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03-10-2006, 09:10 AM
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#1 |
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PETER BICKFORD ON COMIC BASE
 It’s the most popular comic collection tracking software around, and currently, ComicBase is midway through version 10, with version 11 just over the horizon. Most recently, the company released a “Giant-Sized” edition, featuring in total, over 125,000 comic book covers, as well as issue data, creator information, circulation and CGC figures, as well as creator interviews. But all of that information does come with a price – the standard version runs $150, while the Giant-Sized edition checks in at $300. We sat down for a talk with ComicBase’s chief, Peter Bickford to learn more about the program, the company, the price, and the future. Newsarama: First off, let’s go back to the start just to bring everyone up to date – when did ComicBase 1.0 hit, and what was your initial idea behind it? Pete Bickford: ComicBase 1.0 came out in 1993. The official story on it is as follows: Ironically enough, ComicBase was originally pictured as the secret weapon by which designer Peter Deignan was going to trim his own comic collection, in preparation for his upcoming wedding to the lovely and talented Carolyn Bickford. If his new bride was ever going to be able to move in, some of the thousands of comics he’d collected since his days as a paperboy were going to have to move out to make room. In order to give him an edge in selling his comics, Peter began work on a project he tentatively entitled “ComicBase” (figuring he’d eventually come up with a better name later). This was designed to act as both an inventory system and multimedia showcase of his collection when he went to sell at local conventions. For a while, the plan seemed to work. Every month, Peter and his very understanding fiancée lugged dozens of long boxes to local comic shows, along with a Macintosh IIci running an early version of ComicBase. Inevitably, the computer grabbed the attention of passers-by, who would then stop, play with the program, and often buy a few comics. But when customer after customer inquired where they could buy the program that was being used to show off the comics, the couple decided that maybe a change in focus was in order. Peter buckled down to programming a commercial version of ComicBase (he still hadn’t thought of a better name for it), Carolyn wrote the manual, and Scott Benefiel (Hardcase, Wildcats) designed the smiling logo character. In 1993, ComicBase 1.0 was released. In the years that followed, ComicBase has grown to become the leading software for comic book collectors. In 1999, it was nominated for a Harvey award as Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation, and has received praise from customers and reviewers across the globe. Peter and Carolyn were married in 1992, and now live with their resident master-of-prestidigitation/son Neil and their intrepid daughter Kelly in a house stuffed with comic books in San Jose, California. NRAMA: And a lovely story it is. At first, ComicBase was just a part of Human Computing, right? That is, it wasn’t its own beast the way it is today… PB: Human Computing is the company that makes ComicBase. At shows, we normally list as “ComicBase” since that’s what people are scanning the program guide for. NRAMA: Looking back at ComicBase 1.0 is it even recognizable when compared to Comic Base 10? PB: Certainly there are structural elements that are similar - the title description screen comes to mind, but it’s definitely changed with the times. Back when we started, we were being really aggressive by requiring a 256 color screen of at least 640x480. Nowadays, we have the ability to do all sorts of things that couldn’t even be done back at the start - such as floating in pictures of comics that you move the mouse over—a trick we stole directly from Minority Report, so it’s definitely changed the look of the program. NRAMA: Before we get into the specifics of the latest version, what’s the big picture here? Anyone looking at it can see that it’s a massive amount of work that’s taken what – years to get to this point. Yes, you’ve got customers who are looking for this product, but for you, what’s the push to produce this type of software? PB: We’re comic collectors ourselves, and we really just wanted to produce the most world class, kick-butt software anyone’s ever seen in a collecting field. As it turns out, we also signed on for what essentially amounted to an infinite amount of work. Still, we get to play with comics and computers all day, so it’s not so bad… NRAMA: As you said, you’ve had fans of the program since the first iteration, and now, you have meetings at every major convention. What role have the program’s fans come to play with ComicBase? PB: The ComicBase user community is actually a pretty loyal bunch - something we very much appreciate! We hold a user’s group meeting each year in San Diego so we can all meet face to face, as well as talk out of school about what we’ve been doing, get their take on things we have planned and the like. I think we’ve also benefited from being a pretty small, dedicated company: when you call for tech support, you’re going to get someone who can actually help you out on the phone, and who probably knows about comic collecting as well. It’s our