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How (and why) to use MADCAP:
If you're anything like me, your name is Mike, you're a bald middle-aged Irishman and you like comics, especially old British comics. Every now and then you'll encounter an issue of a comic you've never seen before, and naturally you'll want to know more about it.
Let's say that you've chanced upon a comic called WarWasps (it's obviously a rip-off of BattleBeetles, but we're not here to debate the creators' lack of imagination or ethics). It's issue number 171, and the cover-date is 18 January 1982.
You can tell it's a weekly comic (because on the letters page -- "Wasp Happenin'?" -- the editor makes mention of an event in "last week's issue"), but how can you find out how long it's been around? When the comic was launched?
That's where Madcap comes in! Enter the cover date into the "Cover Date" box, put the issue number into the "Issue #" box and press Enter, then click the "Weekly" button (if that's not already been selected).
Then instantly, or as close to instantly as makes no difference, the big box in the centre will be filled with the issue numbers and dates of every issue right up to the number in "Total issues" box (which you can change, if the default value isn't large enough for your needs). In this hypothetical case, you'll see that the first issue of WarWasps had a cover-date of 16 October 1978.
If a comic is fortnightly or monthly, selecting the relevant option will adjust the values appropriately.
Scenario 2: You've found a copy of the fortnightly comic SniperSpiders dated 15 June 1975, but annoyingly SniperSpiders never put the issue numbers on the cover! Can you use Madcap to discover the number of that issue? Well, yes, but only if there's at least one issue of the comic for which you know both the date and the issue number... such as the issue of SniperSpiders dated 8 July 1979, the cover of which proudly boasted that this was the 300th issue. Enter that issue's date, and the number 300, into Madcap and then scroll back through the list to find the issue dated 15 June 1975, which you'll see is issue #194.
Some notes:
- Of course, Madcap can't take into account gaps in a comic's publishing schedule (such as those caused by industrial action, or because it takes a break for the holidays), nor can it account for a change in the publication frequency, like when the 1980s Eagle switched from being a weekly comic to a monthly, but in most cases it should prove useful.
- Choosing the "Monthly" frequency if you have the day set to anything over 28 might give anomalous results. This is because the software simply changes the month (and the year, when appropriate) as it's calculating, and of course not all months have the same number of days. So watch out for that!
- If you want to copy the list of issue numbers and dates, simply right-click on the results box and choose "Select All" from the menu, then right-click again and select "Copy." (The values are separated by tabs so you can paste them into a spreadsheet and they'll appear in separate columns!)
- WarWasps, BattleBeetles and SniperSpiders are not real comics: I made them up for example purposes only, but the more I think about them, the more I wish they were real. So if any publisher would like to pay me to write them, or just buy the idea from me outright, get in touch and we'll talk terms... same goes for Annihilator, Smug-Bot, The Budgie and Neil Anderthal!
- For lots more info on British comics, do please check out my tremendously entertaining and informative blog Rusty Staples!