Happy Thursday Folks,

This week DC comics finally got on board the digital comics train, and since most big name comic book publishers are now viva-ing the digital revolution, I thought that I would rate each publisher on how they are doing with bringing comics into this new medium. Let’s take a look shall we?

Marvel: The house of ideas has really been pushing the envelope since they went digital a few months back. Marvel was the first publisher to have it’s own dedicated comic book app, as well as having a presence on Comixology, iverse, and Panelfly. Marvel runs it’s app on the Comixology engine, which not only allows readers to go page to page, but panel to panel if they so wish.  The app is also very easy to navigate, with a wide variety of search options to help someone find what they are looking for. The quality of the books in the store is spectacular (especially on the high res display of an ipad). Marvel also allows readers to access the largest online catalog of any comic book publisher, giving readers a cornucopia of choices. most of their downloads are a pretty standard $1.99, but the publisher does offer a large number of free titles to get new readers hooked. The only hiccup that Marvel has had was their rather douchey release of the INVINCIBLE IRON MAN annual digitally on the same day that it came out in print (I went on a rant about this a few weeks ago).

GRADE: A– With a huge catalog, great app, and presence on several other digital purveyors, Marvel has really done a great job of not only embracing digital comics, but making easy for Marvel zombies to do the same.

DC: DC just began their digital comics push this past week, so they are a little late to the game. DC has quickly made up for lost time though, releasing a dedicated DC comics app, which also uses the Comixology engine. DC has also released their digital comics onto the Comixology store proper, as well as making titles available for download on the Sony PSP. While the available catalog is fairly small at the moment, Jim Rood (the man behind the DC digital push) assures fans that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Marvel did the same thing when it came onto the scene, so it makes sense. DC prices their comics at $1.99, $.99, and free, but the free comics available at this point are very limited.

GRADE: B+ DC was late to the party but seem to be doing their best to make up for lost time, still the tardiness and current lack of available issues dings their grade. The comics look good, and are reasonably priced, and with over 80 years of comics to choose from, DC could quickly have more digital comics on the market than anyone else if they wanted to. DC also gets kudos for getting comics onto the PSP, something their rival, Marvel has yet to do.

Image: This publisher was one of the first publishers to go digital, but their situation is a messy one. With each book being owned by different creators, royalties are a bit of a problem, so Image comics are strewn across a variety of different digital comic sellers, which the overall brand quality. As an example, Comixology (which, if you can’t tell has become the big papa of the digital comics world) has 29 Image series, including INVINCIBLE, CHEW, and THE WALKING DEAD, but iverse comics only has six Image titles, the most popular of which is PROOF. Image doesn’t have a dedicated app, but their comics are almost all $.99 per download across the board.

GRADE: C– The lack of a dedicated app really puts Image behind a lot of other publishers. With reading quality dependent on the program that readers may be accessing the books, it’s hard to rate readability. Image has done a good job of keeping their prices low, which does count for something, but they need to catch up to the other big boys.

Boom: These guys went balls-out a few weeks ago, releasing their whole catalog digitally, as well as introducing a dedicated app, using (can you guess?) the Comixology engine. Boom doesn’t have a large catalog, so “the whole catalog” sounds more impressive than it is, but no one else has come close to doing that. Boom also paired with Comixology and iverse to have comics on their sites. Comics will run anywhere from $1.99 to free.

GRADE: B– There just aren’t enough Boom comics yet. However, with titles like IREDEEMABLE, it won’t be long before this company pulls a huge digital market share.

Dark Horse: Going a different route than everyone else, Dark Horse allows readers to download their comics directly from the App store. The quality is fine, but the strictly panel to panel reading is a pain. DH recently began putting their books up for sale with the usual suspects as well, with prices again ranging from $1.99 to free.

GRADE: D+ If for no other reason than originality, but for goodness sake DH, get yourself an app!

IDW: These folks were right behind Marvel in releasing their own dedicated app, which actually runs on an engine other than Comixology (it looks like an iverse engine) . It turns out that this is a mistake, as the zoom feature isn’t nearly so intuitive as the panel to panel functionality that the Comixology app allows. IDW also has distribution deals with digital sellers, and has a fairly large collection of books for sale on line. The prices still run $1.99 and lower.

GRADE: B The lack of a Comixology engine has really hurt their app, but the company has been on the forefront of the digital push, and their extensive online catalog sets them apart from a lot of other publishers.

