Andy Ihnatko gets a review iPad (lucky bastard) and discovers comiXology’s Marvel iPad app ready and waiting to change the world.
If you’re a purist who needs to see the whole page at once, you can hold the iPad in portrait mode and flip through the story as you would with a paper comic. You can zoom in and out as you wish, but though the iPad screen is smaller than a standard comic page (I measure it as 7.5”, compared to a comic’s 10”) it’s still crisp and readable when scaled down. Turn the iPad on its side, and a new viewing mode becomes available. In iBooks, tapping the left and right sides of the screen turns pages. In the Marvel app, it “moves the camera position” forward and backwards through the story, snappily zooming in and out through the “units” of the page, highlighting moments of dialogue or action.
Ihnatko is pretty clear that this is the game changer:
One thing you can take home right now: the iPad is going to finally let the monster out of the longbox. This is only the first fully-functional comics reader I’ve seen on the iPad and yet it emphatically validates the credibility of digital readers. It should encourage, inspire and motivate all other publishers to follow suit. If it doesn’t, maybe you’re in the wrong hobby or working in the wrong industry.
And he’s not the only one, in a near-orgasmic iPad review by Xeni Jardin she’s bullish on the Marvel app (from whence the picture accompanying this review came):
the spectacular, game-changing Marvel Comics app (crisp, lucid art, the ability to navigate frame-by-frame, rendering spoilers down the page obsolete),
We understand there are some videos of the app in action floating around as well, but we’re blogging from 35,000 feet in the air, and can’t watch ‘em. But it seems clear you can look at previews, subscribe, read the whole damn page at once and do other things that make this native and intuitive.
Kudos to comiXology and Marvel for belling the cat, or riding the tiger or whatever metaphor you want to use. Show us your digital strategy. Shit just got real.
Meanwhile, DC still is nowhere to be seen in this or any plataform (all the iPhone usual suspects & LongBox & Graphic.ly) in order to make his catalogue Digital.
Btw, Graphic.ly will also have Marvel Comics. How do i know? Well, a user in the public alpha is named ‘Marvel’ and he/or she was reading and testing two Marvel digital cómics: Captain America 15 & 17.
Oh, i must notice there’s no Marvel Comics available (yet) in their store or announce at that respect. I posted it (in Spanish with captures):
http://portal42.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/primicia-mundial-comics-marvel-en-graphic-ly/
And yeah, the shit just got real.
I’m gonna sound like a pedant here, but it seems to me that the page remains intact with this presentation. Now, a two-page spread, that goes away. And for 99% of all comics, that’s just fine. I can’t recall too many really meaningful two-page spreads in the last couple years of comics (my last one would be in SEAGUY or THE FILTH). In most magazine spreads, you have an ad on the facing page anyways, again, not a huge loss. Though placing ads will become more interesting with this new platform.
Good for Marvel for taking a big step on their part.
How recent will the comics be and will they be for international users too?
Now imagine being able to subscribe directly via the iPad, a bit like a podcast
Someone really needs to poke DC on this – at this point it’s just plain embarassing.
Mario, ComiXology recently put all his Marvel Catalogue available outside the US. I hope the Marvel iPad App will do the same.
how recent are they, Alberto?
Go here to check:
http://www.comixology.com/digital/
A mix of current and silver. Not very comprehensive, but some good stuff up there. 2 bucks an issue.
This is just in: The Marvel Comics App is ALSO for the iPhone/iPod Touch….and is available right now!!!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/marvel-comics/id350027738?mt=8
Working overseas. At least here in Spain. Go digital!
Comic Zeal is another reader app that is now available for the iPad: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/26/photos-of-comic-zeal.html
“I can’t recall too many really meaningful two-page spreads in the last couple years of comics (my last one would be in SEAGUY or THE FILTH)”
Batwoman, or really anything by JH Williams III. I get your point, but I think having pages next to each other is part of the comics experience and I’m glad the ipad lets that happen.
Get back to me when they are day and date with print.
Content wise the comic companies continue to be pretty terrible. Of course at least they have something, unlike DC.
No wonder the scans continue to flourish. one would have thought comics would have learnt the lessons of other media.
“Andy Ihnatko gets a review iPad (lucky bastard) and discovers comiXology’s Marvel iPad app ready and waiting to change the world.”
Wait a minute. I was told in the 90’s that CD ROMs were going to change the world. I can’t be the only one who remembers that. What happened there?