PSN To Offer Comics (Well, Manga)

curly haired boy

nice one with your choice of BLAME! for the cover photo. i effing love that series.

Let's bring this to USA. But now also with DC, Marvel, and other comic book. While we're at it, why don't we put novels on there. The Iphone did that. I like to see PSN in US to do this also but with manga from Viz, Del Rey, Seven Seas, Bandai, Yen Press, and Tokyopop.

mdo7

@bobtheduck: Well, they barely advertised it...

Um... right, so I can view a comic on a three inch screen. Exactly what I always wanted to enjoy my media. It's not that I read Manga out of appreciation of the artwork and to follow a story. I can't wait to scroll up and down to see portions of a splash page.

Another brilliant move by Sony!

@NitroAML: There is no profit here, only shame.

ReynaldoRiv

@AnalysisDialysis (and a MudkipNDS): Yeah, for some reason, I used to always flip through magazines and such starting from the back and working my way to the front. I don't know why, but that's how it's always been for me.

The only issue I have with manga is when some try to do it Western style and then switch back to the original style. For example, I have several volumes of Slayers that read left to right, but then the more recent ones read from right to left. Just pick one orientation (preferably right to left, so that none of the images get distorted) and stick with it.

@AnalysisDialysis (and a MudkipNDS): lolololololmnop

good chuckle

@SolidOni: Part of my joy is reading it and being able to smell the scent of comic book paper. Mmm.. comic book paper.

Does anyone know the name of the manga in the picture? looks interestinf :]

NekuSakuraba

@LozoEx: right? hahaha I was actually looking around Kotaku and then saw BLAME! on a psp. I kept frantically going backwards in my browser trying to find it again. I thought I was just going insane.

@rich8606: I thought it was morphic resonance that killed all the men? The moment that lady gave birth to her own clone, the species as a whole picked up that men were no longer required for procreation and killed the men off or something like that?

Fishballs

lolcomics, not on that damn 480x272 screen.

Sign on Dengeki and their light novels though, and I'll be waiting with PSN money on hand that I never used on the ImasSP DLC. Or just do something threatening so that Amazon Japan starts supporting the Kindle.

@octalass: If anything, manga put a habit that I've got from childhood to read from back to start!

But now I can manage both. Yay.

:)

@czarscream: Credits go to GitEmSteveDave of Gizmodo:

Mmmmm...Blame! So good.

Everything needs a little more BLAME in it.

kitsuneconundrum

@Alternate: Yeah but the kotaku post specifically said it was manga. There IS a huge difference between manga and comics.

wazzzup16

@octalass:
... crap, oh, end the from starts i because writing and books reading when good not that's, it with okay i'm so now years 6 since order left to right in magazines western ready to used i

Blitzgrilo

putting BLAME! on the mockup makes ppl want to buy it. I really am not too into manga but BLAME! is an amazing piece of cyberpunk fiction.

Solidusian Fury

Give me Gantz in English so I can read it when my family is around!

Zwei Voltage

@Salman Dayala: read the post

@czarscream:
Also first ban ?

Lamego

@Devil_Dan: Relaaax maaaan!

@Salman Dayala: Why is it idiocy to pay for manga on your PSP? The artist created the manga you enjoy reading - they should be compensated for their effort.

RONIN013

There's already a perfectly suitable .cbr reader for hacked PSPs.

turkish101

@Rory Michael O'Sullivan: I already use my PSP to read comics myself. You can find digitized comics in plenty of places...

I didn't have to modify the files in anyway either. Just dragged and dropped em into my PSP picture folder. Then I zoom in on the pictures on my PSP and read the comics panel by panel.

I'm currently reading Garth Ennis's The Punisher series on the MAX comics. Gruesome, awesome stuff.

Armagetiton

Ahhh Blame! Good manga.

@element7: That's not suggestive to you? That guy is blatantly miming a fisting action. And the girl is looking away with a slightly worried expression on her face. Just give it a couple more pages...

dd528

Yay, you used Blame! as the artwork! That was some of the best manga ever written. :D

DocSeuss

@topogigio: While manga are sequential art, I'd hardly try to compare the two. I mean, manga are typically black and white weekly affairs with no regard for good paneling, and comics are full-colored monthly pamphlets...

DocSeuss

I can't wait for this!! My 3rd PSP! :D Looking forward for PSP2! :D

taeka22

You can already do this. It's called jpg. If I'm paying to download this, the sound effects better be added in, no voice though. Though Sandman could be badass with voice acting.

transcend

@Luke Plunkett:

I seen Blame appear several times on Kotaku, now I know who to thank! Now if only I can see some developers who are Blame fans!

Plsk1n

@NitroAML: Nothing beats reading actual manga, page for page in your hands though...

And Cross Game Voice Chat is more important! :O

Would love to see manga come to the Kindle in the US. I dont see much use for manga on a PSP just cause of the screen size.

