Gregory Hecht
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Posts posted by Gregory Hecht
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On 12/31/2024 at 3:37 PM, Gregory Hecht said:
This week's update added Buster Brown's Safety Coloring Book to the Comic category. Does this have any comic story content? Does this belong in Comics or in Books? (Most coloring books go into the Books section, but Buster Brown did start out as a comic strip, so somebody with knowledge of the actual contents will need to weigh in on this one.)
Any updates on this item? This is still listed in the Comic category.
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I have seen sketchbooks show up in the Magazine category and in the Book category. So I suspect that up until now there has not been a strict policy on where sketchbooks should go. (this isn't to say that there shouldn't be a policy... I definitely think that there should be a discussion about it, at the very least)
I do like the idea of being able to search for "Adam Hugues Sketchbook" (for example) and bringing up all of his sketchbooks that are in the database. I will say that I do know of a couple of instances where an artist had more than one sketchbook in a single year, and also a couple of instances where the year of publication is not listed anywhere on the sketchbook. So numbering sketchbooks by the publication year might not be a universal solution. I do agree with you that sequential numbering is not the answer. I wonder if something like the "Item Title" field in the Comics category might be the answer here.
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Dark Horse has cancelled Anansi Boys #8 and the hardcover collection of the series. They are not planning to resolicit. Issues #8/A and #8/B should be deleted from the database. The hardcover was solicited, so if that ends up in the editorial queue for a content update it should not be added into the database.
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Newly added Book title National Lampoon Comics: the contents of this appear to be comics based on an Amazon preview (and the CB title description calls it an "anthology of comics"), so I suggest that this should be moved to the Comics media category.
Newly added Comic title Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (Walt Disney’s…): based on the cover scan, this looks to be a duplicate of the already existing comic title Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies 1932-1935: Starring Bucky Bug and Donald Duck.
Newly added Comic title Unforegettable Con, The: note that this contains a spelling error (should be Unforgettable Con, The ).
Newly added Comic title New York Comic Con: What is this? Is this a convention program, a comic, or a promotional pamphlet of some sort?
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On 10/31/2024 at 2:11 AM, Gregory Hecht said:
I see that the 21 Down Complete Collection book got moved to the existing 21 Down title. The Notes field for this item still refers to "the unpublished issue #13." Issue #13 has been published, it just wasn't published in 2003 and wasn't published by DC. It exists and is in the database. The Notes field should be corrected to read "Collects 21 Down #1-13" or, if need be, "Collects 21 Down #1-12 plus #13."
The Notes field for 21 Down Deluxe Set #1 still need to be corrected.
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On 10/31/2024 at 2:11 AM, Gregory Hecht said:
This week's update also added Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #25/HC. The earlier entry of regular issue #25 needs to be deleted.
This still needs to be done.
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44 minutes ago, Fred Slota said:
Just picked up...
The UPC 7 59606 21190 6 06511 currently is associated with a CB entry of "The Amazing Spider-Man: 65 Deaths" #1.
The indicia reads "The Amazing Spider-Man No. 65.DEATHS, March 2025" and is part of the storyline "The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man".
As ComicBase apparently doesn't support an issue number of #65.DEATH, I suggest that this should be entered as "The Amazing Spider-Man (6th Series)" #65.1 with notes indicating the proper issue number is 65.Deaths.
Marc indicated back in the fall that this was going to be taken care of (note his response to my post), so it is a little curious that this was either still hanging around or came back.
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The latest content update added the title The Red Shetland Calendar to the Magazines category. As discussed previously on these boards, calendars should go in the Books category (there is a "Calendar" binding type in that category just for that kind of publication).
The new comic title Autumn People (Ray Bradbury's...) was added to Comic Books.
• The title should really be Autumn People (Ray Bradbury's…) [hard to see here on these boards, but the title that was added had three periods instead of the single character three dots[ellipsis]).
• Everything I am finding online indicates that the title also includes "The" in it, so that needs to be fixed as well. -
1 hour ago, Randall J. Paske said:
"Mr. Garcin" is the pseudonym of Pascal Garcin. Opinions may differ on whether the database should have him as Pascal Garcin (my preference) or "Mr. Garcin," but "M.R. Garcin" would definitely be wrong.
The database has never handled pseudonyms very well. It has been brought up multiple times over the last few years, I am hoping that @Peter R. Bickford will finally tackle this in CB 2026.
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11 hours ago, Fred Slota said:
Does AtomicAvenue support separate scans for separate selling items of identical status?
Currently AA does not support sellers posting scans of their actual copies for sale. Once long long ago (more than one year ago, probably much longer than that) I think Pete hinted on a Livestream that might change.
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1 hour ago, Fred Slota said:
Functionally, #1-2 will sort ahead of #1/A, which I think also argues against using that instead of #1/A-2
I would argue that the programming behind CB should be updated to sort that out properly.
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Atomic Avenue might benefit from this also.
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IMO it depends on the cover used in the reprint. If it is cover A, then I agree, the reprint should be #1/A-2.
