Marvel Comics A-Z in LaunchBox

[dragon57]

Comic Utility Belt is pretty straight forward. Just follow the different sections starting at the top and select what type of operation to perform in the lower section.

Having said that, I really recommend you reconsider trying to use LaunchBox to organize comic books. It really is more trouble than it is worth. Like DOS76 said earlier, maintaining, adding, etc., becomes unsustainable very quickly.

ComicRack is the way to go, and following ComicRackManual will give you all the info you need on setting it up, using it, adding comics, etc. https://sites.google.com/site/comicrackmanual/

You can always call ComicRack from LaunchBox/Bigbox for a pretty seamless experience after getting ComicRack configured.

[DOS76]

I don't even know if you can download ComicRack any longer.

[A Retro guy]

well i would like a tutorial video for comic readers like YAC and comic rack pls

[dragon57]

15 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

I don't even know if you can download ComicRack any longer.

You can download it from 3rd party web sites. I have compared the installer with my old installer I downloaded from the old, official web site, and so far the files have matched.

[dragon57]

12 minutes ago, A Retro guy said:

well i would like a tutorial video for comic readers like YAC and comic rack pls

Your best bet for Yacreader is the official website. There is a FAQ and a forum.

[A Retro guy]

Okay.

[Retro808]

1 hour ago, A Retro guy said:

well i would like a tutorial video for comic readers like YAC and comic rack pls

Your are going to find a lot of people are not just going to make a tutorial when asked. Most are doing emulation things in their own free time so not many are going to jump and say "Sure I will make a tutorial for you". You are going to have to start doing a lot of searching and reading. Most programs will have a FAQ and/or a forum that is always the best starting point.

[A Retro guy]

2 hours ago, Retro808 said:

Your are going to find a lot of people are not just going to make a tutorial when asked. Most are doing emulation things in their own free time so not many are going to jump and say "Sure I will make a tutorial for you". You are going to have to start doing a lot of searching and reading. Most programs will have a FAQ and/or a forum that is always the best starting point.

Ok and i also kinda figured some stuff out with YAC reader so i'm kinda good right now. [PS. I now have every single sonic archie comic that i can read thoru YAC reader so NOICE...... well at the very least the main sonic archie series but still.]

[djweevil666]

That is simply awesome what does it look like when you view them and what does it look like in big box mode ?

[DOS76]

This is what it looks like when viewing the comics on a reader app (YACReader in this case) The only art in LaunchBox that I have for them are the covers which I had to create on my own with a 3rd party tool. Due to this I don't really use it in BigBox as with just the one media type there isn't much to look at.

[Integrum Retro]

@DOS76 Do you have any recommended BB themes to display multiple covers like you get in LB? 

Also, thanks for sharing your XML, I manually imported 16,000 comics, created platform categories and play lists for every major title. Took 2 months. I can certainly appreciate your dedication to this as well. ? (But, did you go so far as to convert every single one to .webp format so you could save on drive space? Yeah.. half way done with that myself)

[Mr.Laor]

I tried this.  Unfortunately, it didn't work great at scale. Even more frustrating, I can't seem to find any feature-packed and attractive comic book manager. Decided to go with Yac Reader Library. It has built-in meta data search through comic vine(this is a killer feature), looks pretty good, and still being worked on. Anyone have other suggestions? I don't want to use Comic Rack- no active development for a number of years.

[DaveZ]

Been away from LB/BB scene for a few years and decided to pop in tonight and saw this. my jaw drops and mind starts wandering as I myself literally just got bit by the comic nostalgia bug a few weeks back. The one thing I am concerned with is this. Your video showed it going i believe 2 layers deep. Hopefully that makes sense. I would like to be able to go 4 or maybe even 6 layers deep. Specifically because I order my comics in a specific way. Is this possible or am I grasping air with this idea. Side note, my comics library is sitting at just over 90K. 

cheers m8s

[DOS76]

I don't think LaunchBox will nest things that deep but I've never tried so not actually sure

[DaveZ]

Ya... On thinking more I just don't think this is quite the right app. Close, but not quite. I dunno if the DEVS are interested or not, but a large internet search shows that this type of app specifically is actually in quite large demand as there is nothing  any good available really. Could be a money maker, if it's not to big of a task. But I am just an ole dude who knows nothing about programming.  Would recommend some serious thought and research into this though. It just may prove a worthy project if even down the road. Comics and their collecting have become  a lot more popular than many would think, and most platforms, inventory apps, and display apps are an atrocious collection of mashup software LOL

CHEERS 

 

PS. tnx for the response DOS76, wasn't sure I would be humored on this subject

[DOS76]

ComicRack is pretty good although not maintained and isn't the easiest application to figure out what is going on with it I believe the official download for it no longer works but it can be found on sites like MajorGeeks. I've broached the subject of making a comic app like LB with Jason in the past but there wasn't really any interest in doing something like that unfortunately.

[SiriusVI]

13 hours ago, DOS76 said:

I don't think LaunchBox will nest things that deep but I've never tried so not actually sure

Should be possible in theory. You just create custom platform categories. My C64 Dreams collection is nested in Computers (Category) --> Commodore 64 (Category) --> C64 Dreams (Category) --> Games (Platform)

I don't know if there is a limit for how deep this can go, though.

[DaveZ]

Bah, nothing does what I feel it should do. Going to try Calibre again, but its such a clunky piece of app when your library sizes start getting on the large side.  

Another side note, plex forum has been requesting this kind of functionality for over a decade LOL https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexreader-comics-books-pdfs/26684/870

Yup i been looking into EVERY possible app for this  ComicRack looked as though it had potential if it kept up development. Such a shame.

[Syllius]

I've attached a recent copy of the ComicInfo.xml that ComicRack puts into .cbz files when it scrapes from ComicsVine.  What I believe would be useful is a Launchbox plug in that will unpack the CBZ, convert the XML (changing field names where necessary) and add it to the playlist .xml data. 

I might try and work on it this week if I have some free time.

ComicInfo.xml

[uberrr]

Sorry to necro but could you post those playlists? I could really use them for my collection