How do folks organize their comic books? I’m thinking about reorganizing my collection, and I’m interested in hearing what you guys do. Is there any single method that works best?
And while we’re at it, what kinds of lists do you make on here? Personally, I don’t use the “Lists” feature much, but I can appreciate what it’s designed for.
Excellent question, @Batman0803! I would love to share how we organize, hoping that it helps other DCUers! We use a simple 2-list system: “READ” and “Comics to Read”. As we see recommendations or explore and find issues/series to check out, we add them to the “Comics to Read” list. Once we have read comics, they are added to the “READ” list (the capitalization in the title helps differentiate). The DCU app fortunately performs a count on either, which is helpful in the case of read because it is both chronological and can tell us how many individual books we have consumed. The to be read list, however, is usually a mix of entire series and unique issues. Either way, it is very clear and easy for us, all managed within the app! 
@KeyFamily clever! I tried to do something similar (I have a list of “Stuff to Try” lol), but I almost never get to it 
Having a “READ” list must definitely make things easy to catalogue. I’ll try doing that as I mark down all the books I read within the year.
My procedure is unique
i can’t buy physical copies. I can’t physically get to a comic book store even if it was nearby
So I am digital all the way
I have 64 Gigs of data on my phone
All the titles I buy each week I download on Comixology on my Android Phone
Comixology has two settings for each title
All issues for that title that I bought
All issues for that title currently on my device
Comixology shows each title for each setting
When DC Universe came out they were constantly rotating comics out
I bought all the popular trades on Comixology so I would not be subjected to that stress.
The combination of the Comixology browser being better and my vision being weak
Maean anything I read
I use Comixology
If I need issues for a Book.Club
I buy it on Comixology
After maybe getting the gist of the issues using the reader for our library…
So on Wednesday Thursday and Friday
I read the new issues for any title I.am not waiting for completion
Other days I work on my backlog
I have 75 titles on my device
From Silver Age to .last week’s issues.
I may have the equivalent of about 4000 issues. Hard to tell because I have a lot of trades. Each floppy issue seems to be about .01 gig so that is how I got my estimate.
I work on.
2 titles which are floppy
One trade which could be 400 or more pages
Curtently reading
Batman by King After the Wedding to end of his rum
All of Synder Justice League
Book 2 of Silver Age Flash for DC History Club.
Try to read 4 issues of the three titles every day.
Idea to slowly get number of Issues to read down.
Delete from device when issue is read
When finish a title pick another of same type floppy or trade.
So I can see my plan for the year all the time
Add new titles each week or from discussions in forum.
Read way more than new stuft each week with a combo of new and old issues
Concentrate on new issues some days
Older three titles other days
Basically just reading
Only decision to make is to pick a title of same type- trade or floppy
When finish a title.
Yes!
I’ve always followed the local comic shops method: alphabetical by title, putting the annuals first, then the zero issue, then numerical. I’m not sure why I’ve adopted this method compared to others. Like I said, I followed what I saw in the back issue bins in the comic shops here in NYC when I was younger. I don’t have plastic dividers, though.
I organize my single issues by the character they are about. Ex: All my Batman comics are in one box, all my Flash are in another, etc. The only exception is that I keep anything that I am currently buying together in one box, so that every time I get new comics I don’t have to go through multiple boxes. I don’t have that many boxes (5 short boxes) but this method has worked well for me so far. I also have trades on my bookcase, which I alphabetize and put in volume order.
That’s a pretty solid approach, and it’s effectively what I’ve got going for myself right now. The problem that I’ve found is in separating the multiple titles for a hero. Take for example, Batman, Detective Comics, and Legends of the Dark Knight. Right now I have one longbox that has all my Batman and ‘Tec, and a short box that has my Legends of the Dark Knight along with some other out of continuity Bat stuff. The Batman and ‘Tec comics are mixed, because I wanted to preserve story arcs, and it became popular to have stories occur over several different titles instead of just one.
