FAQ

Thank you for using the Grand Comics Database TM. Below are some answers to frequently asked questions.

1. Comic buying and selling:

   We do NOT buy, sell, or trade comics. We are a database of information ABOUT comics only. We suggest you find either a local comic shop or an online retailer.

2. Advertising on the Grand Comics Database TM website:

   Due to policies with the United States Internal Revenue Service, we are NO LONGER accepting any advertising on our website.

3. Posting blog articles on the Grand Comics Database TM website:

   We do NOT publish any type of blog and therefore have no need for articles. If you are inquiring about posting blog articles, we will not reply to you.

4. Data use policies and technical questions:

   Our data is available for anyone to use, even commercially, at no cost, providing the user links back and attributes the data to the GCD from any end use. The selection and arrangement of data is copyrighted jointly by those who did the original work and the GCD. The data can be used according to our Data License, at https://docs.comics.org/wiki/GCD_Board_Votes_-_2009#Data_License_and_proper_credit_in_derived_works . Dumps of the database are available at http://www.comics.org/download/ , providing the raw information for use. More information on using the data is at https://docs.comics.org/wiki/Data_Distribution and https://docs.comics.org/wiki/App_Guidelines. If you currently do not have an account with us you will be asked to register first. You may or may not become an actual member, at your choice. You are not granted any trademark rights or licenses to the trademarks of the Grand Comics Database (GCD) or any party, including without limitation the Grand Comics Database™ name, GCD initials, or logo.

   However, we hold no rights over the Cover Scans and do not make them available beyond what is visible on the website. All cover images are copyrighted by their respective current copyright holders and we use them for identification only, under the Fair-Use doctrine. Some people have been known to copy the images for their own use and we have no control over that.

   Webscraping is also allowed, so long as the load on our servers is not excessive. We have banned some users for excessive use as it reduces service to others. Perhaps of interest, CBI came up with a solution that provides their mobile app users with GCD cover images without scraping the whole GCD site or relying on bulk image distribution. When a CBI user looks up a specific comic, the CBI app checks to see if the cover image is available locally, first on the user's device, and then on the app's back-end servers. If the image is not found there, the CBI app server will download the requested image from the GCD web site. CBI is simply archiving the downloads, preventing the app from downloading the same covers repeatedly.

5. We have an initial version of an API available, see the information at https://github.com/GrandComicsDatabase/gcd-django/wiki/API. A Version 2 is currently in development. To have technical exchange with other users, please join the tech e-mail list at https://groups.google.com/g/gcd-tech.

6. Cloudfare messages when visiting our site:

   Unfortunately, we are often hit with a large amount of bot traffic downloading files, which impacts our legitimate users. To prevent this, we are using Cloudflare, an intermediary that helps to stabilize our web servers by avoiding/preventing/slowing down misbehaving bots. As an all-volunteer organization we do not have volunteers nor resources to react to, or look into, individual access problems due to the Cloudflare verification. These are recommendations one can find for people who have issues with Cloudflare:

   1. Make sure your browsers are up to date.
   2. Disable any browser extensions (at least for our website) that may interfere (e.g., ad blockers, privacy extensions). Since we don't serve ads any more, these extensions don't have an effect on our site anyway.
   3. Try accessing the website using a different device or network to see if the issue persists.
   4. Avoid opening many pages into different tabs in quick succession.
   5. Clear browser cookies. (You may have to login again after this step.) We are sorry for the inconvenience: we are all having the same experience.