The redoubtable Brigid Alverson (of Comic Book Resources) posted a good round-up of the various comic reader apps available for the IPhone/IPod Touch. There's actually a lot on there, once you get hold of a portal app such as Comixology or Iverse.
I think the IPhone market is going to be a huge and I see a lot of indie comics creators adopting the platform to push their work. I read a lot of stuff on my IPod. It's the comics equivalent of an mp3 player; I just load it up with comics and then I can dip into a comic whenever I'm sitting on a bus or having root canal treatment.
Ironically, I think consuming comics in this way might be closer to the throwaway pulp roots of the medium than the wrapped-in-uv-protective-plastic, fetish culture that developed in the 1990s.
After a bit of testing I've come to prefer the ComicZeal reader, which combines a good display (it stays clear even zoomed in), PDF support (I don't just read comics on it) and very easy-to-use syncing.
I'm not holding my breath for the mythical Apple Tablet (aka "The Big Ipod Touch") - which is supposed to CHANGE THE FACE OF COMICS FOREVER!!! - but apart from the size (an inch longer and wider and it would be perfect), I see little wrong with the current platform.
(via Robot 6 and Forbidden Planet)
(Read part two of this article here.)
Comic Book Resources columnist Augie De Blieck Jr played Devil's advocate this week by suggesting that comics fans save money by buying their comics online or even... re-reading their old comics!
No matter how facetious the argument, Augie makes a good point.
Mainstream comics publishers are forced to reconcile their relentless pursuit of commercialisation with their unwillingness to retire old 'properties' by endlessly recycling material. Many DC and Marvel titles are as old as their publishers and many others are spin-offs of those titles.
Four factors keep the costumed hero genre dominant in mainstream comics publishing:
- History - characters such as Batman and Superman have historic significance, of course, as the first costumed heroes.
- Fans - the affection which the current generation of comics readers feels for these old characters.
- Commercial conservatism - the unwillingness of publishers to risk alienating this market and merely to market their existing 'properties' to new audiences.
- Creative conservatism - it is safer for publishers to shackle creators to existing concepts, to have them 'interpret' old characters - viz Frank Miller's Daredevil and Batman - than gamble on their ability to innovate.
No matter how one feels about old characters (or the superhero genre in general), should they overshadow another generation of creators and readers?
(Read part two of this article)
