Collection template discussion

The purpose of the new collection template is to be able to add pages for collections. Instead of "just" using the Comic template I've created this new template that should work better for collections as I could make it so that the autolinking and Collection-specific information worked properly rather than having to make huge and complicated adjustments to the Comic template.

However, I need your help in deciding what should go into this template and how we should be naming the collections. My suggestion is that a "(collected edition)" is added to all collection pages t properly separate them from the regular books. Also while we are using v2 for Volume 2 of a regular series, I believe "Vol. 2" would look better on collection pages as the "Vol. 2" is part of the title as seen in the indicia (well, actually the indicia generally use "Volume Two" and I could be convinced to go that route if you prefer that, but "Vol. 2" does make the programming easier so unless it is a very strong wish I'd prefer "Vol. 2".

See the main Collection template page to see which fields I've included. I'll make a few notes on some of them here.

"volume" is used to indicate the volume number of the collection and not the volume number of the series as with regular comics. "volume_title" is new and is to be used if a collection has a "sub-title". Let me use the Sandman collections as an example of when to use and when not to use. On a book like "Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House" (which is how the collections are now named) "The Doll's House" would be the sub-title and the wiki page would be named "Sandman Vol. 2 (collected edition)". The original editions however did not have volume numbers so in the case of the original editions "The Doll's House" would not be considered a sub-title but part of the title itself which would then be "Sandman: The Doll's House (collected edition)"

title_index is in the case of collections used to link to the main book that the collection contain. On the title_index page we can then add a section at the bottom (after Annuals and Specials) that list Collections.

last_issue and next_issue should automatically link to the last and next volumes if the collections have volume numbers and are named in numerical order. This is why the sub-titles should not be included as this feature will not work properly unless the books end on "Vol. X"

isbn_hc and isbn_sc are also new, but should be self-explanatory

After this we get to the cover credits. I've tried to add all the types of credits I believe are used for cover credits. If I've missed something please let me know. On to of just listing the credit names I've made it so that they also work as links to the creator "profile" just as with the comic listings (I will add this feature for cover credits to regular comics as well). Note the editor in this case is the cover editor if one exists and not the collection editor (I'm wondering if it might be better to use cover_editor even though none of the other cover credits include "cover" because another editor role appears in this template. What do you think?)

The last four credits are for the collection itself and only for the collection, not for the stories contained within. I'm not sure who should be listed here. Should other credits be added here? Should it be possible to add credits for changed credits for the entire collection as well, such as if the entire book has been recolored or is it better to leave those credits for each individual story? See "individual stories" section below.

Finally the template contains a field for the solicitation text, which has a general description of the entire collection.

Individual stories

Each individual story within the collection is to be added using the Story template which has been updated to handle reprints as well. The Story template page has more info on this, but basically two new fields have been added: "reprinted_from" where the issue that the story has been reprinted from can be listed, and a "reprint_credits" where if "None" is entered "Credits:" is not listed. Right now, every story will have "Credits:" listed below the story name even if no credits are entered, and as only new credits should be listed for collection reprints this would look awkward. So the option to omit it has been added. By "new credits" I mean credits that are unique to the reprinted story, such as if it has been recolored or rewritten or if new pages have been added in which case every creator that has worked on these pages should be added. A comment about the involvement could be added in parentheses after the creator name eg. "| penciller = Doug Moench (new page 21)"

Questions, comments, suggestions

Please give me some feedback so that I can make some final adjustments before the template goes live. (I'll try making a collected edition page so that you can see it in action, but thought I'd post this for you to comment on while I get that done)

As mentioned in my e-mail, am a little overloaded w/ work, so apologies if I'm light on responses... a lot for me to absorb right now. It's also very different from what I expected. This is not a bad thing, I can see a ton of consideration went into the template creation. I had considered something between this and a story marked reprint in a regular issue, but this is a better deal.

Looking at a collected edition, I wonder if the artwork is original, or if not is it a reprint of a cover, and if so, which title/issue? Maybe it's not a direct copy, but it's a different artist recreating the cover? Some sort of credit / link would be one suggestion.

I've set up Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol (collected edition) 1 (has been renamed Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol Vol. 1 (collected edition), Note: I need to set up an autolink for this which works like the {{c|Title}} template) so I could try out the template. That brought the question about title indexes. Some collected editions will gather issues from numerous comic titles. Showcase: Doom Patrol #1 starts with My Greatest Adventure and ends with Doom Patrol. I can't think of other collected editions by nae for examples, but I'd imagine some of the Batman or Superman col. eds. would be all over the place. Barring linking to half a dozen (or more!) title indexes, is there a way to " " the title index link so it does not appear at all? This could also be used for one-shot comics.- DRMOUSE2814 (talk) 23:34, 13 August 2015 (EST)

Thanks for making this test as it is better at showing how I envisioned the volume naming. I've renamed the Showcase Presents collection to fit this and discovered that I need to make a small adjustment as it links to Vol. 0 as last issue. This will be fixed. I'll get back to the other questions later today.--Tenzel Kim (talk) 04:17, 15 August 2015 (PDT)

In regards to whether or not the cover is original, based on one of the covers used on one of the collected books or something else that might be an interesting thing to note. Not quite sure the best way to do this though, but will give it some thought. It also made me think that maybe it should also be possible to list which covers are featured in the collection and whether or not they are regular reprints or if they are "virgin" covers (covers without any logo's or text).

As for books that collect stories from multiple books I think it would be better to create a Title Index to handle these rather than to remove the Title Index altogether on these books. The Showcase, Archive and Chronicle books for instance ought to get their own title index instead of being added to another book's title index. We could set it up so that it would be possible to make a comment about which series the collections featured in the Title Index collect. So a Title Index for Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol might have a comment that: "Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol collects material from My Greatest Adventure, Doom Patrol Vol. 1 and Challengers of the Unknown, with those titles linking to the Title Indexes for those titles. Not sure I'd be for removing it on one-shots either. If these don't fit on any Title Index they should just get one of their own. The Title Index can handle one-shots.--Tenzel Kim (talk) 09:53, 15 August 2015 (PDT)