I’ve pushed out the latest release of eComic, and it is available for download here: http://ecomic.codeplex.com/

This is a fairly drastic overhaul of the entire system, as I made some changes on how I want things to work.

The primary change is that I’ve decided against allowing people to open multiple comic archives within a single instance of the application (though multiple instances can run at one time). This is coupled with a much more efficient memory management system for the images which only loads them as they’re needed for the thumbnail display.

Those that download the source code will notice that there’s a new project in the system, one which will produce a second application whose sole purpose will be the creation of the various archives.

The final bit of interest in this release is that I’ve finally got the Graphic Novel Archive (gn*) format up and working. What this is, is an archive of the CBR archives. The files can be either read sequentially based upon their names, or a manifest file can be included (XML) which lists the order in which they should be read.

I even generated an XSD for it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
 <xs:element name="chapter">
   <xs:complexType>
     <xs:attribute name="sequence" type="xs:NMTOKEN" use="required" />
     <xs:attribute name="fileName" type="xs:NMTOKEN" use="required" />
   </xs:complexType>
 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name="graphicNovel">
   <xs:complexType>
     <xs:sequence>
       <xs:element ref="chapter" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
     </xs:sequence>
   </xs:complexType>
 </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

I’m excited about the GNR format as these reading lists concepts are the primary reason that I decided to create eComic. As an aside, the editor portion of the software will also generate the GNR files.

Thos looking for content for eComic can find free (and sometimes in the public domain) copies of comics. Here’s two sites:

• Golden Age Comics


• The Action Age!