New Site Layout

[Allroses]

I am so happy to have something new to look at. This looks like such an improvement over the old one. Things may change around slightly as I finalize how I want things laid out.

Artistically, I was trying to go for a gothicy/iron work kind of look with most of the stuff here. It felt like it would be very appropriate to a vampire based romantic comic from the medieval era.

Highlights to this update include:
New art all around, both fanart, and things that I've drawn, and a few things from Cait that I just had neglected to add. So most of our stuff isn't new, but maybe it's new to you.
Gallery layouts. All art galleries are now made with the javascript litebox application. This means you can now click an image and scroll through the rest of the images by clicking on either side to go forward, or back. You hit the X button, and the application closes! It's so much better! If nothing shows up when you click things, you either don't have javascript enabled, or your firewall is retarded and you must temporarily disable it to be able to view things (like mine).

Fanfictions have been added, 2 of them! A third one is coming once the authoress finds it (she wrote it awhile ago). They are located in the gallery section under all the fanart.

A small news box for when I have general non-page related info which is temporary and would make little sense to anyone reading archives!

New links to comics I read, and new banners to link to me.

Things I am uncertain about:
I would like to divide up the cast page, possibly into major or minor/dead characters. I feel like it's getting long. Does anyone else feel this way?

I'm also uncertain about the darker swirls on the side buttons. Are they too dark? Do they obscure the words? Are they legible?

Finally, I'm not sure how I feel about the comment columns being so narrow. Because of the way the comment files are set up (and I'm not going back and changing all 450 of them), they have to be located within the same table cell as the comic. This means, for this layout, they are limited to the width of that background image. I couldn't make it any wider, because I was trying to restrict the width of the overall page so that the 1/3 of people who view this site at 1025 would not have to scroll sideways to see the comic. I'm aware that the entire layout is just shy of fitting on your monitors, but you aren't missing any content there and the comic is fully viewable, so you'll have to live with it. If you feel that the comments are too narrow, I could always move the buttons north, under the banner, leaving the text free to expand.

I am also going to add into the links page a section for friends or affiliates or people I'm fond of or something like that. But that's not a concern, just not done yet. = )

Feel free to forum post or e-mail your opinions on the layout, and let me know if you see things that don't work. = ) And especially about the things I am still uncertain about, whether you think they are good or bad ideas. And I know that a whole bunch of you have forum accounts from the contest, so I want to see you use them, dammit!

[Surreal]

<3 the new layout. It's brilliant!

[Nuraeariel]

Oh! *claps her hands rapidly in a happy manner* It's so beautiful!! Good job, Anne!! *_*

[Nra40]

I love it, it's so preeeety...

[VampireHunterB]

I agree with the comments upthread, it looks really great and is a major improvement. The wrought iron look works very well, but the thing I love most is the little Colly in the top corner.

As far as the side buttons go, I think the swirl pattern is a bit irritating, but really only a bit - I do think, however, that it has less to do with the swirls being to dark, but more with them forming a pattern across all of the buttons. It draws the eye into following the pattern, rather than perceiving the individual buttons and the text on them...I think...

Concerning the cast page, I wouldn't say it's too long, but it might be worthwhile to re-shuffle it a bit, so that the currently more central characters are at the top - the ones a new reader would look for information on first, because they are currently active in the plot.

[Allroses]

The page thing sounds like a good idea . . . but my excessive laziness may inhibit me from appropriately switching it around every time there's a new scene/chapter. I have a hard enough time updating the archive page. But we'll see, I shall contemplate it.

And the swirl pattern is staying. It's Cait's favorite part, you see. ^_^;;

Thank you for constructive comments! (not that "It's great" isn't reassuring and self-esteem bolstering!)

[Kaeven]

I agree with what everyone said above, so I'll just add that I LOVE reading character info. xD I'm not sure why, but I really do. So I don't think it's too long, but I think dividing them into different character "categories" is probably a good idea in any case ^_^'