Digital Comics by Madcap Studios

[Madcap Studios]

AppBoy video review: Digital Comics Video Review
Macworld min-review: Comic reader app aims to shake things up...literally | Comics | iPhone Central | Macworld

Now available, for the iPhone / iPod Touch! Free iPad Universal update is coming with 1.2! (2-3 weeks following 1.1.5)

(In the meantime, iPad users, while the iPhone version's UI doesn't scale up in 2x mode on the iPad until iOS4, the content DOES, and actually looks QUITE nice! And very usable.)

Website: Digital Comics for the iPhone OS
iTunes Link: Digital Comics for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store

Twitter: Madcap Studios (madcapstudios) on Twitter
Facebook: Madcap Studios | Facebook

It's free, and currently has 6 free comics in the in-app store. More comics, from those publishers and more will be added regularly. Check it out, and enjoy!

Tap Play. Sit back. Enjoy.

(This is the >>ONLY<< comic book app that will play your comics out for you like a movie.)

Digital Comics by Madcap Studios brings Comic Books to life in a way never before possible!

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Madcap Studios, a company that specializes in Mobile and Web-based Software, announced today the immediate availability of "Digital Comics" for the iPhone OS, as well as partnerships with publishers Top Cow, Antarctic Press, and Indy Artist Joe Phillips. Digital Comics is a free digital comic book viewing app, featuring an in-app book store, automated book walkthroughs, panel-based action animations, and more.

Filip Sablik, Publisher of Top Cow Productions, says "Madcap Studios has put together one of the most impressive and exciting digital comics readers for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch to date with Digital Comics. It's intuitive, a great presentation, and adds some fun features with Panel Mode while utilizing the vibration function on the iPhone too. Top Cow is proud to have our comics available through Digital Comics."

Digital Comics features Panel Mode, an automated Panel-by-Panel walkthrough, featuring dynamic transition speeds, action animations, and an unrivaled sense of presentation.

"As comic book lovers ourselves we know where other apps come up short." said Eric Reedy, President of Madcap Studios. "We wanted an app that we ourselves would use. An app that would really take advantage of this new generation of mobile devices, and not just another image flipper, or bare-minimum panel transition app. There needs to be a sense of presentation.", he continued "And our answer to that is Panel Mode. We feel that manual navigation is very important, and Digital Comics does it very well, but when you really want to be sucked into a book, you just toggle Panel Mode, hit play, and let the app take over from there.", he added "What sets Panel Mode apart from other Panel-By-Panel viewers is the presentation aspect. Ours is a completely automated experience, with the app waiting just long enough for you to read what's being said and take in the scene before moving on. You'll notice smooth, varying transition speeds, used to convey a sense of emotion, and with up to a dozen different action animations used to enhance the otherwise still-art stories, you're sure to agree that is the best way to view digital comic books yet."

In addition to Panel Mode, Digital Comics also features a custom in-app book store, detailed book info, support for seamless 2+ page spreads, beautiful in-app background images included with every book, as well as a variety of settings allowing users to customize the app to fit their needs.

"Art Book was the foundation we used while building Digital Comics. It's a core app engine we built to be used in a variety of ways, but the first place we wanted to see it in action was in the digital comic book market.", said Nate Friedman, CTO at Madcap Studios, "We demonstrated that with a tech preview released earlier this year, and it received raving reviews from comic book lovers and professionals all around.", he added "Digital Comics is available today as an iPhone and iPod Touch App, and we're hard at work putting the finishing touches on the iPad-native version, which will soon be released as a free update."

Digital Comics will be available Tuesday, May 4th in the App Store as a free iPhone / iPod Touch download. 7 books will be available immediately, 4 of which are free, including Wanted #1, Witchblade #1, The Heretic #1-4, and The Darkness / PITT #1, with hundreds more on the way. Several free and paid books will be added to the in-app Book Store every week, and an iPad-native Universal update is coming soon, as a free update.

Web: Digital Comics for the iPhone OS
Twitter: Madcap Studios (madcapstudios) on Twitter
Facebook: Madcap Studios | Facebook

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[Madcap Studios]

1.1.5 is in review and should be available any day now!

