ComicShout

Johnathan Bigelow, the creator of the long running web comic “A Rusty Life“, recently contacted me to discuss switching his current comic publishing system over to ComicShout. Had I known then that “A Rusty Life” had almost 200 issues I would’ve been a lot more nervous about Johnathan making the switch (and would have written him a batch import function). Mr. Bigelow tested a beta version of ComicShout version 2.5 for about a week and made a number of really helpful suggestions. After a week or so version 2.5 was released and “A Rusty Life” re-launched running a fresh install of ComicShout. Head over to A Rusty Life to check out Johnathan’s work, subscribe to the new RSS feed and send him your thoughts through the new commenting system.

As my “real” job slows down for the holidays I am going to be making a free theme of two for ComicShout. Since version 2.5 of the free php web comic script was released I have gotten a lot of great feedback concerning ComicSout’s flexibility and ease of setup. I think its really import to show how flexible this php web comic script really is and there is no better way than by releasing a few very custom (and very free) themes (ok the only better way would be making a bunch of youtube videos showing how to make your own theme). I should also note there are a few other people working on some custom themes for the php web comic script and they look really good. Thanks to everyone who left comments or sent an email about the release of ComicShout version 2.5. I am really encouraged to find so many people using and enjoying my web comic script.

ComicShout version 2.5 is now ready for download and use. This version of the free php web comic and news publishing script is offered as an upgrade to version 2.0. If you are not currently using ComicShout or are using version 1.x install version 2 and then upgrade to version 2.5. This new version of ComicShout fixes several small bugs and annoyances, makes the script more compatible with various hosting methods and adds several new features. In version 2.5 online web comic publishers can now choose to have comments automatically approved or to have them held for moderation. In addition, comic strip publishers can now be notified by email when a new comment is posted on their ComicShout web comic blog. The way the header.php and footer.php files are included in the theming system was updated (I won’t bore you with the details) and two new themes (the standard and a “dark”) were added which illustrate this new method (old themes still work just fine with 2.5). Thanks to everyone who tested the upgrade of this script.

It’s only been two weeks since ComicShout version 2 came out but already I have a new version almost ready for download.  ComicShout version 2.5 fixes a few bugs, increases login security, enables wider support for people using non-standard apache or php.ini installs and introduces a few new features.  ComicShout users will now be able to choose whether they want comments to be automatically or manually approved.  Additionally, comic strip creators using ComicShout can choose to be notified by email any time a comment is posted on one of their comics.  Lastly, themes no longer require that the header.php and footer.php be “included” in each of the theme’s files.ComicShout will automatically include the header and footer if they exist. Don’t worry, old themes which do include the header and footer still work just fine with ComicShout 2.5.  A new “dark” theme is included in version 2.5. I want to give a big thanks to everyone supporting this open source php web comic publishing script.