GIMP :: Editing Comic Book (shapes / Fonts And Borders)

I have installed the fonts but the amount of color editing and customization I can do is very, very small. For example I want to take a letter have it colored purple (so far so good) and then give a border to the letter like thin line of yellow (no option that allows me to do this).

we are talking about pretty big letters here but I cant seem to be able to do this. I am trying to edit this pre existing image and trying to enter dialogue bubbles with thin colored borders.

As for the dialogue/though bubbles themselves I can seem to find any "insert shape" inside gimp, you sometimes characters are yelling or crying or just speaking normally has to be shown by the dialogue bubble but I cant seem to be able to do it.

I have used photoshop before but it is very complex and I feel like I can work with GIMP much more easier and faster but none of these basic options seem to be available. Are there addons to install so I can work easier with than making every single dialogue bubble from scratch? *shudder*

Edit: I am using both the new version and the 2.6 version... I find the new version absolutely terrible, especially when it comes to saving your work as an image file but if necessary I will work with both versions.