If you have a WordPress powered site for a webcomic and have switched to the Comic Easel plugin and/or updated to ComicPress 4.x you may have noticed that your Ryuzine Press Editions that should include comics no longer include comic posts after the upgrade.

This is because Comic Easel uses a custom category type called “Chapters” that are only associated with the custom “comic” post-type.  Pages are assigned to Ryuzine Press Editions by being included in the same category as the edition, and since Comic Easel/ComicPress 4.x comic posts never exist in normal categories there is no way to assign them to editions without “hacking” the Comic Easel files to allow it.  Two different hacks are outlined in the Ryuzine Press manual, but now there is an (experimental) automatic fix!

Go get the latest Ryuzine Press ZIP file.  If you just want to patch an existing installation (which is likely if you’re reading this) all you need to do is overwrite:

~/wp-content/plugins/ryuzine-press/ryuzine-press.php

with the same file in the ZIP archive you downloaded.  You do not need to update the Ryuzine webapp, nor do you need to reinstall anything to the theme (unless you just installed ComicPress 4.x or a new child theme, then you will need to go to Ryuzine Press > Tools > Update Ryuzine  and install to your theme.  If the files are not in the currently active theme it will prompt you to install them).

What this does is check for the custom post-type “comic” and then checks to see if the “Comic Easel” plugin is activated and then attempt to automatically add the regular “Category” selector to Comic Easel so you can assign comics to a Ryuzine Press Edition.  Please be aware this is experimental, it may not work if Comic Easel initiates later than Ryuzine Press, it won’t work if you have set a different custom post-type in the Comic Easel settings.  If this auto-fix doesn’t work for you then you will need to do the manual hack outlined in the Ryuzine Press Manual, which unfortunately needs to be repeated after every Comic Easel update.  If the auto-fix does work for you it should continue to work even after a Comic Easel update.

If you are still using ComicPress 2.x you do NOT need this update!

Note: ComicPress and Comic Easel are developed by Philip M. Hofer (aka “Frumph”).  Please do not direct any bug reports or support questions to him regarding how Ryuzine Press works (or doesn’t) with his plugins and themes.