Dare I say it, "the prophecy has been fulfilled"
written by Alverne Ball, May 09, 2008

As a comic book creator Comic life magiq looks amazing and now that I can actually control the shape of the balloons as well as the tails I am astatic. thank you.

Comic Life comics won't open in Magiq!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
written by John Hazard, May 09, 2008

I just upgraded to Magiq. Very exciting, I thought, I've been really anticipating this upgrade- But to my horror, all my old comics, about a year and a half of comics done in the previous version, WILL NOT OPEN IN MAGIQ!!!
Please tell me there is a way to fix this. I rely on Comic Life EVERY WEEK to put out my newspaper strip (which can be seen on my website under "schmoozeblog") and I was hoping to do way more with Magiq so I need to get this fixed a.s.a.p. PLEASE!!!

...
written by kramy, May 09, 2008

Hello there John,

Thanks for contacting us and for purchasing Comic Life Magiq.

Comic Life Magiq is a completely new application and shares little in common with Comic Life and least of all in the way it handles its internal data. We're thinking of providing an importer in a future update.

If a feature of this kind is important to you please let us know in these forums.

Very sorry for the inconvenience - but you may still use your previous Comic Life version to open your old comic files.

You may like to experiment exporting as a .pdf file and importing into Comic Life Magiq if there are elements you like to use on each new comic.

...
written by John Hazard, May 09, 2008

Thanks for responding so quickly.
Not exactly good news, I guess I'll finish my unfinished comics in the old version, keep that version in case I need to open up old files, and re-make all my templates in Magiq. It's a pain, but hopefully worth the trouble.

I really think you should warn people about this. I don't think it would have stopped me from buying it, but I certainly would have liked to know.

Thanks again.

Lack of support for earlier version files
written by Mark Gibson, May 09, 2008

Yes I’ve added my comment to the forum topic.

My needs are simple (don’t need all/any of the “bells and whistles” of the Magiq application) but upgraded as I thought it was an evolution of the existing product, not a completely new branch.

Now that I know I can’t open/convert my existing files (which I use as a template) I’ll leave “Maqiq” idle on the machine and just use the old Comic Life Deluxe to do what I need.

Regards,

Mark

(OK don’t know what is going on here but when I try and post this I get an error message about the “comment” being too short)?????

Pheeeew!
written by Lisa Tayssett, May 09, 2008

I got scared there for a moment!....
I couldn't hear those noises that make me laugh so much when I use Comic Life !

I was actually worried you guys had turned serious....

Luckily, I found the option back in the preferences. That was close

I haven't had time to use it extensively yet but it looks great!

Thanks!

LT7

...
written by Jim, May 09, 2008

Bravo! Bravo!

Yup, the noises are there!
written by Ken Drake, May 09, 2008

And just as fun as ever

Great Idea, but missing something....
written by Matthew Hart, May 09, 2008

I downloaded the CL Magiq demo, and it looks great. I love Comic Life, and one thing CL Magiq is missing is the painted image effects (acrlic, drawing etc). These are in CL but not in Magiq which is real shame.

...
written by kramy, May 09, 2008

Hello there Matthew,

Comic Life Magiq does have image filters

You may see how to access them here: http://skitch.com/plasqy/mnpa/filters

Hope that helps!

Old Comic is fine
written by Tomb, May 10, 2008

Sorry I wasted the $19.95, the old Comic Life is fine for me - next time I will try the trial version

Theme templates
written by Robert Madeson, May 10, 2008

Really like the theme templates, are there going to be any more new ones. Music themes, more outdoor sport themes would be really a nice edition,

I'm in love with everyone at Plasq
written by Marlyss Hollyer, May 10, 2008

It's great and wonderfully creative and I'm having so much fun learning the new features. I think it's well worth the price. I've been in on Comic Life since the beginning and it just keeps getting better all the time and I loved it from the start. I'd say it gives me more pleasure than any other program I own and I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Dark interface is not fun/uplifting to me. Interface seems to hard to learn.
written by Jonny A, May 10, 2008

Not impressed, but i'll take a copy of ComicLife Deluxe (;

Some PSE features
written by Tomb, May 10, 2008

After realizing MAGIQ is not an upgrade to Comic Life, I printed an 8.5"x11" good quality composite of two photos - works well with iPhoto.

No magiq manual?
written by Andrew Bond, May 10, 2008

I wish I had tried before I purchased, but, because I am goling on holiday I would have missed the special offer deadline. Magiq seems to be too full of magiq without some of the better features of the original - where is the speech bubble extension? or (lacking a manual) how do you extend a speech bubble to create "conversation"?
I am sure I will get on top of it but, at this stage, I miss the inspector for getting the tails to go the other way. Brand new maybe better? I'm yet to be convinced.

...
written by kramy, May 10, 2008

Robert Madeson:

Really like the theme templates, are there going to be any more new ones. Music themes, more outdoor sport themes would be really a nice edition,

Yes, we hope to release new templates with the 1.1 update. Glad you like them!

kramy | plasq

...
written by kramy, May 10, 2008

Marlyss Hollyer:

I'd say it gives me more pleasure than any other program I own and I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Thank you so much! That is terrific you enjoy Comic Life Magiq so much. Thanks for your kind words

Kramy | plasq

RE: No magiq manual?
written by kramy, May 10, 2008

Hello there Andy,

where is the speech bubble extension?

