There are a lot of comic book readers out there, so I’m going to share with you the comic reading apps that I use the most, both commercial readers that allow you to read comics purchased from their store, and one that lets you read comic book files.

Commercial Readers

Comixology: Comixology (free) is the Amazon Kindle service for buying comics. Almost every digital publisher (sadly, no Dark Horse, but Marvel, DC Comics, and IDW are present) is in Comixology, and many of them make digital versions available the same day they become available in print. With the release of the third-generation iPad earlier this year, Comixology introduced the CMX-HD, which are high-resolution files that take full advantage of the Retina display. They look amazing; even small text is quite readable. On the iPad 2, I had to use the panel-by-panel view (a view that zooms in so each panel takes up the full screen). Now, I rarely need to. While you can purchase and read comics via the app, if you create an account on Comixology’s website, you can also read your comics on non-iOS devices. One nice feature is that I can define alerts for when new issues of my favorite series are released.

Dark Horse: Dark Horse (free) as you’d imagine, is dedicated solely to Dark Horse’s catalogue. Yeah, I wish they’d partner up with Comixology, too. Unlike Comixology, Dark Horse requires an account on its site to purchase comics, although it can use your iTunes billing information to purchase the comic; I don’t have a credit card on file with Dark Horse.

The Dark Horse app is well-done. Downloaded comics show up on the bookshelf tab, and the Store is easy to navigate and search. One oddity, though, in that I can’t find a way to see comics I’ve purchased, but not downloaded; I had to search the store and note that there was a Download button next to the title I had purchased.

Reading comics is likewise very easy, utilizing a panel-by-panel view similar to Comixology. I’m not sure if the comics are hi-res, but they look fine on my iPad 3.

Reader Apps

The standard file format for comics is either a CBR or a CBZ file, which is essentially a RAR file with the images in it. I will let you use your own moral compass on how to obtain the files, but for full disclosure, as part of my research for this article I only downloaded a few comics I had purchased digital versions of already. While CBR readers are a dime a dozen on the iOS App Store, for me, there’s only one app I really like: Comic Zeal. Previously, I had enjoyed Comic Reader Mobi, but sadly the developer was banned from the App Store. One free app I looked at, ComicFlow, didn’t seem to have an easy way to delete files.

Comic Zeal: At $4.99, this is a great app. It takes advantage of the Retina display, and while it doesn’t have a form of panel-by-panel reading that I could find, it is easy to pinch and zoom in. Again, like all the apps, it looks amazing on the Retina display.

While individual comics are easy to navigate, there is a learning curve on the Library interface. Rather than dragging and dropping comics into a folder, instead you swipe the comic to the right and then paste it into a folder. After a little bit, I got used to it.

Getting comics into Comic Zeal is pretty easy: you can just drag and drop them via the App tab in iTunes. An easier way I found was to use Google Drive to store the file. I then opened the file with the Google Drive app, and when it told me it couldn’t read the file, I had it “Open in” Comic Zeal.

The Last Page

The iPad has really reinvigorated my interest in comics. When I was reading them a long time ago, if I missed some of a series, or if I became interested in a series in the middle of the run, I’d have a hard time catching up. These days, I just set an alert in Comixology for the next issue of a series, and it’s relatively easy (although expensive when you buy 20 issues at once –oy, my wallet) to come into a series late. The cloud-based nature of both Comixology and Dark Horse also makes it easy to read my comics on alternate devices, like my Nexus 7.

It’s a shame, though, that I have little reason to go into my local comics store anymore.

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Starting in June, all print editions of Marvel’s $3.99 superhero comics will contain redemption codes for a free digital version. The company has already experimented with bundling on some titles, and Marvel’s SVP sales David Gabriel said, “The positive reactions from both retailers and fans make it clear that including these codes with our books drives customers into comic stores on a repeated basis.”

In addition, a new “Infinite Comics” line provides digital-only tie-ins. First up is Avengers vs. X-Men #1 Infinite, a counterpart to Avengers Vs. X-Men #1. Both will be available April 4.

Marvel already releases its comics in digital formats, so what’s new here is the digital-only stories. Print issues of Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 contain a redemption code to get the Infinite tie-in free. The Infinite tie-in is bundled with the digital version of Avengers Vs. X-Men #1. It can be purchased alone for $0.99.

