IDW Publishing is posting updates of newly released digital comics, in addition to their updates about new comics released in print. If you want to read Star Trek comics on your PSP, PSP go, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, read on to learn more.
Got digital Star Trek comics?
IDW Publishing is committed to publishing comics in digital format and they’ve made it a little easier to learn about new digital Star Trek publications. Checklists of comics released for PSP and iPad/iPhone/iPod touch are posted semi-regularly at the IDW Publishing website. Typically, digital versions of Star Trek comics are being released several weeks after print publication. The Playstation and iTunes catalogs of Star Trek comics are not identical, so keeping an eye on the IDW website is probably the simplest way to stay informed.
The latest additions to the IDW catalog of Star Trek comics at the Playstation Digital Comics store are:
- Star Trek: Captain’s Log: Sulu ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #1 ($1.99)
- Star Trek The Movie Adaptation #3 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Movie Adaptation #2 ($1.99)
PSP updates are also posted at the Playstation Digital Comics store blog. If you don’t care to read the blog, just search for Star Trek comics. Comics can be purchased from an internet-enabled PSP or with Sony’s Media Go software running on your PC (Windows only).
The latest additions to the catalog of IDW Star Trek comics available for in-app purchase from iTunes are:
- Star Trek: Assignment Earth #1 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Assignment Earth #2 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Assignment Earth #3 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Assignment Earth #4 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Assignment Earth #5 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Fool’s Gold #4 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Movie Adaptation #2 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Next Generation: Ghosts #4 ($1.99)
- Star Trek: Next Generation: Ghosts #5 ($1.99)
Unlike the Playstation comics store, you can only search the iTunes catalog from within the IDW Comics or Star Trek Comics apps running on your iPad/iPhone/iPod touch.
Star Trek comics on iPad
So, if you’ve got your feet firmly planted in the digital comics age, IDW has you covered. I recently wandered into Steve Job’s Reality Distortion Field and purchased an iPad with comics in mind. Based on a few weeks with this new toy, I think if you want to read digital comics, an iPad is the way to go. However, I have to admit that the first Star Trek comic I downloaded to my iPad wasn’t an IDW Star Trek comic. Gold Key Star Trek comics (downloaded from Wowio for 99¢) never looked better than they do on a 99¢ app for reading PDFs like GoodReader. Also on my to-do list: try out some of the comics from Star Trek: The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD on the iPad and install a CBR/CBZ comics app for reading the British Star Trek comics scans available out there on the intertubes.
Here is IDW’s demo of their iPad comic apps
POLL: Have you tried digital comics?
So have you gone digital with your comics yet?
[poll=582]
Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.
Sweet.
But I have no i-devices.
Macintosh = Fail, in my opinion.
My name is Christine, I’m 17, and I’ve been a PC since I was 2 years old!
@Christine
You are aware that all iDevices have been working with Windows systems for years now? I’m a Windows user and I own an iPod touch with the Star Trek Countdown DigiComics. I love it.
#2 :: Eehh, I know. Besides, they’re so expensive. When I get a job this summer, I might get a Zune, but I’ve worked with iPods and they just annoy me. I dunno. I have this.. thing about Mac stuff.
There’s a possibility I might check out digital comics, but for me, there’s nothing quite like holding a crisp, new comic book in your hands. Especially if it’s IDW… that art is like eye candy for an artist like myself. xD
2 Lt Ricky:
The choice to avoid Crapple Products goes far beyond issues of compatibility.
I have a friend who’s so happy with his Mac, that he “only” paid $400 for the extra maintenance contract, and “all he has to do” is call the local Apple Store here in NYC to schedule an appointment (!), and travel 40 blocks to drop off and pick up! He’s done it twice! Isn’t that great? Then his iPhone died, and he did the same. Apple is shite.
I prefer to do my reading with comics in book form. Not only can I enjoy the story and art, I can also enjoy the smell of new! :-)
The only Apple product I have is the old iPod Nano. Its great for music.
And I listen to my music on the iTunes menu while on the web and this site.
@ #s 1, 3, 4. Keep on rationalizing using inferior technology. ;-)
— Sent from my iPad.
@ #s 3, 5
I agree nothin compares to the feel and smell of a comic in your hands.
