I Read Comic Books discussion

How do you sort your comics and manage your collection? Do you go alphabetically by title, by author, by publisher? Do you group by anything, or just put them anywhere they fit? How and where do you store them?

It might be blasphemous for me to say, but I just keep them all haphazardly in a box in my basement. I mostly only read trade paperbacks and graphic novels now, and I keep them on my bookshelf organized by character or team (Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Venom, Justice League, The Mask, etc.). Then I keep them in chronological order by character.

The only comics I keep anywhere other than in storage are those I frame in my room for display, like my copy of Spider-Man vs Powdered Toast Man (which, as a joke, I want to have signed by Dan Slott one of these days...he wrote the issue but probably won't even remember it).

Mine are in long boxes in the basement. They were originally alphabetized by title. At some point I fell way behind and anything after that point is just in the box by when I bought it.

I'd love to go through and organize and catalog them but I haven't came across any software to make it easy to catalog everything. If I had access to a feed of all (or most) comics, I'd write an app to do it myself.

I have 11 short boxes and 10 are in alphabetical order. It's a mess. The 11th box is unorganized... it scares me. I don't want to organize it....

Marvel makes up about half of my collection, so I separate Marvel from all the others. Within that, I sort by title.
For organizing electronically, I use CLZ app on my phone. It also has a web interface. For pull list management, I use League of Comic Geeks and ComicHub (requires your LCS to participate). Both have a phone app.
I store them physically in a 3-drawer lateral file. Four short boxes fit perfectly in each drawer.

I laughed as a was reading the question because boxes all over the place do not mean organization.
I have a bunch of both Long and Shortboxes, I havent done a full reorganization in a long time.
I usually do sort them by DC, Marvel and other publishers.
I also have a box (Maybe Boxes now) for just Batman related books
I also use the CLZ app (worth the $20) to keep track of what i have.
I also have a few special items in Top loaders.
I have most items in bags and boards when i get around to it.
I hope i can actually organize them soon, but according to my app i have about 3000 comics to organize

This question is super old, but I am a huge dork for organization so wanted to contribute.

I mostly read TPB, so I don't keep track of my single issues (its pretty much just every Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld issue ever and a few one-shots from Rat Queens/Squirrel Girl anyhow) but do keep an extensive spreadsheet on the full collection. I read quite a bit digitally so it helps me keep track of what I have and where - it's also great when I go to the store and just look at the sheet to see if I'm on Vol. 3 or 4, etc. I keep my wishlist there so I can see whats coming out soon (and just copy paste it to the correct sheet once I inevitably cave and buy it) and I also track books I've read but don't own. My physical books I keep out on a few shelves.

If anyone is interested in my ever-evolving spreadsheet, you can view it here: Comics Inventory/Wishlist

Erin wrote: "This question is super old, but I am a huge dork for organization so wanted to contribute.

I mostly read TPB, so I don't keep track of my single issues (its pretty much just every Amethyst: Prince..."

That Spreadsheet is the BEST!!!

Daniel wrote: "That Spreadsheet is the BEST!!! "

Thank you! I can send you a blank one if you want to fall down the rabbit hole of Google Sheets comic tracking :)

Erin wrote: "Daniel wrote: "That Spreadsheet is the BEST!!! "

Thank you! I can send you a blank one if you want to fall down the rabbit hole of Google Sheets comic tracking :)"

so unfortunately I collect single issues, i had to stop using a spreadsheet a while back but he level of detail and your analytics tab are impressive. I use the CLZ app i posted about earlier. I just scan things using the bar code.

I love spreadsheets more than a person should! I tried tracking everything in a spreadsheet years ago, but I quickly got tired of entering data. Now I track everything on Goodreads.

When I started tracking everything on Goodreads, I found something in the website description that the yearly goals and such weren't meant to include single issue comics, but I found that most single issues were in the database anyway. I also noticed that I have had a lot more success finding the singles in the last year or so, although the only format available to select is often digital (I assume Amazon ports their data over from Comixology). I think you can add missing formats to the database, but I'm more concerned with tracking which issues I've read and not how I've read them.

The newer version of the Android app is also much better than it used to be. I can add read dates and the scanner finds books by their covers now (very accurately!).

Goodreads isn't a perfect system for tracking comics, but it works for what I want it for--multiple read dates, titles, authors, personal notes, community interaction.

Daniel wrote: "I use the CLZ app i posted about earlier. I just scan things using the bar code. ."

