Finally seeing my comics — as a living library in Obsidian

I didn’t just want to read comics; I wanted to see them: what I own, what moved me, and why. With Obsidian’s Base plugin I built a visual library—clean, fast, and query-free. That small shift changed my reading routine: less friction, more writing, more reflection.

Why Red Son for the demo?

The Death and Return of Superman made me a comics reader in the first place. For this post, though, I’m using Superman: Red Son (Absolute Edition) as my example—a controversial Elseworlds take that I liked. I’ll show how I use Base end-to-end: from a single scratchpad note to a tidy Obsidian page and a compact quick review with cover.

📝 My setup at a glance

• Tot: I use one of Tot’s seven notes as a per-comic scratchpad. Everything raw goes there.
• Obsidian + Base: Custom library views over my notes so my collection is visual and inviting.
• Research: I use ChatGPT as a research assistant (longer reviews, essays, podcasts).
• iPadOS: Newer windowing/multitasking makes side-by-side reading + note-taking + research pleasant.
• Quick Reviews: I use Quick Reviews for awesome “capture cards”

Why Comics + Obsidian

I’ve always loved reading, and in recent years I’ve gravitated to DC Absolute Editions: oversized, cinematic, perfect for sinking in. But “read and shelve” no longer felt enough. I want to:

• capture motifs and ideas a book wrestles with,
• notice panel/layout decisions (rhythm, lettering, pacing),
• write what I think and contrast it with other perspectives.

That turns the experience from pure consumption into a loop of reading + thinking + keeping—and it makes me revisit books because I’ve left traces of myself inside them.

The update that made it click: Base

In a sentence: Base uses Obsidian Properties to power custom views (cards, lists, tables) of your notes. For collections like comics, it’s ideal: I get a pretty, filterable library without maintaining Dataview queries.

• What I do 80% of the time: Open my Library view (card grid with cover, title, series, edition, writer/penciller/colorist, read date, 4-point rating, status).
• Why Base over Dataview: Dataview is powerful, but the setup cost kept interrupting me. With Base: create note → fill properties → done.
• Limits so far? Nothing critical for my use. I keep borrowing ideas from how others build their bases.

Example focus: Superman: Red Son (Absolute Edition)

Why it’s contentious

Alternate-history premise, tonal choices, and political readings spark debate. That’s precisely what I enjoyed: a thesis that invites disagreement rather than soothing you.

What stood out to me

• Motifs: Power vs. morality; myth vs. human; “what if” as a mirror.
• Panels/layout: Consistently clean axes and uncluttered composition—the visuals carry the thesis without over-selling it.
• Color: Deliberate contrast in key scenes that frames the ideological stakes.

My quick review (for the capture card)

It asks: What happens when someone with the best of intentions grows up inside the wrong system? And the uncomfortable truth is: good intentions aren’t enough. Without Clark Kent — the humble reporter, the friend, his human side — Superman loses the tether that keeps power accountable.  

That story hit me hard. Systems shape us. Roles trap us. Even the strongest need counterweights — feedback loops, rituals of humility, spaces to step out of the role. Without them, even the best among us drift into control.

(These quick reviews are deliberately short—not a fixed character count, just punchy.)

My flow — from reading to a finished Obsidian page

1.Read & Tot scratchpad (one note per book)

I dedicate one Tot note to the book. Everything raw lands here:

• Observations (paneling, lettering, layout decisions)
• Motifs/claims I notice
• Quote fragments (with page if handy)
• Questions to myself (“What is this scene doing emotionally?”)

2. Transfer into Obsidian

After reading, the book gets its own note. I fill a minimal set of properties and expand raw bullets into short sections.

My core properties (with 4-point rating):

Media: Comic/Absolute
Author: [Mark Millar]
Cover: "[[Pasted image 20250727003921.jpg]]"
Comic Status: 📖 Read
Rating: ★★★☆

Note structure inside the file:

## Logline
**What if Superman landed in the USSR?** Kal-El becomes the face—and eventually the hand—of a utopian project that trades **autonomy** for **order**. Across decades, he and **Lex Luthor** compete to “save” the world—one through paternalistic control, the other through technocratic mastery—while **Batman** and **Wonder Woman** test the moral cost of both paths. A time-loop epilogue reframes the whole experiment as cyclical.

