Creating Comics Online With the Launch of Comiqs.com Beta Edition

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Comiqs.com has just been relaunched as the Comiqs.com Beta Edition, replete with a lot of new features and fixing a number of bugs. The founders of the service have extended the invitation to test the Beta Edition to the general public.

Comiqs.com has just been relaunched as the Comiqs.com Beta Edition, replete with a lot of new features and fixing a number of bugs. Though this service has been the subject of intense commentary and speculation from Internet bloggers, entrepreneurs and Internet industry experts looking for the web's next big thing, the founders of the service have extended the invitation to test the Beta Edition to the general public.

For a large number of people, the Internet has always been associated with revolutionizing the way people communicate with each other. When we think of traditional means of communication such as postal mail and how applying the basics of this model of communication through the Internet gives us e-mail technology, the possibilities seem endless. Traditional photo albums become photo sharing websites, diaries and journals become blogs, video collections become YouTube, traditional newspapers become online news networks, and every new day we see old technology adapted via the Internet in newer and more efficient means of communication for the world we live in today.

Michael Lim, Bob Wang and Jairus Lee are no strangers to this analogy, it is based on this idea of revolutionizing traditional communicative media through adaptation for the Internet that these three founded the service now known as Comiqs.com. Comiqs.com is a service that takes a basic idea: comics as a means of expression and adapts this idea into a media tool which can be used via the Internet. Simply put, what Comiqs.com provides is a means for ordinary users with no experience in graphic design, to create their own comics and cartoon strips and use them to share their stories, ideas or whatever they wish to communicate to others. The new Beta Edition was launched to address previous issues with the first edition.

Anyone can use ordinary photos that they have on their computer or from a photo-sharing website like Flickr to create a comic, Comiqs.com provides the needed tools such as speech bubbles of different kinds and shapes, frames and fonts which can be easily customized and a number of other useful additions. All a user has to do is drag and drop these tools as they are needed to make their comic. The new Beta Edition comes with a lot of fixes for bugs and allows users do more with new tools. The design of the Beta Edition has been streamlined to meet up with Web 2.0 requirements and the site loads a whole lot faster despite the increased number of users making use of the service.

Save and edit functions have been added to the Beta Edition in order to help users have better editing options for their comics as they create them such as the option the save the comic as a draft. The Comiqs viewer has also been improved with a sleeker user interface for improved user experience. The completed comic can be displayed anywhere, finished work can be published on social networks, via the Comiqs online community or even on blogs. Bloggers are one community of users taking advantage of the service and incorporating it as a new medium of communication along with video and other forms of media which make up the concept of Web 2.0.

The invitation to the general public to enjoy the Beta Edition comes at the crest of wave of commendations from Internet experts and members of the entrepreneurial community, watching the progress of the service. Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, has already called Comiqs.com "Fun and Clever" on web service Twitter.com. Comiqs.com Beta Edition has also been the subject of features on KillerStartups.com and LockerGnome.com, which list outstanding new ideas on the Internet.

New users are making ample use of the service and a large number have acknowledged it as addictive and exciting. Examples of their work are clearly evident on the site, from a comic strip of a wedding to a guide on how to care for pets.