The Indie Comics Library from ComicBooked!, a database of Black and indie comics ralted things, has just launched. It’s the brain child of former retailer (Big Brain Comics) Jean David Michel, and it offers a creator-verified, COMET-compliant database built for black and independent Comics. Michel says it’s a worker owned, cooperative platform “a structured, searchable archive of independent and Black comics where the data comes directly from the people who made the books.”
I’ll paste the PR below but I checked out the site (still in beta) and it’s laid out like a Pinterest for comics….which I’ve always thought was a great idea. There are sections for comics, creators and events, so lots to look for. And as mentioned, it’s all COMET-complaint, meaning works with the much needed metadata standard for the industry. It also has ambitions for tying in to libraries and even monetization. So it’s quite an ambitious project – but fills in a lot of gaps.
I’m going to paste the PR here, because it’s quite a lot – and there’s even more information HERE.
Every existing comics database — ComicVine, the Grand Comics Database, Shortboxed — was built without the communities that power independent comics. Coverage of Black indie titles is riddled with gaps. Self-published work from the 1980s, 90s and 2000s exist in essentially no standard digital archive and none of the archive platforms that do exist were built by or for the communities they document. The Indie Comics Library powered by ComicBooked! is designed to change that.
“Decades of Black indie comics exist in no structured, searchable archive which is something I was always on the lookout for when I was a comics retailer,” said Jean David Michel, Co-Founder and Executive Director of ComicBooked!. Michel brings 17 years of comics industry experience as an independent writer, publisher, and former comic shop owner to the platform he co-founded. “The Library not only gives retailers and distributors a new tool that will help them garner a whole new demographic of customer and client, but it is also an act of cultural preservation as much as it is a platform feature for ComicBooked! community members. We are building something the industry has been missing and we are building it with the community it was always meant to serve.”
The Indie Comics Library is built to the COMET Standard — the comic book industry’s first formal metadata specification, developed by the ComicsPRO Metadata Working Group in consultation with retailers, distributors, publishers and software developers. COMET-compliant data is readable by any retailer system built to the standard, making Library titles as discoverable at the point of sale as any mainstream publisher title. The ComicBooked! Indie Comics Library is the first creator-facing platform to implement the COMET Standard, with a guided submission workflow that makes standards compliance accessible to any independent creator regardless of their technical background.
What the Library Is
The Library allows any verified ComicBooked! community member to submit their titles through a structured form. Every submission is moderated before publication, every credit is linked to a real member profile and every record is structured to the same 108-field data dictionary that the broader industry is moving toward.
The Library’s cultural classification system is a ComicBooked!-specific layer that sits alongside the COMET Standard which allows creators to identify their work across 11 categories, including Black Independent Comics, African Independent Comics, Caribbean Independent Comics, Indigenous Comics, AAPI Comics, LGBTQIA+ Comics, and others. This is the field that makes the Library navigable as a cultural archive in a way no other database can replicate.
Titles are also only eligible for the main Library if the intellectual property is creator-owned. Work-for-hire credits at corporate publishers can still be claimed and documented by creators, where they appear in a separate “Mainstream publisher credits” section on the creator’s profile thus preserving the full picture of a creator’s career while keeping the independent archive focused.
Paying Creators for Their Data
The Indie Comics Library also introduces the Creator Residuals Program — a structural commitment to distribute 20% of all Library-specific revenue to verified creators on a quarterly basis, weighted by the type and quantity of their credits. The program activates once Library-specific revenue exceeds $25,000 annually.
“Every other comics database profits from creator data without compensating the creators,” said Michel. “ComicBooked! will be the first database that pays creators for being in it. That is not a feature. That is a founding commitment.”
Timeline and Access
Version 1.0 of the Library plugin is complete and entering beta testing. ComicBooked!’s approximately 300 founding Bullpen members will be the first to populate and test the database before it opens to the general public. Then the public launch of indiecomicslibrary.org will coincide with our first wave of grant applications positioning the Library as the anchor initiative for ComicBooked!’s cultural preservation and digital equity funding strategy.
About ComicBooked!
ComicBooked! is a mission-driven, worker-owned digital infrastructure platform built to support, protect and empower independent Black (as well as marginalized & allied) comic book professionals while welcoming and serving the entire comic book industry ecosystem. The platform centers Black creativity, Black enterprise and Black leadership, with particular emphasis on uplifting Black women comic professionals. ComicBooked! is ad-free, algorithm-free, free of AI generated comic book content and built without outside investors. Learn more at comicbooked.org
Like I said, quite an ambitious project, with more to come. To find out more, email info @comicbooked.org.
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