Sorting the Collection

[Lord Shaper]

This is really a 2 part post. Part one is for everyone and part 2 is for those with comic rooms.

Part 1:
How do you sort your collection. Do you have ALL of the books being in an alphabetical form or do you have it listen in companies or even Genres.

And with that since we all seem to be getting more and more trades How do you have them. In boxes with your comics or on the shelf and if they are on the shelf how do you order those one?

Part 2:
For all of you guys with Comic Rooms, How have you set them up? Do you have all the related figures and statues together? Do you keep them company specific? Or do you just have everything together where it fits?

For my collection I have my issues all in alphabetical order and when you get to my trades they are usually done in a company order keeping all of the same title together.

As for a room I haven't got a proper comic room yet but after the next move I should have one to set up.

[Webhead]

I have a different way of sorting my collection.

First I sort my comics into one of three categories Marvel, DC and other.

Next I keep all the like titles together. So Amazing Spider-Man, PPTSSM, Web of Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, FNSM etc are all kept together. Other titles such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor are kept along side The Avengers since I think of all of them as Avengers. The FF are kept next to the Thing Two-In Ones and The Thing series. Marvel Space titles are kept together- Nova, ROM, Guardians of The Galaxy, Killraven, Captain Marvel etc. Superman, Batman are next to JLA issues.

If two or more titles share a box the title with the most issues are kept near the front of the box. If it is a tie then I go alphabetical.

Final I sort the comics from highest to lowest issue number unlike everyone else. This way when I add a new comic to a box I just drop the issue in the front of the box.

To keep everything straight I've printed out sheets that list all the titles in a box and taped it to the front of each long box.


Trades like my issues are broken up by publisher and like titles are kept together.

This system may seem over complicated but it works for me.

[Lord Shaper]

I didn't think about all titles of the same characters myself... I have Batman and Detective and Legends all together in the batman section but they are all seperated via title in that/those box/es. And with titles like Lobo I have the series all together but then the mini's seperate as well so they are not put in via month of release.

[HassanT]

With comics, I organize them in alphabetical order, regardless of character or company. I used to do it differently, but then sometime I couldn't find a book, so alphabetical order is good. Also, I now get my kids to help put them in alphabetical order (They love to help me organize things in my room). I do keep the older stuff in long-boxes and the current runs on my bookshelves in magazine boxes.

For trades/ hardcovers, I now organize them by softcover/ hardcover and by company. When I do that, it looks much better on the shelf then just putting it in alphabetical order.

Toys and busts, I separate them out by company as well.

[Frank Castle]

All my comics are A-Z. My trades however just get put on the shelf in the order they are purchased. I don't buy many trades so this method has worked so far. Figures and toys just get placed wherever with the exception of my Punisher figures. Those have a couple of dedicated shelfs because of their sheer volume.

[JohnMayo]

This is really a 2 part post. Part one is for everyone and part 2 is for those with comic rooms.

Part 1:
How do you sort your collection. Do you have ALL of the books being in an alphabetical form or do you have it listen in companies or even Genres.

I sort my collection alphabetically by title and then numerically by issue. I do not use publisher as the first sorting point since some titles jump between publishers. I consider runs by different publishers to be different "titles" but do not consider changing imprints within a publisher to be so.

And with that since we all seem to be getting more and more trades How do you have them. In boxes with your comics or on the shelf and if they are on the shelf how do you order those one?

My trades and hardcovers are horribly "organized". I have some in bookcases, some in comic book boxes and many, many just stacked haphazzardly around the house.

Part 2:
For all of you guys with Comic Rooms, How have you set them up? Do you have all the related figures and statues together? Do you keep them company specific? Or do you just have everything together where it fits?

My "comic book vault" is filled with 174 Drawer Boxes. They are stacked six high with 18 columns against the long wall and 11 on the shorter wall on the opposite side ofthe room. I've got a rolling cart that I can put a a computer on when I'm resorting and need to update the inventory in there. That pretty much fills up the room.

I've got another room which is active as my reading room. I've got another nine Drawer Boxes in there filled with back issues I've purchased over the past year or two that are still waiting to be read.

My action figures are in a spare bedroom which is acting a large walk-in closet. I have neither the space in my current house nor the inclination at the moment for a display like Bob has. On my list of requirements for my next house is a place to properly display my trades, RPGs, action figures and other stuff like that.

For my collection I have my issues all in alphabetical order and when you get to my trades they are usually done in a company order keeping all of the same title together.

As for a room I haven't got a proper comic room yet but after the next move I should have one to set up.

[BobBretall]

I have too many comics to be continually filing them alphabetically (either by company or title). Comics are alphabetic in each individual longbox, but that's about it. I trust in ComicBase to tell me what box any given comic is in. This will work a lot better once the entire collection is in the database.

I do, however, have a plan to one day get some drawerboxes and keep the "classic" runs of maybe the 1st 100-150 silver age issues of key titles like Spider-Man, Avengers, JLA, etc. all together in one place.

I'm a bit better on HCs & trades. I have one bookshelf with ECs & Carl Barks stuff, one with mostly indies, and my Marvels & DCs are together too.

