So You Want To Build
A ThunderCats Web Site

Annotated below are various resources for the ThunderCats aficionado who wishes to build their own little page of mayhem online. Before jumping into a pile of code or loading FrontPage onto your computer, you might want to take a look at what's available to make your work a bit easier.

Picture Galleries

It's a good idea to have some graphics on your site, unless you have very little space, or, like in my case, are going for content and not design. Here are a few places to start. Always be sure to read the policies from the various web masters and mistresses before swiping stuff. Most just want a link back to their site or something of that nature, but it's best to always ask first.

cosmocats: Many pictures here look like they've been lifted from elsewhere, and it does take a while to load because everything has been thrown on one page, but there are a few pics here I've yet to see anywhere else.
Cosmocats Gallery: This site, although difficult to translate if you don't speak French, has some of the best screen captures I've ever come across. And it's a friendly site, too.
Grune the Mighty's Pictures: Some nice pages of pictures here, with some narrative by Grune the Destroyer himself. Being the narcissist he is, Grune has a gallery specifically for pictures of himself, located here.
Ian Burkard's Thundercat Photo Gallery: More ThunderCats images, all of them are enhanced, if you like that sort of thing. I emailed this guy once about two years ago and he never responded, so don't expect him to return any messages promptly if you request to use his stuff.
Purrsia's ThunderCat Image Page: Another page which sorts pictures and screen captures by the character they are of. Many, many wonderful shots found no where else. Purrsia keeps her site updated regularly, so be sure to check back now and then.
ThunderCats Picture Galleries: Nicely organized galleries located on Cheezey's site. She has separated things into good guys and bad guys, and into the individual characters from there. Great resource.

ThunderCats Fonts

Besides having a few nice pictures on your site, it might spice things up to use a ThunderCats font. Remember to either post a link to the zip file of the font if you're just using it strictly as a font, or to convert the wording into a picture file of some sort so that most of the users can read it. And don't use any of these fonts for more than titles and headings - ThunderCats fonts are cool looking, but very hard to read in complete sentences.

ThunderCats Backgrounds

Another detail to spice up your site is to add a background related to ThunderCats. One of the things to keep in mind is that if you're going to use a dark background, use lighter text, and vice versa if using a light background. You can see the images that I have for backgrounds by clicking on the link below. If you have a background that you have created for ThunderCats that you would like to share, feel free to donate it to this page. I'll be sure to credit you for it.

ThunderCats Backgrounds: A few backgrounds that you can use on your site. Crediting the appropriate creator would be kindly of you if you choose to use any of these.

ThunderCats Checklist

Although most of the sites pertaining to ThunderCats have certain key information on their site, thereby making the following information easy to find, if you're working on a general ThunderCats site, you'll probably want to include some of the following. Redundant, yes, but at the same time, it shows you're putting in the effort to keep people informed. Besides, you can not count on all of the current sites to be around ten years from now, or even a year from now. It's a nice thought to think all the links on my links page will keep working for the next decade, but they probably won't. So archiving the information that follows in various places isn't too bad of an idea.

Cartoon Episodes

Listings of both the episodes as they were run and as the story was chronologically written are helpful for fans. There are a number of places that you can obtain this information, including this site.

Offering episode synopses or episode ratings are another idea that works. For myself, I own less than half of the episodes, and don't have cable, so I've fallen victim of bribing others to tape them as Cartoon Network decides to air them, and picking up the original tapes one by one from eBay. I trust not the full collections sold, and being a Librarian who is very much in tune to copyright laws, I'm leary of buying them even at an excellent price.

Characters

	If nothing else, lists of the main characters (ThunderCats, Mutants, Lunataks, and Mumm-ra) are almost expected of a ThunderCats site. Other heroes and rogues are helpful to mention, pictures of the characters are even better, and descriptions are definitely best.
	If you're big into the writing of fanfiction, and plan to post your own writings on your site, readers will find a list of your fanon characters a big plus when reading your works.

Comic Book Information

	There were three series of ThunderCats comics published: Marvel's Star comics that published 24 issues in the United States; Marvel's UK comics which published over a hundred issues, and hardbound some in annual editions; and Wildstorm's shot at reviving the 'Cats with limited series and two part crossovers.
	As with the episodes, pictures, synopses, and other information will be greatly appreciated by websurfers.

Cast Information

	Cast information covers many things. There are the voice actors and the crew that produced the cartoon, and there are the artists and writers that worked on or are currently working on the comics. Finally, there are those who wrote the children's books, and other people who had a hand in things.
	Because not a lot is out there besides lists of the voice actors (not all of which are accurate), this is fairly new territory.

Links (Lynx)

	There are sites, and there are sites beyond sites...as long as you get some links up to some of the more notable sites out there, you'll be covered. The bigger sites tend to link to a majority of the smaller sites, in case you're not interested in linking to over a hundred ThunderCats pages.
	Yes, there's over a hundred. I've been keeping count.

Extras

Once you get your site going, you'll probably want to get something up that makes people go "Wow!" or get them to keep visiting. Games and special features, as well as fanart and fanfiction will do the trick. But for some extra special effects, you might want to venture further into the realm of web design. However, too much won't get you very far - remember that your page has to be able to load relatively quickly for those (like me) who still dial up through modems, and for people who are just plain impatient. I don't usually go around giving my sources on things, but since you've taken the time to read this, here are a few goodie sites where you can find some fun things to spice up your web site.

Webmoments: This is by far my favorite. It's a fun place to goof around for a while, and has some nice bells and whistles you can use at your own place. The biggest help are the color charts, especially when you're trying to toss background colors together with fonts.

How NOT to Create Your Site

There are many wonderful sites out there, some of which I'm sure you've already seen. It's not difficult to spot a good site - there are five "mane" things you should keep in mind.

Make sure all of your links are in working order. This includes internal links, external links, and anchors. Check your links on a regular basis to make sure they are kept up to date. This doesn't mean you have to do it every day, but once every other month at the very least isn't too bad to keep up with.
Websites, by nature, have the potential of being dynamic. That means, things change, and are nearly expected to change. If you are planning on a static site, it's a good idea to point that out to the user, or to have something which will tip the user off to this. (eg., don't have 'under construction' messages up if you don't plan to add more to the site, or if it is going to be a while until you add things). The best example of this would have been during 2001, when Cheezey updated her page very little and took down her "Always Under Construction" image. Luckily, she has begun to update again.
Try not to create too many pages that take an awfully long time to load. Not everyone has a T1 line connected to their computer, which means if the pages don't load fast enough for them, chances are, they won't be back. Pictures are good, pictures are nice to look at, but everything in moderation.
Attempt to do something different. If you can come up with something no one else has, you have a better chance of having regular users of your site. Some examples of this include the selection of games that Purrsia has on her site, or the Kill the Snarf game that used to be hosted by Slinky Avenger.
Don't become discouraged if things don't work the way you want them right away, or if some people aren't blown away at your first attempt. This is my fifth attempt that I can remember, although I'm sure I'm forgetting a site or two, just in the realm of ThunderCats. You don't want to know how much of the road kill on the information superhighway is mine.

And speaking of road kill, there are a few sites that...well...if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a site is worth a million...and not all of them are nice. The thought was there, but unfortunately, online, it is rarely the thought that counts.

ThunderCats: The Greatest Cartoon Ever!: As Fuzzy aptly pointed out, "Jeesh, there's lazy, but this fucker was even too lazy to pretend to try." Among other things please note that there is no content, there are no links, and there is no purpose. Besides which, that background is an absolute web design no-no.

So You Want To Build A ThunderCats Web Site

So You Want To Build
A ThunderCats Web Site