January 14th, 2008 — Portable comics
I’ve created a download page for free comics that I have converted to the .cbds format [and maybe other things later on]. The page will always be available from the top of this blog as the files tab.
I figured since I was paying for a box.net account, I might as well put it to good use. [Actually I had forgotten that I was even paying for it: I thought I had the Lite version. They have certainly improved the service.]
January 14th, 2008 — Portable comics, comics, ds games
After reading a couple of series of comics on my DS, I’ve been determined to find more . . . either free or commercial comics.
The problem is that few, if any, will be offered in the .cbds format. So, you’ll have to convert them yourself, which actually isn’t too bad.
Here are some places to download comics [PDF and CBR/CBZ] legally, other than illegally from a torrent or from rapidshare:
I for one wouldn’t mind buying and reading electronic copies of comics rather than printed ones. Companies are now looking at it. [I didn't include online-only comics, like Marvel's dot comics.]
October 1st, 2007 — Portable comics, ds games
A fan of Heroes? Got a DS? Want to read some Heroes comics on the DS?
You’re in luck: the good folks at the Moon Book Project have gone to the trouble of converting them to the .cbds format for you to download.
If you’re looking for the latest comicbookds (3.0), it appears that gnese is reworking his website, but you can find a copy here.
September 11th, 2007 — Portable comics, books, ds games
Do you feel the need to watch Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter on your DS? How about Max Fleischer’s Superman cartoons?
The Moon Books project started as a site for downloading public domain ebooks for the DS, but now it is much more. It is specifically for the DS with movies in the dpg format for Moonshell and comics in the cbds format for Comic Book DS.
How legal are some of these downloads? I guess it depends on your country. However, it looks like they are following copyright laws and their downloads are legal because they appear to be all public domain properties.
Some of the best movies for download include Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Rashomon, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and the Superman cartoons. Of course, several classic excellent books are available. I’m checking out the comics, but these are golden age comics.
July 26th, 2007 — Portable comics
Today, I’m reviewing a couple of ‘psp comics’ from Komikwerks, a Stan Lee online comics company. The disappointing thing about it is that the psp section isn’t updated, from all appearances. They’ve provided a taste of a few titles, but they’re not continuing to update them. You can’t even download subsequent episodes because of the way they are rendered on the web. Your only choice, if you like a comic, is to read it online, which for now, I can’t do. [I'm not sure if the DS Browser would work with these online comics.]
So, I’m reviewing what is there, though these are older episodes. Also, I had to convert them to the .cbds format but the conversion was quick.
Continue reading →
July 26th, 2007 — Portable comics, ds games
Well, I’m late with my portable comics reviews for 2 reasons:
I’m not sure what caused it, but here’s what I did to resolve it, in case you run into the same thing:
chkdsk /f microsd_drive_letter.
Example: checkdsk /f L:\
I’m having to go back and test all my apps and games to make sure they work, but I ended up deleting everything and starting over. Unfortunately, this problem may have given some false negatives on some of the homebrews that didn’t work recently, so I’ll be checking those again [eventually].
But, so far, things are looking good. So, I’ll resume the comics review shortly . . . though now I’m hearing Zelda call to me. 
July 18th, 2007 — Portable comics
Before I get to the reviews, I wanted to point out that there in lots of options for what I call portable comics: from comics created specifically for a handheld device, to downloadable comic pages [which can be converted], to webcomics [thanks to web browsers now available on handhelds]. Very few comics are specific to the DS because, as good as gnese’s comic book ds app is, it is still a homebrew, which contrasts with the PSP which has a native way to easily view comic images [albeit without some of the great controls in cbds].
In fact, for a while, it seemed that psp comics might take off. A PSP comics site was announced that has produced unfortunately nothing but one link. Still, some publishers have made PSP comics available, which basically means comics rendered to HTML with .jpg images, which are easily converted to the cbds format. But before long, anyone looking for comics for their DS or PSP are going to come to a rather quick end. [The PSP gets a little more choice with a working PDF reader because there are PDF comics that can be bought and downloaded, such as several Top Cow comics at Direct2Drive.]
I’m going to review what’s out there, in the range that I indicated above.
For starters, I’m going to look at two different comics.
