Comics Structure
Make sure you understand the folder requirements of Kavita
The “Comics (Flexible)” structure is the legacy parsing option that was used before the big comic overhaul and Comic Vine library type was introduced. If you have metadata in your files and you are having issues with series combining when you don’t want them to be, consider switching to the Comic Vine library type.
Kavita parses Comics just like it does Manga but uses a separate set of regular expressions tuned for how comics are typically named (issue # numbers, v1/t1 volumes, “of” counts, etc). If you are having trouble, you might want to look at the different cases we have in our tests and what is supported. The following will give you a glimpse.
The same naming conventions work with Comics.
┖── Series Name
┠── Series Name v01.cbz
┠── Series Name v02.cbz
┖── Series Name v03 c01.cbzThe following will be parsed as “Chapters”, which may naturally group into a Volume entity if a volume is on the file itself.
| Filename | Parsed Series Name | Volume | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
Invincible 070.5 - Invincible Returns 1 (2010) (digital) (Minutemen-InnerDemons).cbr | Invincible | 70.5 | |
Batman & Wildcat (1 of 3) | Batman & Wildcat | 1 | |
Amazing Man Comics chapter 25 | Amazing Man Comics | 25 | |
Superman v1 024 (09-10 1943) | Superman | 1 | 24 |
Y - The Last Man #001 | Y - The Last Man | 1 | |
Batgirl Vol.2000 #57 (December, 2004) | Batgirl | 2000 | 57 |
Babe 01 | Babe | 1 | |
Batgirl T2000 #57 | Batgirl | 2000 | 57 |
Chevaliers d'Héliopolis T3 - Rubedo, l'oeuvre au rouge (Jodorowsky & Jérémy) | Chevaliers d’Héliopolis | 3 | |
Teen Titans v1 001 (1966-02) (digital) (OkC.O.M.P.U.T.O.-Novus) | Teen Titans | 1 | 1 |
Batman Wayne Family Adventures - Ep. 001 - Moving In | Batman Wayne Family Adventures | 1 | |
spawn-123 | spawn | 123 |
If you have multiple comics from different years, you can name them as “Fables 2004” and “Fables 1989” or better yet, use the Comic Vine library type. Anything within () will be stripped during parsing as there is usually junk in there. Use or embedded metadata.
Marking a Comic as a Special
Filenames containing words like “Annual”, “TPB”, “Omnibus”, “One Shot”, etc. are not enough on their own to mark an issue as a Special - a file named Batman Beyond Annual.cbz or Batman Beyond OneShot.cbz will parse as a normal, loose-leaf issue. There are only two ways to force something into being a Special:
- Include an explicit
SP01,SP02, etc. marker in the filename (see Specials). - Set the
Formatfield in the file’sComicInfo.xmlto one of the recognized keywords (Special,Annual,TPB,Omnibus,One Shot, etc). This is the metadata-driven equivalent of the old keyword list and is the recommended approach if you can embedComicInfo.xml.
See the full list of recognized Format values on the ComicInfo metadata page.