— Sent from my iPad.
I bought many of those Gold Key Star Trek comics in the late 70s. Unfortunately, what my Mom did not throw out, an ex-girlfriend did 15 years ago.
— Sent from my iPad.
#8
Then I suggest you hold onto that iPad like you would with your own life! ;-)
Thanks for the update. I was looking for the Dr. McCoy series today for my iPod Touch.
I really like the idea of digital comics, no ads and no taking up physical space. I have a bunch of 2000ADs here though, that I would love to scan in to be able to view on an iPad (not available here yet) but the effort required and time seems out of proportion. Maybe I could pay someone to do it? I dunno :)
has anyone scanned some or all of their comic collection? I’d be really interested to hear.
–
To the Apple haters, maybe its more to do with your own blinkered views than the products the human race at its best is very adaptable. no flames, just think about it.
I came from windows via linux to Mac, life is too short, my time is more valuable now, I can’t be bothered futzing with .dlls and driver settings and whatnot. I’m happy with my computing experience, if you are with yours then why the need to drop hate on others?
if the ipad can get more people into comics, or back into comics, then that means more diversity for everyone else.
Paper is a finite commodity, digital is the future, digital distribution is here, it might be difficult, but you gotta get used to it.
:)
no edit button!!
should be a full stop between “the products” and “the human race at its best”
I love reading comics on the iPad…there are plenty of free titles and the ability to zoom in on individual panels makes for a whole new experience. Mark, you mention viewing the trek dvd collection as an upcoming “to do” for your iPad. How are you going to do this? I would love to know as I would love to do the same thing. Great article!
Hoping that they will work on Star Trek: The Last Generation. Haven’t seen the last issue yet.
I’m going to hold off for the generation two iPad, but it looks absolutely perfect for reading comics.
I live in London, so apartments (or flatshares in my case) are small and expensive. I’ve already got rid of most of my DVD cases and stashed the discs in soft pack albums, keeping a few select DVD box sets . . . and, obviously, my Blu-rays are intact for now. Books are becoming a problem to store, though and piles of comics would be even more so!
Also, finding issues of comics that haven’t sold out of specialist shops or buying graphic novels that haven’t been thumbed to death by zitty, greasy-fingered teenyboppers isn’t always easy on the high street! Looking for graphic novels on line can also be a pain and you might not be able to find all of the ones you want!
I’ve tried comics on my iPod touch, several of which are IDW, and even found them very good on that. Hopefully Marvel will issue a complete uncensored Tomb of Dracula collection at some point! Count me in on the iPad within the year.
And as for people saying Apple are crap: get a life! Plenty of us use them in work and business as well as PCs. Stop being so pathetically tribal and grow up!
“Hands on Hips!”
@13 Jonboc
It turns out to be pretty simple to move PDFs from the Star Trek comics collection DVD to an ipad. The app I’m using to read PDFs, GoodReader, has a server mode which enables mounting the ipad as a file system on your desktop computer. Just drag and drop your comics to the ipad, disconnect, and away you go. I dumped all of the first Star Trek series from DC Comics and the DS9 comics from Malibu on my ipad. The only downside is that the DVD comics were scanned two pages at a time instead of one page at a time so you have to zoom to see a full screen page.
Thanks for the info Mark, it’s much appreciated. I just loaded the GoodReader app, looks like a handy dandy PDF reader, and will try to link to my desktop after work. Thanks again!
@ 11. Rod of Rassilon
What a great idea! I’m gonna try that with the few (dozens) I have left. I just found issues 1 & 2 of the Marvel Comics ST:TMP adaptation. What I have left is in poor but readable condition. Melancholy.
Mark, thanks for the great article!
Last night I downloaded from Wowio the “Peril of Planet Quick Change” and I’m enjoying it on the iPad using the Goodreader App you suggested.
Your site’s very useful too. Hope to peruse it often.
Probably the closest I’ve gotten to reading digital comics is Mangafox.com, which is great considering the fact that I’m broke, and I draw digital comics, but that’s it. And they’re in web-form (you know, vertical panels and all that). Kind of nice, actually.
But as for my Trek, I still prefer it in paper. Unless, of course, one of my friends puts theirs up on the ‘net!
