Macenstein

Well, it’s Wednesday, and you know what that means! NEW COMICS! Yeah!

Well, if you’re anything like me, you buy so many comics that odds are you’ve gotten mixed up on more than one occasion as to what issue is dropping when, meaning you go to the comic store every Wednesday, just in case, and end up buying between 4 and 20 extra comics you don’t really care about just because their covers look cool. (No? Just me?) Well, luckily now (assuming you own an iPhone or touch) you can save your time, money, gas, and your dignity by checking out new releases without leaving your cave via comiXology‘s new iPhone app!

The app is set to launch this Friday, but we got a sneak peek, and it’s pretty sweet. If you are at all familiar with the comiXology site, then it should be a fairly intuitive experience. If not, then odds are you don’t collect comics, and should stop reading this and go do something less nerdy.

Here’s a quick preview of the app, in pictures (or scroll to the bottom to see a video preview).

Above: The main menu.

Above: Featured comics.

When browsing new releases, you have 3 options: Title, Publisher, and Format.

Above: Sorting new releases by title.

Above: Sorting new releases by Publisher.

Above: Sorting new releases by Format.

Above: Why so gloomy, Jughead? Many comics offer 3-5 page previews.

One of the nice features for iPod touch users is that once downloaded, the covers and data remain on your iPhone for offline viewing.

Above: Your pull lists are available as well and sortable via the same options above – you can add to them (assuming you have a free comiXology account)

Above: Click on a comic for more details and to access previews (if available)

Above: Click on the cover and you get an iPhone-wallpaper-sized image. Unfortunately, you cannot yet download the image the directly from the app, you need to take a snapshot, which stamps the time bar at the top, but I talked to Dave Steinberger at comiXology, and he says he will implement the feature for version 1.1 just for me. 🙂 Or maybe 1.2.

Above: Check out the latest comic news.

Above: You can listen to the comiXology podcasts directly to your iPhone…

Above: … right now the podcasts stream from the comiXology site, but future versions will use iTunes to play the Podcasts.

The app will debut this Friday for an introductory price of $3.99, and will rise to its normal $4.99 price a week later. To celebrate the launch, comiXology will launch with these exclusive extras:

– Complete Atomic Robo FCBD from Red 5 Comics
– Previews of IDW’s 30 Days of Death #1, Ghost Whisperer: The Muse #1, Epilogue #3, Lifebringer #49, Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #1
– Preview of IDW’s Steve Niles American Freaks
– Preview of AdHouse Book’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest

Some cool features slated for the upcoming 1.1 update include:
– rotating previews
– shipping confirmation icon in list view (currently in detail view)
– search
– connection to your local retailer (retailer participation required)
– pull subscriptions (so you do not need to pull each comic)

If you are a fan of comic books, and more importantly a user of the comiXology site, this is a must-have app. The current comiXology iPhone site we’ve had to make due with is decidedly more limited, and this app is a welcome change, delivering (almost) all the features you would want (I would love to see some “Top Comics” lists, as well as “search” for future versions). Still, the app is definitely worth the price (less than the cost of two horrible Xena comics). Look for it this Friday in the iTunes app store.