Welcome to the new Grand Comics Database!

We've always been the go-to site for the wealth of our comic book information, but now we've made changes to make our site even more useful!

The long-awaited, freshly-rewritten Online Indexing feature is now running! What does that mean for you? Several things:

Newly released comics are being indexed or are available for indexing

Comics that have been released since the new site went live in early October are now being indexed by the usual indexers, and will be visible after approval.

Data Errors brought up by users are being fixed

Similarly, Error Reports that have been stacking up waiting for the new tools are now being acted on.

NEW! Users can now make changes directly in the data

Anyone (after registration) can now make changes directly themselves (subject to approval, of course). Do you have something that the GCD hasn't indexed, or doesn't even have listed, but haven't felt like writing it up in an Error Report? Well, now you can edit or add the information directly on a copy of the data, submitting it for approval to an editor. Go fix a typo that's been driving you crazy! And the process for becoming an indexer has been streamlined with the registration process; no more waiting for manual intervention to start indexing.

Some additional concepts and fields have been added

We've added some new concepts. A couple of these are cover Brands (such as Marvel Knights), and Indicia Publishers (such as National Periodical Publications, Inc.) for each issue (in conjunction with the main publisher, such as DC). Other changes include things like separating out the issue data from the cover data, so that they have separate page counts and notes (although for now, some notes may be duplicated until they can be cleaned up) and proper use of the Volume field along with the issue number (although again, some odd data may remain until it can be cleaned up properly).

Ability to search for unindexed issues or missing covers

Using Advanced Search, you can now search for issues that haven't yet been indexed (after setting Search For to Issues, under Issue Fields, use Has Stories). And you can search for issues with missing covers or ones that need to be replaced (after setting Search For to Issues, under Issue Fields, use Cover is Needed). (You likely will want to limit the search by publisher or some field too.)

Still to come in the near future (early 2010)

• Variant cover uploads and other cover-related improvements.
• Continued improvements to Advanced Search.

Longer term future plans (spring 2010 or later)

• Linking of reprints back to the original (or forward to the reprint)
• Continued improvements to Advanced Search, including using external tools to gain functionality such as fuzzy matches.
• Coding to a new database design (already mostly worked out), with changes like:
  • The ability to have an issue appear in more than one series (for dual numbered books such as Star Wars: Empire / Star Wars: Rebellion, and for flip books).
  • The ability to have different cover titles and indicia titles for the same book (for titles such as "Captain America: Reborn" vs "Reborn")
  • More tailored separation between periodicals and books (present more logically)
  • User preferences: The ability to tailor what information is shown (such as only story content, non-story but no ad content, etc.)

As this is all new code, there are bound to be some bugs. Please let us know!