Crit my layout?

[Dranxis]

I have zero html skills, so the layout itself is just a basic template for now. What I'd really like to know is whether or not the banner at the top of the page and the background are ugly. I was going for a collage-sort of thing and think I might have overdone it.

[Hereville]

In my opinion, it is too much. I think it's a nice idea, but the background design should be much subtler -- something that readers notice after they've looked at the page a while, rather than the first thing that pops out at viewers when they view the page. The same design with much less color contrast would work better.

[Boozeathon4billion]

I think it looks pretty good. However, I have a large, widescreen monitor, so I'm not sure how it would look on a smaller monitor with such a large header. That takes up a lot of space which could be used for grabbing a visitors attention right off the bat.

Also, I am an advocate of comic sites having the comic on the actual front page so that when people take the time to check out their site they have no extra clicking to do in order to see the stuff they came there for. On my site that meant I put the news under the comic. For other sites it means the news is a totally separate page. Just something to think about... your site is there for the purpose of your comic: not so people can read what you're doing to the site and the comic which is somewhere else on the page.

Otherwise I think it looks pretty good.

[Dranxis]

Thankyou very much for the suggestions! I toned down the background quite a bit, and made the banner less tall. I would really like to have the latest page featured on the home page, but I'm not sure if the template will let me do that easily. (I use smackjeeves). But I'll see what I can do about it.

[Boozeathon4billion]

I like the changes a lot. Good work.

And I understand about the frontpage issue. Just make sure the comic link stands out or is clearly visible and above the fold (which it is).

[Hereville]

It looks much better now, imho.

[Paradox]

I think its quite a nice layout, quite neat and ordered, but I do agree that generally the first thing people want to see when they go to your comic's site is in fact your comic. If you're not able to put the latest comic on the front page due to the template you're using, maybe you could make the line of links, ie Home | Latest Comic | etc, a bit bigger? I find that they seem to get a little bit lost between the two big slabs that are your header and the white below it, like I see them, but only if I'm looking for them because my eyes tend to get drawn to the larger stuff.

From what I've seen of your art you're a damn good artist, so I hope you're able to get it all sorted out, because it would be a shame not to immediately show off your talent.