After a somewhat rough 1.3 and 1.3.1 release, ComicPress Manager 1.3.3 is live and ready to take your Webcomics publishing to the next level. There’s all sorts of great new features in this release:

• WordPress 2.7 support!
• Major bug fixes and UI improvements & simplifications
• QuomicPress (Quick ComicPress) Dashboard widget for easy comic uploading (and Write -> Post is fixed, too!)
• Optional filename obfuscation on upload (keep nosy readers from looking ahead!)
• Quick Tags to make adding tags to your posts even easier
• A changeable ComicPress Manager sidebar, with the choice of either the classic sidebar or the Latest Comics sidebar
• An improved Status view for better site analysis
• Informational and warning message cleanups

WordPress 2.7 | Release Notes | Download

WordPress 2.7 was just released and is available for download. As with any major release of WordPress, you should check all your important plugins and make sure they are compatible (there were enough serious changes in this version for many not to be without an update). I haven’t seen any issues with ComicPress 2.5 (aside from the Random Comic Widget that broke in 2.6). ComicPress Manager 1.3 will be completely 2.7 compatible but it’s not out quite yet, you can help test it though by trying out the current 1.3 beta.

ComicPress 2.7 will be out soon, with support for the new nested and paginated comments as well as some other updates.

As always, sometimes it’s better to wait a week or two to upgrade as there will most likely be a WordPress 2.7.1 version right around the corner to catch some fixes or security holes caught after it hits the mainstream user base. Also allows plugin creators time to get their plugins updated and make sure they work with the final release of 2.7.

Some of the new features:

• COMMENTS are now threaded and paginated, so you can reply to specific comments and limit the display of comics per page. You can also set comments to close on old posts (replacing the plugin I suggest) which can be beneficial especially for timely sites like Webcomics where the discussion should keep moving forward.
• New DASHBOARD, WordPress seems heavy on the interface changes this year but this one is important and expect to see it stick around for a while, once you play with it you will find it to be quicker, more intuitive and customizable.
• PLUGINS… you can now search for and install plugins right from your admin.
• BATCH post updating… so handy for when you want to reorganize all your posts.
• QUICKPRESS to make a quick post from the Dashboard, the new ComicPress Manager will add a similar quick comic posting feature being coined as “QuomicPress”… oh John you quazy guy.
• SOFTWARE UPDATES! you can now upgrade WordPress from the admin with the click of the mouse. Yay!

Featured Site: Mega64
ComicPress Version: 2.5
Modifications: Major

Adding to the collection of non-Webcomic sites using ComicPress, is Mega64. There are some podcast sites that run ComicPress but Mega64 is a video content site. I was converting their static HTML site to WordPress for them and figured that the ComicPress theme was a good place to start. It’s all set up for delivering specially featured regular content as well as providing accessible archives for that content on top of a blog. The comic generating code was replaced with video embedding code and the main page and archives grab thumbnails of the videos for display. Having the embed code outside the post and handled by the theme is handy so you can decide when it displays a thumbnail, and when it embeds the actual video. Much like a Webcomic site, where it is handy to display the comic outside the post for looks, or for having special thumbnails display in the archive… you could even show a preview comic image if you wanted someone to click through to your comic like Mega64 does with their latest video on the front page (perhaps for those that post large pages and don’t want them taking up the entire main page).

Mega64 has some pretty funny content if you haven’t checked them out before. I first remember seeing their Paperboy video long ago, which creates a real life scenario of the popular old video game. My latest favorite of their’s is of course a video about creating their new site…

The WordPress development team is still trying to decide on the icons to be used with version 2.7’s newly designed Admin area. The new design is looking pretty nice, is also customizable. They have various icon sets now up for consideration. Being we have to look at this interface so often as users of WordPress, why not put in your input by voting for your favorite icon set here.

Edit: The results are in! The BD set wins and will be seen in the new WordPress 2.7 interface due out soon.

ComicPress Manager 1.2.0 is live and ready to make your Webcomics get posted even faster! This release brings about some new features, a bunch of bugfixes, and major performance enhancements. The list of improvements:

• JavaScript usage by ComicPress Manager has been greatly improved. Files are now minified (the originals are still there, too) and in-page JS use has been streamlined.
• For those working with 8 bit PNG files: bugs in the way I was using both GD and ImageMagick were producing thumbnail images that were 24 bit, and therefore much too large. Now, feeding CPM an 8 bit PNG produces an 8 bit thumbnail.
• A new menu option, Write -> Comic, gives you a very stripped down comic file uploader.
• You now have the ability to post a comic to multiple categories at once.
• Bugs related to the use of magic quotes and other PHP weirdness have been fixed.

…wait, are you still reading this? Go upgrade right now! You’ll be glad you did!