How to build a modern Comic Website?

envelion 2021-02-05 02:41:19 UTC #1

Do you have a personal website for your comic? If so, what do you use? Did you build it yourself or pay someone to do it?

I'm having a really hard time finding a modern way to build a weekly updating comic page. Comic Press on Wordpress used to be okay, but it's not mobile friendly and doesn't play well with stuff like adding your own store.

Any suggestions are definitely appreciated.

boniae 2021-02-05 02:55:36 UTC #2

I use Toocheke for wordpress! It's very mobile friendly and has quite a bit of ways to customize your comic website, but it depends on what features you really want on your website so you'd have to see if Toocheke has everything that you need. If you'd like to see an example of how my website looks with it, here's mine--I tried to test the limits of what I could try to do with the theme because I'm very picky, haha. There's also a Toocheke showcase with different comics and how they use the theme.

gabriellabalagna 2021-02-05 03:46:25 UTC #3

I use comicpress/wordpress for my comic too.

I couldn't find anything better to use, so I ended up having to spend a month customizing the theme to work a lot better on mobile.

gabriellabalagna 2021-02-05 03:47:28 UTC #4

Your site turned out really nice. I've seen that theme and you did a great job customizing it.

BreakingChalk 2021-02-05 03:54:47 UTC #5

I use Wordpress for Shelter of the Chalk.

I wanted to post the comic there as well, but in the long run, I would need a lot of space for just the comics, and I want to post more lore stuff in the future that will take space as well.

So in the meantime, it serves as a place to link the comic on tapas, webtoons and social media, posts regarding the comic's development, personal stuff once in a while, and to give info about the characters and lore of the story.

mcarrowolga 2021-02-05 04:09:32 UTC #6

I'm a member of Spiderforest collective, so I use Propanda, their webcomic engine. It's neat.

Here's my site: http://giftscomic.com

I also like ComicFury customizable layouts.

Here are my CF sites:

http://icegifts.webcomic.ws/

kitschensyngk 2021-02-05 04:23:29 UTC #7

I just made my own website by teaching myself to use an old version of Dreamweaver and then transitioning to a slightly less old version of Microsoft Web Expression. I've considered upgrading to a newer HTML editor, but I'm holding out for something that will allow me to make my own site templates.

I thought about using WordPress to manage the archive, but I couldn't get it to work for me. Fortunately I found a JavaScript slideshow applet that pretty much does what I wanted it to do. I mainly joined Tapas and Webtoon to remaster old pages and build an audience; every remastered chapter and supplement I finish will be uploaded to the site.

https://nachosconcarne.com

gmaximin 2021-02-05 05:02:20 UTC #8

I use Wordpress with Ascend theme and various plugins. I actually tried different ways for my comics, one use a comic plugin ('Webcomic' but it doesn't work well with all themes):
-> Effy - The Living Efficiency
And the graphic novel uses a flip book plugin ('3D Flipbook') & a portfolio approach:
-> Stand(H)ard flip book
-> Stand(H)ard portfolio

For the shop, I use WooCommerce plugin, but mostly my wife’s clothing brand...
The only thing I paid for is hosting (i use HostGator, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend) and domain name, but then it took me quite some time at the beginning.

Tanako 2021-02-05 05:31:37 UTC #9

I use wordpress with Comic Easel
http://pleasurecomics.com

I do use the older plugin for my comics tho. but it works.

envelion 2021-02-07 00:02:03 UTC #10

Appreciate the replies from everyone. It's good to see that there are other options out there.
I'm trying to use Toocheke now, but it's definitely not set up right out the gate the way I'd like it to be. I'll keep messing around with it to see if I can get it to work like I want.

Tanako 2021-02-07 00:24:00 UTC #11

@envelion OMG im having so much issue with that. If you are able to get your content area to "align center", please let me know because i'm so close to pulling my hair our.

BlueDragon 2021-02-07 01:49:52 UTC #12

Man, everyone's comic pages look so professional! Very nice

I hope I can add something of value. I am not a person who knows how to code (very much), so when I started my site I used Wordpress and some scrapped coding from Comic Easel? (there may be some Comicpress stuff, too. but I can't remember). My partner works with Python and some other languages, so has an idea of how to html, but I wanted to do this mostly myself.

I've looked up coding online, and did searches for helpful plug-ins that I've added to my page myself (the shop, the side bar, the header, etc). While I'd rather pay someone to make mine look nice, I don't have the money and am stuck DIY. But you can find a lot of resources online if that's the case for you :3 I am proud to have learned a tiny bit of code, even if it is time consuming (and yeah, takes time away from working on my comic D:)

I also looked at the coding on my Comic Fury page to help me figure out how make boxes translucent, and how to add a "Save" and "Load" option on my page (which I find to be invaluable). But yeah, the point is the way I personally came to it, since we don't have the income to hire an actual designer, is to learn bits and pieces at a time myself (also designed my own repeating background to avoid copyright issues).

I dunno if any of that commentary is helpful D: I try, but I realize it's probably not the best advice.

http://www.crystallotuschronicles.com/