Template:Infobox comics meta series/doc

This template is designed for articles that cover:
 * A comics series that spans multiple comics publications, generally limited series. Such as Sin City or Locke & Key.
 * A character or team as a focus, but similar to the above. Such as Hellboy.
 * A comic strip that has run as one among many in such publications. This can include moving from one publication to another. Such as V for Vendetta or Rogue Trooper.
 * A grouping of comics publications or stories that were published with a loosely linked "theme". Such as Faces of Evil or Marvel Noir.

It is not intended for:
 * Comics strips the run in newspapers or non-comics magazines
 * Story arcs, which should use Infobox comics story arc
 * Manga
 * Asian or Manga-style publications, which should use Infobox Asian comic series
 * Collected editions of European strips such as Tintin which use Infobox Graphic novel

Usage


Common elements
'''. Jack Kirby
 * Most of the parameters are designed only to show in the infobox if something is entered. They can be left in the template and empty if the item does not pertain to the article or if the information is not known at the time the template is added.
 * The title and character_name fields are an exception. If left empty the infobox will not generate a title. If the title for the infobox is the same as the title of the article, title or character_name can either be deleted or commented out. The later is preferable since the name of the article, or the preferred name of the infobox may change.
 * For multiple items in one field, '''separate each with
 * Example: creators=Stan Lee
 * Placing images in the infobox uses two fields:
 * image which is just the filname of the image. The template will add the markup to show the image.
 * Example: image= example.jpg
 * imagesize which is the width the image will display at. The template will only accept a number here. If left empty or if a string (such as "225px") is entered, the image will default to 250px wide.
 * If you find the image to be too tall, reduce the size below 250px.
 * The parameter is capped at maximum width of 250. Entering values greater than this will result in the default setting being used.
 * The image will also cap at 450 in height.
 * The caption will appear below the image. Keep it short, but indicate the original source published source of the image and the artist(s).
 * Example: A comic book issue cover would be captioned as "Wolverine vol 2, #17. Art by John Byrne."
 * To keep in line with Alternative text for images, alt needs to be updated with the "text alternative" of the image. This is not the same as the caption. It should also be kept short, but needs to be descriptive of the image.

Specific elements

 * character and theme are used with specific cases to modify what the infobox looks for and how it is formatted.
 * character should only be used when the article is covering a titular character as well as a series that has run through multiple publications. This will add information similar to Infobox comics character. If the "multiple publications" is limited to one or more self titled series, then Infobox comics character and title should be used. The character related fields are listed here
 * theme should be used when multiple series or individual issues are published under a "thematic event" promotion by a publisher. These are cases where the stories are not linked by a story line but by story elements, genre, and/or tone.
 * schedule is how frequently the title(s) were published. "Varied" can be used if all of the publications did not follow the same publication schedule.
 * format indicates if the series was in one or more anthology magazines, limited series, one-shots, and/or graphic novels. It is normally generated selecting one or more of the following logical fields. However, an entry like "type=(vol. 1) Limited series  (vol. 2) Ongoing" will over ride them.
 * limited for limited series. See also Categories.
 * anthology for a series that was published as one strip among many within an anthology book. This field, unlike the related ones, is designed to put the keyed information into the infobox, please indicate the title or titles. This will not work with theme.
 * graphicnovel for original graphic novels that are part of the series.
 * 1shot for one issues runs. See also Categories.
 * individual for thematic events that consist of a single issue of an ongoing series.
 * titles is the list of publications the series initially ran through. Long lists of single issues from multiple ongoing series should be avoided.
 * If the list is short, 2 or 3 items or less, |notable=y should be added.
 * Issue numbers should be included if the series did not run through all issues of a publication. Otherwise, their inclusion is optional.
 * lang is the language that the series was originally published in if it was other than English. This field uses the standard Wikipedia shorthand for languages. A current list of the languages supported can be found here
 * genre is generally not a field for keying, but a set of logical fields which relate to the major genre(s) that the title uses for its stories. The fields will also put the article into the proper categories under Category:Comics genres. If more than one genre is appropriate, adding |multigenre = y will allow for the genres to all show in the infobox, but the alphabetically first genre will need to use first to add it and not have ", " precede the text. The currently supported genres are listed here.
 * date is the period that the title(s) were in publication. Normal convention is to list the cover dates, with the months not abbreviated. The year(s) can also be entered as YEAR . This may have multiple sections as the series or strip may have gaps due to long periods between limited series or rotation of strips in magazines.
 * startmo, startyr, endmo, and endyr can be used instead of date.
 * startyr and endyr will format into Year.
 * endyr can be entered as "present" or "ongoing" for strips that have not ended.
 * issues is the number of issues the title ran. This can be annotated with any odd numbering sequences. 1shot will automatically enter a "1" here.
 * Creators and primary characters/teams that are, or have been, involved with title can be listed with the following fields. These fields should be minimal, please keep this in mind when dealing with long running titles.
 * main_char_team
 * writers
 * artists
 * NOTE: artist should be used when listing creators who contributed in more than one capacity as a penciller, inker, and/or colorist. This would also include those who work in painted or photographic art.
 * pencillers
 * inkers
 * letterers
 * colorists
 * editors
 * creative_team_month and creative_team_year create and "as of" notation in the "Creative team" header. Care should be taken with using these fields in light of WP:DATED.
 * creators lists those that created the series and its signature characters or team. It should not include creators of previously existing characters that were brought into the title.
 * NonUS is a logical notation for items that were published using British instead of American spellings. At present this only affects the "Colorist/Colourist" field.

