Digital comics, any alternative to Amazon?
Digital comics, any alternative to Amazon?
I live in rural NM, and getting physical comics is a trek. I used to use Comixology, but missed physical books so much I opened a comic and game shop in my small town. The comic side of things failed, my game sales were financing the comics. So after just over a year i cancelled my comic account to focus on the games.
Since then Amazon took over comixology and moved shopping for comics onto Amazon, which after three days of trying to find titles I have decided to explore other avenues.
I know when I was selling comic books marvel had their own app, do all of the publishers have those? Or is Amazon the only name in the game?
I am looking to catch up on Dynamite’s Red Sonya, Marvel’s Conan, Elfquest, anything X-Force, X-23, and probably Firefly. I have not read a comic since my last order came into the shop in January 2020. The news of the new X-23 series is what started to pull me back in again, I did manage to get a subscription to that on Amazon.
It's not strictly speaking legal, but there's an app called Mihon for Android that can scrape "read free online" sites and serve them to you in a neat little UI that lets you make categories and such. It's mostly focused on manga, but it has extensions for western comicbooks as well. I'm currently using it to read through the og Ultimate Spider-Man and Hellboy at the moment.
Outside of Comixology, there's Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite:
https://www.marvel.com/mu-24deadpool
https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com
Obviously both limited to Marvel and DC respectively.
Those are the LEGITIMATE sources. There are other ILLEGITIMATE sources but a) We don't talk about Bruno and b) In my experience, they are full of spam, malware, and .ru domains that can't be trusted.
Yeah. Both great options!
Marvel Unlimited is getting to be pretty fantastic. A few years ago there were big noticeable gaps in key series, and lots of mistakes in ordering of reading lists.
But recently I've been able to choose a character and binge read almost every issue of that character that was ever printed, in pretty close to publication order, with few gaps or misorderings.
DC Universe infinite was also pretty solid last time I tried it, and having streams of many of their animated films (which are each, on average, fantastic) was a very nice addition.
Edit: Anyone know of other comic publishers going this way? I would be happy to chuck some money at Dark Horse or DreamWave (RIP? Or are they back?) or others some months.
These are the legitimate sources for the absolute most recent comics, but I do want to point out that there are a good number of slightly older comics on the Hoopla app, which you can access through your local library. If you want to catch up on some older stuff it's also an entirely legitimate way to do it.
I live in Europe, so my options are a little limited. But I am currently using the marvel app. You can get a subscription and read all that is available, which is a lot. Newer comics lack behind a bit, probably to drive paper sales.
I know there is a similar app for DC, but it is not available here. I read online people think it is lackluster, but again no handson experience. I believe darkhorse comics might have a platform as well.
For me I like to buy paper comics for all non-marvel comics. I do like that a lot more. It draws me in better, and allows me to support smaller shops like the one you had.
Hope you get back into reading. It is a wonderful world!
Global Comix
I'm not a big fan of renting and not owning, but I feel like most of my Marvel Unlimited or DC Infinite subscription is going to the writers and artists to support their making more content. Feels like a Patreon situation, rather than rent seeking.
New content hits Marvel Unlimited so quickly, and there's so much backlog available, that I feel good about keeping the subscription around.
Plus Marvel has lately (and historically) given voices to the stories of folks who I don't think get enough empathy, so I feel good about that too.
I've been reveling in catching up on the House of X and Hellfire Gala and related books.
I'll pick up a bunch of my favorites in collected trade paperback later, too. So I'll still also get to own a copy.
Do you have a library in your area?
Have you gone and gotten a library card?
If so, then you might be able to use Hoopla to have access to more comic book publishers.
Related to the other comments, I read Marvel and DC up until I switched to Hellboy of Dark Horse Comics having wanted to read more indie comics that I currently enjoy now, although I still read physical comics of the Big Two that they have.
They have LOTS of comics with up to six borrows per month enabling you to find what you want.
Maybe you also like manga that they have too?
Because they recently added manga to their repertoire of readable materials although I’ve mainly used Hoopla for reading comics.
I will look into hoopla. But absolutely not a fan of manga.
I totally get that. Manga comes from a country (Japan) with different values than ours.
The same goes for anime, another topic.
I get some like image comics from google play books.