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Excalibur

Anatomy of a Comic Book Guide (and a comic book collection)

June 10, 2022 by krisis Leave a Comment

Finally slaying the ancient dragon that was my Guide to Legion of Super-Heroes inspired me to keep track of all of the many steps and processes it takes to put together a new comic book guide.

I think more people making more great guides to consuming comics (and other media!) makes the internet better for all fans. I love Omar’s Near Mint Condition video Reading Orders, How To Love Comics’s guide to reading your first comic, ComicsXF Primers, and ComicReleases solicits roundsups. All of them overlap with what I’m doing a little bit, but they’re all helping people find the comics they might love, which is why I started doing this in the first place.

Below I’ve listed my process for putting together a comic guide, which is also how I build a personal reading list or new comic collection! When I get interested in a new character, author, or title for the first time, my approach is almost identical to guide-building, even if I don’t plan on making a guide.

Throughout the list, I used my well-established Excalibur Guide and my new Patrons-only Legion of Super-Heroes Guides as examples. I tried to share some interesting behind-the-scenes nuggets along the way for all of you process wonks.

Feel free to use this guidance to help you put together your own handy guides, whether that’s for personal use or on a website. I certainly have some “secret sauce” and proprietary tools that help me make my guides so definitive, but anyone could work through this checklist to figure out a comics property from top to bottom. It takes me anywhere from 4 to 30 hours, depending on the complexity of the character or title I’m researching.

Here’s the breakdown of my steps.

  1. Create a list of series or volumes
  2. Decide on scope
  3. Organize (but don’t over-sort)
  4. Research your series list (this will include narrowing and expanding)
  5. Compile a collected editions list
  6. Assemble the stuff
  7. Conduct a clean-up pass
  8. Consider the meta-data
  9. Enjoy! (No, really! Make a plan for enjoying this hard work.)
  10. Schedule your first check-up

Now, let’s dig in! [Read more…] about Anatomy of a Comic Book Guide (and a comic book collection)

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Excalibur, Legion of Super-Heroes, obsessive collectorism

This Week in X of Swords, Week 10, Part 1: The Quiet Council fractures in X-Men #15 & Excalibur #15!

November 26, 2020 by krisis

The final week of X of Swords is so huge we had to break it in two!

Join Peter, Tyler, and Fariha as we dissect two of the three X-Men comics of 25 November, 2020 – X-Men (2019) #15 and Excalibur (2019) #15. They’re the 20th & 21st chapters of X of Swords, and they’re packed with political debate and action on the battlefield.

We have a lot to discuss about the tensions amongst the Quiet Council as one of their members wants to lead a more X-Men-esque heroic mission. Plus: the price of utopia, and what it means to be a mutant (vs. being an X-Man).


(watch on YouTube)

Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men?

  • Excalibur Collecting Guide & Reading Order
  • Definitive X-Men Reading Order
  • Guides to all of Marvel Comics

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Age of Krakoa, Excalibur, Jonathan Hickman, This Week In X, Tini Howard, Video, X of Swords, X-Men

Recapping X of Swords, Week 8: Marauders #15, Excalibur #14, & Wolverine #7 | This Week in X

November 12, 2020 by krisis

Join Peter, Tyler, and Fariha as we dissect the eighth week of X of Swords in the X-Men comics of 11 November, 2020 – Marauders (2019) #15, Excalibur (2019) #14, & Wolverine (2020) #7.

They’re the 14th, 15, & 16th chapters of X of Swords, and the duels have finally begun – but, do they all contain the crossed swords we were expecting? We discuss dinner etiquette, double-crossing schemes, how Doug is neither a lover nor a fighter, and which duel we all loved to hate. Plus, we have a LOT to say about the artwork this week!


(watch on YouTube)

Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men?

  • Excalibur Collecting Guide & Reading Order
  • Wolverine AKA Logan Collecting Guide & Reading Order
  • Definitive X-Men Reading Order
  • Guides to all of Marvel Comics

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Age of Krakoa, Benjamin Percy, Excalibur, Gerry Duggan, Marauders, This Week In X, Tini Howard, Video, Wolverine, X of Swords, X-Men

Recapping X of Swords, Week 5: Excalibur #13 and X-Men #13 | This Week in X

October 22, 2020 by krisis

It’s the fifth week of X of Swords, and we’ve got a pair of issues by the events architects, Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman.

Did Peter, Tyler, and Fariha enjoy Excalibur (2019) #13 and X-Men (2019) #13? In this episode we discuss sibling rivalry, the 180° Rule, unreliable narrators, survival of the fittest, if Apocalypse believes in life after love (we really don’t think he’s strong enough, no), and more!


(watch on YouTube)

Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men?

  • Excalibur Collecting Guide & Reading Order
  • Definitive X-Men Reading Order
  • Guides to all of Marvel Comics

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Age of Krakoa, Apocalypse, Excalibur, Jonathan Hickman, This Week In X, Tini Howard, Video, X of Swords, X-Men

Haul Around the World: Excalibur, Luke Cage, Monica Rambeau, & Punisher as an avenging angel!

November 4, 2019 by krisis

It’s another Classic Collection version of Haul Around the World, shot BEFORE my big move! This was my order from mid-February 2019.

In this order I get to freak out with excitement over Marvel hitting a number of very different gaps in their color collections coverage – the end of Luke Cage’s original solo title, the post-Claremont pre-Davis gap in Excalibur, Monica Rambeau’s solo stories as Captain Marvel and the deeply weird Punisher: Revelations.

Plus… a tease of the next oversize book to hit my shelf, which might be my most-anticipated omnibus of the decade!

In this haul:

  • from Marvel Comics
    • Captain Marvel – Monica Rambeau – visit the Guide to Captain Marvel
    • Excalibur Epic Collection: Girl’s School from Heck (Epic Vol. 3) – visit the Guide to Excalibur
    • Luke Cage – Power Man, Marvel Masterworks Vol. 3 – visit the Guide to Luke Cage
    • Punisher Epic Collection: Kingpin Rules (Epic Vol. 3) – visit the Guide to Punisher
    • Marvel Knights Punisher: Purgatory – visit the Guide to Punisher
  • other publishers
    • DC/Vertigo: Stardust by Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess
    • First Second: Olympians, Vol. 11: Hephaistos
    • Image: Birthright, Vol. 7

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Birthright, Captain Marvel, Excalibur, Haul Around The World, Joshua Williamson, Luke Cage, Monica Rambeau, Neil Gaiman, Olympians, Power Man, Punisher, Video

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