Template talk:Infobox graphic novel

Usage

This template is for graphic novels, manga volumes, European-style comic books, or any other single published comic works.

|title=

Use the title used in the title of the article. The parameter englishtitle may also be used.

|foreigntitle=

Use the title of original publication, if it differs from title.

|image=

An image, preferably the most recognizable cover associated with the book. Please don't use frame or thumb.

|caption=

A caption for the image above. Bear in mind the project's artwork credit conventions.

|publisher=

The publisher of the comic book. Not the publisher of the original serial comic, if it differs.

|date=

The publication date of the comic book. Not the publication date of the original serial comic.

|series=

The series that this book falls into. Do not use this parameter if you're using the main_char_team parameter.

|main_char_team=

The main character or characters of the comic book. Do not use this parameter if you're using the series parameter. (This parameter is included to conform with current style with American-style comics, and isn't necessary with European-style comics.)

|origpublication=

The publication the comic was originally serialized in.

|origissues=

The issue number(s) of the publication the comic was originally serialized in.

|origdate=

The publication date(s) of the publication the comic was originally serialized in.

|origlanguage=

The language the comic was originally published in.

|origisbn=

The current ISBN of the album in the original language.

|writers=

The book's writer(s).

|artists=

The book's artist(s).

|pencillers=

The book's penciller(s).

|colorists=

The book's colorist(s). If you prefer, you can spell this parameter colourists, and the UK-style spelling will show up in the infobox.

|transpublisher=

The publisher of the English-language translation, if the comic book was originally published in another language.

|transdate=

The publication date of the English-language translation, if the comic book was originally published in another language.

|transisbn=

The current ISBN of the album in English.

|translator=

The translator(s) of the English-language translation, if the comic book was originally published in another language.

|previssue=

The album that was the last to be published as an album before this one in the original language

|nextissue=

The album that was the first to be published as an album before this one in the original language

Discussion

Why this infobox?

This is a page for the development of a generic infobox for all (European) comic books, based on the superheerobox (Template:Superherobox) with some input from the Valerian infobox (Template:Valerian Album Infobox).

We currently have infoboxes for both Asterix books and Valerian books, and it would be quite confusing to have individual infoboxes for all (European) comic books, as most have a similar need anyway.

The template is intended for an individual comic book, not a complete series, and will be optimized (hopefully) for comics in the Franco-Belgian tradition, i.e. comics that first appeared in either a magazine (Spirou, Tintin, Pilote, ...) or a newspaper (like Spike and Suzy, or the first adventures of Tintin, and then in an album, or comics that appeared immediately in an album. I have no idea if it can be used for American comics and/or manga, as I don't know enough about those: any input is more than welcome, and the more generic we can make this, the better.

Be bold, and edit this template as much as you like: but please refrain from using it in actual articles until it has been discussed some more and some consensus has been reached. Thank you! Fram 15:26, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Current issues as of Sep. 6th 2006

Technical / visual

1. When used in an page, the infobox has a large white margin above it. Why?
2. Caption bold?
3. When section header "Translation" is made to disappear if none of the following lines is visible (with an if...), then the section header only spans the first column: I only get it to span both columns by showing it all the time (which is stupid)
4. Boxtitle and section headers in larger font? Or is the different color and the center-alignment enough?

Contents

1. Contents missing? Contents superfluous?
2. What with different versions of same title (e.g. the old Tintin comics?)

Any comments, criticisms, ... welcome, both here on the talk page as in the template itself. A test can be conducted at User talk:Fram/Sandbox or elsewhere of course. Please don't use the template in real articles yet, until it is more definitive and discussed. Thank you! Fram 07:07, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

AMIB wants to help

• What parameters does this template need and why? Which ones should be blank when empty and which ones should disappear when empty? - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 07:24, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

• Can you make a mockup of what an example in the wild should look like (using a hardcoded table)? - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 07:24, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

• Is there a template whose style you want to imitate? (The WP:CMC US comic series infobox, existing infoboxes for these articles, the manga infobox, etc.) - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 07:24, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

