What Digital Comics Platforms Do You Use?

[Nik Hasta]

Question to the community; an acquaintance of mine is wanting to start purchasing comics digitally and has asked me for advice. I only really buy physical media so I don't know that much about what's a good service to use. He's looking to get stuff from Dark Horse and DC/Vertigo.

I have heard that while ComiXology is the go-to, got much worse when it was bought out by Amazon and lost a lot of quality of life stuff but that's about the limit of my knowledge.

Do any of you guys use a digital platform for purchasing comics? If so, what are any pros and cons to be aware of and would you recommend it?

[JackDaw]

Question to the community; an acquaintance of mine is wanting to start purchasing comics digitally and has asked me for advice. I only really buy physical media so I don't know that much about what's a good service to use. He's looking to get stuff from Dark Horse and DC/Vertigo.

I have heard that while ComiXology is the go-to, got much worse when it was bought out by Amazon and lost a lot of quality of life stuff but that's about the limit of my knowledge.

Do any of you guys use a digital platform for purchasing comics? If so, what are any pros and cons to be aware of and would you recommend it?

Until Amazon took it over would have whole heartedly recommended Comixilogy. There were weekly sales where lots of outstanding comics were offered at knockdown prices. Then having bought them viewing experience on an appropriate tablet...for me..is as good an experience as reading the physical comics.

And no physical storage problems. If some one was determined to moan..one or two small things could have been improved (for example, you couldn't buy comics in app itself, needed to go to main Comixology site for that.) But basically it was very good.

Transfer to Amazon was poorly handled...a lot of people experienced their collection completely disappearing for a day or three, then coming back piecemeal. Large majority got everything back eventually, but know at least one regular here lost a fair amount of stuff seemingly permanently.

Since then settled down. But still not as good as it was. Crucially I find it much more difficult to buy long runs of stuff I really like under new set-up than the old one. The material might still me there...but for me its much harder to find and buy stuff like the individual comics that make up the John Ostrander Firestorm run.

In general still a big believer in potential advantages of electronic comics...but can't think of any app I'd strongly recommend now. (With exception of Marvel Unlimited for anyone wanting to read a lot of Marvel.)

[Tami]

Question to the community; an acquaintance of mine is wanting to start purchasing comics digitally and has asked me for advice. I only really buy physical media so I don't know that much about what's a good service to use. He's looking to get stuff from Dark Horse and DC/Vertigo.

I have heard that while ComiXology is the go-to, got much worse when it was bought out by Amazon and lost a lot of quality of life stuff but that's about the limit of my knowledge.

Do any of you guys use a digital platform for purchasing comics? If so, what are any pros and cons to be aware of and would you recommend it?

I did use ComiXology, now all my purchases are on Amazon (which I can access, but not as easily). Considering what happened, I would recommend that, if you purchase online digital, make sure you can download what you purchased. Only way you be sure that you don't waste you money on something you can't access.

Posting here as well.

[Username taken]

I use Amazon but its far from the Comixology experience which was optimal.

[Nik Hasta]

Thanks for the information, I will pass it on.

[Jack Dracula]

Until Amazon took it over would have whole heartedly recommended Comixilogy. There were weekly sales where lots of outstanding comics were offered at knockdown prices. Then having bought them viewing experience on an appropriate tablet...for me..is as good an experience as reading the physical comics.

And no physical storage problems. If some one was determined to moan..one or two small things could have been improved (for example, you couldn't buy comics in app itself, needed to go to main Comixology site for that.) But basically it was very good.

Transfer to Amazon was poorly handled...a lot of people experienced their collection completely disappearing for a day or three, then coming back piecemeal. Large majority got everything back eventually, but know at least one regular here lost a fair amount of stuff seemingly permanently.

Since then settled down. But still not as good as it was. Crucially I find it much more difficult to buy long runs of stuff I really like under new set-up than the old one. The material might still me there...but for me its much harder to find and buy stuff like the individual comics that make up the John Ostrander Firestorm run.

In general still a big believer in potential advantages of electronic comics...but can't think of any app I'd strongly recommend now. (With exception of Marvel Unlimited for anyone wanting to read a lot of Marvel.)

I’m happy to report that after several months and many, many emails I did recover my library from whichever circle of hell Amazon had it stashed. It took some detective work on my part to find contact information for a couple of high-level managers and a great deal of patience.
The most important lesson I learned is that, you may have paid for it, but if you can’t download it, you don’t really own it.