They’re playing it up on the silver screen right now — and The Avengers is due early next year — but you’re also not limited to crinkly old paper if you want your superhero fix; the Marvel Android app has you nicely covered.
Comics are great things… except when they get wet, torn, or lost, or defaced, or whatever. Digital comics remove most of those limitations (except perhaps the water one), allowing you to catch up with the X-Men, Captain America or the Hulk. Because it’s based off Marvel’s own subscription service, your account works across multiple devices, so you’re never away from some quick fun reading material. [Marvel]
Big Windows
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 11:29 AMStill think the devices are not quite big enough for good comic enjoyment. They need to have just a bit more screen real estate to do justice to comic art. Comic layouts help with story continuity and it doesn’t benefit from the smaller screen. At the moment pan and scan style settings don’t help that much either. At the moment most of the comics are static print reproductions with no more interactivity. If an added level of interactivity that enhances story continuity can be developed then just about any sized deveice will be great. Having said that I am up to 150 or so darkhorse comics on an IPad and I already own most of them and have re-purchased so there must be something in it… Still slighty bigger screens would be great!
light487
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 11:36 AMSlightly bigger screens.. I don’t understand that. There are plenty of Android tablets, so I don’t understand your reasoning there.
I agree though that if they are basically just “full page” scans of each page, they may not be that great unless you are a die-hard fan. I would much prefer to see a “frame by frame” style approach taken.. or some way to select how many frames you want to see per page. For someone with a 10″ tablet, they might want the whole page.. for someone with a 7″ tablet, they might only want half (or 4 of the usual 8 frames) on screen at any time.. whereas someone with a 4″ screen might want only 1 frame in portrait or 2 frames in landscape. Unfortunately the modern style comics have the pictures and stuff overlap the frames so something would need to be done to protect the overall design, feel and continuity of the artwork.. but still, there needs to be more than a simple full page scan that can be zoomed and scrolled.
Big Windows
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 11:44 AMDefinitely a personal preference… I have been thumbing thru the comics for 25-30 years so am a little set in my ways. There are some old style comics that work great and don’t really break frames but there have been really some innovative multi frame or frameless formats that even 10 inch tablets struggle doing justice to. Not to mention brush based art (like some of the older Daredevil water colours in even larger formats)… I am just being a fuddy-duddy but a tablet with a micro projector alternative and a nice big surface to project on to would make my day…
Corteks
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 12:29 PMOne of the main things I wanted my 7inch Kogan Agora tablet for was a comic book reader. Since getting it I’ve been using ComicRack and it’s been absolutely perfect for the job. I reckon’ any bigger and it’d be awkward to hold. Been reading Transmetropolitan and it’s great to be able to flick through with ease while also seeing all that detail perfectly
Big Windows
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 12:52 PMGreat Comic that… Loved Planetary and The Authority at the start too… Think I still have the originals of those somewhere.