I love reading comic books on my Kindle. The colors look great on any of the Kindle Fire tablets, and you can read them in black in white on most of the newer Kindles, too. So I was delighted to see that Amazon’s giving away some new comic books for free, making it easy for people to give them a try. And one of the free comic books is the very first issue of MAD Magazine — plus a preview of a new comic based on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!
To find all the discounts, just point your web browser to tinyurl.com/KindleComicBooks . Towards the bottom of the page, Amazon’s Comic Book Store for the Kindle lets you select “Sort By Price: Low to High”. It’s fun to read the 1952 letter that appeared in the first issue of MAD Magazine. (“…in the next few moments, you will be one of the many who are deciding the fate of MAD all over the country.”) Each issue cost just 10 cents, and its first issue included parodies of horror movies and TV westerns.
You can also read the color versions of all these graphic novels on other devices by using one of Amazon’s Kindle app. (It’s even possible to read Kindle ebooks on a Nook, by installing Amazon’s Kindle app from the Google Play Store!) But it’s also kind of fun to read a story-with-pictures on a black-and-white e-ink Kindle. Thanks to Amazon’s arrangements with all the top publishers, including D.C. and Marvel, there’s a lot to choose from, and many full-length graphic novels have also been discounted to between $3 and $4!
Also free is the 25-page preview of Vertigo Comics adaptation of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” (“Delve into the dark mystery of the Vanger family, as disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to uncover the truth behind a teenage girl’s disappearance over forty years ago…”) At least one reviewer on Amazon said it was a great companion to the best-selling mystery trilogy, adding that “The artwork in it is amazing!” and giving it five stars. The full edition (for $9.99) was just published last year, so it’s relatively new — and they’re giving away 25 of its 152 pages free!
There’s also a funny free Thanksgiving comic that looks at Batman when he was a child — as part of D.C. Comics special series, Li’l Gotham. It’s one of two stories in D.C.’s “Halloween Comic Fest 2013”, a 22-page holiday give-away that’s a nice way to celebrate the season. “Every once you in a while you just want to see the citizens of Gotham in a new light,” wrote one reviewer on Amazon, “and that’s exactly what this book is all about.” And of course, they added that the artwork of the superheroes as trick-or-treating children “looked like fun to draw!”
Also free is the 22-page Batman comic Flashpoint — the first chapter of a longer Batman graphic novel. (“When the Joker kidnaps the children of the city’s District Attorney, the Batman takes the case,” reads its description at Amazon. “But the man under the mask may not be the Dark Knight we know!”) Amazon’s also promising that ten D.C. graphic novels featuring Batman for $3.03, including Batman & Robin: Born to Kill, The Dark Night: Knight Terrors, and Batman: The Court of Owls. I got the 144-page novel Catwoman: The Game for just $3.03, and the same discount is also available for Justice League: Origin, Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection, and Teen Titans: Its Our Right to Fight..
And Amazon’s also announced that they’ve discounted single issues of many classic comic books by Alan Moore to just 99 cents — including stories about The Watchmen and his original V for Vendetta.
But Marvel comics also has some graphic novels on sale, including the legendary Ultimate Comics: Wolverine vs Hulk, a 144-page graphic novel for just $1.99. Several more graphic novels are $3.82, like Spider-Man: Anti-Venom, X-Force: Sex and Violence, and Ant-Man & Wasp: Small World. There’s also discounts on graphic novels starring Iron Man, The Avengers, and Thor, though I don’t think the Kindle Store has any single issues available for Marvel Comics. But there’s another way to get free single-issue comics from both Marvel and D.C. if you have a Kindle Fire. Just install an app called Comixology, and there’s lots of free comic books to download from all the major publishers!
That’s a lot of comic books — but it’s a fun way to enjoy the weekend. On a lazy Sunday afternoon, it’s fun to curl up on the couch and avoid the chilly autumn weather, staying warm and cozy, and enjoying some colorful stories…
Find all of Amazon’s Kindle Comic Books at
tinyurl.com/KindleComicBooks