The needed parameters (lines that have to be there, even when not filled in) are all the lines that in the current example are visible (when you look at Template:eurocomicbox, the right side of the screen). These are all the lines that are not started with an "if" in the code. The only exception is the "translation" title, which should disappear as well when no translation info is available: I have not implemented the "if" there because then, for some reason, the text did not span both columns but only the left one. Fram 07:48, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd appreciate if you could list what params you want here, and what should go in them. It's not always immediately clear from looking at template code. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:01, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Things I want to have in the template (section by section):

• The current boxtitle is not needed.
• An image with a caption (both optional).
• Information about the original comic: mandatory the title, publisher and original language, optionally the date (year of original comic book publication), the name of the series and the number of the volume in the series (e.g. Series: Asterix, Number: 24), and also info on what magazine or newspaper first published it, and in what issues or between which dates (since the first comic book publication can sometimes be years later than the original magazine publication). I had forgotten to add the ISBN, but that should be optionally included as well.
• Information about the translation (this whole section should be optional, since not every comic will have an English translation): the title of the translation, the title of the series in translation, the volume number in translation (this can be completely different from the original series number), the publisher of the translation, the dfate of the translation, the isbn of the translation, and the name of the translator
• Information on the authors: writers and artists (both mandatory), coverartist (optional, when different from main artist, or if one of multiple main artists), and colorist (optional)
• The preceding and following comic in the series (to make navigation for the reader easier)

My aim is to have all the repetitive but interesting facts about a European comic book together in the infobox: this makes it large (though most of the parameters are optional), but in my view very informative. I may be overdoing it though: if you feel that some thinks (coverartists or so) are overkill, then by all means get rid of them. I have added the three subtitles (Original publication, Translation and Author) to make this long list easier to use. Again, these three subtitles are not necessary or fixed at all. Fram 08:21, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't thin I can create such a mockup: a rather complete example of what the template should look like in use can be seen in User talk:Fram/Sandbox. I prefer this lighter style over the rather heavy box that can be seen in Template:GraphicNovelBox (sorry for the earlier redlink, wrong capitalization). But if the layout problem can be solved by using this look anyway, I wont complain.

I based my template on a combination of Template:Valerian Album Infobox, Template:Book Series infobox (used in Tintin stories), and Template:Supercbbox. I didn't know of the existance of the the template:graphicnovelbox at the time. I think the Book Series infobox comes the closest to what I want, but with less flashy colours and nly two columns. But the code of this template is very complicated, while the Valerian album infobox uses a much lighter code. From the supercbbox, I took e.g. the method to show the code you have to use to call the template, on the template page (this is missing from the other two, and I think it is necessary if you want other people to use your template). So I took the look from one, the code style from another, and mixed some new problems into it obviously...

I'll not edit the template for a while, as it isn't a good idea to do this simultaneously, but I'll try to be online and check these pages regulatly to give my input. Fram 07:48, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm less interested in what you were using than the look you'd like, really. Is the current look (why the duo-tone?) in use for some reason, or should I just take carte blanche to implement a pleasing style, since that's relatively easy to change? - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:01, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Please, you have carte blanche! It was just a look that was pleasing to me, but I'm no colour or style wizard in any way ;-) I'll reply to the other question in a minute. Fram 08:07, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Rock out. I think I see what you want to do here. Is there a Wikiproject that currently covers these articles (besides WP:CMC)? I prefer to stick with a project's established style, if any. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:26, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

No, that's the reason I'm trying to create this. All the articles do fall under the broad scope of WP:CMC, but a specific one for European comics or so does not exist. Everyone uses whatever he likes most, so that we have now (at least) four different templates in use for european comic books. I have given notice of this template on Template talk:Infobox Asterix and on Template talk:Valerian Album Infobox, but neither of those have generated any reaction. I'll add this notice to Template talk:GraphicNovelBox as well. I would like us to have an established style, which is currently missing. Fram 08:34, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Okay. I'm going to make a generic graphic novel box, using WP:CMC's style. I will certainly make sure it meets your needs, but, I think, I'll be able to retire all of those, too. We shall see. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:37, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you very, very much. Fram 08:42, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Hey, are there any UK-isms you'd like reflected besides "colour"? I can add a tag to flip the spellings. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:58, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm used to the UK spelling , but I don't mind either way (color/clour). Fram 11:04, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Nearly ready to rock. I ditched some parameters, tell me if any are essential:

• transvolume and volume - This means different things in different countries, and should be covered in the prose.
• coverartist - In every country, such graphic novels often have different covers for different regions, printings, editions, whatever. Leave it to the prose or image caption if a particular cover is iconic or strongly associated.
• followedby and precededby - If it's reeeeeeeally important, use successionboxes. I think the series article should really have a list, though. I dunno, I'd rather leave this to other tools, as I don't like cramming extra navigation into an infobox.
• translated series name - Use the name of the series that is used for the series' own article. The link suffices to cover the original-language series name, IMO.
• transtitle - Stands to reason it'd be the English-language title.

