You might’ve noticed that the site has a bit of a new look.  Actually, it’s a whole lot more than just a new look.  It’s a completely redesigned, re-imagined, re-purposed site.

All of the essential stuff from the previous design is still here of course.  The Order forms are still in place, the Message Center, the User Control Panel … everything you need for your digital printing needs is still here — where it always was — and largely unchanged.

So what have we changed?

For starters, we’ve changed the FAQ.  Instead of being the long, unwieldy page filled with artifacts and other info that was right once upon a time but in some cases had outlived its usefulness, the FAQ is now a series of a categories and subcategories with short direct questions and short easier to digest answers.  And the best part is … its now SEARCH-ABLE!   If you’ve got a specific question you don’t have to read the entire FAQ to get your answer.  You can simply type your question in the sidebar search field and if it’s a question that’s been asked before then your answer will magically appear.

And the FAQ is — and will be — constantly updated.  So as new questions come in, new answers go up.   This means less time in Message Center both you and us.

Secondly, we’ve also updated the technical specs pages and made them search-able as well.   We’ve uploaded brand new templates for 2010.  We recommend that you download and use the new templates for your new print jobs as we’ve added a few new features and explanations that we think are especially helpful.

It is not necessary — nor recommended — that you update previously printed items to bring them into sync with the new templates.  The templates have changed, but the basic specs have changed very, very little.  The 2010 templates and the new specs are essentially backwards compatible, meaning that if your previous items were built using the old templates and specs then they’ll still work just fine with the new ones.

Lastly — and most importantly — we’ve turned Ka-Blam.com into an interactive news, resource, and community site.  In addition to our product lines, order forms, tech specs, etc, you’ll now find the latest news from the world of independent comics, interviews with creators, commentaries, tutorials, spotlights of IndyPlanet comics, indy-friendly comics shops, webcomics, and so much more!

New content will be going up daily … and this is where you come in.  We need your contributions.

Got a store signing coming up?  Let us know and we’ll post it here.

Appearing at a convention?  Let us know the details and everyone can read about it here.

Have a unique perspective on some aspect of comics creation?  Write up a tutorial.

Have a favorite comic that you’d like to help promote?  Interview the creator and send us the transcript.

Have a video trailer for your comic?  Great!  Give us the link.

We’re open to just about anything.  The caveats are that it be 1) interesting  2)well written and 3)community friendly.    That last one means that we’ll welcome thoughtful, insightful reviews but we have no interest in snarky, rude, slamfests.  Similarly, we’ll happily promote your appearances and help you plug your projects, but we’re not fans of the hard sell and hype for hype’s sake can find a home elsewhere.

So if you’ve got something you’d like to see here on the site then drop us a line at the Message Center.