Schema documentation
This page aims at clarifying the various elements of the schema, as well as their intended use and observed ussage.
Title
Title of the book.
Series
Title of the series the book is part of.
Number
Number of the book in the series.
Count
The total number of books in the series.
Volume
Volume containing the book. Volume is a notion that is specific to US Comics, where the same series can have multiple volumes. Volumes can be referenced by numer (1, 2, 3…) or by year (2018, 2020…).
AlternateSeries / AlternateNumber / AlternateCount
Quite specific to US comics, some books can be part of cross-over story arcs. Those fields can be used to specify an alternate series, its number and count of books.
Summary
A description or summary of the book.
Notes
A free text field, usually used to store information about the application that created the ComicInfo.xml file.
Year / Month / Day
Usually contains the release date of the book.
Creator fields
According to the schema, each creator element can only be present once. In order to cater for multiple creator with the same role, it is accepted that values are comma separated.
Writer
Person or organization responsible for creating the scenario.
Penciller
Person or organization responsible for drawing the art.
Inker
Person or organization responsible for inking the pencil art.
Colorist
Person or organization responsible for applying color to drawings.
Letterer
Person or organization responsible for drawing text and speech bubbles.
CoverArtist
Person or organization responsible for drawing the cover art.
Editor
A person or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution.
Translator
A person or organization who renders a text from one language into another, or from an older form of a language into the modern form.
This can also be used for fan translations ("scanlator").
Publisher
A person or organization responsible for publishing, releasing, or issuing a resource.
Imprint
An imprint is a group of publications under the umbrella of a larger imprint or a Publisher. For example, Vertigo is an Imprint of DC Comics.
Genre
Genre of the book or series. For example, Science-Fiction or Shonen.
It is accepted that multiple values are comma separated.
Tags
Tags of the book or series. For example, ninja or school life.
It is accepted that multiple values are comma separated.
Web
A URL pointing to a reference website for the book.
PageCount
The number of pages in the book.
LanguageISO
A language code describing the language of the book.
Without any information on what kind of code this element is supposed to contain, it is recommended to use the IETF BCP 47 language tag, which can describe the language but also the script used. This helps to differentiate languages with multiple scripts, like Traditional and Simplified Chinese.