Almost every major comic from Marvel, DC, and all the independents, is available digitally on the same day that its paper equivalent appears in comic book shops. However, in the past couple of years that dam has burst. This artificial scarcity was an attempt to prop up the often-precarious businesses that still form the bulk of comic sales. In the early days of digital comics, publishers were reluctant to release their digital issues at the same time they hit local comic-book stores. It’s worth serious consideration for dedicated Marvel Zombies.Įven if the iPad is a nigh-perfect comic-reading device, and its comics apps are all perfectly good, the whole thing falls down if there are no comics to read. For the cost of 20 or so brand-new digital comics, you can mainline thousands classic Marvel comics for an entire year. If you just want to read through back issues of classic Marvel comics, and don’t really care about what’s happened in the past couple of years, it’s an interesting option. But there’s unlimited access to more than 10,000 individual comics. Like Netflix streaming, you won’t find hot new releases on Marvel Unlimited. Originally launched in 2007 on the desktop (and requiring Adobe Flash), it’s now an iOS app.įor $10 per month or $60 for a year, Marvel Unlimited is like Netflix for (Marvel) comics.
Marvel Comics offers a unique approach to reading digital comics: A subscription service called Marvel Unlimited. Marvel Comics Marvel Unlimited lets you read older comics for one subscription price. It’s easier to pan, zoom, and navigate through a comic using the Comics app than it is to use Kindle or iBooks apps, but the gap is narrowing. It’s nice to see publishers trying to reach casual comics readers via mainstream bookstores, but the reading experience is better in Comixology’s Comics app, which was purpose-built for reading comics. (These bookstores are now also beginning to offer individual issues, not just trade paperbacks, if you prefer to keep everything you read within the iBooks or Kindle app.) But they’re also available where regular books are sold: on Apple’s iBookstore, Amazon’s Kindle Store, the Google Play bookstore, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store. You can buy many of these trade-paperback-style collections, sometimes at a discount over buying the individual issues, via Comixology. We now see that trend paralleled in the world of digital comics.
#Best comic book reader windows download#
Just as your Amazon Kindle ebook purchases are available across any device with a Kindle app, all your Comixology purchases are available for download and re-download at any time from any device running the Comics app and viewable on the Web. If you buy them on a Nexus 10, you can read them on the Web. If you buy them on the Web, you can read them on an iPad. One of the best things about Comixology’s approach is that the company keeps track of all your purchases regardless of where you made them. You can purchase a comic directly within the app, or read comics you’ve purchased separately via Comixology’s website. The Comics app (in all its forms) provides a storefront that’s inspired by iTunes and the App Store, with a showcase for featured comics, as well as lists of new and popular items.
(You can also buy and read comics directly on its website.) Comixology is also the company behind the official Marvel and DC Comics apps, which are just relabeled versions of the Comics app.
#Best comic book reader windows windows#
The best source for these single-issue comics is a company called Comixology, which makes an app called Comics for iOS, Windows 8, and Android. To this day, the major comics publishers still produce these issues-though they cost $3 or $4 now instead of the 25 cents I (okay, my mom) paid for my first comic. This is what my mom always called a “funnybook,” and it’s what I remember purchasing from a supermarket spinner rack as a kid. Traditionally, comics were published monthly in small, flimsy issues.