Adding Titles and/or Issues to CB

[Steven L. Dasinger]

While CB tries to have all Titles and Issues, it does not have every title and Issue (not to mention variations) that have ever been (or will be) published. They will (probably) have most modern (US) Titles and main Issues but it is very possible you have or will come across something that is not in CB. You can either send an email to Support (at) Comicbase.com about it or enter it yourself. This is an article on the basics of adding a new Title and/or Issue not in CB.

At a bare minimum to add a Title/Issue to CB you need a Title Name, Publisher, and Issue Number.

How to Add a New Title

Change to the correct Type (this example will be for Comic Books but the basics are the same for all types).

To do this click on the button in the top left corner just below the Menu bar. See attached.
or use CTRL+(number) where Number is 1-Books, 2-Comic Books, 3-Magazines, or 4-Newspapers.

Click the button to the right of the Select Type and select New Comic Book. See attached.
or use Menu Item->New <type> or Item->New-> New Type
or use CTRL+SHIFT+(number) where Number is 1-Books, 2-Comic Books, 3-Magazines, or 4-Newspapers.

This will bring up a window where you enter the new Title Name
Enter the name in text box (more on how to name a title in a bit) then click OK or press ENTER. See attached.
NOTE: The SAVE button at the bottom does not do anything.

This will bring up a New Comic Book Title window.
Enter a Publisher name. If the Publisher exists in CB, after typing 3 letters, you will start to get a list of Publisher suggestions. Either complete the Publisher's name or select from the list. Click Save. (more on Publishers in a bit) See attached.

(continued in How to Add New Issue)

How to Add a New Issue.
Either continue from the above or to add an issue to an existing Title.

NOTE: If adding to an existing Title, all the previous information will be duplicated and the issue number incremented by 1. You can delete or change anything needed.

Go to the Title you want to add a new issue to. On the left side of the window about half way down is a + - button. Click on this to bring up the New Issue window. See attached.

This will bring up the New Issue window.

(Continued from How to Add a New Title)
NOTE: The Window displayed for the two methods (through New Title or New Issue) are slightly different but not enough to change instructions.

At this point, make sure the Issue number is correct. then click Save. See attached.

How to Name a Title.

This can be a bit obscure for some things. First I would look to see if it is in CB.
NOTE: Since Leading articles are NOT at the beginning, I would leave it off when typing in the search box. For example for 'The Tenth Muse' just use 'Tenth Muse' (or just 'Tenth' or 'Muse') to see if you can find it.
For main issues of most mainstream US comics it should already be in CB. This may not be true for Variants, non-US, or smaller/obscure publishers (i.e. Kick Starter titles).
If in doubt, you can either post to the CB forum and ask or send a message to Support (at) ComicBase.com (cover scan and any information you can supply will help)

Some Rules / Guidelines (which may have contradictions already in the database):
1) Generally, try to use what is in the indicia/Title page. (This isn't always followed by CB and some publishers indicia names are strange)
2) Use curved ’ (apostrophe)  instead of a straight ‘ (‘tick’ mark)
3) Use … (ellipse) instead of ... (three consecutive periods).
4) It the Title includes a possessive (i.e. Will Eisner's, Walt Disney's, Michael Turner's) place an Ellipse at the end and put inside Parenthesis ().
5) Place leading Articles at the end of the name. If the Title has a colon : it would be after the name but before the colon.
English articles include 'The' 'A' and 'An'. Some non-English articles are 'El', 'De', 'Der', 'Die'. NOTE: This NOT a complete list (especially the non-English ones).
Special exemption. If the title contains a / (slash), the leading article is place at the very end and not just at the end of the first name. For example, 'The Batman/Judge Dredd Files' would be entered as 'Batman/Judge Dredd Files, The' and not 'Batman, The/Judge Dredd Files'.

Examples:

#2 Apostrophe ’
12 O’Clock High
 
#3 Ellipse …
After Watchmen…What’s Next?

#4 Possessive
All New Fathom (Michael Turner’s…)
7 Against Chaos (Harlan Ellison’s…)
Big Mickey Mouse (Walt Disney’s…)
Alchemist, The (H.P. Lovecraft’s…)
(note the article is at the end of the name but before the possessive in parenthesis)

#5 Leading Article (The, A, An, El, etc.)
13th Son, The
50’s Ditko Cover Gallery, A
Unkindness of Ravens, An
Arsenal, El
3 Geeks, The: Jim’s Jerky
(note the 'The is at the end but before the colon)
Batman/Judge Dredd Files, The
Complete Max Collins/Rick Fletcher Dick Tracy, The

This is by no means a complete list of things to deal with when naming Titles but it should cover the majority.

One more thing. CB Includes in a series thinks like Annuals and collections that only collect issues of that series and not in separate 'Annuals' or 'Collection' series.

Publisher Names

In General, CB leaves of part of the Publisher name such as 'Comics', 'Press' 'Entertainment', 'Books'. This is not always the case as doing this can cause duplicate of different Publisher ('Ace' when there is an 'Ace Comics', Ace Books', 'Ace Magazine' etc.) For example, the actual Publisher is 'Marvel Comics' or 'Marvel Worldwide, Inc.' but CB just uses 'Marvel'. This is the same for '10 Ton' Press, 'CA' Comics, 'Invader' Comics, etc.

All I can suggest is look and see what titles are in CB with the Publisher you are thinking of using. Check the Years Published (if a company published some back in the 40s (only) and the Publisher you are trying to use for a modern comic is the same, they probably are not the same publisher. You can also check the logo on the cover to see if they are the same (or different) although this is not definitive as a company can change the logos over time.
If if doubt ask on the forums or send a email to Support (at) Comicbase.com.

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A quick note on Issue Full Issue Number values in Issue Edit window.
The Full Issue Number is composed of four parts:
Type
Issue number
Variation
Printing

Regarding Type and (especially) Variation.
When CB was young and Types and Variations were few, CB starting using things like Gold, Platinum, Platinum Nude, Graphic Novel (to name a few) as part of the Full Issue Number. As time went on and Publisher went insane with differnt types of issues with combinations of features, this became difficult to come up with a short 2-5 character abbreviation to accommodate this. Similar when Variations went from 1 or 2 to dozens and hundreds (and in one case many thousands), they changed to using Variations A-Z, V27-V250 (so far).
This is not to day you can't use existing Types and Variations but they are used less today. Some Types like 'Anl' (annual), 'Ash' (ash can) are still used.

How to decide if or what Type and Variation to use is a difficult subject to give instructions on. It may be best to ask, if in doubt.

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As stated at the beginning, Title, Publisher and Issue number are the minimum needed to enter a comic.
You can, of course enter as much other information as you like (i.e. Cover Date, Cover Price, Stroylines, credits (Writer/Artist/Inker/Colorist/Letterer/Editor/Cover Artist/Cover Inker).