Continue reading →
July 17th, 2007 — Portable comics, ds games
I recently upgraded Comic Book DS (CBDS) to v2.2, which includes several fixes and enhancements to both the DS viewer and the PC conversion tool. [Gnese comes out with updates roughly every 1-2 months. Great work!]
This is one of those apps that I really like but have not used much since I first downloaded and installed it. I read a batch of comics to see what it is was and did little more. What follows are two things: an explanation of why I don’t read comics on the DS as much as I want, and an intent to review ‘portable comics’ more regularly.
First, reading comics on the DS is awkward, as it is probably on any handheld. Rendering the images into readable text is very good with CBDS. Gnese has created an interface with lots of options, such as using portrait or landscape mode or hiding the controls or not. Getting used to the controls take some getting used to, but overall the reading problem boils down to this:
February 5th, 2007 — Portable comics, comics
boy. what a difference one issue makes.
I admit that i have my peeves. Can’t stand pulpy orange juice. I abhor ‘dream sequence’ in movies that show the main character getting killed, though not really. I despise movies and books that fail to maintain their point of view. And I have no patience for talky scifi.
Now, you may think, isn’t scifi by its nature talky? Well, a lot of it is, and I’ve lost my patience with it. I appreciate scifi that doesn’t feel the need to explain every. little. thing. [as children of men did recently]. scifi, especially the books, are full of characters who talk in monologues as they explain some whizbang neato idea that the author has. I blame it on Robert Heinlein.
Well, nyc2123 issue #4 was just that. If your exposition goes on for too long, you’re a] taking too long to explain it, b] lacking the skills to show it rather than explain it, c] assuming that all of those details are truly important, or d] being lazy.
It was bad enough that a character explained all these details of a plot that took most of the issue, but even worse, who the hell is this character and how does he know so much? after reading that issue, I truly struggled to read the last 2 issues, much in the same way I force myself to eat broccoli when eating at a dinner party. if this sort of thing doesn’t bother you [and it apparently doesn't both a lot of folks, since books like Snowcrash are considered great scifi], then you might like this series. Certainly, the writer can craft some good sentences and create distinct characters.
January 29th, 2007 — Portable comics, comics
I read the first three issues of this online comic on my ds. It’s interesting how, in a way, it work much better on my ds than reading online in a web browser. the flow seemed to work better for some reason.
nyc2123 is familiar ground, especially if you’ve read any william gibson. The main character is a johnny mnemonic-type who’s a courier and has a network implant [which means some bad psuedo tech]. the other main character is a fast driving junkie [who looks like pete townsend]. still, it kinda works, and whereas i started reading it for the novelty of the medium, i’m now reading further to see where the story goes. while the basic plot, setting and characters are familiar, the prose itself is better than I see in a lot of print comics. the writer certainly doesn’t shy from a complex sentence [and I mean that as a compliment].
the art is high-contrast black and white. it’s clean, if a bit clinical. it’s clearly the product of illustrator or some similiar program, but it looks good. the style fits the story. the problem is the pacing. at times, it reads like a traditional comic, while in others, it clearly takes advantage of the intended online presentation to have quasi-animation scenes. For example, in one scene, a vehicle rises, turns and speeds off. The scene takes 8 panels and look almost like stills until you click through them rapidly. It’s definitely a good trick, but I question more than anything the reason: why spend the time on a clearly minor, transitional moment that doesn’t set the mood? It’s there for the sake of experimenting with the medium. Also, you have no idea when to click rapidly and to stop: you have to know that they’re there first and go through them again to really get the effect.
you could say, ‘it’s a free comic . . . why complain?’ well, i’m not complaining. Actually it’s a compliment because i’m view this as a ‘real’ comic and not some gimmicky experiment. overall, it’s on par with professional mainstream comics. it’s good enough and has received enough attention that I’m honestly surprised more haven’t followed, either from Paco and Chad Allen or other creators.
I’ll be finishing the story soon, as well as checking the only other PSP-specific comic I’ve found. [i've not seen one for the ds yet, though there is a comic book ds index.]
January 7th, 2007 — Portable comics, ds games
speaking of homebrews, comic book ds looks very interesting. I’m going to have to look to see who is creating comics in this format.
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