You may simply drop a balloon on top of the other balloon to give it an extension.

or (lacking a manual)

You may find the manual under Help > Comic Life Magiq Help

I miss the inspector for getting the tails to go the other way

You actually now have a lot more control over what you can do with tails and balloons.
As seen here:



Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Hope that helps!
Kramy | plasq

...
written by Ken Drake, May 10, 2008

Andrew,

To extend a balloon in Comic Life, you could drag and drop any balloon on top of another one and it would extend with that balloon type. That still works in Comic Life Magiq, though CLM doesn't have a separate "extend" icon anymore.

There's a lot of good information in the help, just type in "speech" or "balloon" for even more!

Time Consuming
written by alyfromuk2us, May 13, 2008

I was having a lot of fun playing with the free trial, thinking this would be a great purchase. However, now it is running so slow, my patience is being put to the test. I am writing this waiting for my first project to reload. Took about 5 minutes. Any time I go to edit something.....takes another few minutes!!! What am I doing wrong?
I really want to resolve this so that I can make up my mind on purchasing or not!!

What's your system configuration?
written by Ken Drake, May 13, 2008

And how large, how many pictures are you using? How much memory do you have available?

Time Consuming
written by alyfromuk2us, May 13, 2008

My mac is 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, Running on Mac OS X Version 10.5.2.
Memory 1GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Hard Drive 240GB w/100GB available!
I only have 4 pictures on the one page project. Pics are from 10.2 megapixel camera. What I don't understand is the waiting time when I click to edit! Like my computer is running way too slow, which it normally doesn't.

Large images the likely culprit
written by Ken Drake, May 13, 2008

Given that your computer is fairly recent (with a processor similar to mine.. only you got the faster Core 2 Duo), I'd guess that your problem is going to be a combination of 4 10.2 megapixel images combined with only 1 Gig of ram. Comic Life Magiq uses a LOT of memory to do it's magic... the larger the images, the more memory it needs to run well.

To see the difference yourself, try exporting some of the images to a smaller size (equivalent to, say, a 3 megapixel camera) before you bring them into CLM. You should see a noticeable performance increase.

Super, je m'amuse beaucoup !!!
written by Yves Meimoun, May 15, 2008

Après une demi-heure de test, j'ai acheté Comic Life Magiq et je trouve le logiciel extrêmement bien fait. Je ne retrouve pas cependant la possibilité de choisir le format de la page (A3, A4, A5, paysage ou portrait). Ai-je mal regardé ?
Merci.

...
written by kramy, May 15, 2008

Hello there Yves,

Glad you are enjoying it.

To change page: go to File > Page Layout > Use Custom Page > ISO Paper Sizes <-- choose from there.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for Magiq
written by Niclas Andersson, May 16, 2008

I did not have the time yet to learn Magiq, but so far I just love it. But I see that I need to upgrade my ram to 2 Gb in order to run it more smoothley.

Keep Up the good work...

Niclas

Locks up when masking?
written by MarkRush, May 19, 2008

I'm running the trial version on a Powerbook G4 with 1.67GHz processor and 2gb of memory and the latest install of Leopard. First of all the application quits unexpectedly every time I choose "not yet" at the registration prompt. If I choose "register" and then cancel out of it, it seems to proceed fine.

Second of all, and most disconcertingly, is that every time i click "done" after trying to mask an image I get a pinwheel almost immediately and soon after (before I can even perform a force quit) my whole computer locks up.

Is this an issue with not being on an Intel machine?

Upper case letters
written by Paul Weaver, May 21, 2008

Fantastic program. Upper case letters don't come up for me when putting text in speech bubbles. Pity that you only give a better purchase deal for people who got a freebie version bundled with older iMacs. All animals on the farm should be treated equally.

RE: Upper case letters
written by kramy, May 21, 2008

Hello there Paul,

Upper case letters don't come up for me when putting text in speech bubbles

This is usually because of the default font, which does not have anything but capital letters. Try changing to something like: Minya Nouvelle. As seen here:

Pity that you only give a better purchase deal for people who got a freebie version bundled with older iMacs.

We also give the crossgrade option to those that purchased Comic Life through plasq.com or via the Boxed version - http://plasq.com/comic-life-magiq/crossgrade - That seems fair to me

Hope this helps!
kramy | plasq

Encore meilleure !
written by Georges Chenard, May 26, 2008

I just tried Magiq, and it gives me more freedom than Comic Life. I'm going to buy it. The only thing I regret is :
— No French localization
— Apparently, no more export to fixed resolution PDF (I'm used to send my strips in 300 dpi to the magazine I work for).

...
written by kramy, May 26, 2008

Hello there Georges,

Thanks for contacting us and for your feedback.

No French localization

We will release a free update in the future that will have French and several other languages included.

no more export to fixed resolution PDF

We found people preferred the vector quality - also usually smaller sizes - of the .pdf files. Any particular reason you like the fixed resolution so much?

Thanks very much!

...
written by Georges Chenard, May 26, 2008

Hi !

Thanks.

Any particular reason you like the fixed resolution so much?

No. It's just the magazine that wanted it.

Free edition
written by Sid, August 24, 2008

Is there a free trial version for windows any where!?