It is to every artist’s benefit to be able to have a site that is at least representative of the style and the nature of the comic, I’ve seen some websites that are far more attractive than the comics that present them, and others that are as ugly as the CG default template (plain text links?!) A great site can really enhance the feel and impact of a webcomic even subliminally.

For what’s it’s worth I’ve gone through (at least) 6 revisions. I spent some time drawing up some sketches with some measurements, (VERY IMPORTANT) and an idea of what I wanted where and how and learnt the skills to make it happen, but it doesn’t end there! Sometimes things work great, sometimes they blow and to be honest, sometimes I’ll look back months later with some experience and techniques and think “perhaps there is a better way”.

Checking out how other people do things is a good way to see what does work…as does this blog actually!

It’s important to realize that despite a larger browser size available to the webdesigner, it’s still important to keep your site “tight.” I won’t say small, because the best sites change conformation to fit ANY browser, but by tight I mean streamlined, cut the fat, etc. Always aim for the least amount of clutter and the best organization, and show the importance of elements by where they appear. The most important things should be top left, and the least important, bottom right.

Back to your question though, when I open mu 1280×1500px file, I usually start with a box 1000px wide and try to go smaller from there. Even in 1024×768, it’s good to have a margin on the sides. I don’t ever aim for a width above 1000 when I design sites.

A tip I found helpful: viewing the gridlines helps me keep large PSD site templates in perspective. I set my gridlines to 100px cut once at a 50px interval. I also press control+R for the ruler, also set to pixels. You can display your gridlines by going to view->show-> gridlines, and you can edit their display by going to edit->preferences.

1000×900px?

Whats the general standard size? If there is one.
Looking forward to your next piece KEZ.

- Piro

I really do dislike starting in PS to come up with simpler designs sometimes, but it’s definitely helpful and most times necessary (like if I had to do anything professionally – in which case it’s very important as I’m actually conveying ideas to someone else).

It helps a lot to understand the CSS box model, also. Making a design around what HTML/CSS excels at is a great way to reduce how frustrating it is to get things working. Keep the layout simple, with a simple vertical stacking of basic elements, which you could further split into horizontal elements, but do so sparingly. Don’t design around a fixed screen width. Don’t have image-based borders around things. And so on.

- Piro