# Amazon Graphic Novel Formatting



## Awesome Wells (Jan 11, 2014)

I was considering buying some graphic novels as kindle editions from Amazon (though i'm loathe to patronise their modern day slave enterprise). But the samples I downloaded into my Kindle android app seemed oddly dysfunctional. I couldn't rotate the screen, nor could I zoom in. Instead you could double tap a panel to bring it to the fore slightly, which seems tedious. This isn't an issue with regular books, even in sample form. Is this how Amazon treats graphic novels/comics?


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## Mr Smin (Jan 12, 2014)

Buy them then rip the files and open them in something like MoonReader? Or buy in another format from a different supplier?
Also, is there an update for the Kindle app? Sounds like the format, by identifying panels, is pretty smart and it's just the way the app works that is a let down.


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## Athos (Jan 12, 2014)

Graphic novels in ebook format, eh?  I remember when they were just comics on cheap paper.


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## Awesome Wells (Jan 12, 2014)

Mr Smin said:


> Buy them then rip the files and open them in something like MoonReader? Or buy in another format from a different supplier?
> Also, is there an update for the Kindle app? Sounds like the format, by identifying panels, is pretty smart and it's just the way the app works that is a let down.


No update that i have - and it updates all of itself.

I'm not sure how you would rip the file and I won't buy just to figure out that I can't 

Other formats/outlets? Hard to find really, some publishers (like Marvel) have their own apps (and presumably file formats). That leaves...other avenues.

The panel thing isn't a bad idea, but it does seem slow rather than just reading. Not being able to rotate to landscape view seems stupid though.


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## Awesome Wells (Jan 12, 2014)

Athos said:


> Graphic novels in ebook format, eh?  I remember when they were just comics on cheap paper.


paper eh? I remember when that were trees - and they were made of wood!


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## RedDragon (Jan 12, 2014)

Athos said:


> Graphic novels in ebook format, eh?  I remember when they were just comics on cheap paper.


A comic on a tablet is perfect harmony


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## Athos (Jan 12, 2014)

It's not an art form that I've ever explored. In fact, I've probably been a bit sneery about it, assuming (wrongly, I now realise) that it was all superheroes. But this thread got me interested. So I've just ordered a few: Epileptic, Paloma and Maus.


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## maomao (Jan 12, 2014)

The panel expander is shit and doesn't work with L shaped panels. I bought the first two volumes of Judge Dredd, Halo Jones and DR and Quinch before I realised this.


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## Awesome Wells (Jan 12, 2014)

I was looking at the Dredd stuff. The Complete series is decent (dear though).


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## maomao (Jan 12, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> I was looking at the Dredd stuff. The Complete series is decent (dear though).


It's £1.29 for the first two volumes and from then on they're about 8 quid each. Just like a drug dealer, hook you with the cheap stuff and then jack up the price. If they were readable I'd be planning to get the whole lot.


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## Awesome Wells (Jan 12, 2014)

I've never seen any of them that cheap! Are you sure?


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## Mr Smin (Jan 12, 2014)

Athos said:


> It's not an art form that I've ever explored. In fact, I've probably been a bit sneery about it, assuming (wrongly, I now realise) that it was all superheroes. But this thread got me interested. So I've just ordered a few: Epileptic, Paloma and Maus.



Maus is gripping. I don't know the other two.


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## Mr Smin (Jan 12, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> No update that i have - and it updates all of itself.
> 
> I'm not sure how you would rip the file and I won't buy just to figure out that I can't
> 
> ...



If you were inclined to look into ripping, you could practice on the sample file you already have. But I suspect it will be complicated if all the panels are independent files coupled to a set of layout instructions handled by the reader app.

I think not being able to go landscape is because the artist laid the page out based on a standard portrait format and shuffling the panels to landscape would risk breaking the flow of the page.


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## FridgeMagnet (Jan 12, 2014)

I use http://www.comixology.com as they have an iPad app (which keeps going through stages of being unusable and okay - it seems to have been okay for a while). They also have an Android app that works on the Kindle Fire. You're out of luck with regular Kindles but then regular Kindles would be shit for comics anyway.

Their app has a good viewing system (they call it "Guided View") - you can view things normally as well as zoom, but they also have a smart panel view which zooms and moves between panels when you tap/swipe. Plus you have the option of buying/viewing on the website.

Unfortunately, unless it's on sale, a collection and/or indie comics, things are pretty expensive on there as well, often similar to paper prices. If I bought all the stuff I'd like I'd be spending hundreds of pounds a month - on DRMed media, too, without any paper which at least has "backup", lending and resale value. I've mostly stopped using it because every morning I was hungover and didn't want to get out of bed I'd lie there and spend twenty or thirty quid on some series. I still buy _Saga_ and that's about it. I might possibly have torrented the odd comic as well.


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## Awesome Wells (Jan 12, 2014)

FridgeMagnet said:


> I use http://www.comixology.com as they have an iPad app (which keeps going through stages of being unusable and okay - it seems to have been okay for a while). They also have an Android app that works on the Kindle Fire. You're out of luck with regular Kindles but then regular Kindles would be shit for comics anyway.
> 
> Their app has a good viewing system (they call it "Guided View") - you can view things normally as well as zoom, but they also have a smart panel view which zooms and moves between panels when you tap/swipe. Plus you have the option of buying/viewing on the website.
> 
> Unfortunately, unless it's on sale, a collection and/or indie comics, things are pretty expensive on there as well, often similar to paper prices. If I bought all the stuff I'd like I'd be spending hundreds of pounds a month - on DRMed media, too, without any paper which at least has "backup", lending and resale value. I've mostly stopped using it because every morning I was hungover and didn't want to get out of bed I'd lie there and spend twenty or thirty quid on some series. I still buy _Saga_ and that's about it. I might possibly have torrented the odd comic as well.


They don't seem all that. Certainly no 2000AD stuff - only the american Dredd stuff. I could certainly go for some classic Dredd or the original Rogue Trooper (which doesn't seem to be available digitially - legitimately - at all).

Looks like torrents are the only way, which is a shame.


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## Awesome Wells (Jan 12, 2014)

Mr Smin said:


> If you were inclined to look into ripping, you could practice on the sample file you already have. But I suspect it will be complicated if all the panels are independent files coupled to a set of layout instructions handled by the reader app.
> 
> I think not being able to go landscape is because the artist laid the page out based on a standard portrait format and shuffling the panels to landscape would risk breaking the flow of the page.


I deleted the samples. I think if I were that inclined I'd just torrent the bloody thing from some online cbz/cbr collection.


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