Douglas W. McCratic

The Avengers (1963) #1 has six variants listed. The first variant, #1-A has the title "The Coming of the Avengers" on the cover was released in 2012. The blasphemy that is the cover is correct in the pic. Who ever thought that Jack Kirby's original cover needed to be drowned by an extremely heavy handed modern colorist? The colorist's work on this cover makes Vince Colletta's inks look like a refined master. To make it worse, look at Iron Man's head. They not only made a mess of the colors, but added lines that make him look like a turtle trying to hide in its shell. The indicia reads "Avengers 1: The Coming of the Avengers!" so it really should be it's own title, not that it matters. The second variant, #1-B, is listed as the "El Capitan Theatre" variant but has the J. Scott Campbell variant cover for StanLeeCollectibles.com pictured. This book is actually a variant of #1-A and has the correct picture listed under #1-E. The El Capitan Theatre logo on the cover gives it away. El Capitan was released in 2012, the StanLeeCollectibles.com was released in 2014. Klaus Janson DID NOT ink the cover. Nei Ruffino colored this cover as indicated on the limited edition lithograph produced from the same art. Since there is a color credit but no inker mentioned, I think it is safe to say that if there is an inked version, J. Scott Campbell was responsible for the inks. #1-C is the sketch version of the J. Scott Campbell variant produced for StanLeeCollectibles.com which is noted on the lower left of the cover. It is produced from the pencils, there is no inker. I feel like it was also offered through the JScottCampbell.com store as they currently have shared exclusives but I can't be certain. #1-D has the exact same pic as #1-C but purports to be signed by Dick Ayers and limited to 50 copies. No signature is visible and while certainly possible, I think this is unlikely as this issue was offered initially as an SDCC exclusive and is still frequently referred to as such. It was released in 2014 and SDCC is generally in July but Mr. Ayers died in May of 2014. He may have signed some prior to his passing, but I have never seen one available and cannot find any references to them. Does anyone actually have a copy? Did it include a COA as that it apparently the minimum necessary to get signed issues listed? #1-E has no description whatsoever but the notes indicate that is was limited to 1500 copies printed for the El Capitan Theatre for the Avengers movie premiere. The pic is correct and has the John Romita Jr. cover pictured, again with the El Capitan Theatre logo on the cover to help verify it. The cover is inked and signed by Klaus Janson with colors by Dean White. I do not have a raw copy and cannot verify that the interior colors have or have not been "remastered." #1 is fine. #1-A is fine, cover art not withstanding. #1-B should be the El Capitan Theatre edition and have the pic from #1-E attached to it. It was released in 2012 and is a variant cover for #1-A, so I'm thinking this should be #1-B. The credits need to be cleaned up as well with John Romita Jr, on the cover, Klaus Janson inking the cover, and Dean White somewhere in the colorist section. UPC is 75960607726700121 #1-C need some cleanup. There is no cover inker and the description should probably include StanLeeCollectibles.com variant or Stan Lee surrounded by Marvel heroes. No UPC is on this book. #1-D possibly deleted? #1-E I guess should be the StanLeeCollectibles.com color variant with the pic from #1-B attached to it. It has a J. Scott Campbell cover/inks with colors by Nei Ruffino. No UPC is on this book. #1-F is fine, I assume. I don't have this one. If this sounds a bit hostile, I'm sorry but this isn't the first time I've corrected these books. The one signed by Ayers is new but otherwise I've submitted corrections on these before, seen them correct, and now they're a mess again. I'm confident that I added the Campbell cover and the Theatre edition initially with all the correct info as they were released some time apart.

So what is the threshold for it being "okay" to change a title? This week, I had two come back as Unrecognized Comic Titles. They were "Avatarex (Grant Morrison’s… )" and "Night Terrors: Graveyard Moon (John Carpenter’s… )". They were changed to "Avatarex (Grant Morrison’s…)" and "Night Terrors: Graveyard Moon (John Carpenter’s…)". I'l wait while you find the difference. SPOILERS BELOW.... Did you find it? Did you find that a single space after the ellipsis in each title was removed? A SINGLE SPACE. We changed two titles for a single space in the title. How is this acceptable but it is somehow not acceptable to change titles as mentioned in this thread to fix them so that they make some kind of sense? We have discussed how it might inconvenience some collectors and prevent them from getting updates to the titles that they own. Why inconvenience some collectors for the sake of a single space in a title but not others to make huge corrections to make the db follow some sensible order?

Wow....just....wow. What a mess this title became. I personally prefer that it be left as a comic but I also understand why it was moved away from that format. What I don't understand is how it became a book instead of a magazine. "TPB" doesn't work at all and now there are deluxe editions thrown in to make it extra confusing. If I recall correctly, it was published monthly and was generally on time more than any other books of the era.