"Reprint" fields
A common element of the topics covered in these articles is that the series has either been reprinted or translated. These fields are used in conjunction with that.
 * reprint is used for either of two things:
 * Periodicals that reprint, in part or in whole, the series. Generally this should be used when the series changed publishers and the new publisher runs the old material to bring readers "up to speed".
 * Albums or extensive trade paperback collections where it would be difficult to select down to just 10 notable books (see TPB/ISBN below). An internal link can be placed here to jump to the appropriate section of the article.
 * relang and relang# adds a note listing the languages that the series has been translated into. Up to 10 can be accommodated (# being replaced with 1-9). These fields use the same language coding as lang above.
 * TPB, TPB#, ISBN, and ISBN# are used to list notable collected editions. Up to 10 can be accommodated (# being replaced with 1-9). "Notable" in this case would be the first printing of a either one of the first few collections or a collection with citable critical acclaim (industry award nominee or winner for example).

Character fields

 * alter_ego is the character's real name if a codename is used for the title of the infobox.
 * full_name used if the infobox title is not a codename or the character's full name.
 * species is what the character is. Do not include if the character is "human".
 * homeworld where the character comes from in the story. Leave blank if not specified within the story. Generally this is reserved for locations from planets, dimensions, or "fanciful" lands (i.e. Atlantis).
 * alliances lists teams the character has been a member of. Generally this is listed in either alphabetic or publication order. Convention is that teams that the character is "currently" on are bolded.
 * partners is a list of other characters the character has an in-story partnership with. Generally this list is in alphabetic order.
 * aliases are notable aliases the character has used. These should be listed in publication order. "Nicknames" should not be included here.
 * powers is a condensed list of the character's powers and abilities.

Categories
This infobox has been designed to automatically place articles its added to into appropriate categories under Category:Comics publications. To do this the following parameters are used.
 * subcat is used to specify a particular subcategory of Category:Comics publications. This can be a publisher, imprint, character/team, or nation of original publication. Please review the noted category for which subcategories exist.
 * altcat is used for cases where "titles" is not the ending of the appropriate category.
 * Note: subcat and altcat are mutually exclusive. If both are left empty, the article will be placed into Category:Comics publications by default.
 * Also, if altcat and sort are the same, the article will be sorted as the initial article in the category.
 * Two of the logical fields for format will add the article to categories in addition to that set by subcat or altcat.
 * limited This will also automatically sort the article into Category:Comic book limited series. This will interact with subcat to a degree.
 * In cases where there is an ongoing and a limited series where the subcategories are different, the use limsub for the subcategory for the limited series.
 * Example: If DC Comics produced an onging that was cancelled prior to 1980, and then produced a limited series of the same title, but published under the Vertigo imprint, the following would be entered: |limited = y |ongoing = y |subcat = DC Comics |limsub  = Vertigo
 * 1shot This will also automatically sort the article into Category:One-shot comic titles
 * The genre logical fields will also add the appropriate categories.
 * sort is the title by which the article will be sorted in the categories placed by the template. This sorting will default to and will override  listings in the article. Due to markup limitations, this parameter will not recognize a leading space.
 * Please note, as per standard sorting guidelines the following character types should not be used in the sort argument:
 * non-English letters (i.e. Δ, Θ, Д, Ж, מ, ي, etc.);
 * accented English letters (i.e. Á, Ö, Ñ, etc.); or
 * symbols (i.e. ¢, ₤, $, ♥, etc.).
 * "A", "An", and "The" should be dropped from titles and most subtitles in the srot argument.
 * All words in the sort argument should be capitalized.
 * Additional subcats of Category: Comics titles by company and Category:Comics titles by country can be added with addpubcat#. Replace "#" with a number (currently the template is set up for 6 additional cats) and list the full category title. Please list the categories in publication order.

Character categories
If the character flag is set, the template will also place the article into the proper "Year comics characters debuts" category, based on startyr, and within the category structure for Category:Fictional characters in comics.
 * The character category is based on subcat or charcat.
 * charcat should be used when the proper character category (Foo characters) is not the same as the proper titles category (Foo2 titles).
 * If there is no proper character category, then charcat can be set to "Nul" to default to Category:Fictional characters in comics.
 * In cases where the article title is based on a proper name that should sort by surname (such as an article titled "John Smith" which should sort as "Smith, John" for character related categories) charsort should be used in addition to sort.
 * Additional subcats of Category: Fictional characters in comics can be added with addcharcat#. Replace "#" with a number (currently the template is set up for 6 additional cats) and list the full category title. Please list the categories in publication order.