Thoughts for post Archangel

[Fred Slota]

It's early, but that's the best time to get the wheels rolling.  I have four thoughts on large-scale projects that could be undertaken for the next-next ComicBase offering.

 

1) Making the hard changes to finally remove the deprecated features and non-standard Titling and Issue assignments.  

 

Deprecated Issue Variations.

Non-standard Titles ((Walt  Disney's...), Limited Series vs. Series 2, "Moon Knight Annual", etc.)

Issues that should be in separate/different titles.

 

"Yeah, it's wrong, but it's been that way for years."

"There are too many of these items on sale in Atomic Avenue."

 

Take the time to plan a path to clean up all these legacy issues.  Maybe create a new, second set of Title and Issue fields, Title2 and Issue2.  Search by both, list with both.  Allow the user to choose which set to use for viewing and reports, while officially using the original form on Atomic Avenue for a year or two.  Then, after a period of supporting both old and new designations, rename Title/Issue to Title (old)/Issue (old) and rename Title2/Issue2 to Title/Issue.

 

 

2) Overhaul the database structure, and protect the integrity/consistency of the data.

 

2a) The current structure has 2 levels of information, Titles and Issues.  This structure is too flat; we should have more.  A given Issue Type and Number has the same Artist and Writer, regardless of Variation or Printing.  It has the same plot description and appearances.  These fields should not be repeating over and over.  This introduces bloat, and delay, and opportunities for data inconsistencies.  Variations and Printings have different Cover Artists, have different cover attributes.  These fields should be separate for each individual entry.

 

2b) Additionally, existing fields need to be scrutinized and adjusted for basic, separate data types.  The storyline field needs to be split; it currently holds individual Anthology titles, single-book titles, and multi-book Arc titles, as well as part numbers and possibly total issue counts.  The current ideal for Item Description contains duplicate Cover Artist and circulation information, as well as cover paper, ornamentation description, picture description and several other information types.  

 

2c) The recent overhaul of creator names, spurred by the introduction of support for the full range of international characters, is a great start.  Two things.  First, consistency/regularization of information across all the other fields should also be carried out.  Creator Names are also entered in Item Description and Notes fields.  Common cover styles should use consistent wording/spelling.  Storyline Arcs should be spelled identically.  In some cases, this can be helped by separating information into their own fields.  And second, after cleaning them up, systems should be put in place to maintain them.  CB should have a master list of official names, and should periodically (ideally weekly before pushing updates, but other periods are acceptable) vet any new names for correctness.  Similar steps should be performed, either automatically, or manually, on all other fields.

 

 

3) Explore expansions into dealing with groups of comic books.

 

ComicBase is great when your focus is on either an individual issue or on your entire collection.  At the issue level, you can identify it, get a description of it, see a price history, research a sales history, and purchase or sell it to anyone around the globe.  At the collection level, you can generate reports of all kinds.  Owned or wanted, For Sale or Purchased.  Different amounts of data.

 

But, with all this information and all these tools, I think there is a weird hole in functionality, and that hole can roughly be described by attempting to do tasks that revolve around groups of books.  Comic books are not individual, stand-alone, one-and-done things.  There are continuing storylines.  There are repeat appearances.  There are common creators.  There are related covers.  And we are comic book collectors.  There are people who want to have complete storylines, read things in order, see their favorite characters, support their favorite creators, have complete sets.  And ComicBase is very bad at supporting this.

 

How many issues are in this series?  Do I have all the issues of this series?  Was there a preceding issue/prequel story?  Is there a continuing story?

How many issues are there in this Story Arc?  Do I have all the issues of this storyline?  Were there Tie-ins?  Do I have all of them?  What order do I read them in?

Which issue that I own have related covers?  Do I have the related covers?

For this title, I have several issues and TPBs.  Which issues or TPBs should I get to finish the series without overlapping?

 

Some of this requires information that is not being collected.  Reading order.  Storyline count.  Useful TPB component identification.

Some of this requires information that is not collected in a useful form.  Storyline part number.

Some of this requires information be maintained consistently.  Spelling, typographic standards.

Some of this requires information that can be computed in the database.  Issue count.

 

4) Hole Finder. 

 

How can we be 20+ years in on a database to support comic collectors and it doesn't include a tool to find holes?  Who doesn't want to finish a whole series, complete a run?

 

I see this as a special case of #3, above.  To recognize a hole, the program has to have a concept of the group.  Titles, even limited series, are just a heap of records.  If you don't have a concept of 'This is an 8 issue miniseries', then you can't have the awareness that 'You are missing an issue; do you want to get it?'