[Darth Kramer]

Part 1:
How do you sort your collection. Do you have ALL of the books being in an alphabetical form or do you have it listen in companies or even Genres.

And with that since we all seem to be getting more and more trades How do you have them. In boxes with your comics or on the shelf and if they are on the shelf how do you order those one?

All of my books are in alphabetical order. No special sorting or anything like that. It makes it a lot easier for me to just grab something and not worry about which sub-section something is grouped in. I used to do groupings like Flash, Batman, and Superman with the Justice League books, but it just got to be a bit much to sort.

My softcover TPBs are in alphabetical order as well. My HCs on the other hand, they're in order by size. I had them in order, but it just looked weird to have Kraven's Last Hunt next to an oversized book Jack Kirby Masterworks.

My comic room is kind of haphazard at this point. I need to do some rearranging sometime soon.

[Fnord Serious]

All of my superhero comics are sorted by universe (Marvel, Marvel 2099, DCU including Vertigo titles based on DCU characters, ABC, Ultraverse, Milestone, Valiant, Wildstorm, etc.). The individual titles are sorted alphabetically therein. I also have a shortbox full of OHotMUs.

Indie stuff and creator owned Vertigo books are filed together, sorted alphabetically. There are two sections separate from this, one with random 'serious' one shots and one with random humor and oddball one shots, so I don't have to wade past runs of Dark Horse Presents, Preacher and the Invisibles to find one-offs like Kill Your Boyfriend or The Eaters. I have toyed with the idea of making sections for creators who I have a lot of work by, so there would be a Grant Morrison section, a Peter Milligan section, a Paul Chadwick section, etc. But I'm not quite sure if this would make things easier or harder to find.

Trades are sorted similarly, with superhero stuff grouped by universe. Indie trades though get sorted alphabetically by the writers last name rather than by title. They are also separated by format, with a shelf for oversized HCs & OGNs, a shelf for digest & smaller format books, and then all the standard sized trades together.

[Dr Zen]

I have everything divided into DC, Marvel, everything else.

Then I have them sorted alphabetically.

[ShawnL]

I have my collection sorted by title (as determined by the indica) then chronological order.

There are exceptions:

The years when the superman titles all had "continuity" numbers that essentially made as many as four titles (and some specials) into a single series (a defacto weekly comic). I file them away as part of the Superman series that started in the 80's.

The same goes for the few years "Legion of Super-Heroes" and "Legionnaires" had similar continuity numbers, they all stayed together under LSH.

The DC 1,000,000 event books (where each book was numbered #1,000,000) I group together under "DC One Million" as the whole event makes up a single story. (Note, that this does not include the recent Booster Gold #1,000,000. It stays in it's proper alphabetical / chronological sorting.

For these exceptions I insert a Backing board explaining the situation in the places where these books would have gone if I stuck to a purely alphabetical system.

I treat Annuals/Giant Size/Specials as if they were separate titles not extensions of the regular series.

[ShawnL]

At one point I considered and started to resort my books into separate categories. I eventually abandoned it.

Off the top of my head the catergories were:

Superman
Superman Family*
Batman
Batman Family*
(*- These would be books featuring supporting casts: Supergirl/boy, Steel, Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin. Normally such books would be kept in with the lead character's category, but since the Superman and Batman categories are huge, this further distinction made the categories smaller.)


Wonder Woman
Flash
Green Lantern Corps
Justice League
Justice Society/Earth-2
Misc. DC Universe
DC Animated
Impact
DC Non-Universe
Vertigo DC Universe based
Vertigo Non-DCU


Avengers (Team Books)
Top billing Avengers (Cap, Iron Man, Thor)
Mutant books
Wolverine
Spider-Man
Fantastic Four
Misc. Marvel
New Universe
Marvel - Non Universe

Inter-company crossovers

Grendel
Image
Star Trek
Star Wars
Other TV/Movie

The "Major Minor" publishers (Comico, First, Dark Horse...)

Indies

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Adult Books

[JohnMayo]

I've got a question about how you guys sort comics. When you've got a box of comics, or maybe a couple of boxes of comics, how do you physically go about sorting them? In other words, regardless of what order you sort them into, what process do you use to physically get them into that order?

[Frank Castle]

I've got a question about how you guys sort comics. When you've got a box of comics, or maybe a couple of boxes of comics, how do you physically go about sorting them? In other words, regardless of what order you sort them into, what process do you use to physically get them into that order?

Every monthly shipment I get gets divided into stacks as I check them off the list. A-G H-P Q-T U-W. From there I bag each stack and get them into order. It works for me.

[JohnMayo]

I've got a question about how you guys sort comics. When you've got a box of comics, or maybe a couple of boxes of comics, how do you physically go about sorting them? In other words, regardless of what order you sort them into, what process do you use to physically get them into that order?

Every monthly shipment I get gets divided into stacks as I check them off the list. A-G H-P Q-T U-W. From there I bag each stack and get them into order. It works for me.

I've been using a similar system lately when sorting a box of comics. I divide them up into stacks of A-E, F-J, K-R, S, T-Z. After that I sort each stack and reload the comics into the box. I have S as a stack by itself because of all of the titles starting with Secret Invasion:..., Super..., Star Wars..., Star Trek..., etc.