But now I’m thinking of changing over to an entirely chronological system, which would mean mixing in self-contained graphic novels with the standard back issues.
I’m fairly new on here so I’m still figuring out my what’s next reading list and favorites and such.
As for physical copies , I have some designer short boxes that I keep them in and magazine holders on bookshelves. I try to keep all like characters together. I’ll keep a couple Gotham centric boxes where I have Batman, Batgirl, Detective and such together, divided by character. Same thing with the Metropolis characters I have a Justice league box where I have Wonder Woman , JL, JLD, and some other characters that are usually in the team together.
Im always trying to find ways to reorganize and sort. I’m always switching them up. For instance, I just installed a magazine holder next to one of our reading.m chairs where the oversized black label books fit perfectly.
For graphic novels it’s the same, except I have them in cube shelves and I place a couple on display on the top where I have some statues and such.
The boxes themselves , at the moment, are in my closet. However, my wife and I are planning on moving where I’d hopefully have more storage space/display space. I’ve heard of people buying a spinner rack and displaying them there but I don’t have the room for that. It would be interesting to see how others organize their books.
I hear you on keeping stories together. I’m always trying to see which is better with crossovers: keeping the stories together or the titles
Right?! I mean, Blackest Night has a list of tie-ins as long as my arm! Do I put them all with the Green Lantern books, or do I leave them scattered with their respective titles? Not a problem I’m dealing with myself, but definitely a conundrum for someone out there lmao
I love those designer short boxes! I’ve been thinking about getting some.
I used to have your standard long boxes and a couple short boxes, but ever since 2010, I’ve been using comic drawer boxes. It makes it a hell of a lot easier when I need to find something.
My method is as followed:
I have boxes for Marvel, DC, misc. publishers, and IDW, but if a single title, like Superman, is enough to warrant its own longbox, I take it out. This would be for titles that I collected sparsely or for a brief time, like Straczynski’s Wonder Woman or the few issues of the original Young Justice I have. These are ordered alphabetically.
More character or “family” titles have their own box. Action, Superman, and Superman/Batman all in one or more devoted boxes. I have 6 longboxes for Bat-titles, and a couple for the X-Men. In this case, if there isn’t a solid indicator, such as when the Super titles would have numbers indicating a kind of chronological order, I’d order them as they were released. So way back when, if one week Gotham Knights came out, then Batgirl, then 'Tec, then Nightwing, Catwoman, Batman, and finally Robin, that’s the order I’d read and then store them. This, admittedly may be a tad confusing.
Mini-series, or cross-title stories are kept alphabetically across a couple short boxes and one or two longboxes. This would likely include tie-ins of ongoing titles. Foremost there is an alphabetical order, but I do use a chronological suborder. So for “Age of Apocalypse”, it starts with the story leading up to the event, then AoA comics, and finally the one-shot that took place directly after.
One-shots and paperback trades are in a single short box that follows the alpha-then-chrono order. Daredevil/Batman came first, so it’s placed before Batman/Daredevil. Though, they share a bag and board, so it’s kind of a non-issue.
Oh yeah, I also started doubling up comics to save some space. Mostly for singular ongoings like TMNT or limited series like Future Quest.
This is an awesome strategy for keeping up with comics on this platform. I’ve even adopted it today (if you don’t mind)!
Absolutely - I’m so glad to hear it, @BCDC! Made my day! 
I’d love to know how it goes for you once you get jamming.
Well do!
Holey moley. Being an avid reader/back-issue-hounder for several DECADES now, my only advice is this: SORT’EM AS YOU GO KIDS CUZ IF YA PUT IT OFF, ITS IMPOSSIBLE
I had been keeping all my comics in boxes. They just make so many cool ones! Finally I upgraded to a nice wood file cabinet just because the boxes were getting a little outta control and heavy to move around. Really just gave myself more room for more books ! Just love me the physical copies. So now anything Harley related stays in Harley boxes and so on. As for the file cabinet I keep older runs and larger issue collections like Wonder Woman, Aquaman etc with the plastic dividers. 
