The Comic Recommender
Ever wished there was a tool you and others could use to get into and find new comics? Well, wish no more, because that tool has arrived! Presenting…The Comic Recommender!
Introduction
For many potential new comic book readers, one of the most difficult things is to figure out an entry point. With so many characters having decades of intricate continuity, it can be confusing knowing where to start. Many different websites try to help with this, but I have always found those efforts somewhat lacking. These guides often either focus too much on particular characters, assume a certain level of knowledge on the part of new readers, or fail to account for the different kinds of stories that make people interested in comics in the first place. All of this served as the inspiration to create a tool that could help readers, new and old, find new and different kinds of stories based on a variety of different criteria.
Vision For The Tool
Long term, I want Comic Recommender to be a crowd-sourced (and possibly even open-source) tool that is equally useful to those who have been reading comics for years and those who have never read a comic. This will be accomplished through a variety of filters and custom built recommendations. Those filters and recommendations will include things like:
Comics that served as the basis for a movie, show, or video game
Is the story self-contained
Is the story good for new readers
Is the story critically acclaimed or widely regarded
Stories involving a specific character or group of characters
Writer and artist-based filtering
Did the story have a big impact
Genres (horror, action, team-up, etc)
and more!!
Lets examine this through two examples, user A and user B. User A is a lifelong comic book fan looking for some critically acclaimed, self-contained stories about Spider-Man. User B, meanwhile, has never read a comic book, but just watched WandaVision and wants to check out the comics that inspired it. Using Comic Recommender, user A should be able to enter those filters and get back a list that includes stories like Spider-Man: Blue or Kraven’s Last Hunt . User B, meanwhile, should be able to enter their filters and get back results for stories like Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 1, Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2, and Tom King’s Vision series.
In order to make something like this possible, the plan is to eventually make recommendations crowdsourced. This would likely be accomplished through some kind of open submission form that would be reviewed by Comic Recommender staff (so…me) and/or be subjected to heavy analysis designed to prevent duplicate entries.
Development Timeline
I want to emphasize that this will be a side-project for me. I would love to give Comic Recommender my full attention, but between professional responsibilities as a Software Development Manager and Scrum Master, reading, writing about, and speculating on comics, volunteering, family, friends, and my relationship, that just is not possible. Furthermore, it has been a long time since I developed my own software from scratch and I am definitely a little bit rusty. The goal is to try and make one meaningful contribution to Comic Recommender every week and use a small part of my Kornblatt’s Corner article each week as a blog for release notes. Those who are interested in more up-to-the-minute updates (and possibly even contributing code) can do so via the Comic Recommender Github page .
Here are some of the top priorities I have for development:
Robust Filtering – In order for this tool to really work, it will be imperative to create a strong library of functions that can efficiently and accurately comb through our database for solid recommendations
Duplication Prevention Tools – In order to effectively use crowdsourced data, it will be imperative to have several tools designed to prevent duplicate comics, characters, and recommendations in the database
Publicly Available Recommendation Input Form – In order to have crowdsourcing, there will need to be a way to actually crowdsource information
Large Testing Library – Given the breadth and depth of data Comic Recommender will have to work with, having a large number of unit and other tests to ensure proper functionality will be pivotal
Right now, Comic Recommender is effectively in pre-alpha, so functionality will be limited for a while. The focus will first be on recommendations based on Marvel movies and then expand to other areas of interest and publishers over time.
How YOU Can Help
Though Comic Recommender is still definitely in its infancy, there are a lot of ways that you, the comic book community can help. First off, I want your ideas!! I am sure there are a million different features that Comic Recommender could have that I have never even thought of. Second, I want your recommendations!! Let me know about comics that you would recommend as great stories, especially for new readers or people coming to comics from other types of media. The ultimate goal of this project is to help bring the incredible art form of comic books to more people and that cannot happen without the support of the community.
I hope this project sounds interesting to some of you and I look forward to reading your thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations in the comments!
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