Comic companies realise that their medium needs to evolve and adapt to new technology.

Marvel realises this as well, hence their recent introduction of exclusive motion comics such as Spider Woman and X-Men, available on iTunes.

Marvel have also surprised me by putting digital versions of comics onto the iPhone app ComiXology. I never thought they'd do this, but would prefer to do their own thing to have complete contol.

However, both of the above formats are unavailable to users in the UK.

Does anyone know why Marvel do this? What have we done to upset them?

Just wondering, like.

Also, what is your opinion on digital comics? The future or a fad?

I've been reading digital comics for years picking up the latest weekly DCP scans of the new Marvel, DC and Image titles every Thursday morning.
I enjoy reading the on my computer but the program I have for my Mac isn't great for comic reading as it's very slow to load.

In the light of the launch of the iPad and with a gazillion other tablets on the way, I thought that it was time for a thread revival.

The best comics app is Comics by Comixology. It has deals in place with many big publishers including DC and Marvel. The Comics app even has a specific DC store which means there's no need to also download DC's Comixology made app. Wide range from costume superhero stuff to gritty contemporary stuff. There's dozens of free mags to read before you even have to buy anything. App also has 'guided view' mode so you can read caption by caption rather than page by page. Particularly useful if viewing on the iPhone. Create an account and all your purchases are stored on their server so even if you wipe your device they'll be there to download again.

The other important apps are Marvel's, also made by Comixology, but with what seems mostly exclusive Marvel content. There's also the IDW app - not made by Comixology. That doesn't have guided view and has far fewer settings. IDW has lots of TV/ Movie franchise comics like Transformers or comic versions of movies. There's other franchise specific apps by Comixology and a few other apps I haven't looked at too closely.

Are comic apps the future? I think they could be. Comic apps are great for discovering comics you wouldn't normally notice. Also the publishers can promote new franchises early by putting them on their app featured section and discounting the price. I've spent a fortune this weekend alone and bought some #1 issues of new franchises. Great stuff and much better than those old scanned versions. Coming to Android as well I think.

Worth a thread revival now that DC is starting to fully concentrate on digital editions of comics for the new generation as they like to call it. It's worth trying out these apps just for the huge number of free samples that publishers offer. Read some crazy, mixed up stuff and it wasn't even Japanese!!

Comixology's iPhone/iPad & Android apps are a good place to start. Apps are free and there's enough free stuff on there to keep you reading for a very long time.

Recommend checking out the DC sneak peeks of the Flashpoint stories - 1 June.

If you go to ebay.co.uk you will find Digital Comics on Disc for sale. I see that there is a Silver Surfer Collection for sale for only £2.50 including Postage and Packing. It looks OK.

That would be one of the slightly less than legal digital download editions that you could get for free if you knew where to look, anyway.

Yup, that's piracy. I know a few places where you can download old comics, but I not gonna advertise them, lol!

It looks like most publishers are on Comixology now aside from Dark Horse?!

In any case what are people's feeling about going digital and physical copies? I bought the Spider-Man mini-series "I'm with Stupid" via the Marvel app and loved how clean it looked on my tablet. I'm contemplating buying "Spider-Man: Blue" too but I also feel like I should buy that as a trade paperback since Spidey is my favourite; I have Year One and The Dark Knight Returns as TPBs and love having them on my shelf.

Dark Horse have their own app, and very good it is too.

https://digital.darkhorse.com/

Marvel also do Digital Comics Unlimited, which is subscription-based rather than pay per book.

http://marvel.com/digital_comics/calendar

I've been spending loads on Comixology. There's always a sale on. One of my best buys was the set of Atomic Robo collections for a total of about fifteen quid. I didn't spend much more than that on Scott Pilgrim, The Walking Dead or Locke & Key. I haven't had so many comics to read since the days of the Comics Warehouse.

Wish Dark Horse, Rebellion and DC's trades were on there too, but probably just a matter of time.

Yeah, I especially like the creator sales where they spotlight a particular writer or artist. I do think the price of regular digital comics needs to come down though...

Although the regular pricing could be lowered I do like that they have regular sales on the Marvel store.

The Dark Horse website does big bundles about once a month or so. 50 issues of a title for $50 dollars.

So there's now an iPad app for the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscription - is this available in the UK? $60 a year for access to 13000 comics including most of the new titles on a six month delay seems like a bargain.

You can only store six issues for offline reading but I'm rarely out of range of WiFi when I have my iPad.

Interesting - are they in HD for iPad 3rd/4th gen?

Oooh.

Not retina quality but pretty good, apparently.

http://io9.com/5989154/marvel-unlimi...ut-now-for-ios

According to the article they scan separately for Marvel Unlimited and Comicology, which is nuts.

(Should have signed up yesterday when there was a Promo code out in the wild that got the annual sub down to 48 bucks.)

I downloaded the iPad app to try out without signing up for a sub. So if you read a comic and select smart panels, that option resets when you open the next comic - I'd prefer if you could set that in some kinda master options, but I couldn't find anything like that. Similarly there are big arrows on screen overlaid on the panel/page which aren't really necessary.

The quality of the scanning seems fine. You can't pinch zoom to check detail and the smart panel isn't anything as sophisticated as it is for some of the modern stuff (of which I'm only really familiar with newish DC and it has been excellent, cinematic even) working more like an automated zoom than anything else.

I'm still mighty interested in subbing after seeing this, despite my misgivings about the interface. There must be thirty comics up for free so if you have an iPad it's a free download and you've nothing to lose trying it. Apparently it's optimized for iOS 6 but I didn't have any problems with my iPad 3 using 5.1ish.

You can't subscribe through the app because I guess they'd lose 30% of the sub that way, so you still have to go to the website.

I have a 60Mb Virgin Media connection so I didn't see any slowdown or pause while downloading the comics I viewed but you can't, as far as I can see, store comics to view offline with the un-subbed app.

Right now I'd say the app is functional but lacking in features. I really hope they actively improve it. I'm currently trying to talk myself out of subbing until I'm sure they make a better job of the app. Marvel was what I read in the early 70s and I'm at that age when nostalgia is a bitch.

Marvel giving away 700 first issues as digital comics:

http://marvel.com/news/story/20260/s...#ixzz2NEn6PYFg

Also available through Comixology, too, though last time I checked it had killed the site... and MSN had labelled all comic fans as "nerds" in an amazingly open-minded news article

I have zero problem with the nerd sobriquet. Reading comics is nerdy by definition.

I don't think so, it's just something that folk generally associate with nerds. My missus reads comics but she's definitely not a 'nerd'!

Reading is the drug, comics are just another delivery system for it.

Yeah, Comixology had to end the sale early as their servers were crippled - people couldn't even access existing non-Marvel sale content that they'd already bought.

I still think Comixology is a great service and I'm huge advocate of digital comics - but this stunt wasn't very well planned and has made them look bad.

They have promised to run the sale again (soon) for those that missed out on the 700 issue 1's.

I managed to grab about 30 odd issues (of stuff I actually wanted to read) before it all went tits up. I never planned on getting all 700, so I wasn't too bothered.

Not just Comixology, it was extremely bad planning from both them and Marvel. The timeframe was much too narrow and it was publicised in mainstream media meaning many more people than normal tried to jump on it.

I think I managed to grab 30-40 or so comics. Some are newish that I've considered recently, others are older comics that I've recently put in one of the 15 or so boxes I've just shoved in my loft - saves me having to dig them out!