Marvel Puts Dozens of Graphic Novels on iBookstore

Kickass!! The Marvel app is great, but embedded in iBooks? Even better!

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

This is great. My guess it is going to widen the age audience for books for the iBookstore. Considering marvel material is aimed at younger ones and most of the iBooks on there are more for adults. I reckon apple can make a lot from this seeing that there a lot of kids around who use an iPad

Not really Comixology quality. These appear to be pdf files and nothing more.

Apple could/should sign a deal with Comixology if they want to bring comics into iBooks.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

First thought...very cool. After downloading and giving it a try on a 4S, not so much. Very slow and barely legible text. Can see this working nicely on a retina display iPad though...

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

So I take it these are just as bad as the walking dead books on iBooks? Seems like the dedicated apps are still the way to go. I see walking dead actually has a newsstand edition of its app. That's a pretty neat idea. Would get kind of cluttered with several comics though.

Great stuff!

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

macmastersam said:

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

This is great. My guess it is going to widen the age audience for books for the iBookstore. Considering marvel material is aimed at younger ones and most of the iBooks on there are more for adults. I reckon apple can make a lot from this seeing that there a lot of kids around who use an iPad

Click to expand...

I bet you would be very surprised by the average comic book reader age.

wow, would look great on a retina ipad 3

Cynicalone said:

Not really Comixology quality. These appear to be pdf files and nothing more.

Apple could/should sign a deal with Comixology if they want to bring comics into iBooks.

Click to expand...

Agreed, there needs to be a higher standard for these subscriptions than just PDF scans. Cell to cell navigation or something more intuitive.

Navigation is indeed very basic—this is like a traditional comic book installed on iPad, nothing more. But it’s still convenient compared to dead-tree editions, and you can at least pinch-zoom and pan around. Also, the iBooks page-turn finger motion feels really nice on graphical pages! I’ve never run across that before, only with text.

And the art does seem to be about double-resolution—you can zoom about 200% in portrait and not see significant pixels/blurring/artifacts. So this kind of title should look great on a retina iPad.

Are these truly graphic novels (e.g. the content from 200+ page trade paperbacks) or individual comic issues (usually about 20-30 pages)?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

This will be killer!

macrumorsuser10 said:

Are these truly graphic novels (e.g. the content from 200+ page trade paperbacks) or individual comic issues (usually about 20-30 pages)?

Click to expand...

A little of both. The more expensive ones are full blown graphic novels.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Nothing compares to Comicreadermobi. Disgusting that apple banned it from the app store (for the temerity of keeping USB transfer function)

Best comic reader by a mile and to be honest the only reason I jailbreak anymore.

Nerds rejoice!

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

jayhawk11 said:

macrumorsuser10 said:

Are these truly graphic novels (e.g. the content from 200+ page trade paperbacks) or individual comic issues (usually about 20-30 pages)?

Click to expand...

A little of both. The more expensive ones are full blown graphic novels.

Click to expand...

Exactly. The free one is 120 pages. So that is what? 3-5 issues gathered?

Wow, this is neat! Maybe this is a good reason to get an iPad 3 in a couple of weeks...

Cynicalone said:

Not really Comixology quality. These appear to be pdf files and nothing more.

Click to expand...

It would be cool if the comics were like the Beatles Yellow Submarine book with the animations, sounds, etc.

Cynicalone said:

Not really Comixology quality. These appear to be pdf files and nothing more.

Apple could/should sign a deal with Comixology if they want to bring comics into iBooks.

Click to expand...

I would be hard pressed to hand over money that doesn't have added value over what already exists. This simply represents reading licensed content rather than existing CBR/PDF files in their appropriate readers. As soon as the "frame-by-frame" Comixology technique is applied, I will open my wallet.

starbird said:

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)



Exactly. The free one is 120 pages. So that is what? 3-5 issues gathered?

Click to expand...

No, the free one is a 30 or so page single issue.

Comixology offers a very compelling experience. Something Apple prides itself on. The only thing I could imagine iBooks offering to one up Comixology would be super high-res art for the new iPad 3. From the sounds of things, it ain't happening. Not at this point anyway. Stick with Comixology. Read your comics on other platforms and well as Apple ones with a fantastic user experience (Guided View). They did it right.

skellener said:

Comixology offers a very compelling experience. Something Apple prides itself on. The only thing I could imagine iBooks offering to one up Comixology would be super high-res art for the new iPad 3. From the sounds of things, it ain't happening. Not at this point anyway. Stick with Comixology. Read your comics on other platforms and well as Apple ones with a fantastic user experience (Guided View). They did it right.

Click to expand...

I couldn't have said it better. If it is nothing more then a PDF version, they dropped the ball.

I still by the dead tree versions but I prefer to read them all on my iPad or my MBP. Something about having them all with me where ever I go is what I like the most!!!!

macrumorsuser10 said:

Are these truly graphic novels (e.g. the content from 200+ page trade paperbacks) or individual comic issues (usually about 20-30 pages)?

Click to expand...

To answer my own question, Marvel has published a bunch of true graphic novels -- digital versions of their trade paperbacks, including very well-known titles such as "Marvel 1602", "Infinity Gauntlet", "Earth X", "Secret Wars", etc. Not bad for a start. It's still missing the X-men Phoenix arc, though. Marvel's website has a longer list.

One thing I've found is that page turning and general responsiveness while reading these graphics novels is very slow. Regular books in the iBooks app is quite brisk. I'm guessing it's the extremely high-resolution graphics. I find the readability is much better then in Comixology, where I sometimes have to struggle to read text in the comics. The resolution and detail of the Marvel iBooks is great.

I have a question that is a little off-topic, but related enough that I'm asking it here.
Assuming the new iPad 3 does add a new Retina display, how will that impact viewing the comic files that are currently available on Comixology? Are those files hi-res enough to look good at that resolution, either in full page mode or when using Comixology's Guided View technology?
Any thoughts?