Apologies, but I'm not certain how to handle Oh My Goddess

[TombaManga]

I'm completely stumped as to how to organize Oh My Goddess.

I have a few of the early trades they made from the reprints of the stories Dark Horse releases in western comic form (As far as I know it contains all the stories in proper order but each trade ended at a different chapter than the original manga volumes)

http://www.comicbookdb.com/title.php?ID=11978
For the first part of the Oh My Goddess western comic format Dark Horse initial release (Someone has put stuff from what would be part of the other "parts" in this). It contains both the first "part" of the series and the first collection they made of it, which they titled "Wrong Number". Frankly, I don't know if this is all what was in the first part or not.

http://www.comicbookdb.com/title.php?ID=11979
Listings such as this one for Part 2 contain either the rest or a lot of the series in the western format, since they put it into "parts". It hurts my head to even contemplate looking at all these, they may even be fine as they are.

http://www.comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=55088
Someone randomly put one of the issues of the series as it's own listing even.


http://www.comicbookdb.com/title.php?ID=21357
The sane and organized title for the later re-release of the series in typical manga format


Should I add them to each "part" listing (Which would be very hard to organize), put them all under the part one listing (Which has a lot of random stuff anyway), make a new listing for just the trades or something else? It is hurting my brain because it's such a mess already. Theoretically I guess I should try to put the "TPBs" with the western issues they collect, but I can't find that data anywhere. The first trade claims it collects issue one and the second issue two, and they are way too big for that. Perhaps they mean "Part"? In any case, it seems to need a lot of cleaning..

[mikebo]

And don't forget the serialization in Super Manga Blast!

I merged the stand alone issue with its proper issue:
http://www.comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=83248
So your third link won't work anymore to anyone reading this after this posting, fyi.

The western comic series is a bit of a mess, mostly due to incomplete listings here. Dark Horse did make things a bit confusing though. The first 80-some issues were released as mini series or "Parts", with the consecutive numbering only appearing on the inside cover similar to many of their other series of minis like Hellboy and its related titles. Issues within a mini/Part could also be labeled One-Shot, Special, or Part 1 of 3 upon the cover, when in fact they're Part VI, Issue 5 for example.

Starting with issue 88 (Part XII, #1) the consecutive numbering began appearing on the covers and continued until the final issue, #112. I don't know if the indicia reflects this and started to use the consecutive numbering with same issue, or if it started at a later issue, or not at all and they were still identified as minis/Parts. Can you clarify what the indicia says for issues #87 and up?

The issues numbered #88-107 in your first link are definitely in the wrong place and can be moved if you can answer the prior question. I'm thinking we'll only need to create a title for issues #88-112, and there are only 12 issues not entered already.

We can add continuity links to the title notes of the various Parts to make navigating easier.

It looks like the western format TPBs usually collect 5-6 issues at a time. I'll list what I've found in a separate post. My initial thinking is to create a separate series for these TPBs starting with "Wrong Numer" because they sometimes collect issues from multiple minis/Parts.

[TombaManga]

Can you clarify what the indicia says for issues #87 and up?


Sadly, I cannot. I do have a few of the western ones...somewhere, but right now all I have available is the first few collected editions. And finding detailed information on this stuff is really difficult. I wish I could help more; If I ever track down any (I know where I might be able to get a few) I'll do what I can.

As it is, I was wondering about making a separate listing for the TPBs myself, but didn't want to just clutter up the database with it unless I got the go-ahead.

[mikebo]

