Differently Digital
Okay, I've tried most of the formats now!
Here's my rundown.
First, cell phones. Too small for me. They work for Archie comics and things like that. But I just find it unpleasant.
It's like listening to music through an ear bud held a foot away from your head.
Same for the PSP. Nice selection, but the screen is just not big enough to enjoy the art and layouts. A nice try,
but it doesn't quite work yet.
The Kindle Fire has a nice collection of tpbs from DC not available otherwise. Now we're starting to get there.
It's small, but the interface is smooth and nice, and the features I like start showing up, like enlarge, rotate,
these things separate a nice comics reading experience from a bad one.
The Nook Color is a little better as a comics reader, I think, the interface is slightly nicer and more intuitive.
They have a decent selection of exclusive Marvel tpbs to start and some other editions, too. Nice stuff.
The ipad is my preferred digital reader. It feels the most like reading a physical comic, and some titles look
cleaner digitally than they do on mid-range paper. The DC and Comixology apps are feature rich, without
being difficult to learn.
Here's an important point…I've bought some golden age digital books for a dollar, and they are scanned
so badly it's not fun to read. No rotation, no upsizing, no panel by panel view, no landscaping. That's really
not a fun way to read comics. I much, much, much prefer the professional scanning jobs done correctly.
The ability to isolate a panel, to read in landscape mode, that makes ALL the difference for me. I don't
torrent, I don't go to pirate sites…that's a conversation for a different time. But the pro scans, with the
pan and scan and other features, have spoiled me against the less feature-rich versions.
This brings me to the computer. For some reason, I just don't enjoy reading comics on my laptop and desktop.
I just don't enjoy the experience. Not holding it in my hands, maybe? I don't know, but I avoid it whenever possible.
It's just not like reading a comic at all to me.
SO!
So far, I give the Ipad a B+ for reading comics. It's a fun, convenient and rich way to read them. It's not perfect,
but it's damn good.
The Kindle Fire and NookColor get a B-. Still very good, but screen size is an issue at times.
And those are really the only formats I enjoy reading comics in.
How about you guys?
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