What’s the difference between the Professional and the Archive editions? How do I renew weekly updates after my subscription has expired? What versions of Windows does ComicBase work on? Does ComicBase run on Macintosh computers?
What’s the difference between the Professional and the Archive editions?
How do I renew weekly updates after my subscription has expired?
What versions of Windows does ComicBase work on?
Does ComicBase run on Macintosh computers?
What do upgrades cost? Can I download updates from the web? Can I download pictures from the web? What’s the difference between a content update and a program update? Will the titles I’ve added to the old version be picked up by the updater? What happens to the notes I’ve entered when I run the updater?
What do upgrades cost?
Can I download updates from the web?
Can I download pictures from the web?
What’s the difference between a content update and a program update?
Will the titles I’ve added to the old version be picked up by the updater?
What happens to the notes I’ve entered when I run the updater?
Does ComicBase include every comic ever published? How do you decide which titles to include in ComicBase? How far back do the titles go? Does ComicBase cover independents? Where can I find a list of all the titles in ComicBase? Can I add my own titles? Where are the rest of the X-Men (or Justice Leagues, or...)? Why isn’t (my favorite title) listed in ComicBase?
Does ComicBase include every comic ever published?
How do you decide which titles to include in ComicBase?
How far back do the titles go?
Does ComicBase cover independents?
Where can I find a list of all the titles in ComicBase?
Can I add my own titles?
Where are the rest of the X-Men (or Justice Leagues, or...)?
Why isn’t (my favorite title) listed in ComicBase?
What Is ComicBase’s pricing based on? What is the difference between an issue’s cost, value, and selling price? Why are the totals for "Current Value" and "Selling Price" different on reports?
What Is ComicBase’s pricing based on?
What is the difference between an issue’s cost, value, and selling price?
Why are the totals for "Current Value" and "Selling Price" different on reports?
How do I use ComicBase to keep track of multiple collections? How do I go directly to the next comic’s issue detail screen when modifying several comics? I’ve got a bunch of variant comics. How do I know what to call them? What’s the best way to backup my database? How do I restore from a backup
How do I use ComicBase to keep track of multiple collections?
How do I go directly to the next comic’s issue detail screen when modifying several comics?
I’ve got a bunch of variant comics. How do I know what to call them?
What’s the best way to backup my database?
How do I restore from a backup
How do I transfer an older database to ComicBase? How do I post comics to Atomic Avenue for sale? I can’t find my picture folder. Where did it go? What do I do when I get an Error 1710, Error 2738 or “Installation ended prematurely” error? I need to download ComicBase again. How do I do that? I have a tech issue not covered in this FAQ
How do I transfer an older database to ComicBase?
How do I post comics to Atomic Avenue for sale?
I can’t find my picture folder. Where did it go?
What do I do when I get an Error 1710, Error 2738 or “Installation ended prematurely” error?
I need to download ComicBase again. How do I do that?
I have a tech issue not covered in this FAQ
The ComicBase Express Edition comes on a single CD-ROM (or digital download). It includes the entire database with over 5,000 cover images. ComicBase Express supports barcodes for faster data entry and includes a year of free downloadable price & issue updates.
The ComicBase Professional Edition comes on one DVD (or digital download), and includes the entire database, everything in the Express, extensive creator credits, plus almost 40,000 cover scans. It also includes great bonuses like Batch Barcode entry, custom fields, and support for viewing and adding to your collection on mobile devices.
The Archive Edition has everything the Professional Edition has, plus about five times more content packed onto four DVD-ROM disks (also available as digital download if your computer lacks a DVD-ROM drive). The huge capacity of DVD-ROMs lets us include over 950,000 images—the majority of which are in full size, high definition format. These are not only gorgeous to look at, but valuable for helping identify variants and special comics. It also includes almost a hundred video clips and exclusive interviews with some of comics’ most influential creators, including Mark Waid, Frank Miller, Julius Schwartz, and many more.
The 4K Archive Edition is the mother of all comic collection software. Over 46 GB of content and our complete library of more than 925,000 high quality cover images, with tens of thousands in ultra-high-definition 4K format. The 4K Archive edition has all the expanded features of Archive, including expanded creator fields for storyline, writer, penciler and more as well as the ability to export to mobile phones and tablets, customizable fields, and Four year price histories with graphs for each comic. 4K Archive Edition users can also download new and enhanced cover images in up to 4K resolution.
If you have a current version of ComicBase, you can easily continue getting your weekly updates--as well as the most current version of ComicBase by renewing your subscription at www.comicbase.com>My Account>Registrations.
Current versions of ComicBase (including ComicBase FREE and ComicBase Express) will run on Windows 8, 8.1, or later (including Windows 10). Earlier versions of Windows are no longer supported by Microsoft, so we are unable to guarantee that ComicBase works on them, and we would encourage you to upgrade older machines to at least Windows 8.
