Issues with parsing Indicia

[Fred Slota]

Consider the following indicia:

"BATMAN/CATWOMAN 1. February, 2021."  Entered as "Batman/Catwoman" #1

"BATMAN/CATWOMAN SPECIAL 1. March, 2022." Entered as "Batman/Catwoman Special" #1?  No, "Batman/Catwoman" #SE 1

 

"HARLEY QUINN 28.  May, 2023." Entered as "Harley Quinn (4th Series)" #28.

"HARLEY QUINN 2022 ANNUAL 1. October, 2022."  Entered as "Harley Quinn 2022 Annual" #1?  No, "Harley Quinn (4th Series)" #Anl 2022.

 

 

Words like "Annual", "Special", "Special Edition", with rare exceptions, should be interpreted as issue descriptors, not title descriptors, and should both be entered as Issue Types and not be entered part of the Title, and even in cases where the word is retained in the Title, it should also be carried as the Issue Type.  I think there are at least a few unrare exceptions that are mistakes that should be corrected. 

 

So, when presented with an indicia that reads "DAWN OF DC PRIMER SPECIAL EDITION 2023. July 2023.", I think we should have "Dawn of DC Primer" #SE 2023, not "Dawn of DC Primer Special Edition" #2023.

"DAWN OF DC KNIGHT TERRORS FCBD SPECIAL EDITION 2023. July, 2023",   I think we should have "Dawn of DC Knight Terrors" #SE 2023 (with FCBD 2023 in the Notes)  (This one is tricky, with the compound of FCBD and SE, mutually exclusive CB Types; I think there are multiple 'acceptable' ways to enter this)

"DOOMSDAY ANNUAL 1. 1995.", I think we should have "Doomsday" #Anl 1, not "Doomsday Annual" #1.

 

 

There are currently 65 Titles with "Special Edition" in the ComicBase title, and I suspect that for most of them, these weren't special edition titles, but special edition issues.

There are currently 126 Titles with "Annual" in the ComicBase title, which also might not need a reevaluation.  For example, from a previous thread, "When is an Annual not an Annual?", consider the cases of "Moon Knight Annual" #1, "She-Hulk Annual" #1 and "Wolverine Annual" #1

 

 

 

[Mark J. Castaneda]

Shared your post with our editorial team...

The very recently released 'Dawn of DC Primer' and 'Dawn of DC Knight Terrors' titles can be adjusted as you proposed.

The others have been in the database too long at this point, adjusting the title names/issue designations would change users' collections. They will stay as is.

Your points on everything will be kept in mind as we index future releases going forward. Thanks for sharing.

[Fred Slota]

Heads up on the upcoming "Contest of Chaos" event - I think at least some of these will be one-off Annuals without ongoing series to attach to, similar to the "Acts of Evil" event.