An Evolution, or Just a Long Time to Get to Where I'd Always Been Trying to Go?

Back in the late '90s, I had this idea to write the definitive article about Skrulls. Everything from their basic history to their psychology to an appendix of all the known Skrulls. Basically, it would be a Wikipedia article about them several years before Wikipedia was even a thing. So I dug out all my comics with Skrulls in them, and bought any issues that I knew had significant Skrull-related stories. I read through everything, and I spent weeks writing something up. I recall having keep all the relevant comics stacked on the floor next to an old drafting table that I was using as a computer desk. And as I learned about or remembered more appearances, I'd have to go to the other room where my comics collection was, dig out the relevant issues and head back to the desk. That was something of a chore since I had my long boxes just stacked on one another, so I often had to shift several of them around just to get to the right box.

It was then that I started form the idea of setting up a comics library of some kind. Where I had my comics readily accessible and didn't have to move six boxes just to get the one I needed. Where I had everything I needed to read and write about comics without having to keep moving to different rooms just because I forgot to grab that one issue. That wasn't really feasible at the time, though, since we were renting , and space was something of a premium -- I had to work with what we had.

After I got my first house in 1999, though, I was able to eventually able to set up a space for exactly that. Once I determined that the basement wasn't actually very damp even before I put a dehumidifier down there, I set up a corner of the large unfinished area for my comics. I jerry-built some shelves using old hollow-core doors and some concrete blocks I picked up from a contruction site. It was cheap and relatively unattractive, but it got the job done.

I did notice a problem after a bit, though. Namely that if I was working on something like that Skrulls article, it still required me to grab the comics I need and carry them up two flights of stairs to my office where my computer was. I spent a fair amount of time trying to set up a computer down there. This would've been before wi-fi was commercially viable, so I was literally running cat-5 all over the house to make sure it had internet access. Once I did get that all sorted, though, the physical set-up of the computer itself wasn't comfortable to write on. I could do quick things like log new comics into my database, but writing extended articles about anything? Forget it!

When I sold that house and moved to the Chicago area, I made a point of ensuring I put effort into making a good comics library for myself. That meant nice, clean-looking shelving. A solid and stable work space where I could comfortably write, while still having access to my whole collection. A second area set aside just for leisure reading. My wife was very supportive of the whole endeavor and encouraged me to do what I needed to do in order to get everything set up properly. And once I did, I immediately began using it like I'd hoped -- working on comics related writing, and just rolling my chair a foot or two to the side to grab something else to use as reference.

I ran into another issue in 2019, however, when Chris Siefert sold ComicBookDB.com which I had been using to catalog my collection. Back when I set up a spare computer in the basement, I used a program called ComicBase. It was, at the time, the only real comics database software of its kind. It did work well, but it ran off your local drive, which meant that you couldn't access it anywhere else. Which was a bit of a challenge when you're rummaging around the back issue bins on a convention floor! So around 2006-07, I switched to ComicBookDB because it was online. And for a little over a decade, I was able to reference it from my library to catalog and/or look up individual issues, and continue to refer to on my phone while I was at conventions. After ComicBookDB.com, I tried a number of other solutions but nothing really checked off all the criteria I needed (which now included having control over the database itself if/when the next guy decides he wants to sell his set-up too).

And so I'm back to ComicBase. I've got it running off my home media server, so it's housed alongside my collection of music and TV and movies. And not only is it just running the database, but I'm able to connect it to all the digital copies of comics I have been saving for years as well. So I can search through the database looking for an issue and, once I find it, can just click a link to pop a digital version right up if I've got that one on hand. (I currently have about 70 gigs worth on my hard drive, and I've got a collection of about 50 older CDs with additional comics on them! Including most of Tintin, nearly all the Marvel superhero books from 1961-'67, and a complete run of Amazing Spider-Man up through 2003!) And since it's on a central, networked systemm I can access from any computer in the house and I can partially cloud-share it, so I can look things up on the go. Not to mention that ComicBase is -- still somehow in 2026 -- NOT a subscription service and I can (theoretically) keep running this same software until my computers all freeze; even if they sell the company off or shut it down, I can continue using the database.

Now, while this looks like a series of incremental upgrades to my setup over the past 30-ish years -- and from a functional perspective, it is -- where I'm at now (well, where I will be once I get my collection fully cataloged!) is what I've been aiming for this whole time. I'm just executing now on an idea that I simply could not bring to full fruitition until decades of progress caught up with me. Some of the limitations were technical, some financial, some just based on my meager skills and knowledge. But this was always the end goal. I couldn't have articulated that in any great detail back in 1997, but that's what I ultimately wanted -- a place where I could read and write about comics, regardless of what form those comics took (print, digital, microfiche...), and have ready access to both the broad information available from the world as well as the specific details of my personal collection. All of it in one place that's both comfortable and functional.

Could it be made better? Sure! I'd love if I could use a single database for music, TV, movies, AND comics. I'd love if there were a way to incorporate my original art into the same catalog, linking high quality scans directly to the issue they're from. I'd love to have even faster, more robust computers running the whole backend instead of leftovers not good enough to use in my day-to-day work. And I'd love more physical space so it feels a bit more open. But that's really just nitpicking. I liked my setup before I had a networked database helping me to keep track of everything; this would make 1997-me plotz!

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