hope that if we give you a really great program, and support it to the hilt, you’ll come back in a year and buy the upgrade. So far, it seems to be working. NRAMA: How important is your community in regards to making changes to the overall program and its functionality over the years? PB: It’s extremely important, and a great many of the changes in the program have come either directly from users, or from questions we’ve gotten on the tech support lines. Since we’re one of the companies that actually take your call in person when you call for help, we know immediately if something about the program is causing people grief. As a result, we get very motivated to make things work. We also get good suggestions from our users on things they’d like to see—and the ones that aren’t impossible - or that would morph the program into something completely different, we generally implement. NRAMA: Speaking directly about version 10. You debuted it in July of last year. In the months that it’s been out, what’s the reaction to it been, and how many copies have you sold? PB: We actually sold out of the first printing of the Archive Edition, and when we went back to press, we managed to add in about 25,000 new pictures, raising the total to over 125,000. In addition, each Wednesday, we get in boxes of comics from Diamond which we dutifully index and push out as updates to all our ComicBase 10 customers - who get a year of free updates as part of their purchase. NRAMA: What’s the difference between the two versions that you offer? PB: The big difference is multimedia content. With the Standard Edition, you get 2 CD’s worth of data—about 17,000 pictures, as well as the database, Palm/Pocket PC tools, etc. This amounts to one picture per title, generally, the #1 issue. With the DVD edition, however, you get 12 GB of data, including over 125,000 pictures - 60,000+ of which are in full-size, high-definition format. It also includes nearly a hundred video clips and interviews with comic creators ranging from Julius Schwartz talking about the creation of the DC Silver Age to Frank Miller discussing his breakout work on Batman: The Dark Knight. Finally, the Archive Edition expands on the database to add in circulation figures, CGC Census data, and records of the top known sales price for tens of thousands of comics. NRAMA: Also with this edition, you’ve got more than just the creators who worked on the titles – you’ve also got circulation figures, CGC census data, etc. Where does that data come from? PB: We get Circulation and CGC data from the folks at Comics Buyer’s Guide - we made a deal with them a while back to share databases. NRAMA: So the data in ComicBase is the same as presented in CBG’s Standard Catalog of Comic Books? PB: Right. NRAMA: Can you explain a little more about the relationship? PB: Several years ago, we struck up a deal with the folks at CBG. We figured we had no interest in publishing a print price guide, and they had no interest in doing software, and we were both doing a lot of the same work indexing and pricing the countless comics in the world. “So” we figured, “Why not join forces?” We share data, which they have the print rights to, and which we have the rights to use in software products. It’s actually worked out amazingly well. Circulation figure tracking, in particular, has been a mission for CBG’s John Jackson Miller, and while I’d occasionally thought it to be a lot of work for not much return, it turned out that it actually is interesting to know that there’ve been 202,592 copies of Incredible Hulk #181 printed, that over 2,000 have been submitted for grading - the top copy being in CGC 9.9 condition, and that it fetched $22,500. As for the rest of the data, it’s really just been a long, patient process of cataloging it all over the course of more than a decade. We track over 17,000 artists and writers, and note storyline, cover date, notes, and other information for every comic we touch. This lets us do insane comic-book-type things like finding being able to search for all 43 parts of the Knightfall crossover, or knowing all the books Garth Ennis wrote before he made it big in the States with Hellblazer. NRAMA: With the addition of all the data, ComicBase seems to have morphed from simple tracking software of its early days to something more. Wuold that be an accurate way to look at it? PB: Pretty much. I really was tremendously stupid when I started - I massively underestimated how many comics there were in the world. I was thinking, “Hey, I just want to make this cool program to let folks track their collections - how hard can it be to track down information on all the different titles in the world, so that folks will have a head start when it comes time to enter their own?” That was back when ComicBase had some 20,000 issues, from 297 titles. I just started adding in information on other titles as I went along, and it wasn’t until I’d had to add literally thousands of new titles that it started to dawn on me that I wasn’t really just writing a database program anymore, I was really compiling what was to become the world’s largest database of comics. Today, we’ve indexed not just 20,000 issues, but more than 20,000 titles, comprising more than a quarter of a million individual comics. There’s an old proverb that say that the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. But in my case, the trick to getting so