Tyler Martin
New Site!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 30, 2008 - 22:52
Welcome to the new site! A big thanks to Tyler Martin for doing a fantastic job on designing and implementing the new look of the site. I also did a lot of work "under the hood" moving the site onto the Drupal 6.1 platform. (While I think it all works, if something's not quite right, post a comment here. Thanks!)
A big part of the new site is my desire to include effectively both editorial content and community content. I'm eager to refocus on building back up the editorial side of ComixTalk -- interviews, reviews and other feature articles. We've also made it easier for ComixTalk members to post here -- if you want to automatically import posts from your own blog into your ComixTalk user account, please email me (xerexes AT comixtalk DOT com) with your ComixTalk user name and blog feed and I'll set it up for you.
WebcomicsPress: Comparing Webcomic Tools for WordPress
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 9, 2010 - 17:29
So a lot of you probably read about the hack attack on Karl Kerschl's site last week as reported by FLEEN. Wordpress has come to take a fairly dominant position in webcomics publishing in recent years with good reason. Wordpress is a fantastic blogging solution with an active development team and it's not a tremendous stretch to leverage it for comics. So which comics-specific solution should you use for turning Wordpress into Webcomicpress?
First let's see what is out there. If there are other projects out there to include beyond what I list below, contact me.
1. Comicpress. Tyler Martin's Comicpress wasn't the first Wordpress effort. but it was the one that caught fire and is now in wide use in webcomics. It's gone through several versions and now has a few add-on plug-ins for additional features. Version 2.8 is stable and in wide use.
2. stripShow. I think Brad Hawkins' stripShow might have been the first working hack I can recall. Currently, it looks like Hawkins is working on version 2.5, so it's probably a safe bet to wait until that next version is released to try it out.
3. Manga+Press. I know the least about this one, having not had a chance to try it out. It also looks like the most recent version is in beta and the creator still working to finish a final release of what will be version 2.6.
4. Webcomic 2.1. This project has been around for a bit, it seems to have been inspired in part by the creator's criticisms of Comicpress.
5. Comic Reef. The very most recent effort I'm aware of seems to be a project born in the Webcomics Community forums.
What I think would be the most useful approach to comparing them is to create a list of features and see each package implements them. Some obvious issues are how it handles comic images, navigation, themes... again, let me know if you have any suggestions for key criteria. I'll be working on setting up each one of these packages in order to write up a comparison of them for later this month.
UPDATE: An email exchange with Tyler Martin clarifies that ComicPress was actually the first WordPress solution and that stripShow was a "fork" of ComicPress.
ComicPress Version 2.8 Now Available!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 1, 2009 - 09:08
Tyler Martin's released the latest version of ComicPress, his webcomic theme for Wordpress. There's a full list of the new features in this release at the ComicPress website. They include (among others) things such as:
- Customizable Menubar
- Post Heading Icons
- Author/User Pages
- Buy This Print Feature
- Members Only Content
- Numbered Pagination
- Graphic Comic Hovertext
- Calendar Wallpaper
- SWF (Flash) File Format Support
stripShow 2.0 Second Beta for Wordpress Now Out
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 17, 2009 - 08:44
Brad Hawkins' stripShow is a plug-in for Wordpress that makes it uber-webcomic friendly. Along with Tyler Martin's Comicpress theme, it's the other long-running project to adapt Wordpress for webcomics. Now he's got another Beta version of what will be stripShow 2.0 out -- download it, check it out and let Brad know about any bugs you find or other feedback.
You've Got To Chill: An Interview with Leroy Brown of Ice Cubes
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Leroy Brown is the creator of Ice Cubes about a motley crew of characters living within the Artic Circle in Alaska. I had not been previously familiar with Brown's work, but he submitted a design for the February cover art to ComixTALK that I liked and wound up using. It's got a similar set up to Tyler Martin's Wally & Osborne, but beyond updating more regularly the last year (hey now! rim crash... I"ll be here all week folks!), it's just a different animal entirely. The comic is very new (unfortunately the website doesn't currently have a very navigation-friendly set-up but you can get through the archives by clicking on the "strips" category) so it's easy to check out the archives to date.
Read on for my interview with Brown about his comic Ice Cubes.
Wally & Osbourne
Submitted by Delos on January 28, 2009 - 10:00
What Did I Learn?
weekly webcomic reviews by Delos
(this is a slightly edited repost)
Working On Drupal CMS to Support Webcomics Publishing
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 16, 2009 - 11:57
Look don't get me wrong - I think Wordpress + Tyler Martin's Comicpress is great and for many many creators and/or publishers, it's the way to go. But I've been using Drupal for ComixTalk since 2006 and have always wanted to use Drupal to publish a webcomic(s) as well. And I've known it's possible since Christopher Wright has had his webcomic Ubersoft running on Drupal for about a year now.
2009 Resolution: Let's Do Support for Webcomic Publishing in Drupal Right
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 12, 2009 - 12:47
I have been tinkering with altertainment.net to be my personal "creative" site (a slight deviation from last year's "about" annoucement) and in doing so - make Drupal webcomic-friendly. Luckily it's almost there so I think with some pushing from me this could actually be a big year for Drupal + Webcomics.  I just posted the call-to-action below at the ghost-town-like webcomics group at http://groups.drupal.org:
Post Birthday/New Year's Webcomic Blues
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 4, 2009 - 13:28
New Webcomic Hosting Site?
Webcomic Planet is still in beta but it is up and worth checking out. Free hosting with wordpress plus the comicpress theme is a great idea plus its owners include Tyler Martin the creator of the comicpress theme as well as Philip Hofer of Frumph.net and John Bintz.
BEST OF 2008
Derik Badman had a short list of recommended best of 2008 webcomics.
El Santo notes that voting for the 2008 Weblog Awards starts this Monday -- there is a comic strip category that includes several webcomics (well they're all "web" comics but several are independent comics on the web)
And Happy Birthday To Me!
Sadly I've been sick all week and missed out on most of my plans for celebrating holidays and such but this past Friday was my birthday. Apparently I'm semi-prominent enough to get a mention on The Comics Reporter (of course I did send in my birthdate to Tom, but regardless, thanks!) -- it's all downhill in comics for me now! :)
