Digital Comics Unleashed (CBR/CBZ)
February 26, 2006
Over the years tons of people have made Flash based digital comics. Most notable to me is Marvel’s dotComics, now re-branded as digital comics. These formats are terrible. I always assumed this meant all digital comics therefore were bad.
Until I discovered the CBR and CBZ formats. These are simply zip or rar files that contain sequentially named JPG files, then are renamed either .cbr or .cbz with the last character indicating the originating format. Creation of this format is therefore trivial. Readers can also be created quite readily. I also love that there is no built-in DRM, but I’m sure the comics industry feels the opposite on that one. I gave my opinion on why they shouldn’t care back when I first started talking about the comic industry needing to go digital.
Anyway, there are some great free readers that have been created for both platforms. On OS X, use FF View. On Windows, use CDisplay. I’ve tried both these programs and they are amazingly well suited to reading comics digitally. The no-frills approach and the surprisingly good quality has me up late reading some independent comics I otherwise would not on my laptop.
Just to prove I’m not the only nut who wants this, I read this on loony blog:
Why would I consider this to be a viable alternative, while the official CD comics that are out there are mostly just a mildly amusing distraction? Because this is just the comic itself. There’s no animation, no music, no cheesy sound effects, just the comic itself, presented in a straightforward manner.
My main reason for wanting this is that I’d love to get all my back issues cheaply in this format so I could go back and read them at my leisure, without reducing the value of the originals through handling. It would also be nice to be able to afford experimenting with series I would not normally read on a whim. $1 an issue would really allow for that.
Similarly, in another comic reader’s article “The comic book industry is ignoring a multi-million dollar revenue stream”, he states:
[...] for the purpose of archiving stuff I physically own, so I can put the paper copies in storage. No small thing!
Here are some examples to try:
- Zone-H Comics - scroll to the bottom for the one linked in CBR format.
- Liberality for All (2.1MB CBZ) - a crazy right wing comic (only to be enjoyed by those with massive head injuries)
Tags: "digital comics", cbr, cbz, comic books, comics, dotcomics, flash, jpg, marvel, marvel comics
Comments
25 Responses to “Digital Comics Unleashed (CBR/CBZ)”
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I want to download the comic book software to see the books I downloaded which are in cbz format.\
Please let me have the same.
thanks and regards,
Shamshad
testing some files downloaded from the internet.
a good comic book reader is comical
http://comical.sourceforge.net/
[...] Go here to read more about the CBZ and CBR ebook formats. [...]
I think cbr files are RAR files and not TAR files.
You are absolutely right, that was a typo
I think the best viewer is Gonvisor (easy to use and with more features):
http://es.geocities.com/gonvisor
On OS X, FFView totally does it for me!
http://www.feedface.com/projects/ffview.html
I just love this concept. Name the pix sequentially, rar/zip them, rename to cbr/cbz — DONE! I think also people scanning non-comic books should adapt this. Ok OCR is better, but it requires more time and effort. Still looking for THE reader. CDisplay my fav so far. Comical not bad. But *why* is not [num+/-] the zoom-standard? Pgup PgDn prev/next page is good. But mouse-wheel would be nice as well.
[...] Digital Comics Unleashed (CBR/CBZ) [...]
where can i get .cbr files especially comics in .cbr format?
[...] Digital Comics Unleashed (CBR/CBZ) [...]
For a uniquely new digital comic reading experience, check out http://www.ikcomics.com! They have a demo online at http://www.ikcomics.com/demo.zip
It rocks!
i rename cbr to rar and cbz to zip (yes they are just archives) and read them with a gfx viewer, MUCH better than the comic book viers!
[...] Curious about some of the details that occur between scenes or episodes in NBCs hit series Heroes? This additional content was made available for free in a series of short digital comics available for free on the Heroes site (unfortunately not in CBR or CBZ). [...]
bitburn is correct, Gonvisor is the superior comic viewer for sure, I know because I just got done using the lot of them!
Gonvisor kicks the shiet out of cdisplayex..
another gonvisor convert here. Although I will say. I’ve tried others, and so far have always come back to cdisplay. But For now, it’s Gonvisor for me.
M
http://tydim.info/replica-handbags/coach-purse-replica-aaa.php
still using gonvisor :)
M
CDisplay is fine, but HOLY GOD the aesthetic is nice on at least one online reader, Markosia’s Beta Comic Reader. (http://www.markosia.com/comics/silence/)
A challenge to programmers: Can we PLEASE get a .cbr/.cbz reader that works like Markosia’s, with a similar page flip?
For those on a Mac, ComicBookLover is THE comic book reader. It sets the standard for ANY platform.
It’s not just a reader/viewer but a well thought out catalog that can be searched and organized however you like.
To Pazza, yeah the Windows cb readers are pretty weak, I can’t recommend one to my PC friends…
Check out ComicBookLover’s screenshots and then tell your favorite window’s cb reader to make it like THAT.
One of the coolest is to set it to rotate and read full pages on rotated monitor; or hook it up to an LCD TV and read from your couch!
the only drawback… it has a watermark in the corner unless you pay for it… (>_<)
http://www.bitcartel.com/comicbooklover/
where do they sell digital comics on cd or dvd using cbr?
[...] containing some Bob Hope comic scan jpegs. I created that comic folder by unzipping a standard .cbr comic book reader file into separate jpegs. I do that by changing the cbr extension to rar and then unarchiving them. Then [...]
[...] a folder containing some Bob Hope comic scan jpegs. I created that comic folder by unzipping a standard .cbr comic book reader file into separate jpegs. I do that by changing the .cbr extension to .rar and then unarchiving them. [...]
[...] was create a folder containing some Bob Hope comic scan jpegs. I created that folder by unzipping a standard .cbr file into separate jpegs. I do that by changing the .cbr extension to .rar and then unarchiving them. [...]