far down the track is to be constantly deluded that I’d be home and dry after just a little bit more walking… If you can keep fooling yourself like this for a decade or so, it’ll turn out that you’ll have covered an enormous amount of ground. NRAMA: You’re one of the people who stand in two worlds in a sense, given the depth of knowledge that ComicBase requires in database management and programming. What kind of developments are you keeping your eyes on in the database management and computer fields? PB: It’s not enormously difficult to make a functioning database for something like comics. The real trick comes in how to make it all hang together with style, elegance, and simplicity. While we certainly take advantage of technical advances in database management systems, most of that is properly kept “under the covers”. Users may notice, for instance, that something works much faster, but they should never need to worry about the various database techniques we had to work with to make it all happen. NRAMA: So where do you find yourself pulling ideas from? PB: As for the parts that users do get to see, we’ll steal ideas from anywhere we can find them, including the movies. As I mentioned earlier, one of my very favorite parts—the ability to simply “wave” the mouse over a list of issues and have the pictures of each issue come floating into view—was stolen almost verbatim from the hotel scene in Minority Report. NRAMA: Moving from the database and stylistic elements back into comics, what about comic data? What are you trying to get your hands on for inclusion? PB: At this point, it’s mostly a matter of keeping up with what’s new every week. It’s really quite rare for us to discover any series from about the 1890s forward which lasted more than a couple of issues which we’ve somehow overlooked. Of course, as soon as such data does come to light, we immediately incorporate it and push it out as part of the next week’s update. NRAMA: Speaking of the “keeping up” element, as you mentioned, version 10 has weekly updates, both covering new titles as well as values. Where and how do you collect your pricing data, and who vouches for its accuracy? PB: At this point, pricing is done almost entirely by the folks at CBG. Unlike other guides, they have an excellent track record of actually checking their prices against real auction, store, convention, and online sales, instead of getting bamboozled by some guy who simply wants to pump up his own stock’s value by turning in a price guide report which says that “Charlton Comics are Hot!” and convincing the price guide editor to knock all Charlton books up 40% across the board. That said, I think the industry desperately needs to move beyond the point where we rely on “price guides” to gauge the value of our collections. NRAMA: Why? PB: At best, they’re an educated average of observed prices; at worst—and all too frequently—they’re a sloppily grouped together series of biases, conjecture, and hope substituting for facts. And probably the dirtiest open secret of all collectible fields is that the surest way for a guide to become popular is to routinely overstate the market values of comics. It saves the editors from actually doing research, and it makes everyone feel good that their comics are going up in value—until the moment when they try to sell and discover that nobody is paying anything like the “guide value” for their beloved comics. We desperately need to move beyond the concept of “guide value” and concentrate on “realized value”, drawn from verified sales of each comic, in each condition. And yes, we very much hope that our upcoming Atomic Avenue system will be able to provide just that. We’d never tolerate the Wall Street Journal telling us that “Guide Price” for, say, Sun Microsystems stock should be 8-1/2, if it just closed that day at 4-1/4. We need to get to a situation where we can say the same sorts of things about Action #217, or Infinite Crisis #1. NRAMA: One thing that we probably should go into a little – while you’re the point man and the public face of ComicBase, you’re not the only one at the company. How many people does it take to keep Comic Base running? PB: Pfew! A lot! We run with a pretty small office staff, but there are dozens of folks who do writing for us, contribute data, and so on. For the full list, just open up ComicBase and look at the credits - and let it keep scrolling! This was a lot of work on the part of many, many people. NRAMA: Something that you do take a good deal of heat for is the program’s price. ComicBase isn’t cheap - even an entry price on the current version is a fairly meaty $150, with the Archive/Giant Sized Edition going for $300. How do you respond to the complaints about the price? PB: Compared to a Twix bar, ComicBase is pricey, but compared to a word processor, a Randy Bowen statue, or a couple of PlayStation games, it’s an absolute steal. Best yet, it gets better all the time, with new pricing, new titles, and more. It’s not the cheapest software you can buy to keep track of your comics, but there’s absolutely nothing else in its class. NRAMA: That said, are there any plans to offer an even more slimmed down version of CB for the more casual collector? PB: I’m afraid the Standard Edition (2-CDs for $149) is as slimmed down as we’re likely to get. Anything less than that would require us to not bundle the database with the program—and