Anything I missed? - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 10:23, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

By the way, this needs a leeeetle bit of tightening, but it's ready to be used in articles if you're happy with it, Fram. The rest is minor and superficial, before I take it to WP:CMC to be our One True Comic Collection Template. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 10:46, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

It looks great! Your reasoning for dumping some items is correct, it's good to get another perspective on such things, and it was getting quite long already. Perhaps the isbn (original / translation) may be useful, but that's about it. I'll let you put the finishing touches on it, and then I'ld be more than happy to present it to the world (or at least the Comics project). Fram 11:04, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Feel free to go ahead and use this template. The center alignment issues still need to be sorted out, but it's feature-complete, so it's ready to use. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 23:01, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Situation on September 21st

A Man In Black, the template is almost finished, but I wonder if you can do anything about the alignment of the parameters (not the labels, those are allright). They are aligned inside each section, but not from section to section, and I think it would look much nicer if the alignment continued, i.e. every parameter started at the same position. I've looked for a solution but couldn't see an easy one. Could you please have one more look at it? Fram 05:07, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I know, I still need to fix it. I think it's because of the multiple tables inside one box; I'm going to work on combining the whole mess (which is going to be a big rewrite, and likely will need to be done in userspace before I put it into the live version) into a single table once I finish more-pressing issues (like the color scheme stuff and usage instructions). Functionality before appearance, after all. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 05:18, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Allright! It's indeed not pressing, but I started to wonder if I was the only one seeing this :-) Fram 05:23, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

October 17

I've added previssue and nextissue, a feature which was available in other boxes (used in tintin, asterix, ...) but was missing here. I'll test it now at King Ottokar's Sceptre. Fram 19:55, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

ISBN

I'll try to add the boxes for ISBN and ISBN (translated) later today! Fram 06:28, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Done! Fram 08:41, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Some observations

Hi, I only spotted this template today - well done, it should prove very useful for those of us writing articles on Franco-Belgian comics. I've migrated Ambassador of the Shadows over to the new template with a view to migrating all the Valérian articles in due course. I would, however, like to make a few observations and suggestions:

• The language and ISBN parameters are situated in the Original Publication section; should these be put at the top along with publisher, date and series? The way it reads at the moment, it appears to be relating the ISBN number to the magazine the story was serialised in rather than the album it was later published in. Similarly, the language parameter doesn't just relate to the language the story was serialised in.
• Possibly a field should be added under Original Publication for the ISSN number that identifies periodical publications? While the likes of Pilote and Tintin had probably folded before ISSN numbers appeared, Spirou is still going strong and I'm sure there are others.
• Possibly a field to include the volume number for albums that are part of a series?

— Joe King 16:12, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Background colour

About a month ago, the background colour was changed from nothing (i.e. white for most people) to light blue. Was there a particular reason for this? I prefer white, but then I prefer to have the least possible distractions. Any opinions? Fram (talk) 19:36, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

There was a thread at the Comics Project talk page, archived here.

The upshot was, for the set of comics infoboxes, to try and remove the "blocked" labels with something that still separated the 'box from the page.

There wasn't a hew and cry not to so, I've been slowly applying the current style across the 'boxes. And not getting much feedback. - J Greb (talk) 23:19, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, you may consider this your first feedback ;-) It's certainly not a terrible change, just one of those things that I like less each time I see it, so I thught I might check how other people felt about it. If most people like it, no problem. If many people dislike it as well, we'll just reverse the change, and no harm done either way. Fram (talk) 04:37, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'd rather have it be completely standardized, with no background colour or label colour (to match {{Infobox Book}} and the like) but since that probably won't be happening anytime soon I'm happy enough with this, as it's a big improvement. Mr. Absurd (talk) 22:16, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

