Are eComic Books a Market?

[Amalthia]

I think Japanese Manga is currently better suited for the 6 inch ebook devices. They are already in black and white and it would certainly save bookshelve space.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Could you elaborate some, please. I remember there was a site that had some P.D. comics on it, but I am curious how they work on a 6" screen, especially e-ink...

Even on Opus' 5" display comics look quite okay: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=80

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

I think Japanese Manga is currently better suited for the 6 inch ebook devices. They are already in black and white and it would certainly save bookshelve space.

I agree that black and white manga can work on a 6 inch diagonal screen as long as the screen resolution is high enough. I have a manga title for my Sony ereader and it is a little bit difficult to read some of the text because it is very small.

I do think a 9 inch diagonal screen would be better suited to manga (the standard manga size is usually about 8.5 inches diagonal). Unlike text books, some manga titles use all of the page space with the image completely covering the page (when I checked one title, it looked like the image was larger than the page and they cut away enough to fit the desired book size).

On the subject of U. S.-style comic books on an ereader, I think it could work if it was designed for an ereader, and if the ereader had a high-resolution color screen. One comic style that might work is the nine-panel format (each page is composed of a three-by-three panel grid, this format was used in Watchmen), with the ability to zoom in on each panel. This format also forces the writer to provide much more story than other panel layouts.

There is a market for black-and-white reprints of U. S. comic books (DC and Marvel both have released small-phonebook-sized black-and-white reprints of their older comics for a reasonable price). This could be a great market for ebooks, and provide readers with access to stories not available any other way (many of the individual original comics in the above reprints would cost more than 100 dollars). There are a number of characters/groups I'd be interested in getting in this format (such as The Metal Men, Legion Of Super-Heroes, and Angel And The Ape).