OMG TEH MATTHEW J COMICS!!!1!1oneone

[Matthew J]

First and foremost, I know it has been a while.  College, work, girlfriend, etc is taking it's toll on me.  It has been rough.

Second, and...  rearmost?...  I have my own webcomic now.  I know some people might think of this as promotion, which it may be, but I thought it was easier to send someone to my site than to try to post my art.  That and keenspace doesn't allow hotlinking.  At any rate, check out Teh Matthew J and let me know what youy think.  Site guestbook coming soon.  Also, I might get a forum.  We'll see.  Cheers.

[Andetus]

lol well i like it at any rate...

oh yea.... might wanna do something with the title image... cause, its background doesnt match up with the site background... actually on second look, most of the images are that way lol.... i dont know what your making them in, but if you can, make the background transparent [sp's]

[Rudeboy]

nice one bro

[Konflict]

The format really reminds me of Real Life Comics though, but nice stuff

[Matthew J]

might wanna do something with the title image... cause, its background doesnt match up with the site background... actually on second look, most of the images are that way lol.... i dont know what your making them in, but if you can, make the background transparent [sp's]

They are photoshop docs saved as .pngs.  they show up transparent in my browser (firefox).  can a few other's check this out and let me know what browser you are using and if the images have a transparent cell?

The format really reminds me of Real Life Comics though, but nice stuff

Real Life Comics, hmm?  I'll have to check that out.

Thanks for all the input guys!

[Dark Prism]

Looks fine to me.

Course, I use firefox...


Pretty cool.

[Matthew J]

I checked my site while i'm here at work (IE) and there is a crappy, dark blue (almost blue/green) cell around the image.  I really want a transparent background, but a .gif is too low of quality.  any suggestions?

[Firewalker]

Use experimental css transparent and gradient modes, other than that you're pretty much screwed on IE due to it's hatred of png.

Oh, just something about your comic, you might want to give them eyebrows, as it is your characters don't express the emotions you're trying to have them convey. For example http://tehmatthewj.keenspace.com/d/20041022.html

The guy says "HOLY SHIT" and yet he looks like he's seen it happen a million times. Either eyebrows or alter the eye sizes and shapes to help you out. Other than that, it looks pretty interesting I might add it to my rotation if more comics come out.

[Matthew J]

Eyebrows... check.  Consider it considered.  As for more comics, they will continure to come out on Tuesdays and Fridays.  I also have a nice little stack of MS Paint "Work Comics" that I can put up if I fall short on a day.  So, I guess I'll go work on my eyebrows and .pngs.

One final thing: how would I use CSS to alter gradients or transparencies?  I know a little about CSS, but I'm not familiar with this type of thing.

[Firewalker]

I can't honestly help you with the CSS thing, you might want to ask in the programming forum or something. I've seen it on sites though, and I know it works, but it's very selective... so yeah...

[Matthew J]

Well, at least I know what the problem is.  IE does NOT support the full .PNG specification, including the part about alpha transparency.  So, I guess we all have two options.

Option 1: Be stupid and use IE and see the crappy halo around the images.

Option 2: Be cool and go download FireFox and see the awesomeness that is my site.

All kidding aside, those using IE, that is what I use to use.  You should at least give Firefox (or even Mozilla) a try.  It is a great browser.

[Nismorack]

IE's lack of support is well known. However, if you want to actually get anywhere. Your site needs to be fully compatible with it. Since 90% of the people out there use it.

Solution. Don't use Alpha transparency. No matter how cool it looks. Just don't use it.

Also you may want to alter your stylesheet. Since I'm not seeing the navigation buttons in IE. I'm limited to the calendar to navigate the comic.
It loads all the images. Then it makes them all dissappear. So you might want to look into that.

[Matthew J]

I could drop the alpha trans. but then the images would look like crap.  Either way, it looks horrible.  As for sheets, I don't use them.  If they are in use, they are done as a result of the AutoKeen system that Keenspace.com uses.

Instead of accepting the problem, I think we should all just campain to get everyone off of IE when free progams like mozilla and firefox exist.

[Dadude---->Wex]

thats a very "Ethan"-like thought... u know from Ctrl-Alt-Del....

[Nismorack]

This is one of those things that apparently doesn't get through to a lot of people.

Sure Firefox is free, but so is IE. People aren't just going to replace their browser, when they already have a convenient browser integrated into their system.

The matter of alpha-transparency is known. And for that reason not really used in websites. If you don't make your site IE compatible, a lot of people are not going to see the site they way you intended.

So instead of 'dropping' the alpha transparency, you could try to change the buttons so they look good without the alpha transparency.