HUGE update! What's new in 1.1.5:

New Features: (read below for details)

1 ? Download Resuming.
2 ? MultiTasking Support.
3 ? App-Wide Retina Display Support for iPhone 4.
4 ? Book Versioning.
5 ? New Setting: "Auto-Play on Enter".
6 ? New Book Info: Runtime.
7 ? [ You Own It ] Buy Button State.
8 ? Complete Right-to-left reading support.
9 ? Unique Downloading / Updating Cell Appearance.
10 ? Dynamic Collection Sizes
11 ? Mixed Panel Orientation Support

Some screenshots of how it appears - 1x on the left. 2x on the right. Click to see full size:



The icon looks great too!

UI Refinements:

? Settings: Panel Mode settings renamed, and now feature a turtle and a hare, as universal representations of fast and slow.
? Settings: Certain settings now hide, if a setting they are dependent on is disabled.
? Store: Thumbs now feature a white border and a soft drop shadow. General UI improvements.
? Book: Manual Page flipping (swiping) is MUCH smoother now.
? Book: When entering Panel Mode, the Navigation bar now fades our after a moment. A single tap anywhere on the page brings it back.
? Book: "Panel Mode" button in the upper right has been renamed and now has 2 states: "Pages", while in Panel Mode, and "Panels" while in manual mode.

Changes:

? Cutting the fat: "Full Page at Start" and "Full Page at End" settings removed.
? "Enter In Panel Mode" now on by default. This can be disabled in the Settings.
? "Double Tap To Hide" the page picker now on by default. A single tap on a page will select the page. A double tap will select the page and hide the page picker at the same time. This too can be disabled in the Settings.

Bug Fixes:

? Canceling a purchase should no longer result in a stuck "QUEUED" buy button.
? Entering a book with "Enter in Panel Mode" enabled will now work properly.
? Entering a Store Book Preview with "Enter in Panel Mode" enabled will no longer enable Panel Mode.
? Quartz drop shadows are no longer reversed in OS 3.2+ (iPad included)
? App now has the proper splash screen (with tabs along the bottom).
? Menu spinner should now only be enabled during network transactions.
? The display should never go to sleep while in auto panel mode.
? Message of the Day should now ONLY appear when you are on the My Books tab, and no longer while reading books.

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FEATURE DETAILS:

1 ? Download Resuming. ( Downloads now resume automatically on next launch, if interrupted )

2 ? MultiTasking Support. ( In iOS4, on an iPhone 3GS or newer, the app remains active in the background, and downloads even continue to chug away. )

3 ? App-Wide Retina Display Support for iPhone 4 ( iPhone4 users will notice that the entire UI is twice as sharp! )

4 ? Book Versioning. ( If changes are made to a book, it will now display an "Update" button. A single tap, and it will begin to download and install the update. )

5 ? New Setting: "Auto-Play on Enter". ( If enabled, the book will immediately begin to play out the moment you enter it. )

6 ? New Book Info: Runtime. ( Book Info now displays the Runtime, from start to finish, of each book, based on your current Transition and Reading Speed settings. Ex: 26 minutes 32 seconds )

7 ? [ You Own It ] Buy Button State. ( Deleted books now display an "You Own It" button in the Book Store, rather than the price tag. This better communicates that you do not have to re-purchase deleted books. )

9 ? Unique Downloading / Updating Cell Appearance. ( The "Glass" Book Cells that are downloading, or require an update now have a "Tilted" 3d appearance to them, to distinguish them from installed / up-to-date books )

10 ? Dynamic Collection Sizes. ( Collection totals are now gathered from the server on launch and stored locally, so you know exactly where you stand with your digital collections )

11 ? Mixed Panel Orientation Support. ( Books may now support mixed panel orientations. You will see this featured in several books, shortly. )

 

[Madcap Studios]

1.1.5 is now live! 1.1.6 has already been submitted, including even more new features and refinements, as well as minor bug fixes.

The next update to come is 1.2, which among other things, will be iPad native!

 

[Madcap Studios]

We just launched v1.5 which includes bug fixes, ui refinements, and *drum roll* iPad-naive support!