Posted in: Comics, Digital | Tagged: app, comic con, comixology, entertainment, Guided View, iverse, new york, new york comic con, NYCC, pirate, you view

iVerse To Take On ComiXology With App That Reads Pirated Comics Too

Published Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:00:02 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:52:56 -0500

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At New York Comic Con, I saw a rather interesting idea.

Iverse are the company behind the Comics Plus app, which a few years ago was the big rival to ComiXology. Then ComiXology snapped up a bunch of exclusive comic book companies, the likes of DC and Marvel got into bed with ComiXology and the point of iVerse's app seemed to fade.

The company has been busy though, primarily working on translating comic books for publishers for other markets. And now they are back, with a new app for downloading and reading comics.

The way that comic books are presented to the reader has been massively upgraded, allowing improved searching and finding of the comic books the reader wants – or might want. Constanty rotating new offerings, it makes browsing and impulse reading a much more varied possibility. Infinite pages mean that you can keep scrolling down until something catches the eye. Windows open within the page when you do want to find out more, rather than opening new pages. When you do find a comic, it automatically lines up previous and future issues for you to browse, as well as a reading order for connected issues that are part of, say, an event.

It's a much more modern comic book browser – and its something I expect ComiXology will be keen to copy.

There's something that they might not be minded to copy however and it's what really sets iVerse's new offering apart for the reader. The ability, as well as to buy and download new comic books, but to important files you may have bought – or stolen – elsewhere.

This was what made iTunes such a powerful service for music, you could buy tracks, add tracks from CDs you had bought, or add tracks that you'll stolen on Napster. It didn't matter. But what it did was give you a place to listen to all your music – and then buy new music becase it was just there, and suddenly more convenient than piracy. And people began moving to a more legitimate way of buying music, because you a) got older b) got guiltier and c) it was as easy or easier than pirating.

And that is what iVerse are doing now. Their new app launching next month, reads CBR and CBZ formats as well as letting you buy new comic books.

You get a visual cloud display of your bought comic books, also searchable, that feels far more organic when looking for a comic book.

iVerse's panel-by-panel reading system, called You View, also has a system that beat ComiXology's Guided View. You, the reader can add your own viewing experience to a comic you have… acquired, editing how each panel and page will be displayed to you.

Not only that, but creators and publishers will have access to how their comics are displayed in You View and can edit them to their satisfaction, to make for the best reader experience. Full of editing features like cropping, sliding in borders and automatically centring images. And the YouView guide is saves as a separate file, so it can be used for each translation, rather than having to save or create a YouView version for each when you add a new language.

I saw a demonstration of a DRM-free CBZ file of Saga #1 bought from Image Comics being imported into the app, and the You View reading experience being created in-app in front of me. And it worked.

The next step? Is sharing your created YouView experience as a separate file to anyone else who also has the file of Saga #1.

So who is on board? Well Valiant, Boom, IDW and Archie are all on board. Without Marvel and DC, this is not a replacement for ComiXology. But, it could happily sit alongside ComiXology on your device. And if you… acquire your Marvel and DC files in a different fashion, it could soon replace it.

There are some limits. The storage limit of a device will limit the amount of pirated files you can hold (and amend) on a device, though I expect some clever spark will sort out a cloud system at some point. And you can't buy DRM-free files in-app yet. But then you can't buy any ComiXology comics in-app right now. And the new Comics Plus app can.

This is not a ComiXology killer. But it is very much a ComiXology annoyer. And by giving people a place to read their pirated comics and buy new legit comics as well, it could very much be a game changer.