CCL Messageboard

What would a website dedicated to reading be without a section for reviews? So here you have it!

The reviews forum is broken up into 4 sections (3 subforums and the General Review Forum):

i) Marvel: Here you will find weekly polls listing the top reads of every week as well as short reviews of various Marvel issues.

ii) DC: Here you will find weekly polls listing the top reads of every week as well as short reviews of various DC issues.

iii) Independent: To help keep the polls thorough we have created an Independent sub-forum. Here you will find weekly polls listing the top Independent reads of every week as well as short reviews for the issues.

The General Review Forum (found just below the Comic Book Reviews Subforums) is a place for forum announcements, reviews and discussions involving comic book reviews.

Please feel free to post in these forums. The more we can get people talking about comics the more interest there is generated in this little hobby we all love.

There are also hundreds of pages (and growing!) of reviews here.

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact any one of the review moderators (Capekiller, DaLeah96 and fatherjeff.)

Here's a general question about posting a review in the "News & Reviews" section.

What is the best practice when it comes to reviewing issues with variant covers?

I typically would only post the review under the "A" variant or under the issue to which I own the cover (be it "B" or "C", etc.)

Today I wrote a Review for FF #1 and I decided to do what I've seen others do. I copy/pasted my review under each variant listing of that particular issue in the database. Honestly, I felt dirty doing it, lol.

It makes sense to me to have the review across all variants, but it doesn't make sense to me to see the reviews section bombarded with my one review.

This is going to be a nightmare when somebody reviews Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1.

Has this topic ever been discussed with The_Valiant_One at a town hall meeting?

Ok, there are VERY different opinions on this:

Personally, I have done what you do. It adds to the amount of CCL-generated content out there, and while it may be a pain to sift through in things like the CCL iGoogle Gadget, it's still pretty sweet. Besides, for people like me who DEAL in variants, it would be good to see a review on the 1:25 I might not ever see on the standard issue. So I like that.

Joe wouldn't care either way. He would probably see it as generated content again through CCL, and that's always a good thing. Besides, what does it really hurt?

Flip Side: it bumps down when others have written reviews, so someone who wrote a very good review on a single indy issue, might be covered up on reviews of all 11 copies of a variant these days.

I would say the happy medium would be discretionary: if it's what you would consider a crucial comic (both in collectibility and comic continiuty) then put it in all the variants too. But don't do it often. In the case of the Godzillas, I would just avoid it altogether. 80 variants is a little whack. Even for a guy who loves variants :)

Thnaks for your input Steve, now I don't feel so bad for spamming the iGoogle Gadget, lol.

If I start writing reviews again do I get free cookies?

I think it is bogus and devalues the Review boards.

If this was just merely a Review database, then whatever. But the reviews are listed based on post date (most current first). Anybody who wants to pop in to the review section to check out the latest reviews has to scroll through 4 pages to read 3 reviews!

My second beef is that a variant issue is different. If I go out of my way to order a variant it is because there is something special about the cover. If the cover distinguishes the issue then it should be mentioned in the review.

If you want to access an issues generic review while viewing a variant version, simply create a button that says "related reviews" or something. This way you don't bog down the review boards with the same review 15 times (especially if it is a really lame review.)

I'll be honest with you, it makes me not want to write reviews for this site because they just get burried by the copy and paste reviews. As an outsider looking in, this comes across as lazy and insincere.

I was wondering if it would be possible to do something like this.

Like I said, I didn't feel right about copy/pasting the review. It's not something I have done in the past.


Aaaargh, I'm so torn! lol


Steve.. maybe this can be discussed at a town hall? Or is there another section in the forum where we can talk about this and try and find a concrete ruling on best practices for posting a review?

Ian brings up valid points too, so I know what TVO means when he says that there a varying opinions on this subject.

I agree with capekiller, its a PITA to go through all of the copy and paste variant issues. If you feel the need to review a variant, at least talk about the the different artwork on the cover.

Brad