“It’s not quite iTunes for comic books yet, but Comics and the comiXology apps like Marvel and DC are getting terrifically close.”

Comics is the best app for buying comic books — and graphic novels — on your iPad. Well, that’s not exactly true. Comics is one of the best places to buy comics, but the developer, comiXology also makes dedicated versions of the app for Marvel, DC, Dynamite, IDW, Image, and other publishers. They claim over 16,000 titles, more than enough to delight anyone’s inner Sheldon. Comics itself has a great selection of titles from several of their partner publishers and, taken together, the comiXology apps are everything you need to get your weekly fix of new releases and classic back issues alike.

comiXology's dedicated DC Comics app opens up with all the latest titles.

When you first load up Comics, or any of the dedicated comiXology apps, you’re taken straight to the store and will have various options up top for featured titles, new or recently added title, popular or best-selling titles, and sometimes free titles as well. Browse your way through or use the tabs at the bottom to jump to series (like trade paperbacks, they’re several issues collected into one easier-to-manage edition), story arcs (related issues you still have to buy and keep separately — why not just make these into series, folks?), creators (if you’re looking for specific titles by your favorite artist or writer), as well as the option to search, and My Comics/purchases to see what you’ve already bought.

The option to buy series (think trade paperbacks) in the dedicated apps like Marvel and DC is a nice addition.

There’s a ton of content to be found. Comics proper has a good sampling of titles from the various publishers. The dedicated apps for Marvel, DC, et al have loads of current stuff, most of the popular arcs and series from the last few years, and a smattering of classics (though why I can only find something like Batman: Year One as a set of individual issues in a story arc and not as a collected series is irksome — fix that DC!).

When you find what you like, it's just one in-app purchase away, just like iTunes.

When you find something you like, just tap the price to buy, same as you would in iTunes, and the familiar in-app-purchasing system takes over. Your comic issue or collected edition is downloaded straight into the app and made available on your reading shelf.

Pricing is okay. Individual issues are often $1.99 though some newer/hotter titles are $2.99 which is too high. As Steve Jobs told the music industry a decade ago, their competition is free — price things fairly and make them easily available and the market will flourish. Also, while Marvel offers true collections in their series, DC doesn’t seem to have embraced that yet which is baffling. (Prices for the Marvel series range from $6.99 for smaller, more obscure 130 page collections all the way up to $24.99 for large, popular 330 page collections like Planet Hulk). There’s also no subscription model, let alone all-you-can-eat offering.

Thumbnails of all the pages in your issue or series are just a tap away.

The reading experience is excellent. Pages are shown one at a time, or side-by-side for double-page spreads. You can also double tap to “zoom in” and show only one panel at a time. There’s no page flipping animation but swiping between pages is a breeze. You can also tap to bring up the controls which let you get info on the title, go to a thumbnail view of all pages, pull up the option for transition speed, letterboxing, etc. and get help on how the reader works.

While not extensive, basic options let you tweak the reading experience.

You can’t load your own comics, or comics you’ve bought in PDF form (for example, on Marvel’s extensive DVD volumes), but that’s what apps like Comic Zeal are for.

Overall comiXology has done an amazing job. Marvel, DC, and the other companies are also tepidly inching their way into digital confidence. It would be nice to have everything all in the Comics app and not need the separate Marvel, DC, et. al apps, for example (could you imagine if Warner, Sony, etc. were all separate iTunes app clones and we couldn’t keep our music or movies in one place?). It would also be great to see the bigger collections, absolutes, omnibuses, etc. available, discounted the way they are for trade paperbacks in comic book specialty shops. (Speaking of which, the comiXology apps go out of their way to point out where you can go buy real-world paper versions of the comics, which is both awkward and charming.)

