At Gearlog, Brian Heater demonstrates the dangerous, growing threat of the Kindle, as he easily uses the “import .pdf” function to load WATCHMEN, X-MEN, and even Jimmy Corrigan into the device.

Something must be done…and fast!!!

1 COMMENT

  1. And I’m thinking, wow, that looks pretty good. It’s not the best pic, but I can see the art and read the text. If I had a Kindle and Marvel or DC had a delivery plan for their monthlies, I would be into this.

  2. I’ve got a Kindle, and trust me, it ain’t made–yet–for this. The images are not bad, but the word balloons are going to be much too small to comfortably read.

    Try buying (or at least getting the free execrpt of Goodbye, Chunky Rice) for an example. The hardware and software are not quite there yet, but yes, it’s on the horizon.

  3. I’ve seen the future of digital comics and it has absolutely noting to do with the Kindle. That said there are authorized Kindle editions of Maximum Ride, City of Glass (!!!!!!!!), Japan Ai and other works available for download to the Kindle–and they look absolutely godawful on it. Publishers, don’t go there!

  4. Add this to the Paper Comic DeathWatch while we’re at it…

    Digitimes relays a Commercial Times report that Taiwan-based Wintek will supply touch panels for “Apple’s new netbook” (or possible iTablet) due in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

    There have been long-running whispers that Apple has been working on a true “sub” notebook or (iTablet) which may correspond to these rumors. This description and time frame are aligned with the touchscreen tablet that AI and 9to5 have mentioned in the past.

  5. The challenge will be getting a quality hi-res color screen on a device at a price point that will drive the sells of whatever unit. I mean, the Kindle is north of 300 bucks as it stands, and it doesn’t handle color at all or graphics particularly well.

    To the comment that manga is ready made for this device – this was not true for the first generation Kindle. Though the material is black and white – the screen still has to render all of the tone work, and the first Kindle did a lackluster job (at best) of this.

    It will be really interesting once you do have the next generation of devices, not only for comics, but newspapers and magazines as well. More print media looking for distribution outlets outside of the web.

  6. And this is bad because . . . ? (unless that was sarcasm at the end of that post!)

    IMHO, the more outlets for comics the better. Though of course, I love my b/w comics, so I would totally read them on a Kindle. :)

  7. Of course the only way to save print comics, hell anything on print, is to destroy the internet! Who’s with me!? We’ll become internet terrorists! Seriously though, this pandora is out of the box and can’t be undone so we all have to find ways to adapt.

  8. “There have been long-running whispers that Apple has been working on a true “sub” notebook or (iTablet) which may correspond to these rumors.”

    Apple has said time and time again, they are not willing to compete on price so forget anything that will cost less than double the kindle.

    “it doesn’t handle color at all or graphics particularly well. ”

    yeah, hopefully SOMEONE will come up with something…

    ,

    ;-)

  9. I think we all know it has nothing to do with quality, and everything to do with market share and a profitable business model.

    Oprah was raving about Kindle ( kindling? burning wood?) and I’m sure lots of them flew off the shelves as a result of her endorsement.

    I predict the next in the chain of events will be the “Kindle-only” book exclusives.

  10. I love my kindle and pray for the day that I can get one that can download and display comic books in all their glory. I’ve pretty much quit buying them because of the expense and amount of space they take up, but I sure do miss them…

  11. Re:# Calvin Reid Says:
    03/9/09 at 3:23 pm

    I’ve seen the future of digital comics and it has absolutely noting to do with the Kindle. That said there are authorized Kindle editions of Maximum Ride, City of Glass (!!!!!!!!), Japan Ai and other works available for download to the Kindle–and they look absolutely godawful on it. Publishers, don’t go there!

    So Clavin, you’ve seen the future of digital comics? Clue us in!

  12. I have to agree with Terry up at the top there. I would definitely be down for getting Marvel or DC (or Image or Dark Horse or IDW) monthlies on an electronic tablet. Introduce color and a higher resolution and it could reinvigorate the periodical market. With an iTunes-like portal, you could get individual issues, sets (like all Vertigo books) or even custom recommendation lists like people make on Amazon (say, “Best Revisionist Superhero monthlies”).

    While comic book stores might have to restructure, something tells me that a lot of them wouldn’t mind dealing more in collections and graphic novels, and somewhat diminishing of the weekly dump of thousands of 32-page comics.

    Might seem pie-in-the-sky for now, but those tablets, including that very promising Plastic Logic one mentioned above, are just going to get cheaper and better; let’s hope someone figures out how to push periodicals onto them.

  13. The key to getting comics on the Kindle would be to do something similar to what is being done on the iPhone by iVerse. You have to limit the number of panels on the screen and perhaps have them viewable by turning the Kindle on it’s side instead of the normal manner. Simply importing a PDF isn’t going to work. iVerse or whoever does the adaption of the comics breaks things down quite a bit. I think one issue ends up being 130 or so screens. That’s on panel at a time I think. With the Kindle’s clearly bigger viewing area you could up that to two or perhaps three at a time depending what is going on. Splash pages would be out of the question.