History Main / UnusualChapterNumbers

* ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'' numbered the main storyline backward because it was counting down to... Zero Hour. Various titles in Franchise/TheDCU had tie-in issues numbered #0, most of which incorporated flashbacks to the characters' origins and/or acted as a [[{{Retool}} soft-relaunch point]]. For ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' and ''Legionnaires'', their #0 issues were the starting-point for the Legion's first full-fledged ContinuityReboot reboot. Other new series began here with issue #0, such as James Robinson's ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}''.

* The all-ages ''Comicbook/{{Bizarro}}'' miniseries has its issued numbered backwards on the title pages (6-1), matching the [[SelfDemonstrating/{{Bizarro}} title character]]'s "backwards" way of thinking.

* The ''OttoUndercover'' series by RheaPerlman does this a lot. For example, in the first book, the table of contents lists "Chapter Minus 1", "Chapter 0", "Chapter Regular 1", "Too Many Chapters", and "The End". The actual names of the chapters in the book are "Chapter Minus 1", "Chapter 0", "Chapter Regular 1", "Chapter 2", "Chapter 2½", "Chapter 3", "Chapter 4", "Rude Interruption of the Story, Number One", "Chapter 4 Again", "Rude Interruption of the Story, Number Two", and so on...

* The #Pirulla "series" of Canal do Pirulla on youtube. Usually subverted, but played straight when he happens to post a addendum or two-part video. Then the video receives a repeated numbering (when an addendum) or a numbering of X.1, X.2, etc. (when two-part).
** Up to 11 when this results in videos with more than one number, as in #Pirulla 168 - 177.3.

** ''Fanfic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami'' eventually ended up having the chapter numbers go a bit crazy. At the start of vhapter 35, Dark travels back in time to events in chapter 32 to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, with the chapter title even noting that it’s essentially an alternate version of chapter 32. After this, what would be chapter 36 was labeled chapter 33, and the chapters stayed at three numbers lower for the rest of the story. The dramatic reading by manwithoutabody reflects this, with the thumbnails showing the “labelled” chapter number, while the video titles give the “actual” chapter number, with a “kinda” in brackets, so for example, what the story calls chapter 38 is given the video titl “Chapter 40(kinda)”.

* ‘’ Manga/ThusSpokeRohanKishibe'' has its chapters start from 16; then 2, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8 and 9.

* The two prequel books for ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' are numbered volume 0 and volume -1.

* When ''VideoGame/{{Caladrius}}'' received [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Re-Releases]] with new stages, the new stages were given non-standard numbering and naming so as not to force a rename of the existing stages.

[[folder: Non Fiction ]]

* The #Pirulla "series" of Canal do Pirulla on YouTube. Usually subverted, but played straight when he happens to post a addendum or two-part video. Then the video receives a repeated numbering (when an addendum) or a numbering of X.1, X.2, etc. (when two-part).

* The #Pirulla "series" of Canal do Pirula on YouTube. Usually subverted, but played straight when he happens to post a addendum or two-part video. Then the video receives a repeated numbering (when an addendum) or a numbering of X.1, X.2, etc. (when two-part).

** Which is also the case for some other animes with recap episode (i.e. ''LightNovel/TheLegendOfTheLegendaryHeroes'')

Compare IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming, EpisodeZeroTheBeginning. Compare and contrast UnInstallment.

* ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'' numbered the main storyline backward because it was counting down to... Zero Hour. Various titles in Franchise/TheDCU had tie-in issues numbered #0; most significantly, the issues of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' and ''Legionnaires'' that began the Legion's first full-fledged [[ContinuityReboot reboot]].

* This happens occasionally in long running comics that have been restarted various times. Via loopholes in how volumes are decided the editors can shuffle the numbers around to celebrate milestones. For example ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' (Vol. 2) #59 was renamed {The Amazing Spider-Man} #500 (and the following issues kept the 500+ numbers). Naturally this can be very very confusing, especially when the numbering is reset multiple times in relatively short order.
* ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' saw every DCU title jump to #1,000,000 for an issue as the far future DCU interacted with the present day.

