Without any warning Amazon moved Comixology into its web site and Kindle. I checked my emails. There was nothing. Not even in junk mail. Nothing on site indicated there would be any changes. I just got weird FAQ when I tried to buy something. Kindle Cloud Reader is unusable for comics. You can see from picture above how “big” panels get when you zoom them and how much of the screen is given to everything else. My old tablet doesn’t let install new apps. So this is the only way to read my comic library for 85% of my library.
That 15% I can read. 153 comics out of 997 comics if you want exact numbers. I can load backup copies of those comics in format I can read on computer. There is nothing from Marvel or DC on that list. Not sure if all Image comics are on list but many of them are. Also something from smaller publishers. There could be something from Dark Horse but nothing from Hellboy universe.
These backups made my get comic reader. Not sure which one I start to use but I will be using one and getting my comics as downloadable files from now on. 2000 AD gave couple books free some time ago. Made account there then. Didn’t buy anything from them then because Comixology had better user experience. That has changed thanks to Kindle Cloud Reader being unreadable and comic readers I found working better than one I found them. So it is time to get and read Judge Dredd Case Files, Judge Anderson PSI Files and Halo Jones. And some other books after that.
For others Kobo seem to descent selection of what I want to buy again to actually own the files. Not going to get everything at once but slowly as I read the comics. This should keep library size reasonable now when I need to store them on my computer.
No more buying comics from Comixology or Amazon. This means having to stop reading some currently released comics like Blade Runner and Star Wars comics. I will buy them if they sell them somewhere else where I could download the files. This sucks but I won’t buy anything if I can’t get readable versions. Even if I wanted to buy I am not sure if that is possible. International customers have had problems buying anything if they can even find what they want from Amazon’s mess. Comixology wasn’t perfect but at least you could find what you wanted if it was there.
I want to get my Comixology library readable again but after this mess I don’t trust Amazon anymore. Will be spending lot less on comics. This was good reminder not to buy stuff just in case I want to read it later. Unless it is extremely cheap bundle in Humble Bundle. What I really hope digital comics would be released as downloadable files in future. Some smaller publishers and stores already do it but selection isn’t as good as I like to have. Comixology fiasko pushes more customers asking that. If you need app or site to read you have those comics only as long as that app or site is available.
Publishers may want to listen customers now when money coming from Comixology/Amazon drops. Haven’t yet mentioned that international customers can’t subscribe to anything anymore and everyone has problems finding anything from their library because new system is complete mess. This merger did almost everything wrong.