without that, it really wouldn’t be ComicBase. NRAMA: While we’re still in this vein, what are the biggest misconceptions you’ve heard from people about CB? PB: I guess that one that makes me scratch my head the most is the popular idea that somehow all this data assembles itself, or that some outside force - “The ’net” or maybe “The database fairies” - is putting in all the countless hours to make a project like this come together. It really is, and has been, an astounding amount of work. One of the reasons I started my blog [“Release Notes” on www.comicbase.com] was to give folks a chance to observe the day-to-day work, so they’d get a better idea of what an astounding production all of this is. NRAMA: The flipside – what’s the best idea for an improvement that you’ve received from a user/fan? PB: Since ComicBase 1.0, our #1 user request was free, downloadable updates. NRAMA: Little did they know they only had to wait 12 years… PB: [laughs] Right. But we always knew folks wanted it, but it took until version 10 before we could figure a way to make it all come together from a technical and economic standpoint. The other thing we added in 10 was support for bar code scanners, a number of folks had been clamoring for. It required an enormous amount of back-end work to make this happen, and I’ll admit that all the time I suspected it might never be of interest to more than a handful of folks. When we finally released it, however, it turned out to be one of our most popular features. NRAMA: Looking towards the future – what’s coming up for ComicBase? What, if anything, do you look at in version 10 and think… “Man, that’s something we’ve got to fix/add/address in version 11”? PB: The big feature of v11 is going to be support for Atomic Avenue, our upcoming system to allow anyone with ComicBase to post tens of thousands of items for sale, at fixed prices, with a single click of the mouse. Then, anyone looking for a comic will be able to find all the folks who have it for sale, and buy it, in the condition they want, without any drama or fuss. Think of the way Amazon’s used books section works—but on a truly massive scale. NRAMA: What does drive the creation of the new versions? Is it largely a balance of fixes and tweaks with implementation of new technology over the years? What constitutes a new “version,” officially? PB: In the past, it’s been a way to release a full update for all the prices, titles, and issues that came out during a given year, as well as to release major new program features. This may change a bit now that we’ve started pushing online updates as new books come out, although major new program features and subscription renewals are sure to be part of any new version. Bug fixes and minor improvements are usually released free on our web site at www.comicbase.com . NRAMA: So – to wrap things up, looking down the road as far as you can see - what will ComicBase v 20 look like? PB: Shiny. Very, very shiny. |
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03-10-2006, 09:33 AM
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#2 |
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I can buy a Playstation 2 machine and a couple of games for 150. So this is way too much, sorry. Bring down the price to 50 bucks and you will get my money and I suspect, the money of a lot of folks.
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03-10-2006, 09:43 AM
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#3 |
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Really looking forward to version 11, but I have to agree with the last poster: The price needs to come down.
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03-10-2006, 09:48 AM
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#4 |
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I replaced my old tracking software recently, Overstreets old DOS based one. I looked at using Comic Base but the price for it was just not justifiable to me. I ended up buying Comic Collector 2.8 for 29 bucks (39 before a 10 dollar off offer). It does pretty much the same thing that Comic Base offered to do for me but at a far cheaper price. 150 bucks versus 29 bucks is a huge difference.
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03-10-2006, 10:00 AM
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#5 |
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As a RETAILER I can see this being of use, but as a general consumer, I'd prefer to see a slimmed down version. I think they'd sell many more $30-$50 units than $150 units.
I mean, this is the reason why many people I know have ripped copies of Photoshop. |
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03-10-2006, 10:11 AM
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#6 |
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ComicBase is definitely too rich for my blood and I certainly don't have the collection (size or value) to justify at this point, but I am interested in getting things a bit more organized. I know a lot of people use homemade Access/Excel databases, which is fine, but would seem to require an awful lot of data entry on the user's part. I mean, if I'm just tracking titles and issue numbers then it's not a big deal but it would be nice to have the creator info in there as well. Cover shots are pretty, but I don't think they're necessarily useful, so I can live without them.
