But since I’ve started using various online comic book databases I’ve started to look at the name of a comic book a little differently. Many online databases refer to a comic book name as a Series and usually also include the year that the book started to be published. For example, the first Fantastic Four series is generally referred to as Fantastic Four (1961).

So what do you call it, a Title or a Series? Leave feed back in a comment.

Now for any given comic book name, there may be multiple series. Going back the Fantastic Four, depending on what database you use GCD or CBDB, there are up to four Series:

The CGD has

• Fantastic Four (1961) 416 issues: vol. #1 – 1 to 416
• Fantastic Four (1996) 13 issues: vol. #2 – 1 to 13
• Fantastic Four (1998) 70 issues: vol. #3 – 1 to 70
• Fantastic Four (2003) currently 76 issues: vol. #1 – 500 to current (this is the latest series in the Fantastic Four)

Now the CBDB has

• Fantastic Four (1961) currently 492 issues: vol. #1 – 1 to 416 and 500 to current (this is the latest series in the Fantastic Four)
• Fantastic Four (1996) currently 13 issues: vol. #2 – 1 to 13
• Fantastic Four (1998) currently 70 issues: vol. #3 – 1 to 70

Hmmm, see the difference? The GCD has split volume #1 up into two series and considers issues starting from 500 to be a new series from the original volume #1 series in 1961. But the CBDB has only three. It keeps all of the current issues in the original 1961 series. I personally prefer the CBDB’s methodolgoy here as it more closely matches how the publisher labels the volumes. However, it could be confusing when you see a break in numbers in the 1961 series when it goes from issue 416 to 500. But if you have continuity notes for the series, something like:

• the 1961 series – issue 416, continues with the 1996 series – issue 1
• the 1996 series – issue 13, continues with the 1998 series – issue 1
• the 1998 series – issue 70, continues with the 1961 series – issue 500

What do you think is the correct approach is, which is less confusing? In conclusion, may be, just perhaps, a Title should be considered a collection of Series… hmmm. Leave your feedback in the comments.

Now Annuals are a whole different story.

On the Grand Comic Book Database (GCD) they have taken a mix of approaches, sometimes classify each year an annual is published as a separate title, sometimes all annual fall under one title and sometimes a combination of both. For example the title Fantastic Four Annual (1963) has issues 1 – 27 (years 1963 to 1994) are under one title, but the annuals from 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 are each a separate title. I don’t have access to all of these issues, but for the ones I do have, a different title appears in the indicia than on the cover or the regular title and this could be the reason. However, I feel this is very confusing.

I prefer the methodology that the Comic Book Database (CBDB) uses, where they include the annuals with the issues of Title that was active in the year the annual was published. For example the Fantastic Four (1961) contains annuals 1 – 27 and the Fantastic Four (1998) contains annuals for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 (these annuals were not assigned numeric issue numbers on the cover or in the indicia).

What methodology do you prefer? I’d to hear from you.

And did you ever notice that the first Fantastic Four annual was published in 1963 and not 1961 the first year the Fantastic Four were published. Also there were no Fantastic Four annuals published in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1982, 1986, 1996 and 1997. Finally there haven’t been any annuals published since 2001? Why. Please respond with a comment if you know. Thanks.