I'm creating a new type Graphic Novel. It will be very similar to the Comic Book Collection (CBC) type except it won't have the following properties:
Series Collected
Issues Collected
First Issue Collected
Last Issue Collected
Number of Issues
Collection Cover Artist
Should I leave the CBC type as stand-alone or include the graphic novel type and just add the additional properties listed above? If latter, how would a user search for graphic novels only and not get comic book collections too?
If graphic novel (GN) type was included in the CBC type, the GN could have a property 'Original' which would be true for original graphic novels (OGNs) and false for comic book collections. This would work with freebase API, but the keyword search would still be a problem: if you just want to browse the OGNs, the CBCs which are more numerous would pollute the search results.
I'm not sure I have any answers, but I have lots of questions. (O Joy.)
If CBC doesn't include GN, how would the continues/continued by properties work for series where there are both collections and original graphic novels? (I think both Gaiman's Sandman and Carla Speed McNeil's Finder fit this description.) On the other hand, I'm not crazy about using a boolean for something like that -- I prefer to use the type system if at all possible.
Other thoughts on the GN type:
Does the property "stories collected" really belong? If it's an original graphic novel, doesn't that imply all new material? Otherwise, isn't it just a collection?
>If CBC doesn't include GN, how would the continues/continued by properties work for series where there are both collections and original graphic novels?
That's a good question and an argument for reusing the GN type. Is it possible to have a property that has more than one expected type?
>Does the property "stories collected" really belong?
I think so. Comic Book Story (CBS) type has no publishing implications. Just like a comic book issue consists of one or more comic book stories (some of which might not be original), an OGN also consists of one (in which case CBS can be left blank) or more CBSs. Some examples of latter are Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall -- of an OGN with multiple original stories by one writer but different artists, and anthologies like Flight with multiple original stories by various authors.
If a book has both previously published comic book issues and new original stories, I would classify it as a comic book [issue] collection. Some Hellboy volumes exemplify this.
Concerning the story continuation across different media (i.e. comic book series continued in a graphic novel), what about bigger media jumps, i.e. Firefly TV show -> Serenity: Those Left Behind comic book mini series -> Serenity movie -> Serenity: Better Days comic book mini series?
As it's unlikely something like this can be precisely modeled, I think the best we can do is to have an encompassing type that would facilitate finding story incarnations across different media.
For this I created a Media Franchise/Media Property type. Spider-man would be an example that spans all media: movies, MTV animated series, the upcoming Broadway musical, movie novelizations, comic books (obviously), OGNs, computer games, and movie soundtracks.
