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What are you reading?

Hello everyone! I'm going to be helping

eponymous moderate this community. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but there's no reason we can't start talking about comics in the meantime.

So what is everyone reading these days? What do you think of it? Would you recommend it?

I just finished the last volume of The Exterminators, which was an unfortunately rushed end to the series. I'm not sure I'd recommend it -- I think the series had potential, but with the cancellation and the truncated storylines, it just felt disappointing. I also recently read the first volume of Umbrella Academy, which was surprisingly fun. One of my favorite webcomics, Platinum Grit, just updated with Episode 19, and that was amazing. I definitely recommend Platinum Grit -- wacky but surprisingly layered story with expressive and increasingly gorgeous art.

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Tagging: All About It, Mostly

It was suggested that we work on having a comprehensive, structured tagging system here--and I couldn't agree more with that idea. Tags make it easier for people to browse the community and find the content that they are interested in.

When talking about a work, it should be tagged to account for Author and Artist, Title, and Publisher. I'm setting up the format for these as such:

a: is for author and artist.
Why do it this way? Because some comics have the same author (writer) and artist (illustrator). To streamline things I want to just use the "a:" prefix on a tag to denote both.

Next, the author/artist should be listed last name-first name.

So, for example, a proper tag for an author or artist should look like this: a: abel-jessica.

t: is for title.
A title may refer to graphic novels *OR* serial comics. Why do it this way? The first example I could think of was Watchmen, which was originally published in serial format, but which many people were introduced to as a "graphic novel" when the work was collected and bound into a single volume. In order to make this community friendly to novice comics fans, I want to keep this simplified.

Next, if a title begins with the articles "a," "an," or "the" drop the article. For example, The X-Men would be t: x-men. Now... here's something that I've been thinking over and trying to formulate the best way to work it... what about a situation such as The Amazing Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Ultimate Spider-Man? My trial method of tagging is as follows: t: spiderman-amazing, t: spiderman-spectacular, t: spiderman-ultimate.
(if this proves to be too complicated, it can be amended.)

p: is for publisher.
Why have a tag for publishers? Because some people are loyal to certain publishers, or perhaps interested in learning about what sorts of works are being produced by certain companies.

To tag a publisher, use the format p: dc comics, for example.
Now, if it's a label under a publisher, such as Vertigo Comics, use the format: p: dc comics-vertigo comics.

Other Types of Tags
comm: is for administrative types of posts, and posts dealing with issues of the community, rather than comics. There will be a few different types of suffixes for these types of tags, such as comm: guidelines

awards: is for discussing comics awards. From time to time we may want to talk about the recipients or nominees for a particular award. The awards prefix should be followed by the name of the award, such as awards: eisner award

... This post will quite possibly grow and change as the needs of the community grow and change. Or, as suggestions for improvement are made. Are there other types of tags that people think are needed? Comment here with any feedback on the system. Thanks.

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RFC: Community Guidelines and Help Wanted

This is an RFC (Request for Comment) post to discuss the formation of some community guidelines (rules, tips, behavior parameters, whathaveyou), along with a couple of other things.

o1. Community Guidelines
As this is a new community, we are in need of some basic rules and principles to guide behavior in order to minimize conflict/annoyance and maximize enjoyment. While I have a few ideas of my own about what I'd like this community to be (along with what I'd like it not to become), a community is made up of many people--not just the person who starts it. As such, I want to provide all members a chance to share their ideas on this topic.

Here's some of what I've been thinking:
*This is a place for people who read comics (serial, series, graphic novel, webcomics, or other formats) to get together and talk about them in a thoughtful way. This is a place to discuss history, content, form, theory, trends, genres, styles, themes, artists, writers, etc...

*Novices and adepts are equally welcome.

*Different people have different tastes and preferences in terms of style, format, genre, etc. Try to respect these differences, and be mindful of your own preferences when you discuss a particular work.

*There are other places to share fanworks (such as fic, art, icons, vids, mixtapes, etc) or to talk about costuming and cosplay. This is not one of them.

o2. Ideas for Posts or Activities
There are a couple of particular posts that I think would be helpful to have. Also, I like the idea of having a few regularly occurring activities/discussions within the community. Of course, members will be welcome to post appropriate content at any time (discussions, reviews, recs, etc).

*A post talking about terminology or vocabulary that is useful when discussing comics. [If you think you could put something like this together, please let me know! I definitely need help with this.]

*Some sort of FAQ? A tag directory? An Archive? Dunno... ideas?

*Possibly a resource list for people to suggest shops in their area or online sellers.

*Suggested by

toranoko "Maybe a weekly pull-list type thing, where people can say what they are planning to get, and maybe discuss the issues/trades that are out for that week?" Does someone want to help with this?

toranoko has offered to do it "until someone more capable comes along."

*Also from

toranoko, the suggestion of a monthly graphic novel reading group.

o3. Help Wanted
It would be really awesome to get some people to help out with running this community. If you think you'd be good as a moderator and have ideas of how to keep things active around here, send me a message (here). Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you operate.

Also, for the moment I've got moderated posting on. However, I encourage folks to post discussions and reviews! Until there are some guidelines posted, I just wanted to keep things moderated. If you have feelings one way or the other about keeping things moderated, let me know.

And, I think that's all for now. Thanks.

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Introduction Post

Hello!

Open Beta is almost upon us, and since it appeared no one had created a community specifically for discussing the medium of comics, I decided to do so myself.

Although I read a few comic books here and there as a teenager, my interest in comics was more recently discovered this year. This means that I'm just beginning to explore the form and all that it has to offer. At the moment, I find that I'm most interested in single volume works (what are sometimes referred to as graphic novels). On the other hand, I can't sustain the attention to follow open-ended series, it seems.

My vision for this community is to have a place where other people who are interested in and enjoy reading comics can discuss them. I'd like this to be a place where seasoned readers and total newcomers will be equally welcome. This is a place to discuss history, content, form, theory, trends, genres, styles, themes, artists, writers, etc... And while fans are welcome, it's not a forum to discuss 'ships or cosplay or othersuchthings.

Hopefully that provides us with a good starting point! If you have any suggestions or would like to help out, let me know.