Marvel jump onto the Ipad
Marvel will have their own application for reading comics on the Ipad, and apparently it’s good.
The Ipad goes on sale tomorrow in the US (I think, we Europeans have to
wait a while longer anyway, so I hate you), and for many people, it’s
launch represents the next big step in digital comics, the Iphone is too
small, a Laptop is too cumbersome, but an Ipad… is just right.
And it looks like it may be just right, as Marvel, through Comixology
will have their own app available for purchasing and reading comics.
While there’s been no formal announcement, some
guy at the Chicago Sun-Times has used it, and says it’s ace. (And
I’m pretty sure I’m not being April Fool’d, the article was posted on
March 31st.
The Marvel App — produced by ComiXology — is streamlined and
efficient. They’ve (wisely) avoided any overly-cute metaphors; it
follows the basic template of Apple’s iBookstore. Browse through cover
art, tap a comic to get a synopsis, tap another button to purchase, and
it’s available in your library a minute later.
As with the
iBookstore, the app sinks or swims with the basic experience of reading a
story. Once again, the app succeeds through simple efficiency.
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.
But
this app proves conclusively that comic books have a huge future in
digital and that a comic book fan with an iPad under his arm will never
go hungry for entertainment on another 6 hour flight from Boston to San
Diego.
Cool huh? Now start griping about how Apple sucks and how the Google
Android Pad will be so much better, and that Marvel are shit, and the DC
application will be the best.
Syndicated from The Outhouse – The Greatest Comic Book Website
Posted originally: 2010-04-01 07:39:03
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