Volume, issue and collected volume: numbering comics

A collected edition on the shelf says "Volume 1" on the spine. The small print inside says it reprints issues #1 to #6 of Avengers volume 5. That is three numbers on one book, and each one counts something different. The comic form on ctlgs has a field for each: Issue, Volume and Collection Volume. Comicogs started with one Volume field, and its members spent three years explaining why one was not enough before a second one was added in 2018.

Issue: the count within one run

The issue number counts the comics in one run of a title: #1, #2, #3, for as long as the run lasts. Copy it as printed. Most are plain numbers, but "Annual 1", "nn" for an unnumbered one-shot and half-numbers like 23.4 are all real, and the field takes them. The series page sorts by the leading number, so #2 still comes before #10.

Keep the issue field for the number of the comic in your hand. A trade that reprints #38 to #45 does not have an issue number of its own. Its collected issues go in Collects, below.

Volume: which run of the title

The volume counts runs of the same title. When a publisher stops a series and starts again from #1, the new run is a new volume. Wonder Woman ran from 1942 to 1986 as volume 1, and the 1987 relaunch started volume 2. Batman volume 1 ended in 2011, the New 52 relaunch was volume 2, and the 2016 Rebirth run is volume 3. So "Batman #1" names at least three different comics, and the volume is what tells them apart.

Read the volume from the indicia, the small print on the inside cover or the first page, where many publishers print "Vol. 2, No. 1". If the indicia gives no volume and the title has only ever had one run, leave the field empty. Collectors and price guides also name runs by their starting year, *Avengers (2012)*, and some series in the catalog carry that year in their name for the same reason. Both say the same thing.

The first issue of the 2012 Avengers has Volume 5 and Issue 1, and its page heading reads Vol. 5 #1. The volume only shows in the heading when it is 2 or more.

Collection Volume: the number on a trade

A trade paperback, hardcover or omnibus that gathers issues often carries its own number: "Volume 4", "Book Two". That number counts the collected editions, not the runs, and it goes in Collection Volume. The hardcover Avengers: Avengers World shows all three working together. It is Volume 5, because it collects the fifth run. It is Collection Volume 1, because it is the first book of that run's collections. And its Collects field lists the six issues it reprints, each of which links back to it under "Collected in".

On Comicogs, cellularsmoke put the difference most clearly, using Supergirl:

Title: Supergirl
Volume: 3
Issue: 6

Vs.
Title: Supergirl (Volume 1)
Volume: 3

The first is an issue of the third run. The second is the first trade of the third run. A collected volume only means something next to its line of collections. The Sandman has been collected in paperback, hardcover, Absolute and omnibus sets, and more than one book across them is a volume 3. Titan's paperback of Brief Lives is Collection Volume 7 in its own set. Let the title and format say which set it belongs to.

Many trades brought over from Comicogs have their collected number in Volume, because for years there was nowhere else to put it. If you are editing one and you have the book, move the number across.

European albums

A Tintin, Asterix or Spirou album is numbered within its series, and the form has no "Album" type or format yet. Until it does, use Type "Comic Book" and Format "Hardcover" or "Softcover", which is what most album entries already have. Comicogs members never agreed where the album number goes: most French albums in the catalog have it in Volume, most Dutch ones in Issue. Whichever field a series uses, follow it for new entries, because the series page sorts on Volume first and then Issue, and a mix puts the albums out of order.

The barcode add-on on American comics

Since the early 1990s, many American comics sold in comic shops have carried a 12-digit UPC with a 5-digit add-on beside it. The 12 digits are the same for every issue of one run and change when the series relaunches. The add-on is what changes from issue to issue. mesetas spelled it out on Comicogs in 2017, using a Black Panther variant whose add-on was 01351:

• The first 3 digits indicates that it's issue #013
• The fourth digit indicates if it's a variant cover. A 1 would be the regular cover, 5 means this is the 5th variant cover.
• The last digit indicates the printing. 1 = 1st printing

In practice the fourth digit counts covers, with the regular cover as 1. The Darth Maul #1 covers in the catalog show it: cover A ends 00111, cover G ends 00171 and cover H ends 00181. A second printing ends in 2: the first Spider-Man/Deadpool in the catalog is 00112.

Checked against the catalog's own codes, DC and Marvel follow this pattern back to the early 1990s, and Dark Horse, Image, BOOM! and Archie mostly do too. Smaller publishers vary, so check a few issues of a run before trusting it. On a book with dozens of covers, one digit cannot keep count, so look at the cover as well.

This is why the add-on matters. Enter only the 12 digits and every issue of a run gets the same code. Enter the UPC and add-on together in one row, as printed, with type "UPC". UPC and EAN barcodes explained covers the main barcode and its check digit.

Printings, variant covers and newsstand copies

A later printing, a variant cover and a newsstand copy are each their own entry. Set Variant Of to the main entry and say what differs in Variant Name: "Second Printing", "Cover G", "Newsstand Edition". The main entry then lists them all under Variants, and variants and limited editions explains when a difference earns an entry.

The clues are mostly on the cover and in the indicia. A reprint usually says "Second Printing" somewhere, and on modern issues the last digit of the add-on agrees. Newsstand and direct-market copies, like Spawn #27A and #27B, often differ only in the barcode box. Copies of American comics sent to Britain with a price in pence are another version of the same kind.

Collected editions get reprinted too, and a trade can run to a dozen printings. On Comicogs, a member went to add The Complete Calvin and Hobbes and found the only entry described a thirteenth printing. Both are in the catalog now, the fourth printing and the thirteenth, each saying which it is in its notes. Look for the printing line on the copyright page before you add a copy to an entry, and if none of the entries matches the book in front of you, add the one that does.

Then add your copy and grade it, as catalog your comics describes.