Gregory Hecht

My vote is that scans of the front covers of items should be right-side-up as determined by that item in its own right, not in the context of connecting images from other items. (But if you want to flip the images that you store locally for when your database draws upon when you run ComicBase, that is entirely up to you.)

I am pretty sure that for the three Marvel titles that you list by name, they were called "Annual" in their indicia. I would have to go back and check, but I don't think that the "Acts of Evil" annuals were an ongoing connected storyline but instead more of a theme (i.e., various Marvel characters facing off against foes that they had not fought in the past). It is not surprising that there are a lot of titles in the database with "Annual" in the title, especially since the database includes UK comics. There are, admittedly, some oddities that have cropped up over the years. For instance, I am guessing that X-Files Annual 2015 got its own title since it came out with a cover date of July 2015, between the end of the X-Files Season 10 series and the launch of the X-Files Season 11 series. In regards to issue numbering, there was a period of a few years where Marvel stopped sequentially numbering their annuals and used the year (either all four digits of the year or the last two digits with an apostrophe) as the issue identifier. In those cases, the database uses the year as the issue number (which is the correct approach for those particular issues because that is what the publisher did).

ComicBase can get "confused" when two titles differ only by punctuation or by spaces (this is a longstanding issue and it is my understanding that it is not something that can be fixed). The Find function and navigating through titles alphabetically forward or backward can be affected. This is only a two issue title. So it may be easiest to do the following (assuming Rebuild Lists doesn't solve the problem): 1. Go to one of the versions of the title. Make a note as to whether you have either of the two issues in stock, then delete the title. 2. Navigate to a new title (any random title will do) and then do a Find for Little Lulu and Tubby at Summer Camp. Upon arriving at that title, check to see if punctuation and spacing are all correct. If not, manually correct them. Then update as necessary to account for anything you had in stock in the title that you deleted in step #1 above.

Fixed that for you. Although, for the record, my preference is for the former choice.

This was corrected in today's content update.

Same with my database (although it does show up in search b/c that title is in the "Item Title" field... which is entirely appropriate).

@Mark J. Castaneda What is the official CB policy on this kind of notation in the cover artist fields? Doesn't this kind of notation have the potential to affect the outcome of searches for specific people in that field?

Yes, this was definitely handled in today's update.

This week's update added the book title A Once Crowded Sky. What is the CB editorial policy on indefinite articles? Should this be indexed as Once Crowded Sky, A ? Also added was the Comic title The Dead Princess Vicky Styx. That should be cataloged as Dead Princess Vicky Styx, The .

I don't think Richard is discussing cataloging actual physical cosmic cubes in the real world, I read his post as adding information about the appearances of objects in specific comic book issues. So, no need to make a new media type. Assuming that I am correct, I would think that the Appearances field would be the best place for this, although @Mark J. Castaneda and the CB editorial team would be the ones to decide whether that is an appropriate use of that field.

It has been a lingering issue that some people's names haven't been standardized in the database. As multiple names for the same person are discovered, they should pointed out to the CB editorial team (especially @Mark J. Castaneda ) so they can settle on a standard version and update the database accordingly. As an aside: a thornier problem is how to handle pseudonyms. Long ago, it was stated on the original message boards (link doesn't work; don't know if the old boards were intentionally taken down) that the policy was to list all creators by their standard name even if a pseudonym was used in the credits of the comic. This was brought up in the comments of a relatively recent Livestream, and @Peter R. Bickford indicated that it might be worth revisiting the topic... I don't think that has happened yet as other things have been on the front burners, but maybe this post will nudge that along a little bit.

That is certainly another valid option.

@Mark J. Castaneda I've had a chance to check the indicia for the Timeless 2022 title, and it simply states "Timeless No. 1". It doesn't say "2022" or "volume 2" or any other qualifier. This title should be renamed to something like Timeless (2nd series) or Timeless (2nd one-shot). [I recommend against Timeless (2022) or Timeless (2023) given the fact that the street date is 2022 and the indicia date is 2023.]

The following items have been cancelled: Deathgasm: issues #2 and #3 Phantom Tomorrow, The: issues #2 and #3 Crystal Planet: Book #1 Adventures of Adrienne James, The: Issues #1, #2, and Book #1 HC (I have heard that there is an issue #0 that was published, but I have been unable to confirm this) Dark Wing: Issues #6, #7, Book #1, and Book #1 HC Entropy (Heavy Metal): issues #2, #, and #4 Maiden: issue #2 Segments: issue #1 Starward: everything except issue #1 (which was already published) Sun Eater: issues #4, #5, #6, Book #1, Book #2 Sun Eater (Vol. 2): issues #1 and #2 Heavy Metal (2nd Series): #321 and #322; #320 is apparently long overdue, but no official word on cancellation yet

