In case you hadn’t noticed, Firefox 3 was released yesterday. It has been a long time coming with several betas and release candidates. I’ve been using it myself as my default browser since Beta 5. I had hoped it was going to be out around the time of the release of ComicPress 2.5 as its rounded corners rendering is so much nicer (as seen in the ComicPress theme - too bad for IE users). Also it should render the Webdings for the comments balloons. Those were two features kind of pushing the no-image styling barrier but it’s always a plus when you can avoid extra images and that was the goal of ComicPress being a theme to be customized (make your own images). The only image in the layout is the background shadow which can actually be produced without images if you really wanted to, like is done in the documentation file.

ComicPress 2.5 | Demo | Read Me | Download
(Requires WordPress 2.5 or later)

I am quite proud to announce the release of version 2.5 of ComicPress. For me, this is the most exciting release yet. At first look you may not notice a huge change from 2.1, however, this version has been rewritten from the ground up. All the CSS styling, queries and functions, rewritten for simplicity, stability and added features.

Most exciting to you, will most likely be the availability of 5 layouts:

1. Standard Edition — this is the layout you are familiar with, a single blog column and a single sidebar under the comic. Works well with a horizontal or full-page comic.
2. 3-Column Edition — indeed, the much anticipated 3-column version, a wider page than the Standard Edition this layout also gives you a second sidebar to fill.
3. Vertical Edition — for those of you with a narrow or tall comic, perhaps a stacked 4 panel or mini-comic page, this is the layout for you. It looks like the standard layout, but in this one the sidebar comes up beside the comic, filling in the extra space.
4. Vertical 3-Column Edition — just as the 3-column does for the Standard Edition, this layout ads an extra sidebar to the Vertical Edition, so the comic gets sandwiched between the two sidebars.
5. Graphic Novel Edition — this takes the Standard Edition, which can work well for large-full page comics, and ads an extra sidebar to the left that extends up beside the comic. This allows you to display stuff alongside your large full-page comics. Can also be used for those wanting a third column added to the Standard Edition but who’s comic is not wide enough to span then wider layout.

Each layout is just a small variation of each other to get you started. Again, with the CSS written from the ground up, you won’t find the confusing styles of the earlier versions based on the WordPress default theme. This theme has been written for you, to find and edit all the elements of your site much easier. If you have been holding off customizing the theme, this would be a good time for you to get your hands dirty. I’ve worked hard to keep it looking good out of the box (especially for Firefox 3), but keeping basic for changing it as well. Styles have been organized and defined in simple terms covering all the areas of the site you might want to change, including a separate class for the front page comic post (I know a lot of you like to style that a bit different to set it apart from the blog).

A couple features were added as well to take advantage of WordPress 2.5

• Gallery — WordPress 2.5 has a media library to give you better control of your uploaded images, you can add several to a post or page (not necessarily embedded on the page) and then place a gallery on the page which will allow you to navigate through the images. Might be useful for bonus material such as sketches and wallpaper.
• Gravatars — to make comments more fun and personalized, visitors can now have an avatar appear with their post much like in a forum, these work with their e-mail and are handled offsite so you don’t need to host avatars and they don’t need to be registered users to have one. They work across all WordPress/Gravatar supported sites/blogs.

ComicPress Manager

One of the best new features is not even in ComicPress, it is a new plugin written exclusively for the ComicPress theme by John Bintz. This plugin will add a ComicPress management interface to your WordPress Administration panel. From there you will be able to configure the theme and upload comics. When you upload a comic it will also create the post to go with it. In fact, you can upload several comics to batch post them far into the future. Or even better, if you have a large existing archive, you can now painlessly allow it to make all the comic posts for you. It can do other maintenance to such as deleting comic files and their associated post, or checking for comic files that do not have a post. This is a great new tool for any ComicPress user. It is still in its early development, but has been running solid from my own experience with it. Go here to download it now!