## Core Ideas & How the Book Argues Them

### 1) Nature vs. Nurture (reframed as Role vs. System)
- *Intent stays kind, outcomes turn coercive.* The Soviet apparatus reinterprets “good” into paternalistic control.  
- The book doesn’t say “environment overwrites nature,” it shows **institutions re-code intent**: more capability → more intervention → less consent.

### 2) Zimbardo / Lucifer Effect in a Cape
- **Role lock-in:** Superman has **no exit** from “protector-ruler”; no off-switch, no alternate identity to reset perspective.  
- **Institutional gravity:** Even well-meaning actions drift toward **utilitarian shortcuts** (re-education, surveillance).  
- **Counter-cases:**  
  - **Bizarro’s self-sacrifice** proves moral clarity isn’t tied to “perfection.”  
  - **Diana’s refusal** is costly but preserves agency.  
  - **Batman’s extremism** is truth-telling without being purely “good.”

### 3) The Clark Kent Subtraction
- In the main mythos, **Clark** is the *human constraint*: day job, community, humility, critique.  
- Red Son **removes Clark**—no reporter, no neighbor, no peer feedback loops. Without that **role-rotation**, Superman can’t re-humanize power; he defaults to **benevolent domination**.  
- Takeaway line: **No Clark, no brakes.**

### 4) Freedom vs. Security (Procedure vs. Outcome)
- The series spotlights **procedure** (consent, dignity, criticism) vs. **outcome** (peace, prosperity).  
- Red Son’s caution: If you optimize for outcome alone, you **erase the human in the loop**.

### 5) Systems Are Recursive (the Epilogue’s sting)
- Luthor “wins,” but his victory begets the next cycle.  
- The loop implies that **ideas + institutions** self-propagate; “Who was right?” is the wrong question without a **humanizing interrupt** (Clark-like practices).


## Symbols & Motifs
- **Stalingrad-in-a-bottle:** Irreversible error → perpetual guilt → justification loop for more control.  
- **Broken Lasso:** Consent violated; truth and love can’t bind under coercion.  
- **Red Sun Traps / Reprogramming Threat:** Power stripped to expose **who you are without advantage**.  
- **The Letter / “Put the world in a bottle” motif:** The critique of paternalistic perfectionism.  

3. Broaden perspectives with ChatGPT (as research assistant)

I use ChatGPT to surface long-form perspectives—podcasts, in-depth reviews, essays. The goal is research, not to outsource my view.

My go-to prompt:

Find in-depth perspectives on “[TITLE]” (podcasts ≥ 20 min, essays, long videos).

Return: Title • Host/Author • Length • one-sentence focus • link.

No short news clips.

The best sources go into Context & references in the Obsidian note.

4. Work on the iPad

As I mentioned several times on my blog. I love my iPad. With the recent updated iPadOS 26 even more. Windowing makes Obsidian + Tot + research sit comfortably side by side. It’s a small UX thing that removes friction and helps me stay with the book a bit longer.

5. Quick Reviews (cover + micro-summary)

I create a card in Quick Reviews: cover + a very short TL;DR. That image is linked back into the Obsidian note. The result is a library grid that’s both visual and browsable.

When is it done?

• WIP limit = 1. I only have one active book. Everything else waits in “Next”.
• Done means the Obsidian note is finished:
  • core properties filled,
  • sections written (motifs, 1–2 panel/layout observations, at least one quote),
  • quick review created and linked.

Then the book goes back on the shelf—and I’m ready for the next.

The friction that disappeared with Base

With Dataview, I kept tinkering with queries. With Base:

• I create a note, fill a few fields, and it immediately shows up in my collection.
• The collection view nudges me to write, not to tweak.