This week's update added HC (2nd print) to The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker. • First, this title belongs in Comic Books, not Books. • Second, I'm not sure that the all of the cover prices and scans match up for the items listed under this title. This will take a little bit of detective work on my end, not sure when I will get to it. Unless somebody else can jump in on this one, I will have to follow up on this in the next week or so. Also added was HC #1 to the book title Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History. This title now has a #1 item and a HC #1 item, both with the same cover price. How many editions of this book were published? And were they actually part of a numbered series? AFAIK, there is just a single volume hardcover version coming in March. So some clean-up is needed here. The Book title The Seventh Sigil was added. This should really be indexed as Seventh Sigil, The The following #1 items were added to the Books category. Were all of these part of numbered series? I suspect that at least a couple were not, but I cannot vouch for all of them. • Alice in Wonderland: The Official Cookbook #HC 1 • Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary #1 • Life Is Strange: Steph’s Story #1 • Little Mermaid Pop-Up Book, The #HC 1 • Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History #HC 1 • Nightmare Before Christmas Character Pop, The: Jack Skellington #HC 1 • Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America #1 • Story of Disney, The: 100 Years of Wonder #HC 1 • Ultraman: The Official Novelization #1 • World of Reading: Star Wars: The Battle of Endor #1

I agree, #1-2 definitely doesn't fit the definition of "second printing".

@Mark J. Castaneda will be the final arbiter, of course, but it sounds to me like the two Dick Tracy books should go to comics and the Mixx Buxley title should remain in Books.

Jeez, I had no idea that there were so many *different* "Genius" books for Alex Toth. Makes sense keeping the slipcase as a separate title since I gather that the individual books aren't numbered volumes.

The following Book titles were added to the database in the most recent content update. These should have been added to the Comics media category. • Dennis the Menace: Ain’t Misbehavin’ • Hi and Lois: Mama’s Home • Jeffy’s Lookin’ at Me! Clearly there is a user out there who is continuing to submit these based on item construction rather than on item contents. If the editorial team can figure out who that is, it might be worth dropping them an email. Also discovered the following titles (not added this week) that should be moved from Books to Comics: • Dennis the Menace: Surprise Package • Dennis the Menace: All-American Kid • Dennis the Menace: I Done It My Way • Can anybody verify whether the contents of Dennis the Menace, His First 40 Years are primarily contents or primarily text? Given the ongoing issues with comic strip reprints ending up in Books rather than Comics, can anybody verify the contents of Dick Tracy's Fiendish Foes? There were a whole bunch of "Genius" Alex Toth books added, but I gather from @Steven L. Dasinger's posts on Slack that those will get cleaned up. So if you have any of those books in your collection, I suggest sitting tight for the next week for HC to get that sorted out properly before entering them into your database. Added to the Comic Book category: A Day in the Life of the Octopus. That should really be Day in the Life of the Octopus, A Having said, that, it looks like this might be a duplication of a title in the Comics category that is in fact indexed as Day in the Life of the Octopus, A.

Yes, those two titles have been packaged and re-packaged so many times that they have gotten complicated! Collected editions of the original Hellblazer series is another complicated one. It probably should have gotten some "break out" reprint titles in the database, but that ship has sailed so long ago that any kind of major clean-up will screw up the inventories in everybody's databases. Emails to support usually should work, not sure what was going on over at Human Computing that caused difficulties with emails going to the support desk. If emails don't work, then the forum should work fine. The forum is an especially good place to go if there is something complicated that would benefit from getting multiple sets of eyeballs on it and getting some discussion.

In general, my understanding of CB's current editorial policy is that if a collected edition only collects issues from a single series, then the item often gets placed with the title it is reprinting. There are exceptions, particularly if the collected edition is part of a series itself -- examples would include DC Archives, EC Archives, Marvel Masterworks, Marvel Epic collections. The timing of the release of the collected edition vs. the printing of the original series typically doesn't come into play. This is particularly true for short run series and mini-series that get reprinted in single "one-and-done" volumes (see this thread for an example). In situations where issues from multiple series are included in a collected edition, then the item should probably be under its own title. There may be exceptions, but typically this is the convention that is followed. In this particular case, there are books in the Justice League of America Silver Age and Justice League of America Bronze Age omnibus series that include issues from outside of the main Justice League of America title, so both of those series of reprints really do need to be listed as separate titles (which is the consensus decision in this thread, of course).

I'm seeing only three versions of Maxx #0.5 listed in the master database. Based on posts in other threads, I think that this user has some duplications in his database that are not in the master database.

Antioch issues #3 & #4 have been cancelled. Doesn't sound like they will be resolicited, the current plan is for the series to go straight to a tpb collection that will include the cancelled issues.

Well, oddities like that can happen because, as I'm sure we all know, cover dates and on-sale dates can differ by 2-3 months. Holiday specials, for example, can have different years in their title and their cover date as stated in the indicia.

I would have to go back to check the indicia for the most recent Timeless issue, but yes, there have been two separate one-shots from Marvel with the title Timeless.