Frumph.NET

It has been 6 years since Tyler Martin created ComicPress.   The soul original purpose was for him to create a site for his comic that was easily manipulated in the way that he wanted it to be.    He then offered to make other peoples comics using his theme and offered it up to the public.

When I got on board to add features to ComicPress it was primarily to add features that other webcomic authors when I design their sites could utilize.   Pretty much for Tyler and Myself to have those options available for the stuff we were doing.   Yet releasing them and making them available.

There isn’t another theme available that allows so much control with the single limitation of the comics are not attached to the post, it goes and find the available comic for the post by the date of the post.    We kept this method throughout every update of ComicPress for several reasons, backward compatibility mainly for those users who were already using ComicPress and the support with John Bintz’s ComicPress Manager.

John Bintz has recently moved on and is no longer supporting ComicPress Manager.   The things we’ve wanted to do to change the way it works just didn’t happen, save for the simple bug fixes.   Frankly, he’s just not interested in working with WordPress in this way and has found a different pasture to graze in.

Where does that leave ComicPress?  That leaves us out in the cold for the old-method of file directory search for comic based on the date of the post.    The implementation of this is simply outdated and not conducive to the WordPress framework anymore.    Since WordPress 2.9.2 we have been moving on to use Post-Types, we started this before anyone else even thought of the idea of using it and have been talking/discussing with the WordPress dev’s on methodology and process the whole time, not only to make ComicPress function in the new post-types but making post-types work for this sort of application/use for WordPress 3.0.  In CP >= 3.0 Comics are attached to posts, which means unlimited comics per day, etc.. etc.

What now?   I am going to release one final ComicPress 2.9 line, with the ComicPress 2.9.2 release to coincide with the version number of WordPress it works with.   From here on there will be no more additions / fixes / modifications to the code, save for bug fixes.   We will release ComicPress 2.9.2 line now known as ComicPress Legacy when I have felt the bug reports have been reduced to nothing, from there, no more updates on ComicPress Legacy.

With the advent of ComicPress Legacy being dropped in working on additional features for we have in development *and working for the last several months now ComicPress Premium.   ComicPress Premium is utilizes core WordPress functionality for attaching comics to post as it should be, meaning multiple comics per day, comics are attached to the post itself and more.   We have completely dropped ComicPress Manager out of the equation and it is no longer needed.   Many features that were in ComicPress – now known as ComicPress Legacy have been removed and can be replaced by plugins of the appropriate type.

To Recap.

The ComicPress 1.0 -> 2.9.2 series, now known as ComicPress Legacy will be defunct from any new features or additions, support will only be available on the comicpress.org forums and will remain Free.  No new updates past that, unless another developer would like to step in and take over this line.

ComicPress Premium, which is the >= 3.0 line will however, not be free and *not* be backward compatible with earlier versions of ComicPress, i.e. the ComicPress Legacy line.   There will be more information available after our beta testing phase has ended.

ComicPress Premium will only be available to those who purchase it from one of the developers.   That CP Developer will then support you and your site with it upon purchase.

ComicPress Legacy will still be available to the public, free as always.  No more feature implementations however and only updated to work with the latest version(s) of WordPress.

We have been and always will be the best way to have your webcomic on the net, no matter what the fanatics say.   The features are unbelievably robust and will continue to be so, nothing else compares, no matter how hard they try to steal or mimic the functionality.   We’re just moving up and scaling ComicPress to be more advanced then ever before.

Where does that leave me?  Frumph.

You won’t notice, I won’t be around anymore.  @Zerzix, Adam Kellogg http://www.kelloggskorner.com is the new lead Developer of ComicPress.  If anyone has been keeping up with the Jones they probably know why for health reasons I am limiting the work I do on ComicPress to designing sites for people and contract-support.  Adam’s taking over for me has been a God send.  He’s an incredible programmer and a super nice guy to boot.