"Finally, lose the splash-screen of the girl in the cat-suit. I already look weird enough reading comic-books in public. I don’t need the app to make me look like a hentai-loving pervert every time I fire it up."
-- Charlie Sorrel, Wired review of the comic reading app ComicBookPad
Sorry I'm late with the news round-up this week -- I've been busy setting up the Lulu Awards. We've got a huge amount of items to cover...so let's just dive right in!
"Comics Don't Cry: The iPadization Of The Medium" Timothy Callahan at Comic Book Resources described a recent trip he took with only a volume of Scott Pilgrim -- and a bunch of comics on his iPad:
"The iPad lets you linger a bit more, and Comixology encourages close, panel-by-panel reading, in a way that I found transformative to the experience. It's not like I usually skip panels or ignore word balloons, but by having the frame so purely focused on a single image and a single set of words, I found myself less distracted by what else was going on in the page. I know that sounds a bit ridiculous, and page composition is a major part of storytelling – a part of storytelling that I teach when I run my comic book workshops – but, as I've said, the old rules? They no longer apply."
Marvel Comics Declared "Winner" In The Battle Of The iPad Comic Apps: Mac News World has declared Marvel Comics the "winner" of the iPad comic app race, and gives their extensive review of both Marvel and DC's apps. The story was also covered by HuffPo.
"Comixology, Oni Talk Digital Scott Pilgrim" - Newsarama profiles the just-released Scott Pilgrim app from Oni & comiXology.
"Pocket God Digital Volcano Erupts" - Ape Entertainment announces that their digital comic Pocket God is one of the fastest-rising paid comic-book apps, surpassing 25,000 downloads in its first week of release.
"The Incongruity Of DC comics On The iPad" Bleeding Cool takes a closer look at the Apple rating system for apps, and brings up some comics from DC that might be more suited for 17+ than 12+.
"Who Are All These Lapsed Comics iPad Readers Anyway?" Todd Allen at Publishers Weekly interviews Arc Technology Group owner Robert Jacobi -- a man who reads his comics exclusively on the iPad. Jacobi was a lapsed comic book fan who was reintroduced to the medium via a digital reading device:
"Love the iPad for comics! There are some small changes I might make to the reading apps but overall the convenience of being able to grab a comic is just great. The viewing experience is very pleasurable as well. I'd definitely recommend the stores getting much more of their content online for sure and higher resolution panels since I like to view panel to panel in "zoomed" mode. I've certainly spent more money on digital versions than print in the last year. I don't need to worry about storage or maintenance (I never throw out the paper, but am not a serious collector). And back to convenience, I love just being able to sit at home on a rainy day, pick a comic and if I like it go through the next half dozen or dozen instead of hitting the movies (which these days costs the same after popcorn and drink)."
Heroic Age: One Month To Live To Be Released Digitally One Week After Print: Marvel's weekly mini-series Heroic Age: One Month To Live will be released through their app one week after seeing print. The five-issue series will be released throughout September. link
"Hands-On With ComicBookPad" Wired reviews the comic book reading app ComicBookPad, and compares it to Comic Zeal.
One Of The Strangest Digital Comics You'll Ever Read: Matthew Brady profiles Warren Craghead's unique webcomic "A Sort Of Autobiography" -- a comic you print out, put together in a series of cubes, and read. So basically it starts of digital, takes a drive through print, and ends up a three-dimensional, tactile experience.
"This is not going to be a slow growth process; I predict it will be extremely fast." Christopher Daley at the Rocket Llama blog gives his take on the SDCC digital comics panel and suggests that publishers have better things to do than focus on DRM and comics pirating:
"People who are downloading your products illegally are not going to be customers. If you want to go down the music industry road and start lavishing huge amounts of money and attention on shutting them down be my guest. I can tell you what it will get you, nothing. You won’t be able to stop it. You will likely look bad in the process and you will have wasted valuable time and money you could have spent growing your business."
He also thinks the digital age of comics is fast upon us, and that there is not much time to experiment and "see what happens."
"Physical Media will be here to stay" And finally, Games-On-Smash's Charles King discusses why he thinks there will always be physical media, and the downside to digital only.
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