Field Reference

In the Edit Comic Screen you can add or edit comic data. Not just main issue data (publisher, writer, title, etc) - also personal data and cover images. You can open the Edit Comic Screen by selecting a issue and clicking on Edit | Edit One Comic, or by double clicking a issue.

On the various tabs (Main, Creators & Characters, Covers, Personal, etc) you see a lot of data fields. But what exactly should you enter in the Edition data field? And what about the Imprint field? Let's explain the Field Names.

Main tab

What exactly is the Series field?
In the Series field you actually, well, just enter the name of the series. So, if you're cataloging a Batman issue, you should just enter 'Batman' in the Series field. You can spot the series name on the cover of every comic. And when you're not sure you can check the indicia of the comic: the small text that's printed on the bottom on one of the first pages of the comic.

Series Group
If you think a comic belongs to a certain 'group' you can enter this info here. A 'group' that's covering multiple series. For example: you can decide to enter 'X-Men' as Series Group for the newest issue of The Astonishing X-Men series. And you can go back to older issues in your collection and add 'Series Group: X-Men' to X-Men solo limited series of Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine, Gambit, etc.

Issue Number
Over here you can enter the actual number of the issue. You can find the issue number on the cover of every comic. For collected editions you can find the 'issue' number on the spine of the book. When the comic is a one-shot and there simply is no issue number available you can decide to leave this field empty, or enter a '1'.

Issue Extension
When there's only one print of your comic, you can ignore this field. But when the publisher decides to do a bunch of re-prints or variant editions, you can use this field as a 'second issue number'. For example: you can get yourself two issues of the newest Superman issue, the regular issue and the variant cover issue. You enter all these issues as issue number '685'. Now you can add the issue extension 'A' to the regular first print, and a 'B' to the 'variant cover'. Now, if there's another reprint or variant it would be a 'C' and so on.

Edition
We just mentioned two editions of the newest Superman issue. Well, in the Edition field you enter what the actual issue is. You can enter 'First Print' if it's a first printed edition. You can enter 'Second Print', 'Variant Cover', whatever.

Cover Price
Here you enter the price that's printed on the cover. Or, when there's no price printed on the cover, you can enter the common retailer price. In the Personal Tab you'll find fields for the purchase price and current value.
When you spot two prices on the cover (e.g. US and Canadian) just pick the most common price.

Publication Date vs. Release Date
Comics are released on a certain date. Too bad sometimes the publication date on the cover is different. E.g. a Marvel Comic can have a release date '2008/11/26', but the cover (publication) date is '2009/1/0'. That's why you spot these two date fields.

Crossover
A story that takes place in issues of different series or a huge story event in a fictional universe. So, a crossover always covers multiple series. Example are Marvel's Secret Invasion and DC's Final Crisis.

Story Arc
A continuing story within a series. E.g. issue #25 is 'Mad Collections Chapter 1 of 2', issue #26 is 'Mad Collections Chapter 2 of 2'. The story arc for both issue #25 and issue #26 is 'Mad Collections'.

Title
The actual title of a comic story. Not to confuse with the series name: the title is really just the title of the story.
If the story is part of a crossover or story arc, we add the 'Chapter/Part' to the Title field. So, if a story arc is called 'The Dangerous Collector' and the title of the third chapter is called 'Focus!' we catalog like this:
- Story arc The Dangerous Collector
- Title Part 3: Focus!

Sub Title
The 'second' title of a story in a comic. So, when a comic story is called: 'The Man With No Collection: All Is Lost'. The title is 'The Man With No Collection', the sub title is 'All Is Lost'.

Collection Status
You can change the status of every single issue in your personal database file. You can choose from status: In Collection, Wanted, On Order, Not In Collection and For Sale. So, this means you can add issues you don't have yet to your database file and set them to status 'Wanted'.

Index
You can manually or automatically add index numbers to every comic book in your database file. You can use these index numbers so that every single entry in your database file got a unique number. Via Tools | Maintenance you can (re)set the index numbers automatically.

Quantity
Do you have a duplicate issue in your collection? Set the quantity to '2'.

