Fallen Kitten

Printing Walking the Lethe Volume 1: A Look at the Cover

Amanda — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:51:55 +0000

Our cover illustration for Walking the Lethe Volume 1 is complete and the files off to the printer for the creation of the proof copy prior to our final print run. This is exciting, so today I share with you the cover illustration and the elements we added to make it into a proper cover. The illustration was completed by Chris Dozier of http://radcore.us and I used Photoshop to create the rest of the cover elements.

Preorders for Volume 1 are still open until September 15th. If you’d like to order a copy of the book, please visit us at http://walkingthelethe.com.

The Effective Use of the Text Widget

Amanda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:00:00 +0000

The Text Widget box is a built-in, reusable widget for WordPress in which you can use HTML and Javascript, as well as plain text. Highly versatile, I use them frequently to place links, create customized announcement boxes, and easily place code for feeding ads from all sorts of services. Like all other widgets, they are easy to use as well; just a simple drag-and-drop on the Widget page of your admin section. Here are three ways you can use can make the most of the Text Widget:

1. Placing Ads

The text widget can be a convenient way to place ads in your sidebars. Simply cut & paste the provided code into a text widgets that you’ve placed into a sidebar. You can add a header or title if desired, but it is not necessary. Just hit “save” and refresh to see the results.

I like to use widgetized spaces for an ad in the header. The space can be sized and positioned via CSS and then the website owner can change their ads code without entering the PHP files.

2. Using a Table

Tables are not a good way to layout an entire website, but they are still effective ways to organize a small section. Since the text widget take HTML you can wet up a simple table like the one below to display small buttons side-by-side.

You can include some inline CSS if desired, but if an element has already been declared in your main CSS file, it will be overwritten.

3. Customize the CSS for a Single Widget

In the previous suggestion, we built a table inside our text widget. Now you may want to customize the CSS further (to remove the borders for example). To do this, you’ll need to create some rules in your CSS file for just this text widget.

First you need to figure out the unique Id of your widget. “View Source” in your browser and find your widget. I like to write something unlikely in the widget like “elephant monkeys” to make it easier to find. Then find the beginning of the widget where the Div is. There will be a Id titled “text-xx” where xx is a number. That’s the unique Id of your widget.

Once you know the Id name, pop open your CSS file and create a new section. The # symbol stands for Id. You can now edit the appearance of just this widget.

When you’re finished making changes, save your file and refresh your website to view your handiwork. Now so long as you don’t delete this widget you can change the contents in the WordPress admin section and still use your specialized code.

If you need help with writing HTML and CSS, check out W3Schools for more information.

Printing Walking the Lethe: Setting Up InDesign

Amanda — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Video two of Printing Walking the Lethe is all about how I set up our manuscript in InDesign. I talk about opening a new document, how to use Master pages, placing text and images, and saving the file as a PDF. The result will, we hope, be a handsome looking book. InDesign was a little tricky to get started in, but as soon as I got the feel for it, it was a pretty comfortable program. I’d recommend it to anyone who needs to layout a book.

Walking the Lethe Volume 1 is still available for preorder for 15 euros +S/H. Check out the full deal at Walking the Lethe.

This video needs a transcript. Want to help? Drop me a line.

Launch of Flying Sparks

Amanda — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:00:00 +0000

I’m please to announce the launch of Flying Sparks, a brand-spanking new superhero webcomic and love story rolled into one. It’s creator, Otomo, contacted me to design and implement his website and thanks to some strong art from his artist, we came up with something I’m very pleased with.

Homepage for Flying Spark featuring the artist's cityscape. (click to enlarge)

Comics page features both side & bottom navigation. (click to enlarge

This website is a moderately modified child theme for Inkblot 3.0 and uses the Webcomic 3.0 plugin for WordPress. The design is built around the cityscape background with the addition of ribbon like features the color of our heroes cape. The site has been designed to present the comic on a secondary page because Otomo has a bonanza of multimedia ideas planned. You’ll want to stay tuned.

Otomo is also the author of True Believer Reviews, a comic review blog, and Comics Related, a site about all things comic-y. Be sure to go give his new webcomic some love and check out his other online work.

Printing Walking the Lethe: Picking Pages

Amanda — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

We are currently going through the exciting process of compiling our first volume of Walking the Lethe, consisting of the first 4 chapters of our story. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work, so I thought I’d share some of those steps with you. Today, a brief discussion of the types of pages common to graphic novels, both professional and independently printed.

Naturally I also wish to encourage you to preorder our book so I get to have fun putting together volume 2 as well in a year.

This video needs a transcript. Want to help? Drop me a line.

Copyleft Comics: Mimi and Eunice

Amanda — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:14:09 +0000

One of my other hats is as a copyright researcher, so when I ran across this little crossover gem in my RSS feed, I thought I’d share. Mimi & Eunice is a copyleft comic, both in licensing and content. Essentially, rather than completely reserving her copyright, the author has decided to license the content to allow as wide as use as possible while still maintaining credit for her work. The content of the strip pokes fun as the problems with current copyright, trademark, and IP law (as well as religion and the human condition).

Mimi & Eunice is a bit heavy handed at times (and would look nicer with some Previous/Next buttons), but the characters are cute, so I’m willing to forgive them. Plus I can embed the comics here for your entertainment, which is always fun. I found this little sequence an amusing take on a webcomic humor mainstay: the poop joke.