Double page spreads look especially great on the iPad

The good

• Excellent availability of titles, especially in the dedicated apps
• In-app purchases are quick and efficient
• Reader is fluid and functional

The bad

• Having dedicated Marvel, DC, etc. apps is annoying, all content should also be in the main Comics app
• Can’t load your own comics into the reader

The conclusion

It’s not quite iTunes for comic books yet, but Comics and the comiXology apps like Marvel and DC are getting terrifically close. If you’re a general fan, get the Comics apps proper. If you’re a Marvel or DC purest, get the dedicated Marvel or DC apps. If you love everything, get them all. With day-and-date new releases and an expanding back catalog of classic stories, Comics makes iPad the premiere device for any comic loving geek.

FREE – Download

• Marvel version
• DC version

Marvel is starting to offer Digital Comics Cllections for iPad, the digital equivalent of the traditional trade paperback, which combines together the single issues of a story line into one volume. Only 10 titles will be available at first, focused around the Ultimate Universe and current movie properties. Hopefully more will be available soon, and hopefully DC will jump on this bandwagon as well.

• Astonishing X-Men Vol.1: Gifted

• Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol.1 
>- Invincible Iron Man Vol.1: Five Nightmares 
>- New Avengers Vol.1: Breakout

• Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage

• Thor By J. Michael Straczynski Vol.1

• Ultimate Spider-Man Vol.1: Power and Responsibility

• Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol.1: The Fantastic

• Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human

• Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1: The Tomorrow People


If you’re in the mood to try it out, head on over to the Marvel Comics app [App Store link and pick up Astonishing X-Men (by Joss Whedon) and Ultimates (by Mark Millar) now.

[Marvel]

3DTOPO Inc. has released their new comic book creation app, ComicBook! After designing your realistic comic featuring you and your friends, you can tag everyone and share to Facebook.

• 9 auto scaling text caption styles
• 9 customizable comic photo filters
• 30 unique page Layouts (both portrait and landscape)
• 55 classic comic graphics (tap to scale/rotate!)
• 3 different optional halftone styles
• 7 licensed comic fonts
• 4 different border styles
• All border styles have an optional bevel style
• Captions feature small, medium and large font options
• Captions feature customizable background colors
• 1 general use text tool for titles and more in 6 colors and 3 sizes
• 1 stylized caption with a large first letter and gradient background in 6 styles
• 2 manual-sized captions
• All fonts feature international characters and a bold/emphasis mode
• Facebook sharing with built-in photo tagging
• Twitter sharing with Twitpics
• Email sharing
• Save to photo library
• Tool tips
• Comprehensive online help and a graphical Quick Start
• Direct printing
• Load photos from library
• Direct image capture on devices with cameras
• Universal app (one copy runs on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches)
• App works in both landscape and portrait orientations
• App settings allow defaults to be set

Excuse me – I have a comic about a pack of Ewoks who set out to steal Rene’s Mac Pro but are surprisingly greeted by an angry, green version of our Editor who was recently hit with a Gamma Bomb to write. You’re not going to want to miss this one!

ComicBook! is available for $0.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

As part of DC Comics new 52 initiative, Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, Grant Morrison and company announced that they would be releasing future issues on iPad day and date with the traditional print releases. That’s great news for comic book readers, and great first step. Now how about offering collected digital editions simultaneous to trade paperback releases. I’d love Absolute digital editions of Watchman, Dark Knight Returns, Planetary, All Star Superman, and the list goes on.

And hopefully Marvel is paying super attention to this as well.

Video after the break.

[BleedingCool.com via SuperManofSteel, 9to5Mac]

Disney has launched another gem into the App Store, the Disney Comics app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

The Disney Comics app is your portal for all your favorite Disney comics. Download the app and search for your preferred character to enjoy a new adventure every time. Different reading modes let you Read the comic on your own, Activate auto-play, or Tap into the panels to move throughout the page. From Lightning McQueen to Buzz Lightyear, TRON to Rapunzel — and, of course, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and their friends — all the stars of Disney come alive on your mobile device, one comic panel at a time!

The app is a universal binary and is a free download. Some of the comics are free however most cost an additional $0.99 per issue or $3.99 bundles are available too. This is all done through in-app purchase.