Does Comic Collector (or maybe something online) have the ability to fill in the more detailed data about an issue based soley on the title and issue number or is that only available if you shell out the big bucks? |
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03-10-2006, 10:12 AM
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#7 |
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Like others, I feel this hunk of software is overpriced and, for me, useless as I have a Mac. I don't even know why this "story" even qualified as it really isn't about comics, just some software amateur that lucked out with a database program.
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03-10-2006, 10:22 AM
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#8 |
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I'm looking at colelction software right now and have to agree- though ComicBase looks beautiful and its great to have all the manpower of scanning, etc done for you in advance I still can't justify the cost at either level unless perhaps I was running a comic shop. Reading the interview this was obviously the creator's initial goal- to have a way to better sell their own comics. And it looks as if they're gearing up to run that sales website to help others do the same.
Still, for a personal collection, I have to believe someone will come up with a better way. The software from Collectorz seems to have all the important features just without the creative team 'credits' and images. Does anyone know if there are plans to integrate any comic collection software with sites like Comic Book Database.Com at which users have compiled much of this information themselves? |
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03-10-2006, 10:24 AM
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#9 | |
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Quote:
Comic Collector has a lot of space available for filling in data. Everything from credits to price to location bought to details of the storyline or whatever you want to input about that issue. Comic Collector Info An Apple Mac OS X version is in the works and said to be coming sometime in the second quarter of 2006. |
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03-10-2006, 10:25 AM
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#10 |
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I've first got comicbase 8 and upgraded to 9 when it came out, the system is second to none. I have a collection of over 3000 comics. and it makes it so easy to sort....
if you want something to do the job properly, it's worth spending the extra money. |
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03-10-2006, 10:27 AM
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#11 |
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The price is fine, half of you people bemoaning about the price have no idea what is involved in databasing. This isn't just a collection of popular characters. There are hundreds and hundreds of books we never heard of all being archived right down to the smallest information.
$50 is like paying 1/3 of cover price of over 200 thousand comics. The software is for serious collectors and those who are looking for an essential tool in keeping track of their comics and what is out there in the back issue market. That said I, I downloaded the demo, and sampled it. I quickly decided its not something I need or want bad enough to plop down $150. Mostly because I'm not a "collector" and I don't get excited over meticulous details such as price guiding. Its a nice software for it's lofty goals. |
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03-10-2006, 10:33 AM
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#12 | |
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Quote:
greencapt brings up a good point, though - there's a few sites compiling all that data for free, so I wonder if there is a program out there that can basically pull the information from these sites or even from an export of the information that they contain? That would be ideal. If nothing else, I guess I could cut and paste from a database site into Comic Collector which would certainly cut down on time and still allow me to go the cheap route. That might be my best bet. |
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03-10-2006, 10:36 AM
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#13 | |
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it's true, i would buy it for 50 bucks |
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03-10-2006, 10:40 AM
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#14 | |
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It is a manual process unfortunately. Combined my wife and I have 50 - 60 boxes which is being inputted now into the new software. I fear what the final tally of books we own is going to come to. The one good thing is you do go through the collection and find some cool discoveries... "I own this??? cool!" |
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03-10-2006, 10:43 AM
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#15 |
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And I at least am not saying that the price of ComicBase is not justified- it IS. What I feel though is for a non-pro hobbyist ComicBase might be too much of a god thing. There just doesn't seem to be a middle ground- you either pay less and have to do all the work or pay a lot more and have someone do all the work for you. In days past those may have been the only options but in the current 'open source' world in which we live there are shared ways to get things done. And I certainly don't advocate 'stealing' work that someone has put in but as stated elsewhere there are really only so many to make a database and exporting/importing is a relatively simple script to write in most cases. The Collectorz systems are essentially all the same program just tailored to a particular type of media (comics, books, dvd, etc) and some of the other versions (like DVD) *already* have things like barcode support.