Marvel also announced an augmented reality app that lets users scan print copies of select Marvel comics to view digital extras.

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The book Stevens created, an archive of a month’s worth of installments from his weekday comic strip, was first hosted on Dropbox, but demand caused the public folder he was using to be shut down. Once Stevens moved the file to his own server, he saw almost 8,000 downloads, leading him to surmise that at least 10,000 in total managed to get a hold of the iBooks Author-created tome.

Stevens called that performance “not bad for a file created by software which has only been out for a week on a single platform,” and we agree. Consider, for example, that the Financial Times‘ How to Spend It, a lifestyle magazine app from a world-class publication, took 10 days to reach 10,000 downloads last September.

Response to the format has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Stevens said in a blog post, but there are some downsides. First, he says bandwidth required to provide the downloads is a problem, which could be overcome by selling the via the iBookstore, but that entails additional costs and operating within the confines of Apple’s marketplace. Stevens says this isn’t palatable since he “[doesn't] like the idea of readers being geographically or economically restricted from downloading [his] comics.”

Apple adds this to every page in PDFs generated in iBooks Author.

The other problem is with how iBooks Author writes to PDF, since Stevens wants to offer the collections to anyone, regardless of platform. Apple adds branding to its iBooks Author PDF output, which Stevens says is understandable since it’s a free tool. He would have to spend additional time, then, creating a second version without said branding.

Stevens’ concerns echo some of those brought up by Vook’s Matthew Cavnar during a recent interview, but the webcomic creator seems excited about the potential of iBooks Author despite its limitations. We should see soon enough if Apple’s tools result in a flood of new iPad-tailored content from other independent creators in the months to follow. I predict it will, because despite the fact that iBooks Author may be tied strongly to only one platform, that platform also happens to be the best venue for digital comics consumption available today.

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The cannibal that wasn’t

Why only Wednesdays? Because that’s the day new comics are released. When digital comics were just getting started, that meant relatively little; publishers often held back digital releases, and in fact many only released titles from deep in their back catalogs at first. The reason for their reticence was that they felt digital editions would significantly cut into print book sales.

That hasn’t happened, according to comiXology. Instead, in September both print and digital comic sales reached record heights. September is also when DC decided to relaunch 52 of its titles at issue #1 (a move it dubbed the “New 52″), and make each of them available on the same day in print and digitally, via both the Comics app and its own branded comiXology-powered DC app.

Are digital and print comic buyers the same?

The reason digital comics haven’t negatively affected print comic sales could be that the two types of media appeal to entirely different consumer groups. Using the iPad as a delivery method opens up comics to new audiences, including basically anyone who owns an iPad and has even a basic familiarity with or interest in the costumed heroes whose mugs are now everywhere thanks to Hollywood, video games and TV shows.

Traditional comic book shops, on the other hand, cater to a much more narrowly focused audience. Comic books stores are destination establishments, for the most part, not places that people with only a vague sense of what they sell happen to stumble into. Row upon row of poly-bagged issues in filing boxes can also be an intimidating site for people new to the medium. Collectors and fans who enjoy the community element of the comic book shop will keep their pull lists, even in the face of the rise of digital, and fans introduced via the iPad and other devices could even make the leap to the shop once they embrace the culture.

Same day is the real superhero

I asked comiXology CEO David Steinberger about the app’s success, and how tied it was to DC’s New 52. Steinberger replied that in fact, the 3.0 release of Comics started the avalanche, but “the New 52 and other same day as print releases from other publishers, like Marvel and Image Comics, do great as well.” Marvel hasn’t been nearly as quick to embrace same day digital releases, but Steinberger points out that that could change, since the publishers who embrace that model are doing especially well on the Comics platform.

Another driver of sales could be Hollywood’s love affair with comic book properties. Captain America and Thor both charmed audiences this past summer, and The Avengers is coming next spring, with a stellar ensemble cast and a powerful hype machine behind it. It makes sense that comics, digital and otherwise, would enjoy some halo benefits from that attention.

What about subscriptions?