If it is an entirely new cover, then I would lean towards #1-2. -
This week's update added Buster Brown's Safety Coloring Book to the Comic category. Does this have any comic story content? Does this belong in Comics or in Books? (Most coloring books go into the Books section, but Buster Brown did start out as a comic strip, so somebody with knowledge of the actual contents will need to weigh in on this one.)
Also added was the comic title Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Frozen Gold. Is there a particular reason why this title wasn't formatted as Donald Duck: Frozen Gold (Walt Disney's...) ? [see also the discussion over in this thread]
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3 hours ago, Fred Slota said:
That's to the second question - what about the first? Is the current listing for 1/F, a gold background with Deadpool card, an actual first-print-with-card variant, or a zombie listing mashing a second print that never had a card with a 1/B Deadpool card?
My guess is that it would be the latter. Like you, my recollection is that the good background was indicative of being a 2nd print and that only the first printings of X-Force #1 were polybagged with a trading card. But maybe Heritage or some other authority has evidence to the contrary?
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On 12/17/2024 at 11:41 PM, Fred Slota said:
I question the veracity of this item...
Is this just a listing for a #1-2 with a #1/B Deadpool card? I thought the gold background was a second print that didn't come with a card? Or should there be 4 other entries for gold backgrounds with each of the other four cards?
(As a second, related question - The positive vs. negative Captain America in the UPC box. Is the negative really a second print? Were there fewer of them than the positive ones? Why do the five #1/A-2 through #1/E-2 have higher values than their respective #1/A through #1/E?)
GCD indicates that the negative Cap exists for this issue but their wording avoids calling those issues second printings.
GCD states 6 versions (bagged w/ five different cards, unbagged gold second print)… but then they go on to say that each has both positive and negative Cap versions which (based on their wording) means that there should actually be TWELVE variants listed. This assumes that GCD’s wording is technically precise, of course.
The current CB listings don’t match the GCD description of the state of affairs for X-Force #1 and I would suggest that the use of the “2nd printing” descriptor for the negative Cap versions should be changed to something else.
If the negative Cap versions aren’t indicative of second printings then they may indeed be much less common than other versions.
Like you, I would expect the unbagged gold positive Cap to be less valuable than the first print versions of any type. -
4 hours ago, Steven L. Dasinger said:
Delete or Move 1.jpg
From: Pictures\C\Chip Zdarsky\Zdarksy Comic News
To: Pictures\C\Chip Zdarsky\Zdarsky Comic NewsThis is actually a situation where at least one of the issues of Zdarsky Comic News got catalogued under the Comic Book category and the update moves the entry to the Magazine category.
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This week's update added the Book title Oldguy. Superhero. Based on the cover scan, it looks like this should really be titled Oldguy: Superhero .
• Also, the item under this title is designated as "Single Issue Magazine". If this is a single issue magazine, why isn't it indexed under the Magazine media category?The title Dinosaur Comics Sketchbook was added to the Comics category. Does this actually contain any comic stories? If not, what media category should this go into?
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Oooooh, I get it now. ? This whole time I thought that the Jupiter's Legacy issue was a copy of the Jupiter's Legacy comic book, but it is actually a magazine about the Jupiter's Legacy tv show.
1 hour ago, Fred Slota said:If ComicBase and AtomicAvenue want to continue to treat their entries as representing individual, unbagged issues, then my suggestion is
- The Item Description should never mention the polybagging (or the inclusion, or the second issue)
- Rather, the Notes field (of both the regular and the SE) should mention this issue was originally offered polybagged with the other issue
- Ownership of bagged pairs will have atypical database entries and atypical storage.
- AA sales of bagged pairs will require special notes and will pollute the valuation data for those issues
For situations where two publications are sold/distributed together in the same polybag (examples: Den of Geek magazines; Hero Illustrated magazines that contained exclusive comic issues), I agree with the first three bullet points and concede that the fourth bullet is a natural consequence of this approach.
For situations where publications were polybagged with or without chachkis like trading cards rather than actual second publications (examples: Marvel's recent "red band" comic series; X-Force #1; a lot of the output from Topps Comics) I wouldn't be opposed to having the bag mentioned in the Item Description field. But the CB editors might prefer a more "one size fits all" policy.
1 hour ago, Fred Slota said:Alternatively, I suggest ComicBase and AtomicAvenue recognize that bagged items are separate entities from unbagged items, and my suggestion is
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Every physical bagged item would have two variants in ComicBase
- One for the unbagged issue, with an Item Description of the loose book with appropriate Notes (Den of Geek #2 as "sold polybagged with SE-1" and Den of Geek SE-1 as "sold polybagged with #2)
- One for the bagged issue, with an appropriate Item Description, (new Den of Geek #2/A as "Polybagged with SE-1")
- Owners can accurately record their bagged and unbagged variants and their storage will reflect that.
- AA sales will clearly separate bagged vs. unbagged sales, and valuation of said variations will be separate and clean as well.
This merits some discussion, I think.