Upgrading From Older Versions of ComicPress

This is a great time for a new user to try out ComicPress, especially if you have been holding off on trying to customize the CSS or have not wanted to switch over a large archive of comic files. This is also a good time to upgrade (you’ll see why in the full feature/change list below). To upgrade I recommend first upgrading to WordPress 2.5.1, then you will need to make the necessary changes to fix the navigation (to keep the site running while you set up the new theme, or just run the out of the box version of ComicPress 2.5 during that time). Then upload the new theme to a folder separate from the existing ComicPress theme. Next get this plugin and activate it, this will allow you to work on and view the new theme while visitors continue to see the old one. Theme customizing is so much easier with this release not only will you be able to quickly adapt, but probably do some layout customizations that you gave up on before. Finally, when it’s ready, just deactivate the Theme Tester plugin and you will be publishing your comics with the best ComicPress yet.

Special Thanks…

This release was sponsored in part by Sketch Magazine. We want to thank them for their generous contribution to the project which in turn is a contribution to the online comic community. Also much thanks to those that have donated during the development phase of this release. Your support was greatly appreciated and helped make this release a reality as there was a lot of time and work involved. Also thanks to those beta testers in the forum that helped polish the final release. And once again, a big thanks to Sketch Magazine… I think we share a mission…

“Sketch Magazine’s goals are aimed toward enhancing the comics art form, and others, through education and knowledge. We offer creators artistic tips and techniques that help them to enjoy working in this field.” — Robert W Hickey

Complete list of changes and updates after the fold…
Read the rest of this entry »

With all the talk and preparation for ComicPress 2.5 over the last month (it’s being released this week!) I forgot to post this video. It’s from the show Mahalo Daily and features a few minutes of fun with Scott Johnson of Extra Life offering some Webcomic tips including a nice little blurb about ComicPress.

With the new ComicPress 2.5 update, literally right around the corner now as it’s pretty much through it’s beta testing, many of you are most likely going to be wanting to try it out and customize it. Some of you will end up doing it on your live WordPress install. That’s actually fine, especially if you use a theme testing plugin, there are several variations if you search at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

I personally am using one called Theme Tester.

With it activated, I can then, as Administrator, select any other theme in my theme folder and it will appear on my site to me only, all visitors will continue to see the previously selected theme. I can edit the theme, test it out, and then when I am ready, switch the testing back off and the users will also see the current selected theme.

WordPress 2.5.1 | Release Notes | Download

Well, the first update for the 2.5 branch has arrived today. It includes a security fix and over 70 bug fixes. Unfortunately, none of those bugs were our bug. That’s okay though, it kind of forced me into a decision.

Preparing For ComicPress 2.5…

There will now be a Comic Category ($comiccat) and a Blog Category ($blogcat). Which kind of simplifies things, rather than the “everything that is not a blog is a comic” reasoning. It will make it simpler for those of you wanting to build out some of your own features. Also paves the way for other specialty categories (that navigate within themselves only), like perhaps a press box that just has news of your comic in the media, or a latest video blog or podcast that you want to feature and navigate separately.

You can still use other categories, but all comics must be in the “Comic” category and all blogs must be in the “Blog” category. Which means some of us might have some editing to do to prepare for ComicPress 2.5. Hopefully any time invested in changing stuff will be worth it. I suggest using Tags more now for tagging and grouping similar posts or comics, and save the categories for the more functional aspects (treating and navigating blogs and comics differently, along with whatever other specialty categories come up).

I’m moving along on the new ComicPress but slower than I’d wanted, covering every detail. Rerunning every query, stripping it down to the bare essentials. Making the design simple enough to build off of, but pretty enough to run it right out of the box. I’m making it more stable by containing queries so they don’t affect other elements of the page, and containing DIV’s so they can’t easily break the layout.

I’m going to keep a status of where I am at in the project here in the forums. Feel free to cheer me on, throw in last minute requests, or just yell at me.

Also that’s where I’ll post an early release when I’m done.