I have to ask... standardized which way? Right now it's consistent with the infobox templates used with the bulk of the comics articles and related topics. Graphic novels is one of the problematic topics which sits under the eyes of two or more Projects. - J Greb (talk) 22:30, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, really, standardized to the defaults of {{Navbox}} (along with all the other similar infoboxes). That's the general norm, like {{Infobox character}} or {{Infobox Book}} or {{Infobox Person}}. But I'm not proposing anything, so don't worry about it. Mr. Absurd (talk) 00:51, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

The forced background color has been removed to comply with most infobox styles and to stop a MOS:COLOR problem on dark modes of the Wikipedia mobile app. Chlod (say hi!) 03:19, 22 January 2022 (UTC)

Letterers and editors fields

I notice the other comics infoboxes also have such fields and it'd be handy here too so that things are consistent across the board. Cheers. (Emperor (talk) 16:43, 11 October 2008 (UTC))

Agree. the skomorokh 16:48, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

This infobox also lacks a field for Inkers.--Cast (talk) 06:41, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Editor certainly is useless in this instance. Other comics are magazines, with editors. These are books, like novels, and in general don't have editors (I have certainly never seen a Tintin, Asterix, Valerian, Lucky Luke, ... with a named editor). Letterers are very rarely named, and inkers to my knowledge never. See e.g. the BD database Bédétheque[1]: writer, artist and colorist, no letterer or inker. The "editeur" mentioned is the publisher, not the editor! If people want to add these fields anyway, be my guest, but don't be surprised if they are almost never used (and don't make them mandatory, obviously!). Fram (talk) 06:58, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

The arguing point, I think, is if the 'box is applied to graphic novels from the mainstream US market. In general, those do cite an editorial structure as well as inkers and letterers.

Further, books do have editors, though they are generally not named on the published work. It is possible that the European GNs follow that model.

As for "inker"... if the term "artist" or "illustrator" is used, it is usually assumed that the person pencilled, inked, and often colored the story. The title and arc 'boxes have the 4 fields, and if this 'box is applied to US GNs, it might be wise to add the fields.

- J Greb (talk) 10:42, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I meant "named" editor. There will be an editor, but not one of them is notable as an editor of graphic novels or ismentioned anywhere (speaking from a European perspective). But if the infobox would be useful for American GN's as well ifwe only used those fields (as optional), then be my guest and add away, they don't do any harm. Fram (talk) 11:16, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Genre field

Shouldn't there be a genre field?--May Cause Dizziness (talk) 20:48, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Multiple ISBNs?

What are we supposed to do with multiple ISBNs? I was updating the infobox to Ghost World, which has different ISBNs for the hardcover and softcover editions. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_ConTribs 03:53, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

italicized title

Should this infobox automatically italicize the article title, similar to Template:Infobox book? GoingBatty (talk) 02:09, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

It should be right now. The exceptions being non-article space pages or when "2ndbox = y".

- J Greb (talk) 02:31, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

I ask because I tried to use |italic title=force in this edit and it didn't work. Also, the documentation doesn't include the following template: .

Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 02:41, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

L&S - {{italic title}} is embedded on the 'box, 1st line. ATM it does not use "force". Trying after the 'box won't work. It can be recoded to have a "title_length" param, or check the length if possible.

- J Greb (talk) 03:14, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

And fixed.

Also, I doudt |italic title=force or |italic title=no will affect this template.

- J Greb (talk) 03:36, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick response and fix! GoingBatty (talk) 03:45, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

I had to cheat and use 2ndbox for proper formatting here. There should be an italicstitle=no option. -- JHunterJ (talk) 16:05, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Is it still the case that italictitle=no doesn't work? Can this be fixed? I've used 2ndbox=y at Boxers and Saints because I saw it above and it's the only thing that works, but I've no idea what "2ndbox" means or what it's supposed to do. – Arms & Hearts (talk) 23:59, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Separate publishers for serial and book?

I ran into this with The Playboy—it was serialized by Vortex Comics and collected by Drawn and Quarterly. I don't see how this is handled in the infobox. Do we need a nother field? Curly Turkey ¡gobble! 23:04, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

I agree. Ran into this issue with Box Office Poison — serialized by Antarctic Press, collected by Top Shelf Productions. -- stoshmaster (talk) 14:01, 30 October 2019 (UTC)