Genre
Here you can check the genres that apply to your comic. For super-hero comics you can check genres like 'Super-Heroes' and 'Action'. Of course you can also create you own new genres.

Publisher
The company that published your comic book. For US-comics well-known companies are Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Image Comics. You'll find the name of the publisher on the cover and/or in the indicia of the comic.

Imprint
A brand name under which certain comics are published. A publisher may have multiple imprints for various reasons. Marvel Comics for example, got a Imprint called MAX Comics. They use this imprint to publish more mature content.

Format
A standard issue is simply called a 'comic'. Collected editions are called a 'Trade Paperback' (if it's a softcover) or a 'Hardcover' (if it's a hardcover). You can also enter formats like 'Softcover', 'Album', or whatever you prefer.

Number of Pages
Just count the number of pages and there you go. In our online comic database we do catalog all the number of pages: interior art plus ads.

Printed By
Every comic is printed by a print company. A lot of comics are printed in Asia. In the Printed By field you can enter the name of the company.

ISBN
A ISBN is a unique International Standard Book Number. Regular US-comics doesn't have a ISBN. Collected Paperbacks, Hardcovers and European albums do have a ISBN.

Age
Comic Collectors split US-comics into several ages or historical eras. Although debatable, the basic set-up is like this:
- Golden Age: Comics published from 1938 to 1945
- Atomic Age: Comics published from 1946 to 1956
- Silver Age: Comics published from 1957 to 1969
- Bronze Age: Comics published from 1970 to 1985
- Modern Age: A term applied to comics published from the 1980s to the present

Always keep in mind, most of the time you don't have to enter any data yourself.
You'll download all the data directly from our online comic database!

Creators & Characters tab

Over here you can enter the name of a creator and assign the creator to a role: writer, artist, inker, colorist, editor, etc. A penciller is the person who's making the sketches and the illustrations. A inker is the person who's inking the illustrations. A artist applies to somebody who's doing both the illustrations and the ink.
You can also select three User Roles. In Tools | Field Names you can set these three roles to your standards.

In the characters section you simply enter the names of the characters that appear in the comic. You can enter the first name, last name and character alias.

Covers tab

Here you can add a home-scanned front and back cover to your comic book. Click 'Edit' if you manually want to remove white scan edges for example. If your cover is a wraparound cover you can check the checkbox on the bottom of the Covers tab (a wraparound cover is one of the these covers that combines the front and the back cover of a comic book).

Contents tab

Some comics got multiple stories. Over here you can enter the various stories of these comics. For every story you can enter a title and a bunch of creators and characters. You can also use the Contents tab for collected paperbacks and hardcovers.

Personal tab

Here you spot the following fields (and a bunch of other fields, but it's not necessary to explain these here):

Owner
In this field you can enter who owns the comic. So, if your name is 'Peter' you can enter 'Peter'. Yes, it's really easy.

Location
Here you can enter the number (or name) of the closet or shelve where you can physically find your comic.

Tags
You can use the tags for a lot of stuff. It's totally free form. You can enter whatever tag you want in every comic you own. Separate your tags using the [Enter] button.
Examples of tags about covers: Photo Cover, Bad Girl Art Cover, Comic With Coffee Stain On Cover... It's all possible. Tags allow you to filter and group on whatever tag you created.

User Defined
On the Personal tab you'll also find four User Defined fields. Maybe you think we totally missed something in our software. Well, via the Tools | Field Names you can set these four free form fields to whatever you think is important.

Rating
Wanna rate your comics? Just deselect the Not Rated checkbox and rate every single comic in your collection from One (for crappy comics) to Ten (best comic ever).

Read data
On the bottom of the Personal tab you spot the following fields: Times Read, Read It (checkbox) and Reading Date. Read a issue six times? You can enter '6' in the Times Read counter. You can also select multiple issues and check the Read It checkbox to make sure your detail view says Read It: Yes.

Links tab

Last but not least. In the links tab you can add links to files, images, movie clips online and on your local PC. If you're a fan of interior art you can add scanned pages and other images to your comics.