A few panels from Matt Fraction and Mike Allred’s FF, Vol. 2 #7, as viewed in the comiXology iPad app.
is doesVideos by VICE
A delightful comiXology promo video.
comiXology is an ideal way to get new comics (virtually every new issue of everything is available for download on the same day it arrives in stores) or back issues (every day, the digitized backlog expands and deepens). All the major publishers have embraced comiXology, but so have a ton of smaller presses. If you cherish memories of certain DC, Marvel, or Image back-issues that haven’t been collected in paperback or hardcover, you’ll often be delighted to find them accessible to you for the first time since you pulled them off the racks.
And get this: although the iPad is the ideal place for comiXology downloads, they have a killer way to read comics on your iPhone. It’s this thing called Guided View, where comiXology staffers select the best way to navigate panel-by-panel, with zooms and pans as appropriate. It’s hard to describe, and it totally shouldn’t work, but it totally does work.
Comic Zeal
Wanna bend the law a little bit during your summer-comics adventure? Look no further than Comic Zeal, a DRM-hating pirate’s best friend. But be forewarned: unlike the astoundingly simple comiXology, Comic Zeal has a bit of a learning curve.
- Step 1: Download the app.
- Step 2: Hop onto any torrent site and hunt down a .cbr or .cbz file of a given comic or collection.
- Step 3: After you’ve successfully downloaded your pirated, DRM-free comics, plug your iPad in and head to iTunes.
- Step 4: Go to the “Apps” tab for your iPad and scroll down to the list of synced apps. Find Comic Zeal.
- Step 5: Click and drag your pirated files into the Comic Zeal section in the list.
- Step 6: Open up Comic Zeal on your iPad and follow the tutorial on how to sort your comics within the app.
- Step 7: Read so, so, so many comics.
In addition to enabling illegal behavior and being a wee bit complex, Comic Zeal has a few other disadvantages. For one, there’s nothing like Guided View, meaning the app is mostly useless on your iPhone. For another, pirated comics are often a hassle to find, sometimes have low image resolution, and occasionally have a page or two missing or out of order.
That said, there’s no better way to read out-of-print classics. For example, Comic Zeal enabled me to finally read Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman’s game-changing 1980s epic, Marvelman—also known as Miracleman (look, it’s complicated)—which has been unavailable for decades.
A page from the ridiculously out-of-print Marvelman #15, as seen in Comic Zeal.
It’s also great for manga and other stuff with international copyright issues. Another thing: If you, like me, feel that you’re justified in pirating something that you have already purchased in another form, Comic Zeal can help you relive your past. For example, I’ve torrented a ton of early Ultimate Marvel comics and other superhero nonsense I bought back in the day and own in single issues at my mom’s house.
One more thing: Comic Zeal is the perfect way to read the entire more-than-2,000-page-long manga of Akira, which is unavailable for legal download but way too large to physically handle in its six massive printed editions. Seriously, Akira is so great. It’ll blow your mind.
Kindle
Yes, that Kindle! This is far and away the least-good of the three apps for satisfying your comics craving. Amazon has digitized a ton of collections and graphic novels, which is nice. However, there’s no zooming capability and there are weird white borders around the edge of each page.
That said, sometimes it’s the only option available to you. For example, if you want to bone up on Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu’s Superman: Birthright—one of the primary sources for this summer’s The Man of Steel—you can only get it in a collected digital edition via the Amazon Kindle store.
A page from Superman: Birthright, as (somewhat crappily) viewed in the Kindle iPad app.
Okay! You are now fully equipped to waste countless summer hours blitzing through the world of four-color fantasy. And hey, if you’re feeling slightly guilty for immersing yourself in comics instead of picture-free novels this summer, don’t forget the greatest part of tablet reading: you can just hold the iPad really close to your face on the subway and make sure most people can’t see what you’re looking at.
@abrahamjoseph
