Webware

There's no question that comic books and magazines will eventually have a portable platform suited to them, just as the iPod took nearly four years to reach a saturation level as the de facto portable music player.

The Kindle 2 might have been that device, had Amazon found color e-ink to be cost-effective. For now, though, we're stuck with struggling innovations, and iVerse Media has made a big push to get theirs out.

A photo of the Hexed cover as it appears on the G1 screen.

(Credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET Networks)

Earlier this month, just in time for WonderCon 2009, the big comic book and media convention in San Francisco, iVerse launched its comic book-reading app for Android, following on the heels of its iPhone app that debuted in November of last year.

The thought of cramming the detail-rich comic book page onto the tiny touchscreen of a smartphone seems ridiculous, because it is. iVerse solved the problem by chopping comics into panel-size chunks.

On both Android and the iPhone, you slide your finger across the screen to move on to the next panel. Slide it in the other direction to move back. Reading the story is surprisingly clear and clean, and although it may seem counter-intuitive, there should be no concerns about eyestrain from squinting because it's one panel, presented in high resolution.

From there, the Android and iPhone apps diverge in functionality, though the features remain largely the same. I tested the Hexed No. 1 comic for both the iPhone and Android.

I really enjoy Web-based comic strip tools. I once had ambitions to be a comic illustrator, although I lost interest about the same time I discovered video games. I still enjoy a good doodle here and there, which is where sites like Toonlet can offer a great deal of fun for the creatively inclined. Toonlet is a comic strip builder. We've covered several others like it before, although it's somewhere between that build-your-own Simpsons character maker and Mr. Picassohead. You're given a wide (and I do mean wide) array of body parts to fit together, letting you create your own Franken-comic book character.

The Toonlet editor lets you pick from a pretty big array of items. Seen here is my attempt at recreating John Bon Jovi in days or yore.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The character-building tool runs in Adobe Flash and is set up to let you create your own reoccurring strip with characters built right in the engine. You can fine-tune each character off of a set of emotions, which lets you quickly dial in a preset to match the situation when back in the strip-creation screen. This helps you avoid having to go in and tweak every body part or facial expression if you're feeling lazy, although you can still jump back in to make edits if you're looking for a higher level of control.

What's interesting about Toonlet compared with some of the other comic strip builders is that each strip is set up like a forum post. Other people can reply with their own strips, and with a quick glance you can view the original and replies in the order they were posted. It makes it an exploratory process, and even the smallest text response requires some level of creativity.

I don't see Toonlet replacing a solid foundation in illustration techniques (since you're using other people's art), but it sure is fun to play with. It also manages to pack a whole lot of customization into a small package. Going forward I'd like to see Toonlet add a way to upload your own creations into the character builder, but it's already got more than enough items in there to quell most folks' thirst for body parts for the time being.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Related: Comeeko is the best Web 2.0 site in the history of the universe

Warning: This will be addictive. Earlier today I read about Comeeko on ShinyShiny, and let's just say I haven't gotten much else done at the office for quite some time. (Sorry, editors.) Comeeko is a fun and super-easy way to arrange your photographs into comic book panels and then share them with your friends. It's highly Ajax-y: we're talking drag-and-drop functionality, easy uploads, and the like. You can't get up to a particularly high resolution (i.e. to print, or to order prints) but Comeeko makes it easy for you to share it on a blog, forum, or MySpace profile.

This is not for serious electronic comic artists who want to create a legitimate storyboard. Comeeko is way too limited for that. Rather, this is a way for you to turn your online photos into a dorky comic-style display. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun and a great procrastination tool. And maybe if it catches on, the site will add a bit more functionality.

When I was a kid, I had ambitions of becoming a legendary comic author like Stan Lee. The one thing holding me back from that dream (aside from my poor drawing skills) was distribution--how was I going to get people to look at my creations? HyperComics attempts to solve that dilemma for today's wanna-be Lees, with a free service that lets you browse and share amateur comic books.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

HyperComics uses a flash-based browser to navigate and explore entire comic books. There are basic zoom and page navigation controls, along with a toggle that lets you switch between one and two page views. At first glance, it appears easy to use, although to move around the page you need to maneuver a small highlighting box as opposed to just dragging on the image. This can be a real pain, especially if you have a small monitor or are running at a low resolution. There is however a cool page-turn effect, complete with flutter. Tragically, even that can't make reading comics on the site fun. Some elements don't scale well, leading to some jaggy images and unreadable text unless you zoom in really close.

HyperComics is tied to a software program called Comic Book Creator, the application you need to use to create files for the site. You can't just send image files (JPEGs or PDFs) to the site. The Creator program usually costs $30, but it's free to the first 5,000 people who sign up and post work to HyperComics. In the meantime, you can use a trial version to upload, but it lacks some of the more advanced features. Either way, it's a 172MB download, which is on the large side for people with slow connections.

There's a social bookmarking element to HyperComics beyond looking at other people's work. As a site member, you can rate and comment on comics as well as have your own blog and post in the forums. Your site profile keeps track of work you've submitted and commented on, as well as your favorites. Despite these features, there's not really a "most popular" section of the site--you have to manually sort through the content and find comics users have ranked.

Compared to a comic contribution site such as Comic Vine, HyperComics appears to expect too much from the casual user. Installing a paid-for program just to contribute to a Web site is a lofty expectation. Where Comic Vine succeeds is its user-friendly interface coupled with a submission system that runs in your browser. If Hyper Comics could find a way to let people create their own comic books on the Web without the need for a program, I think they'd be moving in the right direction. As it stands now, HyperComics seems like little more than a marketing tool to get you to buy Comic Book Creator.

Comic books are hard to take seriously sometimes. They're even harder for the casual reader to pick up, which is where Comic Vine comes in handy. Like Wikipedia, Comic Vine is a user-created encyclopedia that can make you an instant expert, but just about comic books. The big difference between Comic Vine and a site like Wikipedia is the community and user submission, which is where Comic Vine steps it up in a big--make that super--way.

You should see this guy in a flame war.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

User profiles on Comic Vine let you become a superhero or villain. Instead of listing the usual social networking details, such as what grade school you went to or your favorite band, you can tell people how a botulized can of refried beans gave you the ability to drink beverages through your nostrils and understand Motorola's naming scheme for its mobile phones. You can post pictures of yourself in your super outfit, as well as write blog posts about anything you feel like. The sky is the limit (unless your superhero/villain can also breathe under water).

Comic Vine provides an easy template to create comprehensive profiles for all things comic-related. You can find out almost everything about major comic book characters, in addition to biographies of the people who illustrated and wrote them along with other projects they worked on. You could get similar information from Wikipedia, but Comic Vine provides its frequent contributors the benefit of posting with less stringent moderation. In fact, after you've passed a short probation period, you're granted access to make live edits to the pages which show up instantly. You're also given points for adding content to the site, which means the more content you add, the more credibility you get with other Comic Vine members.

Comic Vine is a great niche site. Whereas standard wiki authoring tools or sites like Wikipedia can be bland or too broad, Comic Vine seems built to please both its contributors as well as the casual passerby. Seriously though, stay away from those refried beans.