As long-time ComicBase users know, we originally came out as a Macintosh-only program. Today, the program runs natively on Windows computers, but we still love the Mac. You can run the program on your Mac under Parallels (or a similar solution like VirtualBox) -- or Apple's Boot Camp software (included with current versions of Mac OS X).
Renewing your update subscription in the past has been priced at $49.95 for the Express Edition, $59.95 for Professional Edition, and $129.95 for the Archive edition. You can order the current version online from our web store. Price may vary from year to year and during promotional specials, however, so check the web site for the latest specials. The update subscription includes both program and content updates for an entire year: i.e., you'll get both the weekly price/title updates, as well as access to all program updates (including major releases) during the year your update subscription is active.
Program updates (e.g. 23.0.1, 23.0.2... ) can be downloaded for free from our web site’s software Support section. The latest ComicBase release will also be available for download, for free, to all current ComicBase subscribers.
Weekly price and title updates are available to users of ComicBase 10 or later with current subscriptions. Simply go to the Internet menu in ComicBase and choose Check for Program Updates to download information on the latest comic releases.
ComicBase Archive users with a current subscription can download picture updates. Archive edition users are also able to download pictures at will by right-clicking on the issues they want pictures for and selecting the “Download Cover” command.
Program Updates change the ComicBase program to a new version (e.g. 23.0.1, 23.0.4, etc.), usually to fix bugs or add new program features. These are posted on the ComicBase web site in the Support section, and also appear when you use ComicBase’s Internet menu to Check for Program Updates.
Note: Program updates only work within the same major version of the program. E.g., ComicBase 11 users can update to 11.0.1, 11.1.2, etc., but these updates will not work with ComicBase 10 or earlier. You can upgrade from earlier versions of ComicBase at special upgrade prices by entering your current ComicBase serial number when ordering at our online store.
Content Updates are posted each week (usually by Friday evening) and include all the changes to the data inside ComicBase, including all the new information on comics that came out that week, as well as corrected and expanded entries. They also include up-to-the-minute pricing data for all your comics.
You can check for new content updates manually using the Internet Menu’s Check for Program Updates command, or use the Setup menu’s Preferences command to choose how often ComicBase will automatically check for updates.
Notes “stack”: if your notes are identical to the ones in the update, (e.g. "1st appearance of John Constantine") it’ll be listed as such. If your notes are different, both your original notes and the notes from the update will be listed in the updated issue.
No, but we do have an awful lot, making us the most comprehensive and accurate comic book database available.
ComicBase 2023 has over one million individual issue listings as of this writing, ranging from Golden Age super-heroes to mini-comics to manga. Every week, active subscribers may download additional and new issues and titles.
Our goal is to come as close to covering every comic as possible, and our current database covers comics from around the world from the past 150 years or so.
With the latest versions, we've also introduced the ability to track books and magazines as well. These latter categories are brand new for us, so the information we track is primarily comic and pop-culture related. We do have an interest in tracking magazines of all types, however, as well as books of interest to our customer base. Please feel free to use the Submit New or Corrected Data command to submit any additions you make to your own collection so our editors can review it for possible inclusion in the weekly updates.
In the current edition of ComicBase, the oldest comic dates back to 1878.
We make a special effort to cover independent publishers, and as a result, list titles from over 5,000 publishers in the current edition of ComicBase.
Right here. This listed is updated weekly.
Absolutely! Just use the “New Title” command in ComicBase’s Comics menu.
Marvel’s X-Men are listed as X-Men (1st series) until issue #142, after which they went through a little-noticed name change to become officially The Uncanny X-Men (where subsequent issues are listed). Justice League America/International/Europe went through numerous such mid-title name changes, and issues are listed under the appropriate titles (although the shifts still make us dizzy). We generally try to smooth such transitions by noting where series are continued in the notes of the last issue of the original run, as well as where they are continued from in the first issue of the renamed series.As a final note: we probably would have continued listing the X-Men under the original series name had Marvel not introduced a second title (also called X-Men) which ran simultaneously with the newly renamed Uncanny X-Men. Oh, those wacky publishers...
First, make sure that the title isn’t listed under a different name. Checking the book’s indicia for the proper name, and using the Find > Title Name command is very useful in determining if you’re looking in the right place for a title. Some very rare and independent titles don't make it into ComicBase, because, well, even our intrepid crew hasn't been tipped off about their existence. If you're sure your comic is not simply listed under a title other than you think it has, use the “Submit New or Corrected Data” feature to send us full details and cover scans and we’ll look into adding it to our database!
Unlike mere price guides, ComicBase prices are actual reports of live market data from over 3 million verified market transactions from Atomic Avenue, as well as auction sales data from Heritage Auction Galleries. These prices are updated each week, reflecting successful sales and seller pricing.
The cost of an issue is what you paid for it. As it ships, ComicBase has zeroes for the “quantity in stock” of every issue in its database, and blanks for the cost. If you want to track the cost of your collection, you should fill in the cost fields as you add issues to the database.
