Featured Site: Transmission X
ComicPress Version: 1.5-2.0 BE
Modifications: Light

I missed last week’s Friday Feature (where I feature a site using a modified version of the ComicPress theme) so to make up for it, how about this week we do 10? The entire beautiful collection of comics at Transmission X are all published at their individual sites or sub-sites with their own ComicPress setups. They range from using the older version 1.5 to the 2.0 BE version depending on the comic. The themes have been minimally altered from the original ComicPress setup, each with their own custom header and appropriate colors to best create the setting for reading each of the comics. Each of these have such wonderful art you really barely notice the site or functionality around them. They are also set up a bit different, in navigation.

Updating on Monday’s is Luz by Claudia Dávila, featuring ComicPress 2.0 BE. The top menu can quickly get you to the first strip or the current one. Looks like it’s missing some of the standard ComicPress archiving features but maybe they will pop up in time. Looks like it might have recently switched to the newer ComicPress as the posts per page (when you view the comic category) is still set to “one” as was done with 1.5 or 1.6. With ComicPress 2.0 or newer you can now set that as high as you want and it will just reflect the number of posts on search or archive pages of any sort (as with any standard WordPress theme). That would serve the site with a bit more of an operable archive when you clicked the “comics” category link.

Tuesday’s update is for the lovely Kukuburi, which sports its own domain. It’s created by Ramon Perez of Butternutsquash fame, which has a site also making use of ComicPress. It’s using 2.0 BE also, and also not using it for any blogging aside from the comic updates. The Kukuburi site takes an interesting approach as it will automatically send you to the first comic, it’s really meant to be read through start to finish so this ensures a new reader doesn’t jump into a random middle area of the story, there again is a current comic link in the menu to quickly get you to the latest. Kukuburi also features an archive link, using the comics category as an archive, this can be nifty as it will show thumbs of the comics themselves and show as many as you want per page, not limited by dates like in the monthly categories, a good option for a comic that does not update several times a month. The new 2.1 ComicPress would start that archive from the beginning and then flip through to the end instead of the typical blog format showing the most recent and working backwards. Also though, anyone should know that a complete archive page can be made by selecting the “comic archive” in the template sidebar of the “Write Page” feature of WordPress (this would give it a complete text listing of all the comics but not have the thumbnails).

On Wednesdays the well crafted Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl is updated. It also is using version 2.0 BE, again no blogging aside from the comics, but this site features a monthly archive pull-down menu. This feature is actually built into the latest ComicPress 2.1 as a Widget you can easily drag into your sidebar. It makes for quite a compact but effective archive system whether you have 10 comics in the archive or 10,000.

Thursdays offer an update of Kissing Chaos, it’s sporting the old ComicPress version 1.5 but it gets the job done. The site has a different approach to directing the visitor in offering a list of chapters from the main page to jump to and get into reading the comic.

On Friday, Andy B’s Raising Hell is updated, also using the classic version 1.5. The menu will quickly get you to the first or latest strip but you’ll be dependent on the default WordPress calendar navigation for finding anything in between.

Saturday’s update is for The Port, once again version 1.5. You can jump to the first or last strip but this site is way simplified, as in that’s all you get as far as navigation. Really though, if you make use of the comic bookmark feature, which is the only thing currently available in the sidebar, you can mark your place and pick back up pretty easily. These are all comics you are going to want to read straight through anyway.

On Sunday there are updates of Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart and Princess Planet by Brian McLachlan. Sin Titulo will take you to the first page, giving you the option to jump to the current. It’s just the old 1.5 version again but this site is also sporting the calendar archive pull-down so you can navigate around a bit or see what updates you might have missed. Princess Planet has the newer 2.0 BE, also sports the calendar archive pull-down and seems to be the only one of the comics also using the theme for non-comic blogposts as became available in version 2.0 and newer.

Finally there is Papercut by Michael Cho which is updated monthly and then there is the completed Ragni by the aforementioned Karl Kerschl. Papercut is using 2.0 BE, and has another different approach, the site immediately brings you to an introductory page which introduces the comic and then gives you the option of jumping into the current story or any of the previous ones. Ragni uses version 1.5 which is fine for it, the site opens with the first page, which makes sense, being a completed work a visitor is most likely going to just read it through start to finish.

So there you have it, that felt pretty boring for these wonderfully illustrated stories but of course we are just looking at site design and function here in regards to the ComicPress theme. I think there were a few unique approaches taken and perhaps a couple other things you might be able to take away as useful. Regardless, if you love comics I certainly recommend heading over to Transmission X and checking out the work of some very talented professionals in the comic industry.