jmac's ComicsML Resource Page
Here is my growing collection of stuff pertaining to ComicsML, a proposed XML-based markup language for digital comics.
In a nutshell, ComicsML attempts to give online comics a way to describe their own content, and in so doing expand their visibility, flexibility, and accessibility in a number of ways.
The current version of the ComicsML standard is 0.2.
Current status of all of this
As I write this section of the page, in mid 2006, it has been many years since I have had the time or interest to pursue ComicsML any further. (I have more or less hung up my comics hat in order to pursue the study of putting strange games onto computers.)
I consider the architecture described here free to the world. Share and enjoy. Build and improve. If you end up doing something cool with ComicsML, let me know about it, and I would appreciate it if you would give me some credit as well.
Years-old stuff follows...
Documentation
- My essay about ComicsML, how it's used, and why it's cool. Includes a chatty example document.
- The ComicsML DTD, as well as a hyperlinked version, prepared by LiveDTD.
- My formal ComicsML documentation.
Software
- Dave Horlick has created the very impressive Renoberator for Mac OS X. It's a comics composition tool that uses ComicsML!
- I have written XML::ComicsML, a Perl module for creating, writing, and parsing ComicsML files. I've yet to actually do anything very interesting with it, heh. But this will come. I've its documentation online (they are also, of course, attached to the module itself as well), and any Perl hackers may try it out if they wish; you'll need XML::Parser and XML::Writer, both of which may be obtained from CPAN. I consider the package to lie in a pre-beta state at this time. Warning: may be variously insane.
Tangents
Things elsewhere on the Web that collide comics with XML in other ways...
- Byron F. Martin has a Dilbert Strip Finder with an XML backend that uses its own variety of markup.
- Toonbots, by Michael Roberts, also has a way of fully describing (and generating) comics in XML, albeit just one comic. One very strange comic. See especially his intriguing use of SVG.
Suggestions for more links are welcome.