I have found one of the most commonly used functions of my iPad is reading comics. The iPad is a great comics reader and with a decent selection of comic reader/publisher apps. Today I am going to talk about some of the publisher comic apps. Apps like ComicZeal (apps that allow you to import your own comics), I’ll cover at a later date.

Marvel

Marvel iPad

Marvel offers an amazing service called Digital Unlimited that gives access to thousands of constantly updated comics from the Marvel catalog. Some fairly new, some old, but a great and large selection. The usual price is $60 for a yearly subscription, but can be found for less if you do a little coupon hunting. This is such a great service, so whats the problem? Digital Unlimited is currently not available on the iPad. Marvel’s iPad app instead relies on a pay-per-comic model. Most comics cost $1.99 with 3-4 FREE comics that are updated fairly frequently. I believe the limitation is due to the Digital Unlimited section being flash based and of course the iPad and flash are currently incompatible.

The reading experience is a good one. You can of course pinch to zoom and page left/right, but you can also use panel-by panel navigation. Double clicking anywhere on the page will take you into panel-by panel navigation mode. This displays one panel at a time and paging left/right displays the next/previous comic panel. Personally I still prefer the page-by-page navigation, although it’s smaller it’s more like reading an actual comic book.

Comics by Comixology

In terms of functionality the app is identical to the Marvel app. That’s because the Marvel app is powered by Comixology. The only difference here is the content. Content includes Marvel comics along with Image, Boom, Dynamite and a host of smaller publishers & self published comics. Prices are generally either $1.99, $0.99 or FREE. The FREE selection is very impressive at 100+ comics at the time or writing.

IDW

If you want to read Star Trek, Transformers or GI Joe Comics this is the app you’ll need. It’s not as polished as the Marvel/Comixology apps. It doesn’t have the panel-by-panel navigation option but that’s not really something I personally miss. I have only used the app to read a couple of the FREE comic offerings, but the comic resolution also appears to be lower than that of the other apps. Also the FREE comics available are pretty weak. At time of writing there were only six FREE comics. Unlike the Marvel/Comixology apps the FREE content never appears to change.

Conclusion

With a great selection of comics (including many FREE), great quality images and an easy to use intuitive interface, the Comixology app is the pick of the bunch. If Marvel allowed their Digital Unlimited subscription on the iPad it would be amazing, but as it stands, buying a comic twice is a terrible option.

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