Panelfly Comics review

For all you comic book lovers out there, Panelfly has released an updated version of their free iPhone app, Panelfly Comics. Now you can carry your nerdiness in your pocket, wherever you go; if you’re a closet comic book geek, no one’s the wiser.

Not only can you read comics with Panelfly, but you can also buy your comic books online through this iPhone app’s mobile store. Once you’ve downloaded your comics (there’s a free section for everybody who wants to try this app out), it goes into the Library. The Library can be organized by title, author, genre, etc. Once a comic is chosen, you can open up an overview of all the pages by pressing the first button down at the bottom of the screen. The second button is used to bookmark any page, in case you want to go back to it (go to the main menu to access the bookmarks). Since the writing on the full page that is displayed is minuscule on the iPhone screen, you should probably zoom in. You can either double tap the area, or utilize Panelfly’s panel navigation, in which you tap the right or left sides of the screen to enjoy the comic panel-by-panel.

Panelfly has an excellent setup and design; it is easy to buy comics and read them. The panel navigation takes a little getting used to, but it is extremely useful when there’s a lot of text and you don’t know where to look first. The transitions between pages and panels are very smooth, with almost no lag–you can enjoy your reading without loading interruptions. Unfortunately, you are limited to whatever is in the store, so if you’re hankering for the latest and it’s not in, too bad. They do seem to be building upon their selection, though. If you think it’s worth the eyestrain to read your comic on a tiny lit screen, give Panelfly a try.

Here is a video demo of the Panelfly Comics app on the iPhone

AppSafari review of Panelfly Comics was written by Julie Guan on November 6th, 2009 and categorized under App Store, Books, Fun, Reading. Page viewed 5338 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.