If you’re planning a summer road trip or long haul flight, this app could be worth every penny if it keeps the kids occupied. Let us know what you think of the app if you decide to pick it up!

[Free – iTunes link]

Have an iPad and curious which are the best, most must-have reading apps you need to check out? Want to really get the most out of that big 9.7-inch screen? Well read on for TiPb’s top 5 most recommended readings apps for your iPad.

Note: Many of the reader apps are free but individual books, issues, etc. are available via in-app purchase. Those prices vary.

eBook readers: Kindle for iPad

Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader for iPad isn’t as good looking as Apple’s iBooks but simply has the largest library of titles and the most cross-platform support on the market. If you’re looking for a book chances are you’ll find it for the Kindle app, and if you buy it you’ll be able to read it on iPhone, iPad, Kindle devices, and other smartphones. Better still, if you stop reading it on one device, thanks to WhisperSync you can pick up right where you left off on another device. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iBooks from Apple which supports PDF, bookmarking, highlighting, and picture books. [Free - iTunes link]
• Stanza, purchased by Amazon is a favorite of those who like open, free eBooks and like to roll their own as well [Free - iTunes link]

Magazine readers: Zinio

Since neither Apple nor anyone else has been able to provide a real, multi-publisher iTunes-like experience for magazines, it’s hard to pick one app as the best. Zinio at least comes close, with support for a wide variety of magazines across a wide array of devices. We’re still waiting for our next-generation iMags but this will hold traditionalists over until we get there. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• Unfortunately, as mentioned, the iPad magazine market is a mess, with tons of apps from tons of publishers, mostly just selling repackaged InDesign exports. If there’s a magazine you love, search the App Store for it and there’s a good chance you’ll find an app for it, including everything from New Yorker to Popular Science to People.

Newspaper readers: Press Reader

Press Reader is much like Zinio, an attempt to provide a one-stop shop, in this case for newspapers. It boasts 1700 international papers in its library. Again, we’re still waiting for Apple to pick up the subscription ball with an iNews-type solution, but in the meantime Press Reader gets the job done. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• The good news is, there are a lot of individual iPad newspaper apps. The bad news is there’s a lot of individual iPad newspaper apps. Inarguably most of the big names are there — Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today — but just not in any organized manner. So, once again, you’re left to search the App Store for your favorites.

Comic book readers: Comics

Comics by comixology is the closest thing to a unified comic books store on iOS. It helps that they also make the Marvel, DC, and Image apps using the same engine, but their own Comics apps is the only place to get stuff from all those publishers all in one place. The experience is the same across comics, Marvel, DC, and Image — browse or search for books, download free samples, buy issues. You create an account, so you can access your library from other devices, like iPhone as well. Unfortunately some storylines don’t have all issues available, and there are no bundled “trade paperback” style purchases… yet. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• Comic Viewer is for those who prefer to move their own CBZ and CBR files over to iPad. [$4.99 - iTunes link]
• Stanza for iPad also works with comic book files-ish. The dedicated readers are better but if you’re into multitaskers and are already using Stanza for eBooks, no you’re good to go [Free - iTunes link]

Web readers: Flipboard

Flipboard takes all the stuff you care about — articles and pictures shared by your Facebook and Twitter friends along with the latest relevant headlines and presents them, with content and social comments, in a gorgeous, tactile iPad interface. A recent update has even added Google Reader support for RSS. You can customize it to your hearts content and share your own comments back. It’s the closest we’ve come yet to a communal magazine. [Free - iTunes link]

• Reeder for iPad is a great way to keep up with your RSS news feeds. [$4.99 - iTunes link]
• Instapaper lets you save web articles to read later in a cleaner format. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPad reader apps to get you going. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPad App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

iVerse already has an iPhone app that lets you get and read digital comics on the go but, like many of us, when they saw Steve Jobs holding up that shiny new 9.7″ multitouch screen, they wanted their comics on the iPad.

