I have had a photographic memory all my life. So, I don't use a logical system for locating things, no matter how many data points to which my collections eventually extend. That worked until my digital collection reached over 20,000 pages. I still know where all my 10,000+ physical books are. Unfortunately, my long-term memory is starting to erode. So. I lose track of where some of the less important, smaller series are stored, especially if they changed publishers during mid run.
Paper Comic Books
I keep my most important and thickest (albums & hardbound collections) physical comics on walls covered with bookshelves, and the less important and more modern comics in boxes (inside plastic bags with thick liners providing sturdiness for standing vertically. The different publishers are arranged on the shelves in order of importance to me starting from left to right in the most important room (work room), leading towards least important room. So Disney is first, taking up 6 walls, then WB one wall, then Walter Lantz and Walt Kelly non- Disney, and MGM sharing a Wall. Then a miscellaneous wall, and then ad-hoc hardbound collections.
Dutch books are in my home in Holland, German in my flat in Germany, Danish in my flat in Denmark. US and Canadian are scattered among those 3 places. I have mostly US/Canadian same issue(where only difference is national adverts)from 1940-1966, and a small shelf area for my Canadian-only books,and Dutch comics 1952-2010 (with only issues containing mine and my friends' and colleagues' stories from 2011-present, plus Belgian Mickey Mouse Magazine from 1949-52. I have only sporadic issues the main Disney lines of German comics from 1952-1965, plus my friend's story issues after, and same for Denmark 1949-2007 plus friends and my output after. But my workplaces there have lots of own country plus old USA issues there for reference.
Digital Comics
The digital books are in individual normal file folders on my desktops of my desktop computers and my laptop, with those book folders inside a folder for the series, which is grouped together inside a folder for all the different series published by that publisher. THESE folders are in alphabetical order by series title. However, if a single character series was published by different publishers, such as most of Paul Terry's character's titles(Terry-Toons, Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, etc. moving from Timely to St. Johns to Pines to Dell to Gold Key) Publishers like that, with a gigantic amount of published books, I group in their own master folder on the desktop, instead of a single publisher folder. Other single character lines that have MOST of their books with one publisher, I just leave in the folder of that publisher, along with the other comics of that same character, even if they are from other publishers. I also keep different publishing companies owned or run by the same people together (i.e. Robert Farrell's Four Star, Star, Ajax, and Farrell Publishing) and Farrell's "Frisky Fables", even when it was published by independent Novelty Press together with them because Farrell produced them - whereas, the tangentially-related Fox Features is separate because they were owned by different owners, and only received work from Farrell, and Farrell received finished product later from Fox. I keep Creston-ACG together with Better-Nedor-Standard-Pines in a Sangor Studios Folder, because the both had the same artists drawing their funny animal comics. I keep the few "Funny Animals" published by Charlton after Fawcett's demise and sale of that line to their managing editor, Al Fago, together with Fawcett's Funny Animals because the Charlton issues are only 11% of the total. I've already forgotten where I've moved some of the smaller publishers that had strong ties to other publishers. And that problem is only going to get worse as my memory deteriorates. But I'm stubborn, and like to do things the way I always have.
