As somebody who hates designing websites (and sucks at it), there’s an amazing amount of kindness and generosity out there if you’re using CP. I’d nominate Frumph (Neo) for a Nobel Prize, but I’m not sure which category.

I just want to draw and write comics. A cool site to go with the comic is a nice bonus, but not the main event. The most basic Comic Press site is just dandy and the customized ones look fantastic. You can upgrade that Focus to a Ford GT (a cool $300,000 sport car) if you want.

Also, the Ford Escort is a good car! The design reasonably appealing, there’s plenty of space, and the engine’s pretty reliable. It’s a good metaphor for Comicpress.

Anyway, the Oh Brother! site looks good to me: good clean functional layout, comic prominently displayed on the front page (as it should be), colourful – but not distracting – surrounds that mesh well with the look of the comic, easy navigation (and those are some nicely designed navigation buttons which nobody has said anything about, so good job Bob), and there are a couple of games and stuff in the extras.

Man, you professional guys sure do bitch a lot.

Recommended books:

“PHP And MySQL 5″ by Larry Ullman

“HTML, XHTML and CSS” by Elizabeth Castro

ComicPress is a WordPress template. There are a lot of templates for WordPress, both paid and free. Find one that is close to what you want and then modify it to meet your needs.

While the design of the Oh, Brother! website is simplistic, it matches so nicely with the style of the comic itself…It is a great wrapper for the present inside. I agree with Tom Dell’Aringa that there are some beautiful WP/CP sites out there that have a comic that isn’t so good. I have seen my share where I was mesmerized by the design of the site only to be disappointed in the comic and not returned. I have also bookmarked several comics I enjoy going back to again and again to read and all they have is the generic wrapper of WP/CP.

I wish Bob & Jay the best of luck with their comic and hope it works as the hybrid site it is meant to be. To see a crossover syndicated strip that can also be a successful webcomic (like Dog Eat Doug by Brian Anderson) is a joy for all of us plugging away at our craft. It’s the brass ring we all strive to obtain.

Obviously, weneed some sort of navigation system, to give the readers the opportunity to read comic strips, one strip at a time.

The WP/CP combo gives us that.

Ok, yes the WP/CP is being used a lot, and as many said above is true, if you know CSS well (or know someone that does) there’s a way to customize the them to make the sit look like your own.

Did you think one second about webcomic readers? Oh Brother are trying to reach to Webcomic Readers and that is awesome.

Removing that navigation button from a webcomic is like cutting your both hands and being asked to read an old comic book printed old school.

I’ve seen some other attempts, like a flash player with a comic integrated in it. But you can mark a page, etc..

I’m sorry Alan, but your post is nothing more than a non-constructive blurb. Bring me a website that is innovative for comic, then I’ll judge. Until then, Worpress/Comicpress it is.

If you’re talking webcomicscommunity.com that is just basically a forum, isn’t stating that being a little bit over zealous?

A standard cookie cutter forum? That looks like every other forum out there?

No offense, just wondering about the community and possibly being active in it, however if it’s just a forum then that’s really just a forum isn’t it?

Or where is it if that isn’t it? I could offer some special discounts for child themes for CP 3.0 to you to offer to your community.

- Phil

fyi, making a point, would you really feel like using a forum that wasn’t easily recognizable for the end user to feel comfortable with using.

Nobody every complained about newspaper comic pages all being the same. Customization is cool when you see sites that do it well. But in the end it’s the COMIC that matters. I’ve seen some pretty hip ComicPress designs, but the comic wasn’t really any good. So I never went back.

I’ve also seen some very bland ComicPress sites – but the comic is great – and I keep coming back for more.

In this case, the site is well designed. It should appeal to the target audience, and the comic looks great. I think it has a shot at doing well.

But I also agree that all-ages stuff is tough online. I’m in that space, and frankly, 90% of my readers (or more) are adults. As a parent, I can’t let my younger kids sit there and surf around for webcomics, because there’s way too much troublesome stuff they can find. I suspect most parents are the same – they monitor their kids internet time. So it’s hard for kids online to find stuff like that unless directed by a parent, and, well that just doesn’t seem to happen.

The kids that read my strip have learned about it via word of mouth, or homeschool networking or they’re family and friends. None have found me via the web.

I think the people who have suggested that a syndicate just taking a step out like this is in a sense innovative for them are right. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Best of luck.