TPB - 1-555-Goddess (Collects Part 1, issues #1-3 and Part 2, issues #3-5) (Technically the first volume, but it's more of an introductory collection and incomplete. The first three volumes below were released years later and collected the same content as well as all the missing stories.)
TPB vol. 01 - Wrong Number (Collects Part 1, issue #1 and Super Manga Blast! #1-5)
TPB vol. 02 - Leader of the Pack (Collects Part 1, issue #2 and Super Manga Blast! #6-10)
TPB vol. 03 - Final Exam (Collects Part 1, issue #3; Part 2, issues #3-5 and Super Manga Blast! #11-12)
TPB vol. 04 - Love Potion No. 9 (Collects Part 1, issues #4-5; Part 2, issues #6-8; and Part 3, issues #1-2)
TPB vol. 05 - Sympathy for the Devil (Collects Part 1, issue #6; Part 2, issues #1-2; and Part 3, issues #3-5)
TPB vol. 06 - Terrible Master Urd (Collects Part 3, issues #6-11)
TPB vol. 07 - The Queen of Vengeance (Collects Part 4, issues #1-5)
TPB vol. 08 - Mara Strikes Back (Collects Part 4, issues #6-8 and Part 5, issues #1-2)
TPB vol. 09 - Ninja Master (Collects Part 5, issues #3-6)
TPB vol. 10 - Miss Keiichi (Collects Part 5, issues #7-12)
TPB vol. 11 - The Devil in Miss Urd (Collects Part 6, issues #1-6)
TPB vol. 12 - The Fourth Goddess (Collects Part 7, issues #1-8)
TPB vol. 13 - Childhood's End (Collects Part 8, issues #1-6)
TPB vol. 14 - Queen Sayoko (Collects Part 9, issues #1-7)
TPB vol. 15 - Hand in Hand (Collects Part 10, issues #1-5 and Part 11, issues #1-2)
TPB vol. 16 - Mystery Child (Collects Part 11, issues #3-10)
TPB vol. 17 - Traveler (Collects OMG issues #88-95)
TPB vol. 18 - The Phantom Racer (Collects OMG issues #96-104)
TPB vol. 19/20 - Sora Unchained (Collects OMG issues #105-112 and two chapters which were not serialized previously, Endless Battle, part 1 and II)

The title for these collections would start at November 1996, and end at January 2005. The reprint data needs verification, especially the Super Manga Blast! content in the first three volumes.

There's also "Oh My Goddess!: Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses". I don't think any of it was serialized at the time of its publication. Some of it may have appeared later in Super Manga Blast!? The stories have been included in the more recent collections.

[TombaManga]

In the detailed info page of the books (I have them in front of me) they claim as follows (verbatim).

Wrong Number: "This volume contains issue one of the Dark Horse comic book series Oh My Goddess and stories from issues one through five of the Dark Horse comic book series Super Manga Blast!"

Leader of the Pack: : "This volume collects Oh My Goddess! stories from issue one through six of the Dark Horse comic book series Super Manga Blast! and issue two of the Dark Horse Comic book series Oh My Goddess!"

Final Exam: "This volume collects stories from issues eleven and twelve of the Dark Horse comic book series Super Manga Blast! , issue three of the Dark Horse Comic book series Oh My Goddess!, and issues three through five of the Dark Horse Comic Book series Oh My Goddess! Part II

Love Potion No. 9: "This volume collects issues four and five of the Dark Horse comic book series Oh My Goddess! Part I, issues six through eight of the Dark Horse comic book series Oh My Goddess! Part II and issues three through five of the Dark Horse comic book series Oh My Goddess! Part III"

Sympathy for the Devil: "This book collects Oh My Goddess! Part 1 through issue six, Part II issues one and tow and Specials "Sympathy for the Devil, "Mystical Engine" and "Valentine Rhapsody""

Whew. It's all over the place. I can only conclude, since there do not appear to be any massive jumping around in the plot when I read them, that earlier US publications of Oh My Goddess! were not as concerned with continuity; the back of wrong number even promises "Stories never before collected in America!" The wikipedia page for Oh My Goddess! seems to confirm that these volumes contain the same material as later publishings of the manga volumes in the original Japanese form, and the chapters even go in the same order. The last concession to the weird as hell USA publications in these is the volumes don't end on the same chapter all the time; some are longer or shorter than the Japanese equivalent volumes. I hope this help some... It seems like making a new title would be the least confusing..

[mikebo]

Yeah, I had to re-interpret the reprint information on the copyright pages to identify the actual issues that were reprinted. The original Dark Horse mini series skipped some of the early stories. Maybe so they could introduce a popular character sooner to hook readers. The stories later serialized in Super Manga Blast! were the chapters they had skipped, so the reprints in Wrong Number, Leader of the Pack and Final Exam were the first time they'd been collected. The earlier western style Dark Horse TPBs were more concerned with presenting a complete story per volume, while more recent collections resemble their Japanese counterparts, sometimes ending a volume mid-story.