Has anyone used the kindle to view some of the fan scan JPEGS of some manga? What is the quality? How does it look on the Kindle?

ddmeightball

@Black-Dog-Howls: Some manga, in my opinion, will always be better on paper. Something about that anticipation to see what the next page holds in a really compelling story makes paper worth it. I have over $5500 worth of manga on 4 bookshelves and have loved every page of them.

I would love to see the manga publishers go digital here in the US for the Kindle and other eBook readers. The only reason I havent bought a kindle is because they dont have manga yet and dont have color screens (not a big deal, but some manga have a few color intro pages and I would like to be able to see them).

ddmeightball

@Psudonym:

<3 BLAME!

@LozoEx: CANADA!

Devil_Dan

Oh dammit Kotaku, Teasing with a BLAME! image on a videogame console ):

Sean Jay Fallerini

@LozoEx: Such a good choice.

Derek Highet

@Psudonym: I full heartedly agree!!

Derek Highet

Ironically, I'm reading exactly that right now (well not right now, but you know what I mean) on my jailbroken psp1002. It's pretty damn fiddly zoming around the page to read the text though :/

CalvertHizer

that's really a cool option. given the state of the US comic book industry, id hope to see it an option down the road, with an itunes like pricing system. they could really use something like this while struggling to make sales.

BLAME is amazing. Only manga that made me actually consider buying it in print (I wanted professional translations and nice quality printing). Good choice Kotaku.

SushamaChryseis

@Relenus: I'm gonna agree with Nitro and Dokuro there... If SOny had exclusive digital rights to shounen jump, they'd make bank... Seriously.

@Perfec7: heh. I bet you the main reason (and possibly the only reason) Folklore failed was the lack of voice acting for most of the game. It's all reading, and they do taht weird comic book format... If Folklore had been entirely in engine with voice acting, people wouldn't have bitched about the lack of RPGs around the launch of the PS3. Because... you shouldn't have to READ in an RPG...

@Mr. Mattican (Puts on Monicle): The difficult thing is going back and forth between manga and american comics (or flipped manga)

Megatokyo was a bitch because I'd gotten so used to real manga, and Megatokyo seems like manga except for that, so it confused the hell out of me.

Cool!

Typhoon Swell

BLAME!?!

You've got good taste, Luke.

Psudonym

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: Hey, I love Blame. Sue me.

@element7: Unfortunately.
Not your fault though (being surprized), since western midia, blogs, news and others, when it comes to japanese news coverage, they ALWAYS center on stuff like that and completely ignore great manga and anime titles with serious non-hentai/suggestive content.

Read Blame, Dragon Head, Tekokkinkreet, Nausicaa and some others...

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Relenus: Japan and Sony will laugh too, I guarantee you.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@topogigio: Yeah, me too. But I think I'll buy the hardcover versions soon enough.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@SolidOni: Dunno about onemanga or what, but I'm with you on the paper stuff.

I like my manga and comic books on paper.

Kindle or whatever can go to hell, if books are a dying breed, I'll be the last survivor.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Kaneda: Followed by his eyes increasing in size, drastically!

Can I Really Be the Hero?

Luke, you say it like it's a bad thing.

jasonliang

@SEX_BISON: No, frontwards.

English is the one that's backwards.

@zach a mac rack alack: Step 4) Profit!

comics, well manga, well hentai

Step 1) Put all your hentai onto your PS3
Step 2) Remote play
Step 3) ????

@SolidOni: Japan disagrees with you.

We're a dying breed. However like music there's just something about analog. Vagabond never looks as good digitally as it does in my hands...

Black-Dog-Howls

@NitroAML: what is shonen and why does it jump (for anyone, not just gantz)?

@NitroAML: I'd rather just get Vagabond updated on time with official translations.

Black-Dog-Howls

@landonkun: Yeah it's really weird that they don't think it's weird to watch hentai on the train when so many people are so insanely "close by". But I guess watching it on a laptop is just the logical evolution: The Japanese have been looking at hentai manga on the trains since the dawn of history. I have a friend who used to pick up those mangas (because I'm sure you've noticed too that THEY LEAVE THEM ON THE SEATS for others to read when they're done, as if they were public goods). But then he stopped collecting them because he had way too many. And I told him it was weird. And that we should not interfere with something we obviously didn't understand.

BLAME!

LozoEx

Surprised they didn't have a hentai or suggestive comic in that preview image.

@darkos87: You know, Sony's digital ink device came out before Amazon's, is still available, and is cheaper.

And digital ink > Liquid Crystal. I put books into JPEGs formated to the PSP's screen, and it was a HUGE pain in the ass. I'd much rather have a digital ink device like the Kindle or Sony's reader.

Get back to me when they have full marvel and or dc support

@rich8606: Most digital comic services promises high-res old comics, but the quality of most of them are no different than free scanlations.... I'm guessing because it's because they don't have digital source of the old comics. Newer comics are high res, cuz they were made digitally in the first place.