I’ve also argued that subscriptions are the next frontier for digital comics. Steinberger says that he thinks “subscriptions will be a very interesting model” for digital comics, but that currently, the available options aren’t really a natural fit for comics. “What is out there right now on different devices (Apple’s Newsstand, for instance) don’t work for comics, because they charge you monthly,” Steinberger said. “So you put the consumer in danger of being charged without product, or you make the consumer lag behind true same-day-as-print and they don’t get the newest material.”

Steinberger isn’t promising anything in terms of digital comics subscriptions, but it will be interesting to see if publishers and storefronts like Comics can come up with a solution that provides them some of the benefits like those magazine companies such as Condé Nast are seeing from Newsstand.

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The DC storefront in ComiXology's Comics app for iPad.

DC Comics recently began selling digital versions of its new comics on the same day that print editions show up in local comic book shops. It’s a move that coincides with, and helps promote their “New 52,” a complete re-launch of all of their monthly titles beginning at issue #1, but its effects are already being felt beyond even just its own stable of properties.

Beating out books

Last week, three of the top five most popular iPad apps in the Books category were comics apps. Comics by ComiXology came in second overall to Al Gore’s Our Choice, followed by the official Marvel and DC apps at numbers three and four respectively. Note that ComiXology’s tech powers both the Marvel and DC apps, and its own app offers titles from both publishers, as well as a number of others including IDW and Image comics.

But the successes for digital comics on the iPad don’t end there. Comics by ComiXology also became the second highest grossing iPad app — all categories included — as of Wednesday night this week (it’s still at number three at the time of writing). ComiXology CEO David Steinberger directly attributes part of the reason behind his app’s good fortune to DC’s decision to go digital:

[W]hen you look at our success as one of the top grossing iPad Apps and then take in the news about DC Comics going back to print on almost all of The New 52 comics, you can see that digital distribution is growing both the print and digital comic book market. DC’s daring move going digital the same day as print with all their print publications this month in combination with the great buying and reading experience our App provides is a tide that lifts all boats.

A page from Grant Morrison's Action Comics #1, part of DC's "New 52."

It sure does look like the changed approach to digital comics is lifting all boats. Consider that Marvel beat DC itself in terms of gross last week and continues to ride high at number 18 overall among iPad apps, despite having yet to offer its own blanket approach to same-day digital. It is headed in the right direction, however, as it announced in July at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 that it would be rolling out simultaneous digital and print releases gradually for all X-Men and Spider-Man titles. Image is likewise testing same-day releases through ComiXology with at least a few titles.

Same-day digital definitely delivers

Same-day digital appears to be the magic ingredient that was missing from the iPad comic mix. If you’ve ever tried reading comics on the iPad, you know that it’s an almost-perfect delivery method. The screen size and resolution are both good enough that you should be able to view full single-page layouts without zooming or squinting, you can carry an entire library on a single device, and you don’t have to worry about dog-earing the corners. Seriously, though, for all but devoted collectors, it’s a nearly ideal alternative to paper, and digital editions are also often cheaper.

One drawback to digital is load times, but you can view content as it downloads, one-page at a time.

Regardless of what you think of DC’s decision to relaunch its entire line (I’m not that impressed by what I’ve seen so far, with the exception of Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1), you can’t deny that the bold decision to make everything available digitally on the same day will help push the industry forward. Marvel will likely have to speed up its rollout of day and date iPad releases now that DC is seeing big dividends in terms of gross revenue, and partners like ComiXology will be pushing them to follow suit, because, again, doing so would “lift all boats.”

One more key ingredient missing

There’s still one piece missing for digital delivery, however, and I wrote about it back in May: subscriptions. Comics should be leaving behind the idea that they can still become valuable collector’s items, and same-day digital is one step towards that. But making titles available digitally on a subscription basis is the next, and possible the more important step.

If I could buy an Uncanny X-Men auto-renewing subscription through my iPad, I’d probably never turn it off, whereas I’ll only pick up a print or digital copy maybe three or four times a year these days, at best. An automatic digital pull list of an iPad owner’s favorite titles is bound to be a hit with fans who enjoy comics for the sake of their content, and not for what they might be worth on eBay in 20 years time (hint: it’s nothing).