In addition to slowing things down, without the knowledge I now have from digging all over for information on these books, it doesn't make any sense. The original title was "Justice League" in 1987 but that became "Justice League International," which changed titles in 1989 to "Justice League America." The trouble is that the books in question were placed under Justice League America, throwing a word into the title that is nowhere on these books. I understand that these two have the same writer/artist as was on the main title at the time but finding it would be near impossible without knowing that or looking for the title.

I'm with you again. If that story hadn't been indexed, would you have ever found it?

Just noticed the price on this is different in the old comic listing, the TPB was $61 which is probably right but the listing in books only shows cover.

Sorry, I’m more than a little out of sorts. Headache is back, not as intense but just as steady as the last one. Thankfully, it looks like this has been pulled together. I have the original prose book and had no idea that there was a MMPB until I had to move mine into that title. Big thanks to everyone that helped clear this up!

I got the pic to upload, I had misnamed it..... 🙄

Hellboy: The Lost Army (Novel) had its information lost in translation. It had been correct for more than 20 years but now has a more recent version's cover displayed with an incorrect price. The original cover is below and I submitted information on the original(?) version's information that I assume should be the TPB. I'm unsure because all the information on both versions is identical now, including the pic. I tried to submit what I believe to be the correct pic but for whatever reason, it doesn't appear to get accepted.

As mentioned before, I like to add my own pics on some special issues so that I have easy access in one place to all my books. These are generally blank covers with sketches on them. Additionally, I much prefer to enter FCBD issues as such in their respective titles using the year as the issue/item number. While convenient and easy on one hand, it creates a very lengthy "Unrecognized Items" report on the other. Could a field or check box be created where items would be skipped during the updates so that they are left in place and don't show up in the "Unrecognized Items" list? They already don't get price updates which is more than okay with me as I don't plan to sell the high end items and the low end items rarely change enough to warrant a second glance.

I like this too. I've manually done searches like this in the past and wished for something similar.

Thank you for this. I'm not a computer guy so I get lost in the jargon. I believe what you are suggesting is exactly what I have in mind. That said, it concerns me a bit that I had the same thought because HC has people trained in this and that have actually built all of this. Wouldn't they have already hit on it?

My interpretation as well.

Mine works as well!

Wow, I never imagined it would go 100, 200, 100,000! Thanks for the info!

Just curious, does anyone have the badges in their profile between "200 correction points" and "Making the Charts"? From where I sit, it looks like they should likely be related to correction points and I should probably have made at least one of them in between by now. I'm not trying to spoil the mystery, so if you prefer you can PM me.

No dice. What is the difference in the Collection Report- Comic Books and Collection Report - Comic Books (Auto)? I would have assumed that they are the same thing.

On Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, there is a Bk 1-HC. I feel confident that a hardcover doesn't exist with that cover or UPC. I have a softcover with the same cover but a different UPC but the UPC listed in CB appears on the inside front cover inside a box that reads "DIRECT EDITION". The price for my softcover matches the one listed in CB as a hardcover. mycomicshop.com Mile High have the same pic as a tpb from 2005 and both list it as a tpb. Same title has a SE 1 which has a price in British pounds on the cover. Should that be there?

Same here

I had a similar message come up under different circumstances although I don't recall what they were. This thread fixed it for me:

Based upon previous discussions about signed books and what earns them a variant status, I recommend the removal of Amazing Spider-Man #623-D based on the fact that it is not a variant in any real way. It is simply a signed copy of #623-C with no limitation, numbering, or COA.

I'm missing some random books in the reports. I feel like they would have been entered between December and February but am not 100% sure. I confirmed that they are in CB, they just don't turn up in any of my reports. I'm also still having the problem where some books appear in the Collection Report- Comic Books but not in Collection Report - Comic Books (Auto).

The TPB collects #1-6. The bottom of the last page reads "The End...For Now!" I feel confident that #7 & 8 do not exist.

I’m having the opposite problem Robert had. My book are not showing up in the search feature but do show up in some reports. They appear in the Collection Report- Comic Books but not in Collection Report - Comic Books (Auto). The books I entered yesterday are there after resaving to the the web this morning. Additionally, the reports have display issues. I have text on top of text, making some of it all but impossible to read and am unable to enlarge it or rotate the screen in order to try to give it more room.

Now I have this going on, too. I entered books this morning, saved it all to the web, and now the newest books did not show up. I followed the steps in the post above and deleted my online collections. Admittedly, I missed the step with the Collection Statistics, never having done it before. I rebuilt all the lists, including pictures. I saved everything to the web again and now books I entered today aren't showing up. In looking, I'm missing books from last week as well. I kept digging and found that I'm missing books online at least as far back as February 27. I'll try to get back and confirm that they are saved on my machine soon but I feel confident that they are. I have never had to do the Collection Statistics action before, is it necessary now?