I realize this may be out of the current scope for SMC, but honestly it seems to be the most equipped to support it out of everything else I have seen online.

The titles are in the system with the publication months/years recorded. The information is already there.

I am thinking of a visual timeline you can scroll horizontally along, seeing events (story arcs), instances (deaths, first appearances), and the comics you have in your stash:

The multicolored tag symbols are supposed to represent any comics you have stashed for that particular month/year.

One benefit to this would be to see where a particular comic is located on the timeline.  Duh, right? But think about this:  You know that confusion you get when you pick up a backissue comic and you have a hard time placing exactly when the issue took place?

It would be great to see where that issue lies on the timeline, to compare its position with the nearby storyarcs.  Then this huge incandescent light bulb switches on in your head, heats up violently, and explodes from the surge of energy this timeline just gave you.  "Ohhh, now I know what all the characters are complaining about."

Edited by nisav - 24 October 2011 at 6:13am

The multicolored tags are up in the air, I initially just meant them to be any comic the user had stashed, not necessarily every comic that came out that month.

For titles like DC's 52 and the like which are printed more often than once a month, I think they should be represented correctly, so space would need to be made to have their own column of tags in the span of that month.

Concerning the name of the timeline, i'm thinking there would be at least two levels of the timeline that you could.

-universe level - shows the big storyarcs

or drill down to a more detailed level:

-Character/title level - shows the big storyarcs along with events related to a particular character or title

i can make some more mockups as needed if we get a better idea of how it should look

Edited by nisav - 24 October 2011 at 7:11pm

Concerning time travel:
Assuming they take place in the same timeline:

[--Event (past)--] _______ [--Event--]

I figured the word 'past' should be included, so viewers know that the comic telling that story actually came out at a later time. That's one idea for that.  Moving in/out of alternate timelines would be tricky, I'll keep thinking about that.  Worst case scenario would be a completely separate timeline.

I checked out the example timelines, I almost prefer the look of the JFK assassination one because it doesn't have pictures.  And honestly I think it would be cool with pictures, I am just worried it would look too cluttered with images, lines of events/storyarcs, and instances.  I supposed if the timeline was stretched out enough or the pictures were small enough it would work fine.

I was not thinking that detailed.  What I was thinking about more was smaller storyarcs that people don't really care about or events that only affect one character, that people may not need/want to see when they are looking at a big picture timeline.  But if the user wanted, they could go ahead and toggle that title or character's events to the timeline.

Edited by iancharcoal - 26 October 2011 at 2:54am

Edited by nisav - 26 October 2011 at 6:47am

That sounds good. Ultimately this is what I was thinking a user could do:

1. Choose a specific issue
2. Select which events/storyarcs they would like to see on the timeline in comparison to that issue
1. character specific
2. title specific
3. universe specific (displayed as the lines you mentioned earlier, such as blackest night or secret invasion)
   This would be the most "zoomed out" view so to speak of the timeline

And then also the ability to toggle different instances off and on, like:

1. Deaths
2. Births
3. Resurrections
4. First appearances
5. And possibly custom notes (entries entered by us that could help explain things occurring at the time that aren't so quantifiable or recordable. Can't think of an example right now, so it may not be relevant)

Because of long standing histories like Batman, perhaps a certain year limit could be imposed for initial loading of the timeline?

And, as an afterthought, what about writers/drawers/inkers?  Would seeing their info on a timeline be beneficial or valuable to anyone?  I'm impartial, it just came to mind because the information is there.