Not content with simply upscaling their existing app, however, they built a new one from scratch:

“We really wanted to create a traditional comic book reading experience on this device.” said Mr. Murphey. “You know, just because we can do all kinds of crazy things with the technology doesn’t necessarily mean we should.”

They’ve also answered some long-standing reader demands, including zoom and preview images. Content comes from Marvel, Ape Entertainment, Archaia, BOOM! Studios, IDW Publishing, titles from Image Comics creators, but no sign of DC yet (for shame!), and we’re not clear how much is available from which publisher yet either (for shame industry!).

The best news?

Long time users of iVerse Comics will have the ability to download new, high resolution, iPad files of their previously in-app-purchased comics for no additional cost. By the hoary hosts indeed!

Video after the break!

iPad Preview – iVerse Comics from Michael Murphey on Vimeo.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, with the iPad arriving in stores and on doorsteps in just a few weeks, Apple is still “scrambling” to secure content deals for their magical and revolutionary new device. Why?

Apple hasn’t yet reached a deal with many major TV producers on the price cut, these people said. Some are concerned a price cut could hurt their existing businesses, these people said, including jeopardizing the tens of billions of dollars in subscription fees they are paid by cable and satellite companies for their traditional TV networks.

At the same time, some magazine and newspaper publishers said they are hamstrung by several factors that could delay the apps they are developing for the iPad from being ready by the time of the device’s release.

iBooks is the exception, but is it because book publishers are smarter, more desperate for the digital age, or just softened by existing devices like the Kindle? 9to5Mac provides our favorite answer to why TV and other companies aren’t racing to embrace the iPad: they’re self-destructively crazy (via the Viacom vs. Youtube lawsuit):

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Dear Hollywood, hire some young, new-media savvy executives, sign deals with Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. Give us your content, your TV shows, movies, magazines, newspapers, comic books, and everything else at a fair price and under fair terms, and we’ll give you our money with ridiculous abandon. Everyone will be happy. B’okay?

Could Apple’s still unannounced, non-existant (for consumers anyway) iTablet be the ultimate comic book reader? Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Apple aficionado, and Sheldon-esque comic book lover Andy Ihnatko suggests just that. When writing about LongBox, which seeks to do for comics what iTunes did for music (i.e. bring a fractured, self-destructive, myopic industry kicking and screaming into the 21st century), he says:

I’m pretty sure that Apple is entering into a formal alliance with LongBox. When I asked Hoseley about what kind of partnerships the company is forming, he spoke vaguely of what was taking up most of his time at the moment: a lengthy and complicated agreement with a seriously large company operating in the media space.

I pressed him for more details while on the record. Rantz would only hint that this specific company had received high-profile coverage in both the Engadget and Gizmodo blogs in the previous week.

Would I love to have read Planetary #27 on a gorgeous capacitive multi-touch display? Absolutely. Would the next logical step be dynamic content a la Watchman motion comic? Absolute-lier! Do we expect to see Steve Jobs hold up an iTablet in January, clearly showing the latest issue of Ultimate Avengers, Captain America in tight-focused frenzy? Who knows at this point, but the comic industry will go the way of the dinosaur if they don’t adopt an iTunes-like online distribution method and soon, so as much as some of us want it, they need it.

The iPhone already has Comics, with a lot of independent content. Marvel and DC, where are you?

(Tangential – Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest shareholder and Disney just bought Marvel.)

[via MacBreak Weekly. Photoshop above yet again a homage in honor of Windows 7 launch day!]

Comics [$0.99 - iTunes link] serves as both an iPhone formatted comic book store and reader. (Think iTunes but for comics). comiXology was kind enough to give us a preview of the app, which will be officially announced tomorrow at the San Diego Comic Con, home of all things good and geeky in the ‘verse.

First, Comics costs $0.99 because it uses in-app purchases to allow you to buy paid content (more comics). Apple says “free apps stay free”, so anything using in-app purchase has to be a paid app. Hence, the minimal price. On to the app.

