New Themes

I notice you can now edit themes on volumes. Is there someplace where you can explain some of them? For example, not really sure what you mean by Academic. Does Ongoing mean comics that are still going and/or comics that have finished like Fables too? Where would art books and encyclopedias/guides fall under? I'm editing some that I have read, but don't want to spam the themes either.

I also feel like there could be more themes added like for comic book strips too maybe.

I was the one who suggested academic. Usually non-fiction, that focuses on creators and concepts themselves such as Larry Hama: Conversations, EC Comics: Race, Shock & Social Protest, Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans

BB

@fables87: I suggested a small amount of them too and have been using them quite often when I can.

• Ongoing (Used for currently running comics)
• Complete (For comics that have finished their run)
• Collection (TPBs)
• Franchise (Comics related to non-comic media; video-games tv, etc)
• Unfinished (Comics that were cancelled without a proper ending I believe)

@cloudguy: @billy_batson: Thanks guys! Kind of figured this too. Academic I added Graphic Cannon because it read more like a text book at times. If I add anything that you don't agree with remove it. I love this feature though. Better than adding some of the concepts to all the comics. Hopefully it doesn't get spammy.

@fables87: If you're unsure about anything just send me a pm

@cloudguy: Will do. Seen some Ongoing under comics that aren't currently running. Was going to put Fables, but I know that has ended.

@fables87:

I have one of those Graphic Canons. Educational might be better than academic in this case but maybe Cloudguy or pikahyper can chime in.

BB

@fables87: @billy_batson: It really depends on how you see it. To me, Educational and Academic is interchangeable, but it's dependant on the volume itself and how it's presented. But @pikahyper might be able to help more.

Also, I didn't see your original question about comic strips. We don't have a theme for it but we have a concept for it. Comic Strip Collection.

@fables87: My original intention with Ongoing was to use it for anything that was considered an ongoing series past or present and that is how I use it, most people see it as only being used for things currently ongoing but I think it is more useful for past and present just like adding One Shot or Mini-Series, by marking it as such wiki users are able to actually view volumes that are or were ongoing just like if someone wanted to be able to see all of the Mini's or any of the other themes.

As for Educational and Academic I do somewhat see them as interchangeable like Cloudguy but at the same time it depends on what you want to use it for, for me BB's examples are very much Academic, most are actual books that include comics as reference material, a good example of Educational comics is the series of Science Comics graphic novels, Flying Machines, Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield, Rockets: Defying Gravity & Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers to name a few, these are clearly meant to educate young and even older readers.

Mostly for the themes I'd like people to just use common sense, it can be tricky for stuff you haven't read but if you've read it a person should know what is in it and please familiarize yourself with as many themes as you can, there are some really useful ones and some really weird ones but they are all meant to improve on the current wiki's limitations.

If you have any suggestions for more themes please feel free to let me know, I've been compiling a list of additions for a while now as I've thought of them and as other editors have sent them to me, I'll be having them added soonish. For strips I'm not sure if it should be one or two themes, I kind of want it to be two to help separate newspaper strips and all other types of strips like web comics, I'm on the fence about it though, it can be a pain coming up with the naming convention as well, don't want it too on the nose or too vague. Reprint is another tricky one I've been holding off on adding, I know it will be misused a lot as a lot of people consider collections to be reprinted material even though they are their own entity. As for art books and encyclopedias/guides I haven't been able to come up with a good theme name, I'm thinking Reference maybe but I don't think it is good enough especially for like pin-up issues (it would end up being less useful if it got added to any issue with a piece of stand-alone art in it or like a cover gallery), for now I just haven't been adding themes for those except Gaming Related if they are.

@pikahyper: Yeah totally understand that! If I can think of anymore I'll let you guys know. I was wondering how to name some things too.

@fables87: What are you struggling to name?

@cloudguy: @pikahyper: Art books. Not sure what they should be called. I made the concept on here long ago, but not sure that would would as a theme since coloring books and cover art books fit into it too.

Two themes I thought you could add on here are superhero and teen. Superhero is pretty obvious, but teen is for comics that aren't all ages nor mature. I think Marvel and DC still use T or T+ or Teen for their rating system.

@fables87: Teen is a good one for the list, I've left Superhero off because of the naming: Hero, Superhero, Heroine, Superheroine, etc. I think I was leaning towards Heroic but even that doesn't quite fit.

Edit: On second thought I'm not sure about Teen, not everyone will assume it is the rating and could add it to comics with teens in them like everything Archie.

@pikahyper: What about superpowers as a theme? Makes it obvious that it would be about superheroes and skips the gender issue.

@cloudguy: could work but not all powers are superpowers.

@pikahyper: True. I kinda just saw it as a blanket term that can be used for now.

@cloudguy: well we also have to worry about what would get left out like heroes without powers.

Edit: read the wrong comment because I'm a numpty.

Do any comic names come to mind? We could use names from comics to describe those without powers. I would say vigilante but that would include people with powers.

@cloudguy: Sounds like it would be something very specific instead of a broad theme. Honestly I'll probably just settle on Superhero, all other sites that use genres or themes use it.

I think Platinum age could go on here. I noticed there are a few comic books on here that are before 1938, like Tintin. Not sure if there are any Victorian age stuff listed on here. Here's the wiki page i you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_comics#Periodization_schemes

@fables87: I think the problem with adding Platinum age is that their won't be that many comics using that theme.

You've got to remember that we can't add comics unless they have a cover. How many Victorian era comics actually had covers?

Cloudguy has a point, not a lot of volumes on the site and few covers unless they were included in something else. The British weeklies kind of set a precedent though since their covers were strips but quantity-wise what exists in the wiki/could be added probably wouldn't justify its inclusion.

@fables87: @pikahyper: Even if we did add those sort of comics, 90% of them would just be comic strips, U.K. unless they're part of American reprints are comic strips. On top of that it would end up lowering our standards for covers and possibly have loads of web-comics added to the site if we allow those sorts of comics. I doubt Platinum age comics were the length of modern comics.

@cloudguy: True. Tintin is the only comic I can think of Pre-Golden that is as long as (or longer) than a regular comic book.