02.03. Comic books and graphic novels
Comic books and graphic novels are narrative works told through the medium of sequential art: a storytelling method combining text and images. These publications can be stand-alone, novel-length works (e.g. Watchmen by Alan Moore), or serializations that tell stories across multiple issues, volumes, and series (e.g. Daredevil [1964] #67 by Marvel Comics). And being both multimodal and cross-media works often adapted to video-games, movies and more, comics are an interesting study in WEMI concepts and the relationships between them. The examples below explore the application of general OpenWEMI elements to comic book and graphic novel RDF data, and the combination of OpenWEMI with other metadata vocabulary and ontology.
The example below uses OpenWEMI classes to describe the abstract notion of a specific comic story or issue (openwemi:Work) and a specific manifestation or physical embodiment (openwemi:Manifestation) of that story, i.e. the printed publication that appeared on newstands in 1964, represented here by its Grand Comics Database (GCD) record (openwemi:manifestedBy).
@base <http://example.org/> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix gcd_issue: <https://www.comics.org/issue/> .
@prefix openwemi: <https://ns.dublincore.org/openwemi/> .
[
a openwemi:Work ;
dcterms:title "Daredevil (1964) #67" ;
openwemi:manifestedBy gcd_issue:23651 ;
] .
gcd_issue a openwemi:Work, openwemi:Manifestation .
Comics are often translated in several languages, and re-printed and re-published in multiple countries. In the example below, Daredevil (1964) #67 is linked to its translation (openwemi:Expression) Diabólico (1981) #67 using openwemi:expressedBy.
@base <http://example.org/> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix gcd_issue: <https://www.comics.org/issue/> .
@prefix openwemi: <https://ns.dublincore.org/openwemi/> .
[
a openwemi:Work ;
dcterms:title "Daredevil (1964) #67" ;
openwemi:manifestedBy gcd_issue:23651 ;
] .
gcd_issue:23651 a openwemi:Work, openwemi:Manifestation ;
openwemi:expressedBy gcd_issue:505288 .
gcd_issue:505288 a openwemi:Work, openwemi:Expression, openwemi:Manifestation ;
dcterms:title "Diabólico (1964) #67" .
In addition to libraries and bookstores, comic books and graphic novels can be found in many public, private, and personal collections. This includes an active market for comics, especially rare and unique materials, where the physical condition of each issue or copy (i.e. instantiations of specific works) is particularly important to its value, and items can be certified by a guarantor and assigned a unique number for identification and tracking. In the example below a specific copy (openwemi:Item) of Daredevil (1964) #67 is identified below (openwemi:instantiatedBy).
@base <http://example.org/> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix gcd_issue: <https://www.comics.org/issue/> .
@prefix openwemi: <https://ns.dublincore.org/openwemi/> .
[
a openwemi:Work ;
dcterms:title "Daredevil (1964) #67" ;
openwemi:manifestedBy gcd_issue:23651 ;
] .
gcd_issue:23651 a openwemi:Work, openwemi:Manifestation ;
openwemi:expressedBy gcd_issue:505288 ;
openwemi:instantiatedBy [
dcterms:identifier "0198524001"
] .
While OpenWEMI provides a solid foundation for organizing comic works, their expressions and manifestations, and specific items, the OpenWEMI classes are better sub-classed to or aligned with other metadata vocabulary and ontology (e.g. Schema.org) for enhanced semantics and detailed resource description. In the example below, elements from the Comic Book Ontology (CBO) have been aligned with their equivalent OpenWEMI classes and relationships, demonstrating how the generalized vocabulary concepts of OpenWEMI can be utilized alongside domain-specific metadata terms.
@base <http://example.org/> .
@prefix cbo: <http://comicmeta.org/cbo/> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix gcd_issue: <https://www.comics.org/issue/> .
@prefix openwemi: <https://ns.dublincore.org/openwemi/> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
## work / manifestation
cbo:Series rdfs:subClassOf openwemi:Work, openwemi:Manifestation .
cbo:Volume rdfs:subClassOf openwemi:Work, openwemi:Manifestation .
cbo:Issue rdfs:subClassOf openwemi:Work, openwemi:Manifestation .
## item
cbo:Copy rdfs:subClassOf openwemi:Item .
cbo:Artwork rdfs:subClassOf openwemi:Item .
## item properties
cbo:copy rdfs:subPropertyOf openwemi:instantiates .
## comic issue
gcd_issue:23651 a cbo:Issue ;
dcterms:title "Daredevil (1964) #67" ;
cbo:issueNumber "67"
cbo:copy [
cbo:certNumber "0198524001"
] .
[1] Grand Comics Database (GCD) - https://comics.org
[2] Comic Book Ontology (CBO) - https://comicmeta.org/cbo