Can the iPad spur a comic book revival?
One person鈥檚 鈥渟o what鈥� is another鈥檚 鈥済ee whiz,鈥� and that鈥檚 why comic book publishers are eyeing the iPad as a way to leap over old readership barriers in a single bound. The machine鈥檚 large screen 鈥� which as nothing but a giant iPod Touch 鈥� makes a real difference when it comes to graphic novels and comic strips, in ways where smaller devices fall flat.
The hope behind digital comics, according to one article, is to change the industry鈥檚 focus from collecting comics back to reading them. It could, suggested a publisher in , bring back the days when comics were widely available. They could break free of specialty stores, returning in e-form to a time when they were sold at the old corner store where everyone shopped.
called the new Marvel Comics reader one of the iPad鈥檚 most high-profile launches, but found initial reactions mixed. Comic fans 鈥渟eem to like the idea and the execution, but not the $1.99 price tag on every issue in Marvel's digital storefront,鈥� the article said. As with other forms of e-books, readers complained that more of the savings from online publishing should trickle down to their pocketbooks. And 鈥� not too surprisingly 鈥� comic-store owners were hardly enthused. One told PC World that the technology will endanger his business once digital readers get cheaper and thinner. 鈥淚 hope it's a dismal failure, so here's hoping.鈥�
He doesn鈥檛 have to worry just yet. of the new Marvel comics app called it 鈥渢he closest thing to replicating a readable, holdable comic book page,鈥� but took issue with some layout restrictions and the fact that the comics are not portable: 鈥淲hen you buy them, unlike when you purchase MP3s, you are purchasing them for the iPad only.鈥� The reader is slick and sexy, CNet reviewer Seth Rosenblatt wrote, but 鈥渘ot the digital panacea that comic book readers or publishers have hoped for.鈥�
At least, he wrote, 鈥渘ot yet.鈥�
Rebekah Denn blogs at .
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