All right, I get it, fellas, you love Macintosh and you think I’m being “primitive” or “tribal” or.. whatever.
I’m not. I simply have a preference. I like PCs and have been working with Windows technology since I was tiny; it just feels right to me and Macintosh doesn’t. I can use it, but I prefer PC.
“PC vs Mac”
“Star Trek vs Star Wars”
“Marvel vs DC”
“Pepsi vs Coke”
“Xbox vs Playstation”
Why does it always have to be either/or? Why can’t people appreciate both? And why can’t we all just get along? LOL!
This is a very cool notion, especially for those that don’t have access to a decent comic book store.
I must confess, that physical, paper editions will always be my first choice, though. It’s wierd– I need to feel actual pages turn under my fingers, or the words don’t sink in for me. Doctor McCoy would be proud. ;)
@ 23. CarlG
That’s such a great point about access to a good comics store. Houston has a couple of good ones, but they’re on the freeway. When I was a kid I could walk to one 8 blocks from my house. I can remember the day, I was about 16 when I stopped buying comics. Maybe it’s because I must be getting old, but this may help me rediscover my childhood love of comics.
— Sent from my iPad.
@ 21. Christine
Christine I think your love for the genre and comics is very cool and I encourage you to do what you love always.
#25 :: Thank you; I appreciate that! And yes, I will always do what I love. That’s why I’m going to pursue a degree in Physics so I can eventually go work for the big boys at NASA — if my plan works out, of course. Anything to get us closer to the stars. ;3
#26
I thought you wanted to be a writer or artist? Of course, you may very well be a Renaissance woman, so good luck with physics, art and writing! :-)
#27 :: LOL, well, those’ll be college jobs and just things I do on the side. I have many, many loves. But in terms of a career, astrophysics = da bomb.
As for college, Univ. of Nebraska at Lincoln. Stellar academic program, in-state tuition, and (in my opinion) the coolest football team in the NCAA. Oh yes, college football is my other obsession. I’d always wished that Ben Sisko had been into football instead of baseball…
@11 – I like the feel of real paper, too, as opposed to a hard plastic shell, but I’m not opposed to technology.
I’ve used all three – Windows, Linux, and Mac. Each has their place. With the recent improvements in both Windows 7 and Ubuntu, they have approached a par with Mac in terms of usability without hassle. However, each also has its own unique issues. C’est la vie. But my main attraction to both Windows 7 and Linux is the fact that the OS is far less expensive than buying a Mac ($1,500 vs. $180 for Win 7 Home Premium vs. free for Ubuntu). That’s probably why I won’t be turning Mac anytime soon. That, and Apple’s customer service (we’re so cool we can’t be bothered with problems, so we’ll make it as hard for you to get your device repaired as possible, and charge you an arm and a leg to do it).
I wish they’d just let us use PCs/Macs/etc. already. Not all of us can afford iPod touches/iPhones, but would be willing to shell out for an ebook version we can read on our PCs. I just… don’t get locking it to a smaller market.
29. falcon
Thing is, with my work requirements, I costed out a PC laptop and a MacBook Pro and, after I’d got the PC up to the spec I needed, it worked out £600 more than the MacBook Pro.
So it’s horses for courses really. I can understand companies bitching at each other, but it amazes me when consumers actually start attacking each other.
And frankly, it’s as rude of certain posters to slag off something someone’s spent a lot of money on when posting on a forum as when visiting their home.
When I read people who won’t use Macs coming out with names like ‘Crapple’ (the lack of imagination that goes into that name kind of justifies Mac’s ad campaign, n’est pas?) it’s personally offensive to me, having spent several thousands of pounds on Apple equipment that has earned me several more thousands of pounds putting that equipment to use! Sure Apple has issues. So do PCs and the many Linux variations!
And if people want to walk around saying ‘I’m a PC’, well, good luck to them. I’m a human being, not a bunch of circuits in a cheap plastic shell with a faulty brain!
@ 31. Dom
You are absolutely correct. About what happens when you match the specs on a Winbox and a Mac, you end up paying more for the Winbox.
Finally, where is the Windows device on which I can enjoy comics like I have been on the iPad?