The Way of the Editor:

Reasons for Not updating

The Editor dodges death in Chicago only to face the terror of The Threat From Inside Her Inbox…

 

It’s not an excuse. But between traveling for cons, clearing off the paperwork—literally a foot and a half feet high at one point—and trying to wrestle down the unwieldy beast that we’ve unleashed with the new Submit Correction feature in ComicBase (now available in version 10.0.7, Express, and ComicBase 11) there’s been nil time to even think about writing anything articulate for the webpage until now.

But hey, Pete’s somehow pulled the time to whine about his inbox from somewhere (he may have been packing a pan-dimensional portal—I haven’t checked), so I figure I’d join the chorus as well. Not that it hasn’t been fun watching the ComicBase Top (Ten) Contributors billboard move around each day as user corrections pour into our inboxes, but boy, has there been a lot! You should hear our morning narrations as we check our e-mail and cheer for whichever one of our favorites is pulling up ahead.

Just this past month, Mark Waid rose out of the depths of ComicBase obscurity, ranking around 600-something in the list, to claim second place from longtime-defender Glenn Simpson, three-month reigning champion. Although we can’t explain why customers like Mark are sending in submissions at 5am in the morning, who are we to complain? (By the way, Mark—if you're reading this, go to bed already!)

Unfortunately, the adventures in the inbox had to go on standby while we were out during the prime summer con season. Okay, I exaggerate, we just went to San Diego and Chicago this year. San Diego was a blast, and BIG thanks go out to all the kind folk who came out to see us. Chicago just two weeks later was much more grueling run for those of us who went. The Human Computing booth ended up right in front of the International Fight League booth, which translates to a behemoth 40” x 40”wrestling ring and some very loud speakers placed in our faces, and let’s just say that loud speakers + wrestlers do not equal to selling comic inventory software. I guess something about the yelling at the customers must have put people off.

We did eventually got moved to a new location in the convention center, and life was much happier there. Pete was so pleased, he broke out a can of diet coke to celebrate:

 

Chicago behind us, we returned to a combined inbox of roughly 3000 support/correction items, many of which we had tried to tackle while at the Con, but with limited internet access, not entirely successfully. Back to the grindmill it was, and the excitement of the Top Ten Billboard race.

Of course, we don’t always take every correction we get, and the second challenge that comes with user submitted corrections is the double/triple checking of the the references we get for 1) the existence of the comic and 2) the accuracy of the information. This is all in addition to reformatting notes and names to fit our requirements as well. Granted, we don’t always catch everything that comes in, but we certainly try.

For the record, highlights of indexing glory just this past week included synching up the Elfquest graphic novels with the many (many!) reprints from different publisher that have been published out there, as well as adding K.G. Murray’s Australian reprints of DC super-hero titles under The Hundred Comic Monthly, The Hundred Comic, and The Hundred Plus Comic, three titles that continued the numbering of the same series. Special thanks to user Barry Shepherd for that last titular tidbit! We’re also surprisingly complete on Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane now and, for the small amount of people for whom this really matters, the Charlton Blue Beetle books have finally been all sorted out. (We had collapsed about 4 series into one, but they’ve been spun off into their own thing now as separate Charlton Blue Beetles series.)

And so, the ongoing quest to make ComicBase the most inclusive database of comics available continues…

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OTHER NEWS OF NOTE:

ComicBase contributor John Simpson brings this urgent report to your screen—Dateline Hollywood reports on the line for Comic Con 2007:

San Diego - Local businesses have filed complaints with the city council about crowding and malodor as thousands of comic book, fantasy and science fiction fans who left Comic-Con 2006 last Sunday immediately began to line up outside the San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con 2007.

“I would have been back in line last Sunday evening, but I had to make some important repairs to my Stormtrooper costume,” said Bob Fett, who as second in line for next year’s LucasFilm panel. “I got a crack in my spacesuit shell, and there’s an autobody guy in New Mexico who’s the only one willing to fix it. But now I’m back, and I’m so ready to wait.” Read more…