The biggest hassle that I can foresee is whether to list more than two options for polybagged items that were distributed with chachkis (e.g., Jurassic Park #1 polybagged with cards; JP #1 unbagged but with cards; JP #1 unbagged and without cards). That could get to be a real PITA for those things that had many different things included in the bag (e.g., Superman #75). But probably the simplest way to handle it would be to say "polybagged with [stuff]" and "unbagged" leaving it to sellers to notify buyers in an appropriate field whether their unbagged copies come with [stuff] or not.At any rate, IMO this approach merits some discussion.
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The particular series you posted as an example is listed as SHIELD in the database. IIRC the cover title for this series differs from the indicia title.
It is instances like this one that motivated ComicBase to add the "Item Title" field to the database relatively recently. So ideally this issue should be listed under the title SHIELD but should also have a entry in the Item Title field Nick Fury and his Agents of SHIELD. If you can't find the title in the database and there is no UPC code available, try doing a Find using a key word. Ideally* the Find should return a list of all of the things that contain that word in the Title field plus all of the things that contain that same key word in the Item Title field.
If you are still stuck, you can post to the boards here for help.
*Because the Item Title field is so new, it is possible that not all of the comics with mismatched cover titles vs. indica titles have something listed in the Item Title field.
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1 hour ago, Mark J. Castaneda said:
Not to mention the publisher data we get from the start don't always have the variant details to begin with ?
I hear you on that... I've seen plenty of solicitation listings for Marvel variants where no info is available beyond the comic title and issue number (no cover image, no artist name or theme). I assume retailers look at that kind of catalog listing, shake their heads, and think "Why the #%$@ should I order this for my store???"
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I'm still not understanding something here that I suspect is a really basic piece of information necessary for this discussion.
Are you saying that the Den of Geek #2 magazine and the Den of Geek SE #1 magazine are the same thing aside from the fact that one of these was polybagged with the copy of Jupiter's Legacy #1? In other words, if you gave me copies of both of those Den of Geek magazines and I took them out of whatever polybags they were in, threw away any copies of Jupiter's Legacy #1 that were in those polybags, and then handed those Den of Geek magazines back to you, would you be able to tell the difference between them? Are their covers the same? Are their UPCs the same? Does the indicia for one of them say "Den of Geek #2" and the other "Den of Geek Special Edition #1"? Or are the two indicia identical? (and, if the indicia are identical, what do they say?)
The answers to the above help me understand whether DoG #2 and DoG SE #1 are truly duplicate listings in the database or whether the info about DoG #2 being polybagged w/ JL #1 is erroneous. (I'm still stuck on this part, so please forgive me if you feel like I am rewinding the conversation!)
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From a netiquette perspective, it is preferred that you post within a thread you have started for this topic rather than start a brand new thread for the exact same topic. This is the second time that I have merged one of your posts into the original thread.
As to your original question, my personal opinion as a CB user (I'm not a Human Computing employee and do not serve any formal role on the CB editorial team) is that while it is obvious which comics would qualify as a "major key" (e.g., Action Comics #1, Amazing Fantasy #1, Showcase #4, etc.) there will always be some subjectivity as to which comics constitute a major key and especially what should count as a minor key.
Is Thor #337 a major key or a minor key? If you choose minor key, does that change if Beta Ray Bill gets a starring role in an MCU movie or TV show? What about Amazing Spider-Man #545? It's not expensive on the back market, but it is a key moment in Spider-Man history and continuity (even if it is not necessarily a popular moment). Wolverine's first appearance was only a cameo in Incredible Hulk #180. Presumably #181 is a major key, but is #180 a major key b/c it is the true first appearance or is it a minor key b/c it is only a couple of panels? Wolverine has a similar cameo in Incredible Hulk #182... is that a minor key or not a key?
Should keys for non-super-hero comics be included? So does Bone #1 (1st printing) count as a major or minor key? What about subsequent printings of Bone #1? Do all of the first issues of EC's "New Trend" titles get labeled as major keys? What about the first issues of EC's "New Direction" titles? Is Sugar & Spike #1 a major or minor key?
Do non-English comics get "key treatment" for the first appearances of One Piece, TinTin, or Asterix? What about various issues of Weekly Shonen Jump from Japan (such as #43 that introduced Naruto) or the reprints of those stories that Viz published in Shonen Jump in North America?
Captain Underpants and Dog Man are really popular, so the first appearances of those characters should probably be labeled as a "key" in some way... but there are people who argue that those characters aren't enough like comic books to warrant that kind of attention (even if the CB database categorizes them under Comics rather than Books).
To varying degrees, a lot of major and minor keys are in the eyes of the beholder.
I wouldn't want to speak for Pete, but my guess (and I emphasize that this is a **guess**) is that with everything that the CB editorial/corrections team needs to field each week, adding editorial decisions about what is (or is not) a major or minor key is something that would eat up a ton of the team's time without a lot of "value added" to the CB product. YMMV, of course.
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Clean up for 12/20/2024 content update
in Content and Corrections
Posted
Any updates on this? This is still listed in the Comics category.