That’s it for me this week folks. Thanks for stopping in, and don’t forget to check in tomorrow for more supernatural awesomeness from Dr. Cellus.

Welcome to November!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about digital comics. This was inspired by two things; first, I just got an iphone, and it is rockin’ my world. Second, on Friday Marvel comics began making their comics available digitally through a number of sources. You can read more about Marvel’s deal here.

Now, I’ve ranted before on motion comics and webcomics, but today I wanted to talk to all those smart phone holding comic book readers out there about your options for reading comics on the go. There are a number of choices out there, so you all should know what you are getting into.

iVerse: Of all the comic readers available for phone use, iVerse is the cleanest and most professional. The store is simple and easy to navigate, and the reader itself is intuitive to use. For those who need a tutorial, iVerse has videos on it’s website to show how to navigate both the store and reader pages.

Several companies have signed up with iVerse, including Red 5, IDW, and Boom! studios, as well as Marvel. Currently, the company has not decided to produce the iVerse application anywhere other than for the iphone, but press releases state that the company does have an eye towards eventually developing apps for other smart phones. Perhaps most importantly, while the comics themselves may cost you 99 cents or so, the app itself is free.

Comixology: Comixology is also a comic viewer, but the focus for this company less about the reader and more about the comic shop experience. The Comixology app and website both try to give subscribers a more connected feeling than other apps do. With Comixology, subscribers can read and write reviews, create virtual pull lists, read columns,listen to podcasts, and find the local comic book shop. Comixology is also working on a virtual subsciption service, but it’s still in beta testing. The app itself is easy to navigate but the reader is not as good as the iVerse reader, but the browsing capability is better. Comixology is also paired up with Marvel, as well as Vertigo, Aspen, and Top Cow among others. The Comixology app is currently only available for the iphone, but Blackberry and Android versions are on the way. The full app costs $1.99, (as well as the comics themselves) but there is a lite version for free as well.

Panelfly: Another of the companies that Marvel has partnered with, Panelfly is a pretty neat app. Like Comixology, Panelfly gives a community feel, allowing subscribers to rate and review comics, and post their feelings onto facebook and twitter, straight from the app, as opposed to Comixology, where a lot of the features are available from the website. The reader itself is basic, but neat, and the store is well arranged and easy to navigate.

Aside from Marvel, Panelfly doesn’t have a lot of big name publishers in it’s stable yet, with SLG, Antarctic and picturebox being about the biggest names you will find available, but that is sure to change with Marvel signing up. Panelfly, like the other apps I’ve mentioned so far, is currently only available for the iphone. The panelfly app is free, which we all love, and there are a large number of free books available to download.

Comic Zeal: The Comic Zeal comics reader is very different than your other comic apps. The app itself is $3.99, and then there are a number of steps that one has to go through to make the comic books readable on the application itself. The goal of Comic Zeal is to create more of a library effect, like the way people have their music set up in an ipod. This app is still a ways from being something to really think about for on the go comic enjoyment.

Uclick: Uclick’s focus has been creating the best comic book reader available. The difference with Uclick is that there is no app to download, you just download the book you want to read, and Uclick makes the story readable. The approach is great for those who don’t want to be bothered with downloading another app, but for those who want to browse, this is not the way to go. Uclick has partnered with brands like IDW, Mirage, and TOKYOPOP, and is currently available only on the iphone.

Clickwheel: The new kid on the block in the comic reader market, click wheel is still finding it’s place. Clickwheel is pretty standard, nothing spectacular, or terrible about it. The one thing that Clickwheel has that other companies do not is 2000AD, home to stories like JUDGE DREDD.  The company’s biggest drawback is a dearth of big publishers involved. As of right now, Clickwheel is only available for the iphone, but other platforms are being looked into. The app is free.

There are a lot of choices on the market for reading comics from your phone, and the great thing is, you can try most of them out for free. None of these reader apps are exclusive to any particular company which means that you don’t have to go to company A for Marvel, company B for DC. People can choose a reader based on what they want most out of the comic book experience, and that is what is so neat about all of these companies, they all offer readers something different. I am sure that eventually there will be one app that becomes the standard, but this moment, with the amount of choices available, the winners are comic book fans.

Thanks for stopping by folks, see you tomorrow.