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Longbox is an free software inventory system for comic book collections. It will help a dedicated collector to track the physical contents of their collection, automate collecting activities and integrate with popular online resources (Grand Comic Book Database and Diamond's).
Longbox's main goal is to help automate repetitive tasks associated with comic book collecting. Eventually, I hope the project becomes an integral part of the online comic collector community.
Longbox will provide functionality to integrate with the release lists and catalogues published on-line by the distributors. Collectors will be able to quickly plan the items they wish to pick up "this week". There will be some planning of future pull list items based on the advanced catalogues published on the distributor website. A collector will be able to use this feature to plan adds and drops from their pull list. An item might have been unavailable on Wednesday, so missed items will be tracked.
Status: In Progress (work blog entry)
Longbox will provide a robust story tracking system. Readers will be able to use the software to visualize the ongoing stories and yearly "events". I hope to integrate this feature with a wiki-like editing environment so that characters, places and events can be easily cross-referenced as the story plot is entered.
Since many comic book fans follow specific artists and writers, creator tracking will be integrated into the story tracking system.
Status: Planning
The Grand Comic Book Database is a spectacular online effort to index all known comic books. Longbox will have modules which integrate inventory information from the on-line database.
Status: Planning