Webware

Calibre is a cross-platform, open-source library for your e-books that can also sync them to your e-book reader. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, it offers a massive range of individual book customizations, as well as format conversion and newspaper-style RSS feed grabbing, but lacks a slick interface that would go a long way toward convincing skeptics that it's a powerful tool.

Calibre's lackluster interface is nevertheless replete with features.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The number of things that Calibre can do for your digital book collection is stunning. You can view books in a basic spreadsheet layout or with an adaptation of Apple's Cover Flow. Cover Flow here lacks a default image, and the sudden white rectangle where the book cover should be is jarring. It can be toggled with the big, white arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the main window--an equally awkward placement.

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

Although the idea of Dave Chappelle writing or drawing his own comic book might be appealing to some, this is a different kind of Comics Sketch. By taking two great Web flavors, social networking and Webcomics, Comics Sketch mashes them up and wraps it all in a package that's not quite ready for prime time.

Users can read, draw, and share their own Webcomics using the built-in comics creation tools. It's a great idea, but the interface is clunky, the drawing tools are limited, and navigating within the site is slow-going.

The front door of Comics Sketch acknowledges that they're still making changes to the site.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

The artists' palette features more than 70 colors and the ability to change both line thickness and line opacity. Creators can also change the hue, saturation and brightness of the color in use. Although the only drawing tool is a freehand pencil, you can erase by switching the color to match the background. The pencil also seems to incorporate some kind of auto-straightener--it was much easier than normal for me to draw a perfectly straight line.

There is no text tool, so all captions need to be drawn by freehand. Given the limited interface, though, this is likely to make the comics hard to read more than anything else. After checking out about a dozen different comics, very few had legible dialogue, if they had any at all.

The drawing screen makes it easy to Create a new panel, Save, Delete and Undo, as well as change the width of the panel.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

The panel creator and manager is interesting, but I accidentally wiped out my comic by hitting creating a second panel and the Edit button before saving. To avoid such boneheaded mistakes, be sure you hit the Save disk icon on the panel you're currently working on. This wouldn't be such a concern if you could import images, but that's not an option. Exporting is "comming soon," as the site would have it.

You can arrange your comics into "books" which keep related strips together. This is an excellent idea for managing multiple strips, using familiar terminology instead of having to reinvent the wheel. The social networking aspects of the site also track hits, views, votes, and ratings, as well as interpersonal communication.

The idea of being able to create Webcomics without having to download a graphics editor or creating a Web site is appealing, and having an instant community to garner some attention and feedback from doesn't hurt, either. If the tools and their interface can be improved upon, Comics Sketch could be far more appealing.

(Credit: DC Comics/Zuda Comics)

Despite a few hiccups on the big launch day, DC Comics' webcomics initiative Zuda Comics went live before the end of business Tuesday on the Left Coast. The first webcomics push by a corporate comic book publisher, Zuda is attracting a lot of attention as the webcomic-o-sphere tries to figure out what it all means.

... Read More

The Zuda Comics front page will promo currently running comics, an ongoing webcomic contest for users to vote on and forums.

(Credit: DC Comics, Inc.)

DC Comics has been publishing comic books even before Superman debuted in the first issue of Action Comics nearly seven decades ago. On Tuesday, they launch Zuda Comics, their first foray into webcomics, throwing the full weight of a major publisher into a game that has been dominated by independent and self-published creators.

So what took so long?

... Read More

Excerpt from Randall Monroe's 'xkcd' Web comic.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Whoever said geeks have no sense of humor was wrong--laughably so. Some of the funniest comics out there are Web comics (or those rendered for the Web,) written by techies, for the techies who love them. Here's a bushel of geeky favorites, in no particular order.

1. xkcd
Randall Monroe, physicist, cartoonist, and at-heart romantic, is behind xkcd, a Web comic whose name curiously holds no mathematically obscure meaning. In his own words, Monroe's stick-figure style "occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)." See? Funny.... Read More

Zuda is a new Web site from DC Comics, makers of big comic franchises like Superman and Batman. Come October, Zuda will be opening its doors to aspiring comic book creators to submit their work for a chance to make it big, or at least get their work hosted and published on DC's dime.

Zuda is giving users two ways to reach potential fame. The first is by keeping an eye out for particularly impressive submissions and offering the artist work at DC. The other is a public system that lets Zuda users vote and rate submitted comics after a select group of 10 has been picked out by Zuda editors. This is a monthly process, whose winner gets a one-year contract with DC to produce a weekly Web comic.

DC has come up with a specific format it wants all its submissions to be in, a 4:3 rectangle that it claims to be "industry standard." Creators must build their comic entirely within the box. To me this seems a little silly, as many popular Web comics tend to run the gamut in width and height. While this works for some comics like Family Circus and Ziggy, it seems somewhat limiting in the long run.

Zuda will continue to add more information about how to submit and present work. For now, it's limited to a set of forums and a sign-up to be alerted when the site goes live.

See also: DrunkDuck

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.