Comic book numbering is driving me crazy

wallywest

Trying to maintain my own database of books is a nightmare. Marvel of course sucks, with their frequent re-naming and maybe/maybe not re-numbering. At one point X-Men went through three different titles but continued with the same numbering the whole time. And now they took all their X-books and went from (for instance) Cable #5 to #150, because they decided to pretend like the series was never re-numbered and go with the total number of issues across all series. Because that makes sense.

But this takes the cake.

http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/908/424727_20180103210551_large.jpg

That would apparently be Joe Golem: Occult Detective #4. But it's not. The Index inside the cover calls it Joe Golem Flesh and Blood #1. And then throws in #9 in a series for good measure. So why the hell does it say #4 of 5 on the damn cover? Exactly the same as this issue, from three years ago!?!

http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/751/354257_20160203092708_large.jpg

Screw you Mignola.

[/rant]

lunchbox12682

This is just one of the many reasons why I had to pull back from comics as a whole. At least with things like Marvel Unlimited, I didn't have to worry since they were all there. But when I had my pull list it was such a pain. And when I missed "important" issues of a crossover since I didn't explicitly state I needed some obscure issue from another series, I was done.

Bobby Derie

wallywest wrote: »

That would apparently be Joe Golem: Occult Detective #4. But it's not. The Index inside the cover calls it Joe Golem Flesh and Blood #1. And then throws in #9 in a series for good measure. So why the hell does it say #4 of 5 on the damn cover? Exactly the same as this issue, from three years ago!?!

Dark Horse releases Mignolaverse comics as one-shots and limited series that contain a single arc. Those are labeled #1 to whatever. But those individual issues are all part of a single set of stories about that character, which is why on the inside it says "#9 in a series."

They do it that way because:

1. Originally they were just publishing limited series, and then began to string them together and wanted to keep track.
2. Turns out that makes it easier to publish and collect small storylines, which might be published irregularly
3. People like #1s
4. People also like to know where individual issues fall in relation to the other comics starring the character

So...not a bug, it's a feature. It's "#4 of 5" on the cover because it's issue 4 of a 5-issue limited series. It's "Flesh and Blood Part 1" because that's the name of that specific story in that issue, with Part 2 going to be in #5 of 5. It's #9 in a series because there were eight previous issues - three in the current series, and five in the previous series. That tells you that: if you like this, there's more of it coming, and there's more that there was before.

wallywest

I'm aware of all that, mostly because I've been into Hellboy stuff since the beginning. But their whole approach to numbering and series makes me think Mignola drops acid. Like, a lot.

A limited series which is #8 - 12 of some other series, has #1 - 5 on the covers, but actually is two other series #1-3 and #1-2? I had to add a couple more fields to my database specifically for this nonsense.

wallywest

lunchbox12682 wrote: »

This is just one of the many reasons why I had to pull back from comics as a whole. At least with things like Marvel Unlimited, I didn't have to worry since they were all there. But when I had my pull list it was such a pain. And when I missed "important" issues of a crossover since I didn't explicitly state I needed some obscure issue from another series, I was done.

Oh yeah, I hear ya on the pull list. I don't even do that any more, I've gone the pre-order route through midtown. Still has it's issues, and I end up grabbing a few random things I missed (or they missed), but I don't have much choice since the only nearby comic store closed down.

Bobby Derie

wallywest wrote: »

I'm aware of all that, mostly because I've been into Hellboy stuff since the beginning. But their whole approach to numbering and series makes me think Mignola drops acid. Like, a lot.

A limited series which is #8 - 12 of some other series, has #1 - 5 on the covers, but actually is two other series #1-3 and #1-2? I had to add a couple more fields to my database specifically for this nonsense.

This is why I just group all of them together on their own page.

InvisibleWebs

Has anyone else used the CLZ Comics app to track their collection? I started using it a few months ago and it's done a decent job of keeping things sorted for me... I haven't tried any of the newer issues yet but everything else it categorized by volumes. It corrected me a few times.

lionheartssj

InvisibleWebs wrote: »

Has anyone else used the CLZ Comics app to track their collection? I started using it a few months ago and it's done a decent job of keeping things sorted for me... I haven't tried any of the newer issues yet but everything else it categorized by volumes. It corrected me a few times.

I use CLZ as well, but some of my more obscure titles aren't listed and some issues have multiple listings. I suspect the latter is from user submissions so there may be multiples of the same issue, variant and all, with no discernible difference. Not a huge problem, but one I've run into more than once or twice. Otherwise, it's been great.