Does CLZ have photo recognition for covers? Most of my comics were direct market and didn't have bar codes. I've got 10,000+ comics from 1985-2002 I'd like to catalog.

Chad
You can add manually as well by title name and issue , I do not know about cover recognition

Daniel wrote: "Chad
You can add manually as well by title name and issue , I do not know about cover recognition"

Manual from the phone would be a pain for that many comics. I'd probably go with the desktop version if I have to enter manually.

It allows you to add multiples
So if you have Batman 1-30
U can highlight all of them
It’s rather intuitive but feel free to check online for all tier features

Daniel wrote: "It allows you to add multiples
So if you have Batman 1-30
U can highlight all of them
It’s rather intuitive but feel free to check online for all tier features"

That's excellent. I have a lot of long runs.

Erin wrote: "This question is super old, but I am a huge dork for organization so wanted to contribute.

I mostly read TPB, so I don't keep track of my single issues (its pretty much just every Amethyst: Prince..."

I love this spreadsheet a lot! I have a similar one that I was really good about keeping up with.....and then I wasn't. I thought about sharing the spreadsheet, but it's not nearly as clean as yours and also my sidenotes when I have them are super silly in many places. I have 3 long boxes thus far and for the most part go with alphabetical order. I have a bookshelf dedicated to trades, but that is at the point where it's almost completely full, so I have no idea what we'll do from there. It's mostly alphabetical also, though there are a few oversize comic collections that are out of order because the bottom shelf is literally the only place they'll fit. I've been sort of attempting a re-organization of the long boxes (including putting 2 comics in a bag and board because it saves a small amount of space!) but I'm momentarily stalled, because life happens. ^_^

Erin wrote: "This question is super old, but I am a huge dork for organization so wanted to contribute.

I mostly read TPB, so I don't keep track of my single issues (its pretty much just every Amethyst: Prince..."

Erin, your spreadsheet is awesome. I used it as a template to start cataloguing my comics. So far I've only made it through the stuff I've picked up through Humble Bundle. It made me realize that I own a lot more digital comics than I thought and that I'm really far behind on reading them. Eventually I will tackle my physical and Comixology books too. I didn't even get all the detail entered that I wanted to and I had to take a break.

Volumes apart from single issues (Italian editions over the decades have often bundled two or three original issues anyway).

Then by publisher and series, also by height and format: manga, oversized and widscreen formats each have their shelves.

Can you even buy single issues in Europe Alistair? I went to Belgium and the Netherlands last year and went into a few comic book stores. Everything was graphic novels.

I'm not sure about other countries.

When I started reading comics, the standard for the newborn Marvel Italia were 72-page 'magazines' containing three issues; it was a way of bundling flagship titles with miniseries and less-famous material.
Some fodder, but also rather unexpected pairings: there was a legendary period in which Star Comics published Frank Miller's Daredevil on the back of John Byrne's Fantastic Four.
Decades later they eventually started publishing single issues at an affordable price (I think it was originally €1), mainly on the strength of certain titles; for me it was the Immortal Hulk, it was cool to have all of Alex Ross's covers up front.

The price has since doubled, but I think it's still cheaper than in the USA?
https://www.panini.it/shp_ita_it/l-im...

And even these have a softcover in heavier paper than the interior.

A regular 20 page issue runs you $4 now and a lot have went up to $5 with a 32 page count. Trades are anywhere from $16 to $25.

I take that back: apparently the price is now €4 for 32 pp. for new series.
https://www.panini.it/shp_ita_it/ingl...
And €6 for certain variant covers:
https://www.panini.it/shp_ita_it/iron...

DC charges an extra dollar for its variant covers too. That's why I refuse to buy them.

Regarding the rest of Europe, American comics aren't comparatively all that popular, there's more available in the UK as no translation is needed. In places where Franco-Belgian comics are popular, large collected editions are the norm so I guess that carried over to foreign comics.

Spain has a decent amount of translated popular DC/Marvel single issues for as little as €3 but that's an outlier. In Poland graphic novels are quite limited anyway since people like manga or European comics, and issues are available in English for the equivalent of $4-6+ online or in the largest cities.
Old native Spanish and Polish comics were always in single issues but those are old library material by now.

A fair amount of European comics make it to the US. Certain publishers like Ablaze and the now defunct European Comics specialize in it. Then there's Titan, Humanoids, Dark Horse, etc that bring a lot of it over.