Skip to main content

How to Arrange Comic Books on the shelf

The question how to place comics on the shelf so they are easy to find comes up pretty regularly on various groups and discussions that I've seen. So how should one group them?

Well first of all, fiction and non-fiction should definitely be separated even if they're both listed as "graphic novels" (which seems to be the catch all term most often used. I prefer comics or comic books myself). I'd make sure to mark them as fiction or non-fiction so that they're easy to distinguish and to avoid any confusion/controversy over a factual book being labeled fiction.

I would also keep Manga, comic strips, funnies, cartoons, and other graphic storytelling separate. I say this for a number of reasons. First of all, they're different reading with mostly different groups reading them. Second, the books are all going to be varying in size. Manga for instance tends to be about the size of a paperback book while books with comic strips can be longer books and comic books are about the size of a typical hardcover. Putting this all into the same space can accidentally cause damage to the books (I say this from experience). That does not mean they need to be on different sides of the library or anything like that.. just on different shelves.

All of that should be easy right? Now here comes the tricky part.

First, you organize by company (DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, ect).

this second part is where you can choose as there are two schools of thought here. I'll tell you which way I prefer, but it's really up to you.

The first way is to organize by title. For instance with DC, you'd have Action Comics, then Detective Comics, all down the line in that format. Marvel that means Amazing Spider-Man would be close to Avengers. This is the way I prefer things. But it's obviously not always optimal as Amazing Spider-Man may cross over with Spectacular Spider-Man and Spider-Man for a storyline.

The other way to organize it is by character. So all Superman titles go together under Superman, All Action Comics, Superman, and Man of Steel all go together. And the above mentioned Spidey titles all go together.. in alphabetical order by title.

Both of these work, but this can lead to confusion and issues especially with titles that get relaunched constantly as Marvel has been doing. Again either works, so it's up to you.

Of course, after that you put them in volume order.. Then you hit a snag though. There are 5 different volume ones for Batgirl alone. What do you do?

Well.. you can check any number of these sites Helpful Sites and get an idea of where it falls or..

You can go back to that copyright information and see what year they were published.  As seen below:


This will help you know which is actually the first and keep them in actual order.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Katana at Super Hero High Review

I'm obviously addicted to DC Super Hero Girls. As I've said previously, I've pretty much consumed everything that is DC Super Hero Girls up until this point. So here's a review on the newest book, Katana at Super Hero High  by the always amazing and talented Lisa Yee. This is the 4th book in the series after Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Batgirl all got their own books and this one is finally a breath of fresh air of newness. The first 3 books all focus on the concept of a new girl coming to school, struggling to fit in and accepting her place at this elite new school. There were slight variations on the theme, but that's basically it. Wonder Woman and Supergirl felt very similar as they both dealt with similar issues and Batgirl had slightly different perspective, but it still felt like we've tread over this material before. With Katana, we've finally got a new perspective. Katana is not the new girl at school, she's established with friends from the pre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why does trade vs. Graphic Novel matter and how to tell the difference

So someone challenged me recently that none of this remotely matters if it is a trade paperback or if it is a graphic novel.. and someone else expressed frustration in not being able to tell what is reprinted.. This blog post is going to cover both.. so hang on to your seats. Why does it matter? Well simple.. they're different terms and mean different things, just like Anime and Manga mean different things even though they are related and in the same industry. But besides that, there is a difference between say the Sandman graphic novel and the Sandman trades. How? OK.. So Sandman has 11 trades now (From Preludes and Nocturnes to the Wake and then the prequel/ending The Overture ) and there are 2 graphic novels ( Dream Hunters and Endless Nights) The trades tell the serialized story from beginning to end and recent beginning that brings the whole thing full circle again. That story is reprinted from the original series 1-75 and Overture 1-6. This is important to note because a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Transformers More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise

I know I've recommended these books before, but I've been re-reading Robots in Disguise  (which becomes just Transformers  later) and reading for the first time most of More than Meets the Eye  (which becomes Transformers: Lost Light) and I have to say.. wow. These books are just so beautifully done. I've talked before about the right and wrong ways to do politics in a book. These books? They get it right. How do they do it? Well here's the thing.. both of these books take place after the war between the Autobots and Decepticons is finally over. It's done. Time to move on and build a new world. In Robots in Disguise , we follow the adventures of all the Transformers, Autobots, Decepticons and Non-Aligned Indigenous Life Forms (or NAILs) all trying to make a new life on Cybertron. There is animosity between all 3 groups Autobots and Decepticons obviously still hate each other from the 4 million year war and NAILs feel like the war destroyed their planet and th...
Post a Comment
Read more