iPhone Comic Apps
Despite being such a geeky person, I am still very much on the outside of the comic book world. The comics that I buy and read regularly is only the two TV tie-in – Buffy and Angel. Yet I am fascinated by the digital comic scenes. The idea that you can just get whatever comics you like delivered to your devices is amazing. I know that’s the same as the ebook market and I have a different opinion to ebooks and regular books. I still want to hold a regular book on my hands, preferably if I can have the physical book and also a ebook copy when I am on the move. For comic books, I just don’t have that sentimental value keeping me tie to the physical format. If you tell me from now on there’s no more physical paper comic books I wouldn’t have any problem with it. I guess because comic books are more like a continuous subscription, so to me, the value is just not the same.
On the iPhone there are now three major comic book apps – Comixology’s Comics, iVerse and Panelfly. Each has its own unique features and even contents. I like Panelfly the most, especially after reading about the background story of the company where almost all the people there were ex-Apple people. Panelfly has the flashiest and sexiest UI comparing to the others. The UI look so good that it makes even the Apple’s own apps look plain in comparison. It’s not just the red shadow UI that’s everywhere but also how when it’s in list view, it’s not just the name of your comic book but the cover art become the underly background. It’s details like this that makes it cool. The most important of a comic book app is of course how it present and let you read the comic. Panelfly let you tap the screen to move to the next pane. It has automatic zoom in when you tap so it will zoom and move to the next dialogue or graphic on the comic book page! And of course you can still pinch and zoom and move around on your own. But the automatic feature is pretty cool. There is also a thumbnail index page for quick jump to any point of the comic. The store itself is also very well design. I like when you click on the details you have clean and yet enough information for you to determine if you want to make a purchase.
Comixology’s Comics doesn’t have the same sexy UI. It uses the standard blue/white/gray Apple list view UI, but it works very similarily with the automatic zoom in feature. But one additional thing it does is it would letterboxed the other area of the page when it does automatic zoom in. I rather like that idea because it let you focus on what you are reading, and you can turn it off via setting if you want. Other than that, Comics is just very similar to Panelfly in terms of reading. As for the store, I think they are a bit more expensive to Panelfly. For example, Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men is a buck more so than in Panelfly. Not sure why that is since it should be exactly the same content.
iVerse is different in terms of the reading experience because they pre-format the comics into single slides. They prefer you to read the comics sideway since that’s how they “cut” the slide. You can still view the entire page when your phone is in Portrait. I dislike this method of reading because some of the cuts are not perfect, not to mention the artworks on the side seems to get ignored. The UI of iVerse is similar to Comics because both are using the standard Apple list view UI.
Now each apps has publishers and contents that are exclusive to them, but they also have a lot of overlapping as well. Still, many publishers are not on board yet. And even if the ones that are on board, they only have a handful of comics available to test the water only. Dark Horse, for example still releases their comics as stand alone apps for each issue. And the one I want – Buffy and Angel are nowhere to be found on the digital front. It is a new frontier and it will be interesting to see if digital comic stores like these 3 apps will become mainstream and have a lot more selection like your local comic book store. Another big question in the near future will be the impact of iPad. Panelfly already announce and preview their iPad version and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to see it in action!
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