New Merch and Shop Now open!

Today the rest of our custom products are available, courtesy of Kodak.  Coffee mugs, coasters, playing cards, and photo-quality prints can now be made from any Bitstrip.  To create your own product, just use the same ‘merch’ button that you’d use to make a shirt, but select a different product when the product list opens.

Antother new feature today – our main shop is now open!  Inside you’ll find unique Bitstrips gear, plus special series of products created by some top Bitstrippers.  We’ll be adding more products and more Bitstrippers to the shop as time goes on.   Happy shopping!

Custom Merchandise is here!

We’ve just launched a great new feature on Bitstrips – now you can turn any shared comic or character into a high-resolution, high-quality, one-of-a-kind product!  We’re starting with custom clothes provided by Spreadshirt – try clicking the ‘merch’ button on any shared comic or character page, and you’ll discover their nifty shirt designer.  Choose your style, color, size, and even customize the layout of your shirt to create a unique gift – for yourself or for friends and family.  These shirts are very reasonably priced, great quality, and will be delivered to your door within a matter of days.

Of special note is the character shirt option – click the merch button on a character profile page, and you’ll be taken to a special builder, where you can pose your character and add a word balloon – outside the confines of the comic strip!  This makes for a great shirt design starring your favorite characters, or even your avatar!

And that’s just the beginning… very soon we’ll expand the service by including some great customizable products from Kodak – coffee mugs, coasters, playing cards and photo-prints.  The possibilities are endless… and just in time for the holidays!

Just think – you can save yourself the hassle of holiday shopping while supporting your favorite website by creating custom gifts for your whole family right here on Bitstrips!

Washington Post Cartoon Contest – Bitstripped!

While there’s 5 days left before the Presidential Election, you can vote RIGHT NOW on something almost as important – the Cartoon Contest at Michael Cavna’s Comic Riffs blog on washingtonpost.com!

Recently Michael started this contest to gather the best election strips from around the web – and of course, the Bitstrips community stepped up to the challenge – so much so, that ALL of the finalists are… Bitstrips!

We’d like to thank our community for their clever insight, creative powers and all-around moxie for taking over this contest.  And big thanks to Michael Cavna too, for showcasing our talented authors and giving props to Bitstrips.

Now – go to the Comic Riffs blog and VOTE for the winner – which will be posted next week once the dust settles.  Voting is open until election day!

Way to go Bitstrippers!

Bitstrips remembers Thag – Cancer Really Sucks

We are very saddened to report the recent passing of one of our favourite contributors, Thag (aka David Teetzel), after a long battle with cancer.  His great series, ‘Cancer Sucks’, offered a smart and humourous take on a very real and painful situation that all too many people are dealing with today.  We can only hope that the act of creating and sharing his comics, along with all the new friends he made here, brought him some comfort and relief during this difficult time.  His spirit lives on through his strips, which will hopefully continue to bring comfort to others dealing with similar struggles.

More details on the life of Thag can be found here:  http://www.georginaadvocate.com/News/SpecialStory/article/81716

Rest in peace.

Party Time!

While working on Bitstrips v1.2, we’ve been constantly amazed by the great work being produced by our community.  So, we decided to celebrate both at once, with our inaugural Launch Party and the Best of Bistrips Awards! You can vote now on your favorite finalists – only once in each category, but you can change your vote at any time.  Voting closes at midnight July 14!

The winners will be revealed at our Launch Party in Toronto on July 16.  For those of you who can’t make it in person, the party will be happening on Bitstrips.com at the same time, with the winners revealed via simul-strip-cast.  But if you are in or near Toronto, come on out to meet the staff and other bitstrippers, and have a great time!  You can find the details on our facebook page.

Welcome to the New Bitstrips

Welcome to 1.2 – our first major upgrade since our launch back in March.

Here’s what’s new on the site:

New design. Bitstrips is ready for prime time with a fresh look and improved navigation.
• New art!  Check the builder for new props, effects and scenery.  And new clothing will be released throughout the summer!
• Real Names. Find your friends easier by searching for their real names!  NOTICE: If you don’t want your real name to be visible, you can opt-out here.
The “Cartoon Cannon”.  Check page one for our revolutionary new tool – making comics has never been faster.
Kudos ratings – for all those strips that are amazing but not necessarily ha-ha funny.  Also suitable for strips that are both funny AND extra-awesome.
Default to Super-Builder – skip the Easy Comic Builder for faster loading – set it here.
Character Directory – check out the lastest and greatest stars of Bitstrips!

And if you haven’t been here in a while, here are some new features we’ve added since our launch:

• Scene Builder
• Improved Search w/tags
• Flagging/Content Filtering
• RSS feeds

And there’s still more to come for 1.2 this summer – next up is new clothing, which we’ll be adding regularly over the next few months! Expect new upgrades to the builders and more special features, coming soon.

Also keep an eye on our Development Blog for more detailed info on updates, fixes and upgrades as they happen!

Cancer sucks, Bitstrips Helps

Here’s an article by one of our members, Thag, about his experiences dealing with cancer and how Bitstrips has helped him to bring some light to an otherwise difficult situation.  We’re glad that Thag has found some relief through the site, and we wish him the best!

Bitstrips is Wired!

That’s right, we made it into this month’s Wired Magazine – playlist section. After running to your local magazine shop and picking up a copy, you can also check it out online here. If you take a magnifying glass to the image, you might even find yourself in there. Thanks Wired!!!

PS – digg it up!

New features this week

Howdy Bitstrippers – this week begins the 2nd awesrageous month of Bitstrips, and with it come a few new features.  All part of our endless quest to keep making Bitstrips better.

Check out the new Scene Builder, where you can pre-design detailed scenes to use in your comics.  Very useful for series with recurring locations.  We’re still ironing out some bugs and adding some features, but we wanted to get you started scene-building NOW, so consider this builder to be an early beta, with many improvements on the way (sharing scenes with friends, browsing scenes from your profile, and more…)

Speaking of Profiles, you may notice that your personal page is a bit more colorful this week.  The new profile BGs are just a taste of things to come, soon your space will be as customizable as a comic.

Meanwhile, we’ve implemented new filters and protocols regarding offensive content.  Now you can make your Bitstrips experience as squeaky-clean or as filthy as you like.  Check out our Development Blog for more details!

All in all, it’s a small update, to whet your appetites for the BIG one.  We are working away at Beta v1.2, coming your way soon…  More on that later.

Special Announcement

The big news is – Bitstrips has not been acquired by anyone! The site remains an entirely independent venture, and any rumors of our imminent absorption have been greatly exaggerated. Sorry if we created any confusion! But seriously, you shouldn’t be so gullible.