Please review my Comics Blog

Hey dude, this is one awesome blog! What I really like about your homepage is that you have used vintage comic pictures. That really nice.

But I think you have a lot of images to load and it takes a long time compared to other blogs. Sure I'll keep coming back.

Thanks Zeon for your review comment.  Load Time of Images is one concern I repeatedly get around from fellow visitors.  Since being a Comics/Graphic Novel related site, if I try to minimize them, then it's going to take the sheen of the uniqueness.  Any suggestions on streamlining the same ? I am always open to hear from you all.

Would be expecting your return and comments in there too.

Also will appreciate if others spend some precious time also over there and comment accordingly....  For quick reference to others, my site is : www.comicology.in

Enjoy Browsing & Blogging.

Thanks Sriharsha.  I did try making it as a 3 post sometime back, but it looks people are more eager to notice the blog posts which you have at the home page more regularly, than the ones at the archive... So I was missing out on a lot of comments back then.

But, now that the Blog is actually generating more hits, I might as well try that for sometime more.  Thanks for your review and suggestion, and I will let you know on the results after a test run.

By the way, if anyone had noticed I used the CSS SCripting to Hide part of my content, and only display the summary at the home page.  I initially thought that this will restrict the entire post from loading first-up.  But then realized that the content actually loads at the background, and only hidden to user's view with Scripting.

Is there a better way than this to show a Summary / Part Post at Homepage.  Anyone tried any different approach ?

Would be eager to hear on that, and also about the reviews from other IndiBlogger's.  I bet this is the community which is really helping out others, than the ones which are mere self advertisement let-outs.

nJoY Browsing & Blogging.

Hello Rafiq.You can use the reply  button below the commenter's name to reply to comments.cool feature isnt it ?

Since you are on Blogger, I cannot help you out but, like in WP, i guess it is possible to have a feature to just show only summaries on the home page. No additional CSS scripting required. check the settings. and while posting, make sure you add a page break (if it is available) for restricting the summary.

Yea thats a cool feature. Nice one Renie...

Sorry Rafiq, little outside your topic ;-)

Never mind.... as long as you leave some more comments on my blog :)

Just Noticed... just like the New Comment-O-Sphere spearheaded by Disqus, IntenseDebate, JS-Kit.........

Good Renie has taken care of it already :) But, what's missing is a Reply to Reply :)

@Rafiq - First of all, thanks for reviewing my blog. So it's my chance to put ur blog under the scanner now. Here are a few points that I would like to suggest:

1. I would want a welcome post listing all the major things ( with links) that a visitor can do on your blog.
2. The tagline of your blog gets hidden in your header images. I would want it to be made more obvious.
3. It is my personal perception that a white background makes reading easier. Or you can try a little lighter shade since images may not look as impressive on a white background.
4. I liked the way you have categorised your blog posts into featured blog post, best of 2008, and top posts.
5. And the way you have hooked ur readers with the “Next Comic Post” – I liked that too – you have ensured that readers return back to your blog again. 

Hope this was helpful. 

@Rahi: Thanks for return review... I appreciate your feedback... Now to the points.

1. I agree on the Welcome Post... I am planning to seperate the layout with an About Page Link, right on top....

2. I ain't a professional image geek, so had to use what was offered at Blogger.  But definitely, embossing the text on the header would be the next good thing to do.

3. I agree too.  I tried different color layouts, and zeroed in on Black Dossier, since that reflected the images to their best, as you have noted too.  I will try reducing the shade of the black, to make it more appealing..... Try-Out session ahead.

4 & 5. Thanks for the nice comment

I will update over here, once 1 & 2 are complete.... and 3 when I hit on the right color.  So that you could again pay a humble visit to look in for a re-review at my blog. :)

Once again, Thanks for the comprehensive review.

Dude !!

Your blog rocks !!

I have seen a lot of American Comic Blogs and sites , this is definitely a first and is a good quality blog .The content is great and engaging . But the overall color scheme is a bit distracting to a first time reader . Maybe you should ease up on the colors a little bit . Also the sidebar is heavily loaded when  scrolling , it kinda makes it a bit sluggish

Brilliant and laudable effort

~Shakthi

@Shakti: Thanks for your nice comment and the visit to my humble blog.

Colors: Yes I am trying various combinations, and will update here, once it works out well.

Sidebar: Yes, I have reduce some widgets, so it should load faster now.

Once again, thanks for your review comments.

And in return, I have added my comment over at your blog review.

nJoY Browsing & Blogging.

Rafiq, first of all, that's a wonderful blog idea you have there. You are obviously very interested in the topic, and I am sure there are many others who are - after all, comic books have been a part of everyone's growing years:)

Now about your blog, I think you have done a great job making it as "light" as possible to load, and the black background is perfect to show off cartoons.

I love that you include so much information on each series, and especially liked the stuff on Unlce Pai. :)

What you could improve - there is a lot of "noise" at the bottom of the page. You could perhaps streamline it - at first glance it is very confusing and seems like an overload of banners and text.

Otherwise, awesome blog!:)

@Sharon & Rekha: Thanks for your vist and valuable review comment.

The bottom of the page was my JunkYard, where I kept throwing all those widgets which I didn't want to be seen by the users first-up.  But, they were a high source of traffic genertors, so couldn't remove them either.  But taking you call, I reassesed them and removed the unnecessary ones to clear the clutter.  Please do visit back and let me know if you find it needs to be streamlined further.

By the way, good to know another lover of Black Dossier Look.  It might be little too much on color, but once you start reading and exploring, people would appreciate that a Comic Blog with Images deserves that color layout.  Thanks for reminding me of that.

In return, since I couldn't find any post with your blog review @ Indiblogger... I visited and commented at your latest post.

nJoY Sharing and Blogging.  Cheers !!!