How to handle multilayer works (works within works within works)

BookBrainz
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Hello, all. I am new contributor and I am looking for input on how to handle work-work relationships in specific situations. I assume this will apply in other situations, especially in the realm of comics, so I am hopeful this will be helpful to others.

In my case: I am looking to add the Bone comic series to the DB, mainly as part of adding my own book collection. However, with an extensive release history, this gets messy within the work relationship department.

Initially the series was release as individual comic issues (ie, Bone #1). These issues were then compiled into 9 volumes: for example, Out from Boneville contains issues 1-6. Then, an omnibus was released, typically titled The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume. This omnibus edition has been released multiple times, with different colors, covers, etc. The Complete Epic is broken down into “books” based on the original 9 volumes.

My instincts tell me these should be added like this:

Bone #1 is added as a work. Bone #1 is then added as part of a new work, Out from Boneville. These 9 works are then added to an Edition Group for the omnibus

However, alternative solutions exist. Only the individual issues get works, with volumes and the omnibus added as editions. Or, the omnibus itself gets its own work.

Maybe I am overcomplicating this, but was hoping for some input from other members of the BB community.

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Maybe I am missing something, but this doesn’t seem a particularly complicated case and I think your “instincts” are basically right.

I haven’t read it, so I maybe I’m wrong, but I understand each “issue” is independent and was published separately, and was latter collected in volumes. So each issue is a work with the “comics story” type (definition: Multiple-page work consisting of comics panels, usually in chronological order, that tells a story. Comics stories are typically published in comic books, which can contain multiple stories.") Each of these works can then be added to a series with numbered works.

Each of the volumes, along with the omnibus, would be an edition group with multiples editions, as certainly they were published multiple times over the years. Each edition can contain the works (individual issues) that were published in that specific edition.

You seem to be confusing the works (the actual stories) with editions (the published object), which are different things in BB.

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Thank you for the clarification! I had a feeling I was overcomplicating things.

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