Update Site Design?

[Tystarr]

I'm seriously considering re-creating Twisted Comix's website but in the process of making the new layout I realized I might be building another site I'll just take down after a few months meaning me wasting precious time I could have spent making a proper design. So I'm asking you guys out there for a little help.
Can you please take a look at my site and tell me what you don't like about it and what you think I may to change?
Please be harsh as possible cause my friends and family have already told me everything they love about the site but I need some raw and honest critique. I was going to post the layout I'm doing at the moment but most likely I'll just scrap it.

A few ideas I had in mind..
-Make comics 800 px wide
-Darker page bg
-Less graphic intensive
-smaller text
-more ads
-more emphasis on comic..

And a bunch of more lil ideas I haven't fully fleshed out because I need your help. Got any comments?

[Joel Fagin]

You've pretty much nailed it, I think. However, it's also very cramped, cluttered and makes the adverts stand out too much compared with teh title and comic. Also, there's this...

In web design, everything should line up on both sides with at least one other element vertically. On your site, nothing does. The title box doesn't line up with anything anywhere else. Neither does the ad banner, the comic, the newspost, the tagboard, the little bookmark bar-thing or the side advert. Even the button bar is slightly off centre with the banner advert above it and the webpage's footer is slightly wider than the entire rest of the webpage. It all seems haphazard and jumbled.

A simple example would be to move the bookmark button bar thing on top of the tag board. They'd then both line up and lend some geometry to the page. That wouldn't be enough, of course, but it's an example.

- Joel Fagin

[Tystarr]

I felt it was cluttered and messy and that was the main reason I planned to redesign the page. I designed this site much differently than I'm used to. Instead of creating a whole layout in Photoshop then slicing it up as needed I created the site's graphics in pieces and placed everything just using Css as I went along. I'm sure this way of working can turn out great results but it was my first attempt and I kind of failed horribly.. Well at least the site CSS is valid.

I also wanted to ask if it was possible to make a Comic genesis page with valid XHTML. I tried but it just wasn't working for me. Any way around this problem?

[Joel Fagin]

I also wanted to ask if it was possible to make a Comic genesis page with valid XHTML. I tried but it just wasn't working for me. Any way around this problem?

Depends what the problem is. I've not had any trouble.

And Photoshop is a better way of designing webpages.

- Joel Fagin

[Tystarr]

I used Photoshop but I didn't create the layout in one file. I created each graphic in a different file then pieced them together. Not a very good idea..

[GeorgeComics]

I just updated my site, George, using WordPress/ComicPress. I really love it; it's fantastic. It's something to think about using if you're going to give your site an overhaul.

[Tystarr]

I would but Comic Gen doesnt support php.