DC is already talking about introducing value-add elements to digital comics, sort of like DVD special features, but if Netflix has taught us anything, it’s that the only special feature most media consumers care about is reasonable subscription-pricing that delivers just the good stuff. An all you can eat publisher-wide subscription for digital comics would be amazing, but I’d settle for per-issue monthly or yearly pricing. Let’s hope comics don’t take as long to warm up to that idea as they did to same-day digital.

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I asked Matt Webb, the company’s CEO, what’s occupying him right now, and he said BERG is trying to balance client work (including projects for the BBC, the U.K. government and Japanese ad agency Dentsu) while trying to build out its own products, too.

“One of our own projects goes to market really soon, which is exciting,” he explains. “It’s called SVK, and it’s a comic we’re publishing, written by Warren Ellis and with art by Matt “D’Israeli” Brooker. It’s a cracking detective story, and it’s partially printed in invisible ink. The comic — it’s a physical comic — comes with an ultra-violet torch so you can read the hidden parts.”

Producing a piece of paper-based fiction is, perhaps, an unusual turn for a team better known for its grasp of technology. Given that the team loves comics, loves playing around and making toys, and seems to be part of a constant performance about inventing the future, then it could all look like a grand indulgence. But, says Webb, aside from these personal reasons, it’s actually a project with an ulterior purpose: to learn how to build out manufacturing and distribution.

“What we’ve got ready is a warehouse, pick and pack, and a web shop — all automated processes and ready to be filled with inventory. It’s neat, because this is where product is going: You have to own your own distribution if you want to provide a great end-to-end customer experience.”

He adds that this end-to-end handle on commerce is ripe for innovation and reinvention for practical reasons.

“If you own your own distribution, you can afford to spend more on making a quality product instead, made for a smaller number of more discerning people. You avoid the trap of needing a hit that sells millions and millions of something — but spending most of that on marketing and distribution, and having a bunch of failures — which is the trap I believe a lot of big mass manufacture companies are in. ‘Product’ will be reinvented, just as music and media were reinvented by iTunes and blogs: there is a world appearing in between the big guys and the little hobbyists. The middle is getting filled in.”

To get an idea of what he’s talking about, perhaps it’s worth examining how BERG’s process of inventing new products happens. BERG’s raison d’etre is, ultimately, “design fiction:” stories or narratives about how future products would work, often delivered through short films or talks.

Introducing Suwappu! from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Webb says the starting place for those stories has changed radically.

“If you look 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, the technology in our homes was the offcuts of the military, or of factories, of industry. Look at computers, which came in equal parts from the need to calculate ballistics in the world wars, and from Silicon Valley, which was at the heart of Cold War investment into space and rocketry. Or mobile phones, which came from battlefield communications. Or even dishwashers and washing machines, which were spin-offs of technology originated in factories.”

“Now you look, [and] the bleeding edge of technology in the home originates from consumer use. The iPhone is better than anything the military ever made. Toys are a great place to look for the latest technology. And even computers, which used to be driven by office use and mainframes, are now led by the nose by technology in personal tablets and laptops, used for games and consuming media. So we’ve flipped from the industrial to the domestic.”

This is something he thinks holds great possibility for all kinds of new ideas to rise to the surface.

“Although Apple has done enormously well on this flip — that is, the iPhone and iPad — I don’t believe this change has been fully understood or fully taken advantage of. We’re surrounded by these behemoths of mass consumption, mass production, mass media — and they’re all artifacts of an age of economies of scale, and margins measured in fractions of cents, and advertising at grand scales. These industrial assumptions no longer hold, and all kinds of new opportunities are opening up. So for me, I’m thinking about the home, and about short-run manufacture, and about robots, and about technology used by small social groups like families. How do we visualise and design for all of this? It’s all good fun.”

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While there’s no denying that the crossover between web video watchers and comic book readers exists — if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be much point at all to the comics review/interview series A Comicbook Orange — there’s also no denying that this is a new medium and thus a new audience to engage. Fortunately for newcomers to the world of The Guild, the series isn’t a continuation of the web series’s third season; instead, it’s an origin story exploring just how all the members of the series’ eclectic gang came together.