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' tie-in minis were named like ''Original Sin X.Y'', where Y is the normal issue number in the mini; nothing to see there, but X was generally ''not'' the issue they came after in the event, but instead the one they came after in the series they tied into. So for example ''Original Sin'' 5.1 didn't come after ''Original Sin'' 5, it came after '''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard''' 5.
* There have been a number of series that have been rebooted to #1 to take advantage of the extra sales it generates. Then when the number of issues of the new volume and previous volume will add up to a multiple of 100, the old numbering will be restored to take advantage of the "anniversary"
* Creator/DCComics confused at least a few readers in 2016, when the ComicBook/DCRebirth relaunch, a borderline-but-not-quite [[ContinuityReboot reboot]] meant to [[RetCon tweak]] elements of their ComicBook/New52 continuity [[ContinuityPorn without abandoning]] [[CanonWelding the actual established stories and events]], started up, for two reasons: 1.) select LongRunners, namely ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' and ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'', actually ''reverted back'' to the numbering system they had used ''before'' the [[ComicBook/New52 previous reboot]], meaning that for instance ''Detective Comics'' suddenly ''jumped up'' from number 52 to number 934, and 2.) as part of their relaunch/launch of multiple titles, various books were announced as getting "new Number Ones" after they got what was referred to as their "''Rebirth'' one-shots", which were single-issue books that were titled, say, ''[[ComicBook/GreenLanterns Green Lanterns: Rebirth]]'', ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman Wonder Woman: Rebirth]]'', etc., and were supposed to be jumping-on points for new readers to entice them into the following ongoing series. Except one must pity the poor reader who didn't realize that the "one-shots" inexplicably had an actual ''issue number'' in the upper right corner of the covers, which happened to be "1"... ''as did the following issue that would continue that book's story'', since as noted, they were getting "[[ExactWords new number ones in addition]]" to the ''Rebirth'' "one-shots". Additionally, some of the so-called "one-shots" weren't really standalone stories at all and were closely tied to the plots of one ([[BatFamilyCrossover or more]]) books involving their characters, leaving a reader slightly confused if they happen to skip the event's "one-shot" and try to jump straight to the "ongoing" story in one or more books. Which they might actually do, if they think it's another version of the "first issue" that just happens to have a VariantCover (which DC had also made clear every issue would get, after all).

* ''[[Webcomic/CoolAndNewWebComic cool and new web comic]]'', being based on ''Webcomic/{Homestuck}'', has a similar Act structure to the ''Homestuck'' example listed above, with its own cool and new twist.

* ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', the first non-young-adult Literature/{{Discworld}} novel since ''The Colour of Magic'' to feature chapters, has a chapter 7A instead of a chapter 8 (because the number 8 is considered unlucky on the Discworld).
** And while ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'' (as stated above) does not have chapters or chapter numbers, it does have a ''"tick"'' in the middle of each break in the text... at least until [[TimeCrash it doesn't]]

* ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'' numbered the main storyline backward because it was counting down to... Zero Hour. Various titles in Franchise/TheDCU had tie-in issues numbered #0; most significantly, the issues of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' and ''Legionnaires'' that began the Legion's first full-fledged {{reboot}}.

* Creator/DCComics confused at least a few readers in 2016, when the ComicBook/DCRebirth relaunch, a borderline-but-not-quite {{reboot}} meant to [[RetCon tweak]] elements of their ComicBook/New52 continuity [[ContinuityPorn without abandoning]] [[CanonWelding the actual established stories and events]], started up, for two reasons: 1.) select LongRunners, namely ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' and ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'', actually ''reverted back'' to the numbering system they had used ''before'' the [[ComicBook/New52 previous reboot]], meaning that for instance ''Detective Comics'' suddenly ''jumped up'' from number 52 to number 934, and 2.) as part of their relaunch/launch of multiple titles, various books were announced as getting "new Number Ones" after they got what was referred to as their "''Rebirth'' one-shots", which were single-issue books that were titled, say, ''[[ComicBook/GreenLanterns Green Lanterns: Rebirth]]'', ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman Wonder Woman: Rebirth]]'', etc., and were supposed to be jumping-on points for new readers to entice them into the following ongoing series. Except one must pity the poor reader who didn't realize that the "one-shots" inexplicably had an actual ''issue number'' in the upper right corner of the covers, which happened to be "1"... ''as did the following issue that would continue that book's story'', since as noted, they were getting "[[ExactWords new number ones in addition]]" to the ''Rebirth'' "one-shots". Additionally, some of the so-called "one-shots" weren't really standalone stories at all and were closely tied to the plots of one ([[BatFamilyCrossover or more]]) books involving their characters, leaving a reader slightly confused if they happen to skip the event's "one-shot" and try to jump straight to the "ongoing" story in one or more books. Which they might actually do, if they think it's another version of the "first issue" that just happens to have a VariantCover (which DC had also made clear every issue would get, after all).

* ''Literature/WaysideSchool Is Falling Down'' is stuck on the [[MissingFloor nineteenth story]] for three chapters. The following chapter is headed "20, 21 & 22: Eric, Eric and Eric".

** The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations'' adaptation of ''The Day of the Doctor'' begins with Chapter 8, which is "The Night of the Doctor" (starring Eighth). It then opens Eleventh's part of the story with Chapter 11, goes back to the War Doctor stealing the Moment in Chapter 1, and introduces Tenth with, yes, Chapter 10. Chapters 2 to 7 then happen in that order, before the book ends with Chapter 13. (You may notice [[UnInstallment there's no Chapter 9]]. It's theoretically between 3 and 4, but [[TheFourtWallWillNotProtectYou erases the reader's memory of it]].)