GraphicNovels
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Public library app Hoopla adds DC comics to its lineup
DC comics have been available digitally for a while. But while some public libraries have carried physical DC titles, you couldn't check them out digitally. Starting today, though, fans of reading comics on glowing screens will be happy to learn that DC has partnered with Hoopla to bring some of its titles to the digital version of your public library. At launch, Hoopla users will be able to borrow 25 of DC Entertainment's top titles including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Superman: Earth One, V for Vendetta, Final Crisis and Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood. Whether you're a hardcore comic fan or just want to catch up on some of the best stories DC has ever published, it's a pretty nice list of graphic novels. Hoopla will add additional titles every week and a company spokesperson tells Engadget that it will add 200 over the course of the summer. The caveat is that you need a library card and your local library system has to support the Hoopla system and its new e-book and comic offerings.
Amazon Publishing launches Jet City Comics with Symposium #1
As of today, Amazon Publishing is entering the wonderful world of sequential art publishing with its new imprint, Jet City Comics. Its inaugural issue, Symposium #1 by Christian Cameron, is sure to please fans of Neal Stephenson's The Foreworld Saga. Also joining Jet City Comics are sci-fi/fantasy luminaries like George R.R. Martin and Hugh Howey. Martin will be teaming up with artist Raya Golden on an adaptation of Meathouse Man, a story so twisted, it makes Game of Thrones look like a Disney fairytale. Writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (currently tearing it up on Batwing) will translate Howey's series of dystopian novellas, Wool, into a six-issue mini-series this October with a collected print edition to follow in 2014. For more information, check out the full press release after the break.
Sony shuts down PSP Comic Store after October 30th, leaves most of us in the lurch for now
PSP Comic Store, we hardly knew ye. No really, we hardly knew ye -- which is probably why Sony is warning PSP owners that its comic book portal is shutting down after October 30th. Come Hallowe'en, we'll lose the option to download the necessary app or buy additional titles. Any currently owned comics will be available to download again until mid-January, but readers will be on their own to preserve existing libraries after that. Outside of Japan, that creates significant problems for literary PlayStation fans: while PS Vita owners in Sony's home country will get a Manga store and reader in October, there's no equivalent crutch for other countries (or any PSP owners) at this stage. The console maker is non-committal and says there's nothing it can discuss "at the moment," which to us is a hint that we shouldn't plan our reading hours around a PSP or PS Vita in the near future. [Thanks, Sooraj]
Dark Horse Comics graphic novels coming to Nook Tablet and Nook Color
Dark Horse Comics has penciled a contract with Barnes & Noble (it'll be sent off to be inked and colored next week*) to get the former's content onto the latter's Tablet and Color e-readers. Available in the Nook Comic store, you'll be able to pick up a mix of the publisher's licensed titles like Mass Effect and Star Wars as well as home-grown fare like Hellboy and Sin City. The range will gently expand month-on-month and is available from today, with titles priced around $10 depending on what you want. * This is a comic book joke.
Amazon's new e-book format brings HTML5 support to your Kindle library
"Great looking books." That's what Amazon is promising to deliver with Kindle Format 8 (KF8) -- a new, HTML5-based file format for Kindle books. According to the company, KF8 will allow publishers to produce picture books, comics and graphic novels with greater ease, thanks to the platform's rich formatting capabilities and design elements. In fact, this format brings more than 150 new formatting tools to the table, including fixed layouts, nested tables, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, among others. It should be noted, however, that audio and video are not included on the list of supported HTML tags and CSS elements. At first, content creators will only be able to use KF8 for the Kindle Fire tablet, though Amazon says it'll gradually expand to its entire lineup of devices and apps "in the coming months." No word yet on when KF8 will become available as an update to Amazon's Kindle Publisher Tools suite, but you can find more details at the source link, below.
IDW releasing comics for iBooks
Most of the comic books released on the iPad and iPhone have been inside of special apps (many of which are run by ComiXology, actually), but here's another option. Comic book publisher IDW is set to release some graphic novels and comic books through iBooks, meaning that you can buy them right inside Apple's official e-reader app. 20 different graphic novels are coming out in the first round, ranging from genre stuff like Star Trek and Doctor Who, to licensed titles like Dragon Age, and older stuff like Locke & Key and Bloom County. Each should cost around $6 to $10 (which is competitive, especially compared to buying the full paper editions of these books), and should be available in the iBookstore soon, if not already. I used to be a die-hard paper book reader, but lately I've seen a lot of value in iBooks, not just in terms of price, but also in the convenience of having all the books I happen to be reading stored on my iPhone. I have a feeling that ComiXology and other apps like it will probably remain the best way to pick up day-one releases of periodical comic books (at least until NewsStand comes along in iOS 5), but for library editions and collected graphic novels, iBooks could become the best and easiest way to read those.
Reinventing the graphic novel--for iPod
Playlist magazine tells us that the graphic novel is being reinvented for the iPod. The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore combines live action video with computer animation and other media. Due to be released this summer, it brings the "graphic novel" to a new place. "Jonas Moore" still has the traditional comic book look (as you can see here) but it will also leverage the iPod's multimedia capabilities.
