 has a scan from Weird Science (EC) M.D. (Gemstone): Issue #1 has a scan of Annual #1

As per the Comicbase home page, there will be no content update this week. Also the Human Computing offices will be closed on Thurs 11/25 and Fri 11/26, so you know what that means... spend the next few days organizing your collection and send in tons of database submissions and corrections so that the folks at HC know that you were thinking about them during the holiday! ? But even though there is no content update, there *will* be a Livestream on Wed. 11/24 at the usual time.

Mark will be the final arbiter on this, of course, but I think your "What it should be" column looks good.

Done!

The Notes field for Homer the Happy Ghost (Vol. 2) #3 states that it is the final issue of the series. This is not correct as there was an issue #4 published on schedule two months later (the title was bi-monthly). In fact, issue #4 (including cover scan) is listed in the database. The note for issue #3 should be deleted.

To clarify Mark's answer, in cases where a particular comic item has both a hardcover and a trade paperback version, CB's typical way of handling it is that the hardcover gets the HC designation and the tpb is treated like a regular issue. For The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, this is what should be followed. Sometimes, in the case where the collected edition does not sit in its own title (i.e., it is placed in a title that includes single periodical issues that are collected in the book), then CB will usually give the HC designation to the hardcover and the BK designation to the tpb. There are exceptions in cases where other designations are used (DLX and CS, for example), but in each of those cases there are unusual complicating factors.

I posted about this topic over a week ago, but the post got lost when these message boards got rebooted after The Great Server Crash of 2021... so I'm going to try again. The database lists an older Origin of the Hobgoblin trade paperback from 1992 as The Amazing Spider-Man Book #9. The contents of that book are as follows: Amazing Spider-Man #238-239, 244-245, and 249-251 and Spectacular Spider-Man #85. Normally CB lists tpb's and hc's as their own separate title if they collect issues from more than one title. In this case, there is only a single issue from a different title, so it ordinarily it probably wouldn't be worth it to move this particular book. There is a second edition of the Origin of the Hobgoblin tpb from 2011 that complicates things, however. The book isn't a second print, it contains additional issues that the first version did not: Amazing Spider-Man #238-239, 244-245 and 249-251 and Spectacular Spider-Man #43, 47-48 and 85 (issues not included in the first version are in bold red type). I cannot find the second edition in the database; is it in there and I am missing it? If it is not in there, how should it be entered into the database? Amazing Spider-Man Book #9 (2nd print) isn't appropriate, but listing the 2011 book under the title Origin of the Hobgoblin may lead to some confusion if the 1992 book isn't also under that title. Thoughts on how to approach this?

There is a need for some clean-up under the Jungle Fantasy: Vixens title. • #1-K and #1-N are both noted as "Kickstarter cover" but only #1-N has a cover scan. I have no idea what is supposed to make these two issues different from each other, so I am suspicious that they are duplicates. I suggest deleting #1-K since it has no scan. • #1-Q is noted as "Kickstarter Hide Nude cover" but the scan presented is the non-nude "Kickstarter Relax cover". Issue #1-S is the actual Kickstarter Hide Nude cover and the scan for #1-S is correct, so I think that it is best to change the notation for #1-Q to "Kickstarter Relax" and leave the scan for #1-Q as it is. • The scans for #1-R and #1-var. 29 are the same. #1-R is noted as "Jungle Green Leather Cover" so that means that the scan for #1-R is incorrect and needs to be deleted. • The cover scan for #2-M should be removed because the issue notes for this states "nude cover" and scan presented is a duplicate of the non-nude #2-L. • #2-K is supposed to be "exclusive Kickstarter nude cover" and #2-M is supposed to be "Kickstarter Nude Cover". There is an incorrect scan for #2-M and no scan for #2-L, so it isn't clear to me that these are actually different items. I suspect that one of the two of them should be deleted. And somebody needs to pony up a scan for the Kickstarter nude cover. I don't have any of the issues that are missing correct scans, so somebody else will need to provide them.

I don't think that CB necessarily tracks whether a comic is squarebound (sometimes referred to as "perfect binding"). That isn't to say that CB will necessarily turn away such notations, but I don't know that they will necessarily feel obligated to track that kind of data for comics. If I am wrong on that, I am sure that @Peter R. Bickford or @Mark J. Castaneda will correct me and set the record straight.

The new update added the title Weird Heroes to the Magazines category. Based on what I am seeing in the entries for the new title, this is a duplication of the already existing (and appropriately categorized) Weird Heroes title that is in the Books category. The new magazine title should be deleted.

Like I said, it is a longstanding known issue that CB doesn't handle things well when two titles differ only by punctuation. So CB's solution for it is to just avoid it. ?

A long-time issue with ComicBase is that it doesn't handle things like navigation very well when there are two titles that are identical except for punctuation. HC solves this by making sure that the titles in the master database avoid this problem, but it can pop up from time to time in user databases if they don't regularly run content updates and/or pay attention to their "Unrecognized" list after running a content update. The solution to your particular problem is to get your issues that are under the "rogue" title listed under the correct title as it is listed under the master database. Once there is no inventory that is "in stock" under your "rogue" titles, those titles should go away during your next content update (assuming you have the appropriate settings checked off prior to doing the update).

There should be a link "View unrecognized items" above the "Collection Value Graph" button.

The unmatched items won't show up in your log, but there *is* a list of unmatched items and titles that is generated every time you run a content update on your database. Look for a link to that list in the pop-up window you get at the very end of your content update (the window that lists out current collection value, etc).

Does that work for title corrections? I thought that sending new or corrected data from a database only sent info on specific issues rather than the overall title data.

Last week was Hell Week for the message board servers and a few other things, so there was no livestream while those things received maintenance. I haven’t heard anything about this week’s livestream, but I *assume* that it isn’t happening since no link has posted yet only 12 minutes before the usual showtime.

Some clean-up is needed for the Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHOTMU). Two series, Essential OHTMU and Essential OHOTMU - Deluxe Edition have been conflated into a single series. The existing title, Essential OHOTMU, only had one issue. The existing info for that issue in the database appears to be correct. A second title, Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe - Deluxe Edition, should be added to the database. That series had three issues. Issues #2 & #3 of what is currently Essential OHOTMU should be moved to the new title. I have the first issue as well, and I will add it when I get a chance (alternatively, you can add it and I will fill in the missing info & scan when I get a chance).

I get that b/c all of the artwork reproductions of are comic book covers. But having said that, it makes more sense to me to have all of the Artist's/Artisan editions in either the book category or the comic category.