This affects just about everything else, including these instructions. The name is a link to the home page of the comic.
This is how you got here.
A convenience function that gives you a hyperlinked hierarchical chapter list. The chapter structure may differ from whatever the comic uses.
This gives you a list of any special attributes defined by the current database.
A full query expression when searching for comic installments, or just a phrase when searching for characters.
Check this and the database ignores accents. ('u', 'ù', 'ú', 'û', and 'ü' will all be considered the same character, etc.)
These chapter selectors can be used to limit the text search to a specific range.
Check this to get results listed backwards.
Since the start and stop selectors are specific to each database, the form has to be regenerated, which is why you have to click a button to switch to another database.
The result of a text search is a list of links to installments that match the query expression.
The simplest type of query is just a phrase of one or more words.
Example: destroyed forever
will find the culmination of the X-TREEEM MUG saga.
You can use an asterisk as a wildcard matching 0 or more non-blank
characters.
Example: ha*nky* pa*nky*
will find plain "hanky panky" as well as Joyce's anguished
"HAAAAANKYYY PAANKYY" in the infamous porno torture scene.
Exception 1: an asterisk occurring on its own matches 1 or more non-blank characters, i.e. an entire word.
Exception 2: two asterisks occurring on their own match 0 or more entire words.
If you're looking for a particular character saying something,
put the name and a colon before the phrase.
Example: Sal : I
will find the one time Sal said "I" rather than "Ah".
Note that the spaces around the colon are required for reasons that will soon be apparent.
The name is actually a phrase pattern that must match the entire
character name (or alias).
Example: * Walters : no
will find
either Sal or one of her parents being negative.
Sometimes two or more characters share a speech bubble; the secret
database knows all about this. Simply connect the names with a plus.
Example: Danny + Billie : do not
will find our favourite couple protesting that they don't sound like one.
When you've forgotten just who said something, you can specify
several alternative characters as a comma-separated list.
Example: Danny , Billie : sex
will show that these two aren't really all that obsessed with it.
If you're interested in some particular kind of text, you can
append a mode indicator to the colon.
Example: Joyce :g back alright
will find Joyce singing along with the BSB.
These mode indicators are used:
It gets worse: you can also prepend a presence indicator to the colon:
Example: ESG 2: everything
will find a certain video phone conversation between the Head Alien and
the Evil Silhouette Guy.
These presence indicators are used:
You can combine the two to specify both a presence and a mode.
Example: Danny 2:s life on campus
will find the flashback version of Danny's and Sal's phone conversation.
Once your query includes a colon, the parts on either side become optional.
A somewhat useful example: Joyce + Walky :g
will find Joyce and Walky singing together, no matter which song.
Special attributes can be specified before the query with a left bracket,
an attribute name, an equals sign, an attribute value, and a right bracket.
Example: [panel=1] bye
will find
someone leaving early (if the selected datbase defines panel numbers).
No search engine is complete without compound queries, so here is how
you do them in this one: exclamation for negation ("not"),
ampersand for conjunction ("and"), vertical bar for disjunction ("or"),
and parentheses to get around the usual precedence rules.
Example: Danny p: & ! :s
will find all strips where Danny is present but nobody speaks.
The result of a character search is a table of characters whose
names match the query phrase.
Example: D* W*
will find all characters
who have the same initials as the cartoonist.
Searching for the phrase **
gives you a list of all characters (including internal
placeholders).
The boring details:
#
,
#ed
, #ing
, or
#in'
.#in'
doesn't match #ing
.Honey
if you think
Giant Mutant Frosted Honey Bun
is too much
typing. Dan
,
Danny
, Danno
,
and Daniel Wilcox
all refer to the same
character (but Daniel
means Joyce's dog).
There is no Big Boss
alias; try
Anthony
or
Linda
.