Tag Archives: Kindle

Digital Flash Collections at ComiXology and Google Play

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DC has added dozens of digital collections to ComiXology and Google Play, including four Flash books:

  • Move Forward
  • Rogues Revolution
  • Flash: Rebirth
  • Flashpoint

In the case of ComiXology it’s not a big change, since the individual issues have been online since 2011 (along with a much, much deeper catalog). It just makes it a little easier to buy a complete story, and it looks like it’s slightly cheaper to buy the collection than the individual issues.

In the case of Google Play, it opens the audience up to Android tablet owners who don’t have a dedicated comic book app such as ComiXology or DC’s branded ComiXology app.

DC has a much fuller catalog in individual issues on ComiXology, as well as collections on the Kindle, iBooks and Nook stores. And apparently I missed the fact that individual issues are also available on those platforms as well, and have been since last November.

It’s not clear how much of the back catalog can be found on these sites. I can’t see the iBooks store at all, and Amazon isn’t set up to make it easy to browse a long series. The Nook store does let me look at a series, but only seems to have backissues that were released since early 2013. No sign of the Brightest Day Flash issues, though they have the collections of Dastardly Death… and Road to Flashpoint, and the Wally West issues start at #84 and have a lot of gaps. I suspect if I went back over my weekly release posts, I’d find those gaps are where DC skipped over issues that had already been posted on ComiXology. I’ve spot-checked a few issues I saw (and didn’t see) on the Nook store over at Amazon, and it looks like the same issues are present — and missing — there. I’d guess iBooks probably lines up with that catalog as well.

Kindle DX: A Digital Comics Platform?

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Kindle DXAmazon has announced the Kindle DX, a new version of their e-book reader with a 9.7-inch screen. Unless I’ve got my numbers wrong, that makes it larger than the standard manga page, though not quite as big as the standard American comic book page. And it’s only 1/3 of an inch thick, comparable to a typical trade paperback.

This could be the first e-reader device suitable for simply taking comics formatted for the printed page and transferring them to a tablet. No need to break it down and show one panel at a time like most iPhone or Android comics. No need to zoom and pan. Just transfer the whole page.

Sure, it’s only black and white, but there are plenty of comics produced in B&W, or reformatted for printing in cheap collections like Marvel Essentials or DC’s Showcase Presents series.

Imagine 30 years of Justice League of America or Spider-Man in the space of the latest trade.

The only drawback is the steep price tag: at $489, I’m not picking one up anytime soon.

(Cross-posted at K-Squared Ramblings.)