I also tend to stay away from software that only gives you a limited amount of upgrades or time period in which to upgrade. If Microsoft has taught me anything in life its that you DON'T need to release a new version of your software EVERY year or every 6 months or whatever. Many users only use a small percentage of the features of most software packages. Upgrades should be reserved for actual changes and enhancements rather than cosmetic reasons (and NO, I not saying this is the case with ComicBase- I'm just generalizing here.) Last edited by greencapt : 03-10-2006 at 10:46 AM. |
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03-10-2006, 10:44 AM
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#16 | |
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I've been using Realms of Wonder for a while now (http://www.realmsofwonder.com/) and it pulls info and cover scans right off of GCD. It's only 15 bucks and it fits my needs. I tried the demo for comicbase and it IS impressive. As a software engineer I can appreciate how much work went into this, but it's way more than I need. If I had a comic shop I'd definitely want it. |
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03-10-2006, 10:59 AM
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#17 |
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deleted - came off sounding harsher than it should of, and I'm at work with not enough time to edit it to sound better.
Last edited by Brent Sienna : 03-10-2006 at 11:07 AM. |
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03-10-2006, 11:16 AM
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#18 |
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This is what I love about the computer industry -- so many of our favorite programs and websites started off as something completely different. Flickr started off as a tool in video game development, as I recall. eBay was built to sell auction software.
The things that start small and build slowly are the ones that last, and congrats to the team behind ComicBase for doing all the hard work and being rewarded for it over all these years. Now, the computer geek in me wants to know what tools are used to create this thing. MySQL database back-end? Java GUI? For the record - nope, I don't own it or use it. It's more than I need, really. And since I'm on a Mac, I couldn't use it even if I wanted to. =( -Augie |
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03-10-2006, 11:55 AM
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#19 |
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If you're not interested in the software, or just want to bitch because you don't make enough money to buy a worthwhile program, why even post here?
I started with the most recent version, and it has been much better than anything else I've tried, including online programs, my own Access and ACT databases, and cheaper software. Does it have some bugs or problems? Sure, but for a small business software that started out as a hobby, I'm impressed. And I appreciate the extra media stuff that's in here, too. I find it pretty cool, and a nice touch. I think it's worth every penny, and I bought the Archive edition. |
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03-10-2006, 12:00 PM
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#20 |
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I tried several databases over the last ten years but have found
Francis Moon's Realms of Wonder ( www.realmsofwonder.com) to be the best value ($15.00US) and content intensive based. Realms of Wonder can download details directly from Comics.org, including covers. Registered users of Realms of Wonder are given access to application That's An Order (TAO), which can be updated monthly with the latest Diamond Previews catalog content (including cover art), allowing users to generate and print their Previews order, along with importing the data into Realms of Wonder. Registered users of Realms of Wonder, also have access to For What It's Worth (FWIW), the application that provides monthly Price Updates for Realms of Wonder. All of this for $15.00US. Visit the site, download the demo and get hooked!  |
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03-10-2006, 12:01 PM
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#21 |
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I love Comicbase. It is such a cool program. I also love the new weekly update feature. So it costs me $2.00 a week to have every comic released that week downloaded into my software instead of me spending an hour or two inputting just "my" weekly stuff. Seems worth it to me.
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03-10-2006, 12:28 PM
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#22 |
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you should all check out http://comicbookdb.com basically it's set up as an imdb for comics. It has tons of comics and new ones being put in every day. and you can track your collection, although I'm not sure if it has values of books listed yet. anyways it's awesome. check it out.
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03-10-2006, 12:29 PM
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#23 | |
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Quote:
$2.00 a week sounds cheap but when you factor in 52 weeks it's not so cheap. $104.00 a year to download info that could be entered into the computer manually. Throw in an update from version x to version y at 50 bucks here and there and it adds up. I'd rather save that money and use it to buy other comics to input into my system. Not trying to knock your setup, but for me I just wouldn't be able to justify that kind of expense. |
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03-10-2006, 01:05 PM
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#24 |
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Cool article. Mostly I'm in awe of the time it must take to scan in and add the info for each and every comic. Oy!!!
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03-10-2006, 01:11 PM
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#25 | |
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Quote:
To find a software that is cheaper and useful so I can spend my money on comics. Thanks to all of you who have provided names of other programs! |
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