Reading it this morning, the most surprising thing I found about the first issue is that for a comic inspired by an multi-award-winning comedy, it’s actually pretty sad. The reason is that right away, we’re thrust head-first into the head of Cyd, not quite yet known as Codex (who Day plays in the series), and it’s not a happy place. Cyd, as we meet her, is struggling with an insensitive boyfriend, an unfulfilling job and the intense need to escape — problems her therapist is useless at solving, leaving her to find her own solution.

Day’s use of classic comics writing techniques like thought bubbles, fantasy inserts and other classic comics tropes makes the issue an intimate exploration of Cyd as a character. It’s why things get a little uncomfortable halfway through the issue (when — SPOILER ALERT — Cyd starts playing the game), for, as much as you want to emphasize with her finding an outlet for her feelings, it’s uneasy watching the early signs of addiction take hold. It’s tough to speculate on how much of Day’s past experience as a hardcore World of Warcraft gamer informs the storytelling here, but there’s no denying the narrative’s personal feel, which makes at least this first installment very affecting.

Adapting a live-action franchise for comics is a tricky proposition, as the artist is challenged to accurately capture the look of an actor while still managing to make them work in a comics context. Fortunately, artist Jim Rugg manages that ably here, drawing in two different styles — a clean minimalist look at the real world (which will be familiar to anyone who’s seen his past work — Street Angel is an old favorite of mine), as well as a water colored fantasy-novel-inspired approach to the world of the game, which also gives audiences their first look at what the in-game personas of the Guild might look like beyond their avatars.

The Guild is not the first web series to get a comic book prequel with Dark Horse — the Zack Whedon-penned Dr. Horrible single-issue came out last fall — but Dr. Horrible only sold about 25 thousand copies, placing it at number 80 on the November 2009 sales charts. When I picked up my copy this morning (from a stack on display at the front counter), the friendly counter jockey at Meltdown Comics said that several regular customers had requested that The Guild be included in their weekly orders — but those were customers who also read comics set in the “Whedonverse,” including the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series. However, this isn’t the first time that Day has delved into a new medium and found an audience — we’ll have to see how many converts she finds in the comic book world with the release of this and the next two issues.

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This week I’ve been looking at Comics, Coat Hangr, Coins and Album Shuffle.

Comics ($0.99)
It was released back in June and yet, due to the deluge of apps I deal with on a daily basis, I never quite got to spend time getting into Comixology’s Comics app. Having been hit with a sudden hankering to read some good comics, coinciding with a friend’s recommendation of The Walking Dead series, I decided to spend some quality time with Comics. The app is 99 cents and includes a growing stack of free comics – usually first issues – plus, and here’s the really special thing, you can purchase and download new issues from within the app. The content is utterly fantastic and the interface incredibly accomplished. In fact, it’s easily the best I’ve seen for comic reading on the iPhone. This is absolutely essential for anybody into comic books. Also, if you’re looking to dip your toe in before committing, you can also pick up issue one of The Walking Dead for free as a dedicated app.

Coat Hangr (free)
Hunting for vintage apparel is one of my favorite pastimes. I regularly visit a multitude of flea markets, on a constant mission to construct the perfect understated retro chic outfit: not too hipster, not too trashy, just right. And yet, once I’ve purchased some new threads, short of wearing them on my wanderings, they’re hidden in the closet. That’s where Coat Hangr comes in, a social fashion app that allows you to share your style with other fashion conscious folk. Opening the app, you’re able to take photos of your new apparel and post your pics to their network. It’s still early days for the site, which itself doesn’t look so hot and is in desperate need of a re-skin, but the app is good fun and certainly a compelling way of constructing a virtual clothing closet.

Coins ($0.99)
It seems that when it comes to pachinko games, I suffer from the entirely unexpected, but apparently quite natural compulsion to waste hours of time playing for very little actual reward. Pachinko is so irrational — it’s chance-based, play is mechanical, there’s no skill — and yet the experience is just so very moreish. On iPhone, I devoured both Peggle and Rockchinko in days. As such, for a month or so, there’s been a pachinko-shaped hole in my gaming schedule, waiting to be filled with just the right app. Coins is that app, constructed pixel-by-pixel it combines 8-bit artwork with deliciously back-to-basics pachinko gameplay. This is something for everyone, perfect for wasting moments that unwittingly extend into hours.