Mimi & Eunice is copyleft(ed) via CC-BY-SA and is drawn by Nina Paley.

PreOrder for Walking the Lethe Volume 1 Open

Amanda — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:02:37 +0000

Walking the Lethe Vol. 1, our first soft cover book covering chapters 1 – 4 is coming soon and we want to put it in your hands by mid-November. We’re really excited about this book. The content is all complete, but the entirety of chapter 4 won’t be released online by the time the books are printed, you’ll get some exclusive character development sketches in the back, and footnotes written by the author. A very good friend and talented illustrator is working up a cover as we speak, so watch for that.

Since we need to have to book for the London MCM Expo, we’re running a pre-order now so you can be sure to get your copy. So, for 15 Euros + S/H now, we’ll send you the book plus these fun extras:

The book is signed by Dan Potter (the author).
You can ask Astria a single question and she will answer you on a personalized postcard.
A free month of access to the Walking the Lethe Supporter Site.
Access to this month’s Supporter Wallpaper.

So for 15 euro plus shipping and handling you get a signed book, you get to ask Astria any question you want and a free month access to the supporter site with all the donation wallpapers. Not bad for 15 euros. Visit our detailed post for more information and to order.

Once the pre-order is over, the price will be increasing so please order now. Just swing by Walking the Lethe and click on the appropriate PayPal Pre-Order button for your region.

Thank you all for supporting Walking the Lethe.

Tips & Tools for the iPad Friendly Website

Amanda — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:00:33 +0000

A client recently pointed out that Sweet & Sour Grapes looks pretty good on the iPad, and got me thinking about making future sites attractive on that platform as well as typical browsers. With it’s high resolution and rotating screen, many webcomic sites already look decent on the iPad without any changes. For those of us not ready to create iPad apps for our comics, check out these tips to make your site “iPad Friendly”.

If you (like me) don’t have an iPad, you can try iPad Peek to get an impression of how your site looks in both portriat and landscape orientation. (If anyone out there wants to share how accurate this is, I’d love your input.)
The iPad resolution is 1024 by 768, with the ability to rotate and adjust display of your site on the fly. Consider flexible designs and look into using orientation CSS.
Touching and tapping requires cleaner designs with more white space. Avoid cramming too many small links into one spot. Plus your hover effects will not show up (much) on a touchscreen. Make those links clear.
The iPad does not support Flash, so if you want your comic readable I recommend taking it out of any flash browser you’re using. There are many quality content management systems without flash displays you can try and you can also check out jQuery and HTML5 for some functions.

Comics Specific Thoughts

Webcomics are, of course, all about reading the comic. Readers will probably want to read long form comics in the portrait format. Try to keep the navigation close to the comic and large enough that readers can “flip” through the comic without scrolling.

Since the iPad browser is so good, you probably don’t need a dedicated app for your comic, but if you do create one you can certainly make the experience more like reading a book (or whatever semi-intuitive object you prefer).

More Tools & Tips

Since I haven’t had hands-on experience with the iPad yet, check out these larger list for more information: 40 iPad tools, tips for designers (Garmahis)

Gravatars or Battling the Mystery Men

Amanda — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

<–Wordpress mystery men

So you’ve commented on someone’s website and go back to read a few more comments. Suddenly you realize you’re just a faceless mystery man avatar in a crowd of recognizable faces, and on the Internet, your avatar is how people recognize you as you. How can we overcome that disconcerting anonymity? Set up a Gravatar.

Here’s How:

1) Go to http://gravatar.com.

2) Click Sign Up and enter your email address.

3) After confirming your email, upload a gravatar image to associate with it.

4) Add other emails and images if desired. You can keep them on the same account.

Why Bother?

"Me"

Brought to you by the folks at Automattic (the same people behind WordPress), Gravatar’s have become a global avatar standard that many blogging systems can tap into. By having a Gravatar set up, you don’t have to upload your avatar image in as many place and when you visit a site based on WordPress, your image will come up on comments without you registering for every single site. Neat huh?

More generally, a consistent avatar across websites can help you build your brand by presenting a single image of who you are. People can respond mentally faster to a picture than a name, so you’ll register with them as someone they know and, hopefully, as someone who knows what they’re talking about.

If you have several brands to promote, that can be easily handled as well. Each gravatar is associated with an email address. To present a different face, just change the email you use. Or swap the image on your gravatar account.

So go out there and battle your own mystery men (or women) and get a unique image up that represents You.

A Blogging Challenge Plea

Amanda — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:32:32 +0000

As you know I’ve been working on the Problogger 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. Today’s challenge is a reader “Call to Action”, but Day 17′s challenge was to watch a first time user read my blog. Since I haven’t done Day 17 yet, I’m going to combine the two. This is a plea, to you good reader, to visit my other blog and give me some feedback.

Please visit Maastricht Minutiae and just surf around a bit, noting anything you like or don’t like, as well as anything you can’t find that you’d expect to find. Here are a few ideas of things to look at:

Content itself.
Do you find the categories helpful?
How easy it is to browse or search for a subject?
How do you like the design?
Etc.

Then send me an email with your comments. I will post a thank you post later with the names and urls of everyone who helped me out.

A Bit about Maastricht Minutiae

Maastricht Minutiae is my personal and informational blog about the adventures and realities of expat life in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Almost anything is fair game, but I often write about places in Maastricht, traveling the area, coping with expat paperwork, local food, etc.