Comixology Fail #3: Organization

Disclaimer the first: I have never used any of Comixology's mobile applications, only their web application. So my complaints are purely based on that limited experience. If their mobile applications are far superior to the web application, though, then consider that another fail. I'm sure I'm not their only customer who reads primarily on my laptop, so they need to put as much energy into making the PC customer's experience great as they presumably do the iPad customer's.

Disclaimer the second: I am about to talk about what I don't like about the organization options (hint: there aren't any) in the My Comics section of Comixology's web application, but there are in fact many things I do like. I like the visual display, for example, with a cover and logo for each series. I like that a little icon tells me how many issues in each series I own. I like that they recently stopped (for the most part) referring to series by volume number (e.g. Aquaman, Volume 13) and started referring to them by date range (e.g. Aquaman (2008-2009)). The date range is more meaningful than a volume number, especially now that DC has started all their series over with a new volume (I imagine this was the impetus for the change--Aquaman, Volume 14, is much less appealing to new readers than Aquaman (2011- )).

Now that we got all that positive crap out of the way, let's get to the purpose of all blogging, the rant: I hate hate hate that I have no control over how my comics are organized in my digital comics library. It's nice that the series are sorted by title, but what if I want to sort by date? By writer or artist? By character? By publisher, at the very least? I can't do any of this. I'd also like a way to link storylines that cross over from one series to another--the crossover is, after all, a staple of comics.

And why not playlists? I want to be able to group together pre-Flashpoint comics and post-Flashpoint comics. I want to be able to make a list of my favorites. I want to be able to group comics I'm reading just for fun and others I'm reading to review later and others I'm reading to expand my horizons. In short, I want to choose how my comics are organized, and Comixology doesn't let me do that.

But really what I want is to figure out why on earth Green Lantern: Mosaic #1, the first issue in a 1992 series featuring John Stewart, is listed as part of the "series" Parallax: Emerald Night, which is in reality a one-shot from 1996 featuring the death of Hal Jordan. Really?