But then again.... mangas are in black and white, maybe it's easier to clean even if they scan it from paper drawing. I have little interests in modern manga, but I have been trying to get all volumes of dragon ball and dragon ball Z.

rich8606

@darkos87: I had a pc program that autoconverted a text doccument, PDF or ebook to a series of jpeg images formatted for the PSP's Screen. It was very customisable with nice borders, gradients, background images etc (or just plain white for clarity). I'm sure with an internet search you could find it. Just copy the folder into the image directory and L & R to turn pages

Rory Michael O'Sullivan

@Go Go Gadget: Gizmo: Lol I'm glad you liked the story. I remember almost knocking at the window. As you said, it would have been really shameful for the poor fellow. Maybe typical manga emotion signs would have appeared, like a huge drop of sweat on the side of his face!

@Kaneda: I saw a guy on the train coming back from Shibuya standing, holding one of those really small laptops in the palm of one hand, while using his other hand to browse hentai on the thing. It seemed to be connected to the net wirelessly using one of those cards from a cellphone provider (forget which one, could've been DoCoMo).

I was THIS close to saying something to the guy, cause I'm not exactly offended by hentai or porn, but I thought it was ridiculous that the guy was looking at it on a crowded train as if it was nothing. Although, most people were reading books or sleeping and no one seemed to notice except me, cause I was standing beside him.

landonkun

@topogigio: I'll spoil it for you: It was never explained fully why it happened, Yorick is not the last man on earth, there was another male professor. Yorick survived and rebuilt society.

rich8606

That's good.... manga I can read digitally. I don't really collect them in book form anyway. Marvel, DC and Vertigo on the other hand....

rich8606

@Relenus: 2 of the most popular mangas out right now. Sony would be guaranteed moniez.

Hopefully it's actually good stuff. If it turns out to be nothing but LOL BLEACH AND NARUTO then I'll be sad (unless it's Japan-only, then I'll just laugh).

Reading? On my video games? Blasphemy!

good news, i still like to hold the manga on in book forms. but, psp is slow as a picture viewer.

Releaser31

@ReconToaster.: Seconded!

notquitedeadyet

@Kaneda: That is hilarious. Seriously, I would have paid for him to slowly turn around... then flick off his PSP, and hang his head low in shame.

Beautiful story A++++++ will read again

@octalass: it takes awhile but once your used to it, like they said, it becomes second nature.

Mr. Mattican (Puts on Monicle)

@Alternate: They are in panels and drawn.

@RedStar - Workers of The World Unite: Once I was on a platform at Shin-Osaka Station and I saw a business man who was sitting in the Sinkansen I had just gotten off of. He was sitting near the window and kinda sat at an angle so that people inside the train would not get to see that he was watching porn on a PSP. I guess he didn't realize that for a minute he was stopped at a station and about a million people could see him from a few feet away on the platform!

Thought I'd share that.

@octalass: Weekly Shonen Jump, Weekly Shonen Magazine, and MAYBE Weekly Young Jump(For Gantz). Throw in some Shojo Beat for the girls.

@wazzzup16: Yeah, Manga has NOTHING in common with comics.

Nothing at all.

Alternate

@NitroAML: Heresy! Take him avay! >:(

@RedStar - Workers of The World Unite: YA INORITE

@topogigio: manga =/= comics.

wazzzup16

@The Swearing Gramps:

My thoughts exactly.

Tentacles are HOT!

RedStar - Workers of The World Unite

Full Metal Alchemist pretty please...

ReconToaster.

I already got Manga on my PSP. I think I have about 4 gigs of One Piece on a mem stick somewhere.

@octalass: Its really not even that big of a deal. Frankly you don't even notice it after a while.

Obey__

@octalass: Really? THAT'S your issue with manga? I like manga and regular comics equally but srsly guise...

wazzzup16

I hope they have Y the last man on it.. I never got to finish that comic.

topogigio

@wonderboy13:

Indeed. DC, Marvel, or Dark Horse please.

I dunno I can always just go to onemanga or something like that and read it on my psp. Part of the joy I get from manga is holding the paper in my hands and reading it in my bed or on a couch.

SolidOni

yes!

BaronAloha

Will I have to press all the buttons backwards?

SEX_BISON

Because the one manga application just isn't good enough...

hanulbada

Sorry Japan, but I can't stand reading right to left.

Please Please Please Please NA/Eu release! Fuck Cross Game Voice chat. I want this!

Great. High Resolution hentai at my fingertips.

The Swearing Gramps

Needs north america love. Please, nothing lame.

wonderboy13

yep I guess it is

M.A. Bakheet

It would be great to read some Naruto and FMA on the road! but then the pic makes it seem like we HAVE to get the pspgo... hopefully we don't have to pay or its just idiocracy!

Salman Dayala

That is great news, always wanted to use my psp as a kindle...

Time to get another psp...

HHHHH FRST CMMNT

Dude, nice pic. I love Blame!, btw, and Biomega too. All hail Nihei Tsutomu

Blackbagger