Are you looking for the best comic book reader apps? Comics are now most popular than ever before. So special thanks to the MCU and DCEU making a move in Hollywood. As it exposed some of the amazing and difficult characters of the last century into the mainstream. Think Batman, Punisher, and the clown prince of Gotham.
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List Of Comic Book Reader Apps
I prefer tablets over mobiles when we talk about reading comic books. It provides me more screen estate to view or read art without zoom in and out too much.
So, come let’s take a look at some of the best comic book apps for Android, in no particular order.
ComiCat
ComiCat is like an offline comic book reader that scans your mobile device for comic books. Also, it is compatible with a wide array of file formats such as PDF, CBZ, Zip, CBR, CB7, CBT, Rar, 7z, and PDF. Rather than this, it provides lots of amazing features with catalog options, search, password protection. Now let’s come to the actual comic viewing experience, you get lots in orientations and different view modes such as Fit Width, Fit Visible, etc.
ComiCat is slick after loading the comic books because of the local caching of the files. This allows you to instantly render books in the highest resolution. For manga fans who want to read left to right, the app is compatible with reading ways. Many other options provide bookmarks, parental controls, cloud sync, and gestures.
Pros:
- Excellent UI
- Different modes and file formats
- Cloud storage or parental control
Cons:
- Nothing
Bottom Line: ComiCat is an excellent comic book app with tons of features and options to select from. Overall, it provides a UI and the best visual representation.
Install: ComiCat
Challenger
Besides ComiCat, Challenger is another free app that does not contain any ads that firmly challenge many other comic book reader apps. Challenger is compatible with PDF along with the following comic book format such as CBZ/ZIP, CBT/TAR, CBR/RAR, CB7/7Z, DjVu, and ePUB. It also comes with an internal comic book downloader.
Challenger is not feature-rich. Also, it comes with some nifty tricks. You get both double or single-page viewing modes, lots of scroll with pinch to zoom, various orientation support. However, if there is any viewing mode that exists, Challenger compatible with it. The only drawback is the older UI which just gets the job done. The best thing is that it has cloud storage so that you can easily access your catalog on the fly.
Pros:
- Doesn’t contain ads
- Compatible with many file formats, viewing modes
- Support Cloud storage and FTP
Cons
- Traditional UI
Bottom Line: The Challenger development team focused on features or functions rather than whistles or bells which is not bad for a free app.
Install: Challenger
Comics (comiXology)
Comics is another best app that eCommerce giant, Amazon, plan to purchase it for an undisclosed amount. It is a free app that opens your doors to a ton of (100,000) comics books. Unfortunately, the subscription version in the US only ($5.99). The premium version offers a catalog of 10,000 comics. It includes the Dark Horse, likes of Marvel, DC, and Image.
Also, you can offline install novels or comics to your mobile SD. It is also compatible with lots of devices. The most amazing feature has to be the Guided View. It also helps you to read your favorite comics and check the artwork. Also on mobiles, Comics offers a cinematic experience. If you start login using your Amazon account, all the novels or comics from Kindle are synced using the app.
Pros:
- The guided View feature is facinating
- Provides Marvel, DC, and many other comic brands.
Cons:
- It can’t import the local library, available for US natives.
Bottom line: If you can also afford the subscription, Comics by Comixology is the best app to get. You can also access to huge catalog from DC Comics, Marvel, and many other big comic houses. The only drawback is the absence of a local comic collection.
Install: Comics (comiXology)
Astonishing Comic Reader
Astonishing Comic Reader executes on the freemium version. The app also comes with minimal material design. Also, it provides some advanced features such as collecting comic books, automatic start of the other problem issue once you are done with the earlier one, intelligent suggestions that are based on automatic sync, reading habits, etc.
The feature cloud storage also sets you back $2.49 which is known as the heroic account. Also, it comes with some add-ons such as user statistics and a favorites option. This is the only application on this list that enables you to cast your comic books on any display screen remotely.
I like the feature that creates custom wallpapers from my favorite pages through the Muzei app. It is compatible with DRM-free content in CBZ, CBR, and PDF file formats. Aslo, it comes with different navigation or orientation options including support for adding tags.
Pros:
- Clean UI & wallpapers with no ads
- Support Cloud Storage
- Searchable tags and they collect comics
Cons:
- A few file formats, can’t support zips.
- Requires another app for wallpaper
Bottom Line: Astonishing Comic Reader is the best looking comic book reader app with many features in the free variant and cloud and sync compatible in the pro version.
Install: Astonishing Comic Reader
Perfect Viewer
Perfect Viewer is another best comic book reader apps on the Play Store. It is totally free and doesn’t contain ads. Also, it supports the required file formats: CBR/RAR, 7Z/CB7, CBZ/ZIP, LZH, CBT/TAR, HTML, PDF, TXT, and EPUB. There are various navigation or orientation options with 5 viewing modes. After installing a plugin, you should get FTP or cloud storage.
Besides Astonishing comic reader, you don’t want a separate app to use custom wallpapers. Also, it provides a bookshelf but it is not as good as ComiCat. You can also get the usual features such as bookmarks, add to favorites, and gesture support. Also, there is a to support screens for Google Chromecast.
Pros:
- Compatible with different viewing modes and file formats.
- It supports cloud storage platform to Chromecast
Cons:
- UI is minimum than stellar but can’t complain about an app that is free.
Bottom Line: Perfect Viewer is the best competition for any paid app that lets you to organize your own collection of comic books.
Install: Perfect Viewer
CDisplayEx Free Comic Reader
CDisplayEx Free Comic Reader is the free comic reader app. As its name might not be the huge aspect of the app, the User Interface certainly is. CDisplayEx only allows you to read comic books saved offline and on remote servers. Also, the free variant only allows you to use or set up SFTP, FTP, and Samba. For cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc you want to buy the paid version which costs around $6.
Besides the basic features like different reading directions or viewing modes. CDisplayEx also provides custom gesture controls. You can also customize the duration, scroll distance, image size, etc. I like the features i.e automatic sorting of comics in reading, read/unread, series state.
Pros:
- Customizable gestures and click controls
- Install comics offline
- Support FTP, Samba to import comics in the free variant
- The paid version includes cloud services support
Cons:
- UI still seems like traditional and less intuitive
Bottom Line: CDisplayEx Free Comic Reader is the best offline comic book reader. It is the best choice for those who have a huge offline collection of comics.
Install: CDisplayEx Free Comic Reader
ComicRack
ComicRack is available on the Windows platform. However, it means you can easily sync libraries between your computer and Android. This is its best strength. However, the sync happens through WiFi (pro version at $6.49) or USB (free version). Besides Wi-Fi sync, the pro version only removes ads.
The app also creates live wallpapers from your comic book covers. Besides the conventional file formats, it also compatible with webcomics. All the amazing features such as orientation, gesture, color, and comic book management that you would like from any good reader are present. One essential feature is the ability to sort books after viewing states as unread, completed, and reading.
Pros:
- Live wallpapers and excellent UI
- Tight integration with remote or Windows sync option
Cons:
- Pro variant is very expensive for what it offers
Bottom Line: The free variant is good enough and there is no need for the pro version unless you want the WiFi sync.
Install: ComicRack
Conclusion:
These were some of the amazing comic reader apps for Android. If you are searching for a free comic book app, CDisplayEx or Perfect Viewer is the best app. In case you like something beautiful and want to upgrade, ComiCat is another best looking app using all the features you could ask for.
If you like to move all-in with a subscription, then Comics by ComiXology is the best choice. You can also get access to some of the biggest titles in the comics world.
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