Who do you credit in regards to comic books?

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I agree with the above. Who wrote that issue? Who drew it? I want to be able to sort by Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott, Ed Brubaker, etc.

Pretty sure you can do that with Comicrack provided you have correct metadata.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by jeffery

comics books are strange things. there are so many hands involved in creating one that it seems strange to attribute just one person as the author.

the original creator ( who may by now be long dead or no longer involved )
the writer
the penciler
the inker
the colorist
the editor
even the letterer
etc...

But when it comes to out metadata and most software, there's only one spot for the author.

This is where I'm going to say, use the right tool for the job.

I'm looking at the metadata for one of my comics and I have

Writer
Penciler
Inker
Colorist
Letterer
Cover Artist
Editor (multiple people here)

Calibre is not what you want for comics.

[sealbeater]

All the available metadata I have for comics under details:

Series
Volume
Number
Title
Year
Month
Day
Publisher
Alternate Series or Storyline Title
Story Arc
Series Group
Writer
Penciler
Inker
Colorist
Age Rating
Manga *true/false*
Letterer
Cover Artist
Language
Editor
Genre
Tags: Here, I have comicvine id

[jeffery]

Originally Posted by sealbeater

This is where I'm going to say, use the right tool for the job.

Calibre is not what you want for comics.

So what does work well for comics?

[HarryT]

The question to ask yourself is what criteria you need to be able to search your collection by: that is, after all, the reason that metadata is there. Do you need to be able to find all the comics lettered by "X"? If you do, then having "Letterer" metadata is important for you, but if you don't, it's completely irrelevant.

So decide what searches you need to be able to perform, and set up your metadata accordingly.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by jeffery

So what does work well for comics?

I use a combination of comictagger

https://github.com/davide-romanini/comictagger

and Comicrack

http://comicrack.cyolito.com/

But only to tag what comictagger misses and to move the tagged files to their final destination. However, it works fairly well if you want to use an app to manage your files.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The question to ask yourself is what criteria you need to be able to search your collection by: that is, after all, the reason that metadata is there. Do you need to be able to find all the comics lettered by "X"? If you do, then having "Letterer" metadata is important for you, but if you don't, it's completely irrelevant.

So decide what searches you need to be able to perform, and set up your metadata accordingly.

Wouldn't it make more sense to grab all the available metadata for the comic files and then use it to sort and search accordingly?


I'm not sure how one decides to exclude specific metadata, unless you are entering values by hand which would be less than optimal.

There are automated solutions for grabbing metadata for comics just like they are for books.

[Fluribus]

I like comic books, but I'm not an aficionado. I buy the book. If I'm buying a Batman comic, I'm buying Batman. For my purposes, I don't care who created the character. I don't care who did all the various parts of the book.

With a corporate work there are too many permutations to worry about the specific people involved. If I consistently hate the story and artwork, then I start noticing who is involved. I don't generally watch movies based upon actors or directors, either.

Most of the novels that I read have a single author. It's easier to keep track.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I attribute the writer of that particular issue. NOBODY cared about Animal Man until Grant Morrison wrote him.

I respect Steve Ditko an awful lot, but I'd rather read Peter Milligan's Shade the Changing Man and Dennis O'Neil's The Question.

I don't fault Steve Ditko for the way that his version of Shade The Changing Man turned out because he never got to finish the series, it just stopped at a point. It, along with other series like Metal Men (one of my favorite series), were cancelled as part of the DC Implosion where many titles were cancelled at the same time. I can't speak about Ditko's version of The Question but the O'Neil's The Question was excellent.

As far as how I credit comics, I generally credit the writer(s), penciller(s), and inker(s). The reason for crediting both the penciller and inker is that the inker can have a great impact on the way the final art turns out. I remember seeing a Batman page where they took a penciled page and put different inkers to it. The differences between the inkers were substantial.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I don't fault Steve Ditko for the way that his version of Shade The Changing Man turned out because he never got to finish the series, it just stopped at a point. It, along with other series like Metal Men (one of my favorite series), were cancelled as part of the DC Implosion where many titles were cancelled at the same time. I can't speak about Ditko's version of The Question but the O'Neil's The Question was excellent.

Oh yeah. That wasn't intended as a slap at Ditko. Just Peter Milligan's Shade was a favorite of mine.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Oh yeah. That wasn't intended as a slap at Ditko. Just Peter Milligan's Shade was a favorite of mine.

I agree about Milligan's Shade The Changing Man being an excellent read at the beginning. They took Ditko's Shade... as a starting point, but then moved it in a different direction. I lost a bit of interest in the title as time when on though, much like with Morrison's Animal Man series although I did stay with it until the end of his run.