Album Shuffle (free)
A friend of mine from England came to visit me in Helsinki a few weeks back, bringing along with him an iPod classic. We spent some time comparing his classic to my iPhone, discussing the different interfaces and options available. Expecting the iPhone to be the feature-rich option, I was surprised to discover that the device is actually lacking in one playback option that the iPod classic touts: album shuffle. The album shuffle feature seems so obvious – rather than shuffle track-by-track, you’re able to shuffle album by album. In essence, the iPod classic can play a given album in its entirety before randomly selecting the next one. Filling this feature-gap on the iPhone is Album Shuffle. The app allows you to browse through albums in a novel way, as if sifting through records, and physically shake the iPhone in order to pick an album. It’s a one-trick pony to be sure, but nevertheless an occasionally useful pony to have around.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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Put your iPhone in the air and shake it like you just don’t care, because it’s time for my pick from the week’s freshest apps.

Before you start waving your iPhone with a blatant disregard for those around you due to the sheer excitement you feel from reading about the latest apps, I’ve got a brief rundown of the week’s news.

We began the week with news that Buy.com had begun offering unlocked iPhone 3Gs for purchase. As such, it’s looking increasingly like it’s time for stockists to clear their inventory and prepare for the impending arrival of the next iPhone. And at only $799 for your very own legit unlocked iPhone, you may as well take two.

Staying with the subject of unlocked iPhone’s, our own Clayton Lai posted a new guide as part of his Jailbreak article series. Clayton covers the myriad options available for owners of jailbroken iPhones looking to use copy-paste (before the official 3.0 iPhone OS update drops this Summer).

On Wednesday, Apple revealed the most downloaded apps so far. In the paid section, Smule’s social musical instrument Ocarina made the list, as did Tap Tap Revenge over in the free section. Oddly enough though, Rolando is notably absent — perhaps the impending sequel, details of which ngmoco released this week, will garner even more downloads than the original.

Next up, a tasty bombshell dropped in the shape of a possibly/maybe/potentially reliable leak: a list of ingredients for the forthcoming new iPhone. Unlike one of my tasty risottos, there was no mushroom or asparagus on this ingredient list, however there were a few chips. Hit up the full article for a delicious rundown of what could very well be in store for the next iPhone iteration.

There’s also been speculation that Nintendo and Sony are freaking out over the very real threat that the iPhone presents to their respective chunks of the handheld gaming markets. Insightful but amusingly tactless comment of the week goes to TheAppleBlog reader Youda Farmer:

“All you DS/PSP dunderheads need to get over yourselves. Nobody in there [sic] right mind carries a DS/PSP with them at all times. But ALL iPhone owners NEVER leave home without it.”

With the smoke of news blown away by the vacuum of fact, it’s time to move on to this week’s picks from the App Store. This week I’ve been looking at UniWar, QuadCamera, GO! Manga and Birdhouse.

UniWar (99 cents)
It seems I’m spending too much time playing on my iPhone, due to several hyper-distracting recent releases — Briscas, ElementalMonster TD and Leaf Trombone: World Stage, to name but three. During the week I decided to check out UniWar, a strategy game that blends Starcraft-style sci-fi landscapes with the turn-based fun of Advance Wars on the DS. Although the pixellated graphics are gorgeous, I wasn’t expecting to be so impressed by the gameplay. The learning curve is just right, trying out all the different units is great fun, the only problem with this game is that the hours literally disappear every time I play.

QuadCamera – Multi shot (99 cents)
This app was actually released back in March, but, after accepting that my iPhone camera gets almost no use these days, I decided that it was time to re-ignite my passion for iPhone-based photography. QuadCamera really takes Apple’s poor iPhone camera and turns it in to a fun photography toy and, what’s more, the photos are good enough to show off. Take a photo and the app actually takes 4-8 serial shots which are then displayed together (a la Lomography’s Action Sampler). What’s more, there’s a variety of effects to choose from, giving your images an extra injection of character and depth. Alongside Flickit, QuadCamera is must-have for iPhone photographers.

