To the end, I took it upon myself to sample the free wares available in the biggest iPad comic book apps and pick the best examples for casual readers. Even better, they all have a frequently changing collection of free comics available to download, making it easy to build a small virtual comic book library for the low, low, price of free.Īs a former comic reader in my high school days (I know, hard to believe, right?), who has done little-to-no comic book reading in the past 20 years, I was surprisingly sucked in by these apps, but also found the free offerings available varied wildly in quality, from full issues of classic comics, to skimpy 'preview' issues only a few pages in length, to low-grade indie comics that look like they were drawn in the back of a grade school textbook. All of these apps have a very similar layout, and many sell overlapping products.

There are official Marvel and DC Comics apps, along with indie apps such as Comics + app from iVerse, IDW Comics, and the Comics app from ComiXology, which sell titles from a variety of large and small publishers. They're all free, and connect you to virtual comic shops that sell digital issues of comics for about $2 each-with transactions handily conducted through Apple's app store back end. One of the under-the-radar killer apps of Apple's iPad is the collection of comic book storefronts (which also double as comic readers).

Best free comics on comixology