Review - PSN Comics

I have always loved comics and recently Sony has introduced a new and exciting way to read them using your trusty PSP. The new PSP digital reader is a nice and easy to use and brings an added dimension to an age old medium. I even think that it has the potential to increase the sale of PSP units if implemented and supported properly.

I've read a few comics using the viewer and it works brilliantly. The options are good and the auto flow system is slick (however you can turn it off if you wanna go 'old school'). The menus are easy to use and the archive/collection is easy to navigate (See screen shot to the left - It is not dissimilar to the iPod's album cover system). Plus they don't take long to download either - just a few minutes in most cases.


Check out the video below to see it in all its glory.



The 2 things that will dictate if it is a success or not are the price and selection. The price range so far is either £0.00, £0.79 or £1.19. Free is always nice but i think people will be prepared to pay something if the product is good. Personally i think £1.19 is a tad high (especially for lesser known, older comics or series) but £0.79 is similar to the i-tunes pricing and is quite reasonable. The store has only been open for 6 weeks and the selection is already pretty good (I read somewhere that there is already 400-500 hundred). It is a good mix of old,new, mainstream and indie. At this rate by the end of 2010 the selection could genuinely be huge. However I did find it a bit of a pain finding specific issues on the store (to be honest that isn't unique to just the Comic Store). At the moment the Publishers that are supporting the service are as follows:

Marvel (Including Civil War - result!)
Image
2000AD
Disney
IDW
Ape Entertainment
Dabel Brothers
Red 5
Archie
Insomnia

Personally I really want Sony to broker a deal to bring Manga, DC and Darkhorse in because that would pretty much cover all the main bases. I'd love to be able to read some old Akira comics or the new Hellboy while on the way to work via my PSP.

If you want to sample some digital comics then all you'll need is firmware 6.2 or higher installed on your PSP and the Digital Comic Reader App (which can be downloaded free form the PSN store). Once that's done head over to the PSN Comic store and start downloading some of those comics. If i were to make a suggestion then check out Marvel's 'Civil War' series....Enjoy.