GO! Manga (99 cents)
Amazon’s Kindle for iPhone has been giving me a few issues of late. To be more specific, it’s less to do with the app and more to do with accessing Amazon.com’s U.S. service as a UK citizen living in Finland. Kindle or not, I need to get my read on and find my next fix of fiction, and so I’m immensely grateful for GO! Manga. The app provides access to a massive library of English-language Manga content for free. I don’t know the details of how GO! Manga did or didn’t wrangle deals with relevant publishers to get this content out there, but setting that aside, what we have is an overwhelming treasure trove of authentic manga. Download this app and then I highly recommend you start by reading Death Note.

Birdhouse ($3.99)
With Tweetie as the Twitter client of choice for many — including me — it’s surely tough for any other app to compete. However, the aim with Birdhouse is to compliment your favorite Twitter client rather than attempt to replace it. The killer feature is that the app allows you to compose and save multiple drafts for multiple accounts. The $3.99 price-point is a little too lofty though, especially if, given sufficient demand, I expect Tweetie will follow suit and integrate multiple draft-saving, making Birdhouse an expensive luxury rather than an essential tweeting tool.

And with that, we’re done with this week’s picks. As always, I’ll be back same time, same place, next week with more from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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It’s the weekend and this is TheAppleBlog…so that means only one thing: the latest picks fresh from the App Store.

This week, Apple news seems to have been predominantly iPhone-centric so, before jumping in to the latest apps, it’s time for a quick refresher of Apple news from the past seven days.

Sony started the week by detailing their lineup for forthcoming iPhone games. The list includes a remake of retro classic Q*Bert, among others, but most notable are plans to release games based on Ghostbusters and James Bond. I hate to disappoint any hopeful readers, but there’s just no way it’s going to be N64 Goldeneye for the iPhone.

Alongside all those other iPhone-occurrences, I managed to squeeze in reviews of two brand new apps: AudioBoo and RelationTips. Earning a Silver App Review Award, AudioBoo (essentially an audio-version of Twitter) is seriously good fun, especially for those with a voice for radio.

Word on the grape vine is that 3D video could arrive on the iPhone as soon as next year. Now that’s soon indeed, but does anyone actually care? I am totally confounded by the notion of using 3D glasses on portable devices. Ever since trying out portable 3D Quake at CES a few years back, I consider 3D to be over-priced, over-hyped and almost useless techno-junk.

And with that said, I’m pleased to tell you that this week I’ve been looking at Super Kaiju Hero Force #2, Eliza, Skype and Match.com.

Super Kaiju Hero Force #2 (free)
After the serious bashing that I gave to Daniel X — an incredibly poor graphic novel released on iPhone — I was overjoyed to discover a comic series on iPhone that gets everything right. Starting with the painfully (and amusingly) verbose title, Super Kaiju Hero Force is a manga-inspired joyride through otaku fanboy culture, mashing super-heros and Adult Swim style humor together in to a colorful mess. This second episode is totally free and absolutely brilliant.

Eliza (99 cents)
Back in the day, before I had discovered the joys of Macs or the woes of Windows, I had an Amiga 500. When I wasn’t playing classics like Rick Dangerous, Lemmings or Cannon Fodder, I’d boot up Workbench and chat to ELIZA. For me this was pre-Internet and so ELIZA, a basic chatbot-cum-therapist, felt like magic. If you’re in need of a pocket therapist, download ELIZA for your iPhone and you can spend hours telling her about your mother.

Skype (free)
With Fring, Truphone and Nimbuzz, I just couldn’t see what Skype for the iPhone could bring to the game. As GigaOm’s Om Malik said earlier this week, there are a few areas for improvement, but setting those aside for a moment, this is a commendable first version (and so it should be, seeing as Skype have taken so long to deliver): call quality is great, browsing contacts is clear, and the interface feels incredibly similar to the desktop version. The app has made front page on my iPhone and, if you’re already a Skype user, it’s well worth downloading the official app immediately.

Match.com (free)
Earlier this week I wrote about RelationTips, an iPhone app that proffers relationship advice. Setting aside our emerging theme of iPhone as therapist, it’s time to let your iPhone play matchmaker. Match.com has finally arrived on the iPhone with an app that services all of your online dating needs as you hunt for love. The app is ideal for Match.com users on the dating scene, integrating profile editing, messaging and photo uploads.

I’ll return in just seven days time with more picks from the App Store. Drop by TheAppleBlog during the week to find the latest Apple news alongside app reviews too.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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