There are multiple ways to find comics, featured, free, top 25, and browse/search. Lots of information and a few preview images are provided for each, along with a link to buy print versions, which opens a WebView to Amazon.com with an option to move it into Safari.

A good amount of free comics available — I went immediately for Robert Kirkman’s excellent Invincible. You need to set up an account before you can download comics, but it’s fairly quick (it does ask your birthdate, presumably for age-based ratings reasons). Once you’ve set up your account, you can download away. It took me 25 seconds over Rogers 3G to get a comic. Not bad.

A tutorial walks you through the “guided” mode of comics reading, and then away you go. It took me a second to get used to the animated way in which Comics takes you through panels, but it works well. You can turn to landscape when wanted, or disable rotation if it bothers you.

Of course, there’s no Marvel (think Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man) or DC (Batman, Superman) titles to be found, and for that I blame the same kind of slow thinking that long plagued music and still plagues other media to some extent.

It does give the independents a little room to shine, however.

Note: The developers are currently reporting problems with in-app purchases and the iTunes servers behind them, but say they’re working with Apple to resolve them. In the mean time, the free comics are all working just fine.

If you’re a comics fan, and you give Comics a try, let us know how you like it!

Tons of screen caps after the break!

SNIKT! How appropriate that CrackBerry Kevin SMASH! was homage’d straight from the pages of Hulk vs. Wolverine, as it seems from the Evil-Comic above that everyone’s favorite Canadian mutant maniac might just be heading his way soon.

Remember: he’s the best there is at what he does, even if what he does isn’t very nice… to multi-touch smartphones, bub.

(True geeks are free to make their own Storm jokes here).

[via excaliburca on Twitter]

Yeah, let the speculation continue! No sooner did we blog about Apple’s rumored March 24th Special Event being an iPhone 3.0 or even iTablet into, then we came across this wonderful article up at Newsarama.com featuring uber-Apple tech journo, Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times. Most tantalizingly:

“There’s something I keep hearing, and I don’t think I’d rank it as high as a rumor, but it’s an interesting story that I keep hearing, that for awhile, trucks loaded with books would arrive at a loading dock on the Apple campus, and offload big, big, big, big, huge load of books, and then the trucks would leave empty. And Apple does not have a 100,000-book employee library there on the Apple campus,” Ihnatko said. “So one is prone to believe that they’re doing something with these books, such as turning them into text for some purpose we can only guess at. There’s been a long-standing rumor that Apple has been silently preparing to open a bookstore on the iTunes store, and they want to make sure that they have a very large stock of electronic titles when they do open.

The entire article is definitely worth a read, and given the way print media, with associated delivery and distribution costs is going, an Apple-fronted e-Book reader would be good news. An Apple and iTunes Store front e-Comic Book reader could save Marvel and DC from their own current myopia as well.

Of course, even the mighty Amazon has failed to show there’s a mainstream market for the Kindle yet (we don’t believe they’ve even hit the magic 1 million sold mark yet, have they?) and Apple has never been one to lead markets, only consumer-ize them, so we’ll see…

Meantime, who wants one?

Listen up, true believers! TUAW is reporting that Marvel Comics, home to the X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, and Spider-Man has announced at the New York Comic Con:

their intention to sell “In-Motion” comic books through the iTunes Store. According to Marvel, the In-Motion comics go beyond the paperback books with animated panels and voice-over work from popular actors. Sounds like something that could be a lot of fun on an iPod touch or iPhone.

New stuff? Old stuff? In between? Will we be getting the heights of the Phoenix Saga and Astonishing X-Men or the dregs of Secret Invasion and Ultimatum? The tears of the Boy Who Collected Spider-Man, the cheers of Nextwave, or the jeers of Hulk Red?

Grab your Extremis kit, pop your admantium claws, sling some webs (any size!), and let us know just how exactly Marvel needs to SMASH! it up in iTunes!

iXcelsior!