An issue’s value is its “guide price”: the estimated price at which it could be reasonably expected to be bought or sold. ComicBase tracks the near-mint values of all its issues for the past four years, from which it can calculate the value of that issue in other conditions (see Grading Setup in the ComicBase user guide).
Finally, an issue’s price or selling price is the price at which you are offering the issue for sale. As ComicBase ships, this is set to its current value, although you are free to set the selling price higher or lower. The default price for an issue that’s not in near mint condition may also differ slightly from its strictly calculated value, due to price rounding (see below).
ComicBase calculates the value of a comic strictly, using the grading values table. (You can go to the Setup menu to customize your Grading Setup.)The default price of an issue is rounded to “sensible” values. For instance, a certain very good-condition comic might have a strict value of 88¢, but its default price would be rounded to 90¢. Similarly, a comic with a strict, graded value of $218.25 would be given a default price of $220.
With ComicBase 12 and later editions, just use the File menu’s New Database command to create a new database to track the collection. You can then use the File menu’s Open command (and quick pick list) to quickly move between them.
Once upon a time, variants were a rarity, and were easily handled by just designating comics as, for instance, “#1” for the regular edition, and “#1/GO” for the “Gold Logo” edition of issue #1. Today, with publishers like Avatar regularly publishing over a dozen variants for every single issue, we’ve shifted away from the more descriptive variant abbreviations (e.g. “1/PL” for “#1 Platinum Edition”, “1/SI” for “#1 Silver Edition”, “1/Nude” for “#1 Nude Edition”) in favor of the simpler “1/A”, “1/B”, “1/C” etc. . Many publishers have started following this convention, and in these cases we'll follow the publisher's designation of how the variant is labelled.
Unfortunately, many variants were spewed out more or less randomly by the publishers, marketing different editions to various collectors’ markets, and sometimes going back to print years after the fact to release new variants of old comics. Typically, even the publishers themselves don’t possess a comprehensive list of these variants, much less any sort of classification of the different editions.
In such cases, we’re forced to simply designate each comic as we discover it, noting the distinctions between each edition in the Item Description field of the comic, and compiling photo reference of the different editions whenever possible. (ComicBase Archive Edition is especially useful for variant identification, as it includes photo reference for thousands of variant covers, making issue matching much easier).
For daily backups, it’s best to just let ComicBase save its automatic backup. You can control whether ComicBase backs up your database each time you quit and where the backup is saved using the Setup menu’s Preferences command. It takes an extra minute or two to save the database when you quit, but this extra copy can be a lifesaver if your regular database is damaged by a disk error or virus.
If you’ve got more than one hard drive, it’s a good idea to have the backup save to a different drive than your regular database. This can save your tuchus should you hear the terrible “whirr-click-thunk! Whirr-click-thunk!” of your hard drive deciding that today was a good day to die.
In addition to the daily backups, we also recommend periodically burning a copy of your database off to a CD or DVD (or using a tape backup), or using ComicBase 17 or later's Save to Cloud command in Sidekick. Doing this every month is a good minimum, although the key question to ask yourself is how much work could you stand losing if your computer got wiped by a virus, hit by lightning, stolen, ruined in a flood, or destroyed by a spouse who resented all the time you spent with your comic collection.
Please note since CD and DVD recorders aren’t quite as simple for Windows to write to as a hard drive, you normally can’t burn a copy to CD by just using the File menu’s “Save a Copy” command from within ComicBase. Generally, you’ll need to Save a Copy to your desktop first, and then use your CD or DVD recorder’s disc-writing software to “burn” it onto the CD/DVD.
First, install ComicBase if it’s not already on your computer. Move your backup copy onto your hard drive—we’d suggest putting it in your ComicBase folder. (See our Tech Notes if you don’t know where your folder is.) Finally, launch ComicBase, and use the File menu to Open the backup from that same folder.
If you have an older version of ComicBase installed on your computer, ComicBase 12 and above will automatically offer to upgrade your older database to the newest version. You can also ask ComicBase 12 to upgrade any older database by using the File menu to Open your older ComicBase database file and ComicBase 12 will take it from there.
If you’ve got your comics already entered in the database, all you really have to do is use the Internet > Post Items for Sale to Atomic Avenue command. Then, just fill in your Atomic Avenue user ID and password (or click “Sign Up” if you don’t have one yet). Choose any other options that apply in the dialog below and click the Sell button.
The new default location of pictures and movies is: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Human Computing. For more details and other new file locations, check out our Tech Tip on ComicBase 14 and Above: New File Locations.
Go to your Registrations page: the download link will appear to the left of the product name.
Try our Tech Tips section for details on how to problem-solve specific issues, or you can visit the ComicBase/Atomic Avenue forums for previous discussions from other users.
To contact Human Computing Tech Support directly, please e-mail support@comicbase.com.
