Droid Comic Viewer, the leading Android comic and manga reader by Robot Comic, broke the 250,000 Android Market downloads mark this week.

Unlike other landmark apps of the Android Market, Droid Comic Viewer has not been featured by Google yet. Its growing success comes from the strong support of its community, who actively contributes to make it the best comic reader for Android.

Droid Comic Viewer is the de facto comics and platform for Android devices worldwide. It has been localized to 7 languages and uses the ACV open format, which allows creators to adapt their comics for mobiles.

With an upcoming version that includes major feature, performance and usability upgrades, as well as more localizations, Droid Comic Viewer is on its way to become an essential app not only for comic fans, but also for all Android users. Join us as we introduce to a brand new audience the joy of reading comics!

Since August 22th Google is recommending Scott Pilgrim to all owners of Android devices. The free sampler of the Scott Pilgrim mobile comic is one of the 15 apps featured on the Android Market front-page.

Described as “pure awesome” by AndroidHeadlines.com and rated 4.5/5 by Android users, the Scott Pilgrim Android app is initially available in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and UK.

Scott Pilgrim’s precious little app is published by the innovative HarperCollins imprint, Fourth Estate, and developed by Robot Comics/Robot Media, the leading comics provider for Android.

Robot Comics has translated Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book to mobiles through movement, sound and vibration, creating an original reading experience tailored for Android devices.  An experience which also becomes interactive and social when readers discover secret content carefully hidden in the scenes of the comic, as well as use an in-app commenting system that utilizes Twitter and Facebook to share the clues.

Scott Pilgrim is the second mobile comic featured by Google in their Android marketplace. The first one was the indie hit Robot 13 by Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford, also produced by Robot Comics, which has been downloaded by almost 200,000 Android users to date -a number rarely reached by print editions.

With a launching price of £3.49 per volume, well below the print version, the Scott Pilgrim app is on its way to become the best-selling mobile comic for Android devices, and the first of many mainstream comic titles that finds a new audience in the Android Market.

The Scott Pilgrim app is also available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Visit http://www.scottpilgrimtheapp.com for more information.

The Scott Pilgrim app by Fourth Estate and Robot Comics is now available in selected countries* from the Android Market.

Scott Pilgrim’s Android app translates Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book to mobile through movement, sound and vibration to create an original reading experience. An experience which also becomes interactive and social when readers start discovering secret content carefully hidden in the scenes of the comic, and use the in-app commenting system, Twitter and Facebook to share the clues.

Each volume of the graphic novel is priced at £3.49 and a sampler containing the first chapter of the first volume is offered for free. An iPhone/iPod touch/iPad version of the app is also available.

* Currently Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and UK.

Selected screenshots

Robot Comics’ Robot 13 app recently became the first comic app to be featured on the Android Market.

Developed by Robot Comics and featuring the indie smash success by Thomas Hall & Daniel Bradford, the Robot 13 app combines ground-breaking transition effects with vibration to create a truly unique reading experience for the end user.

After being featured, Robot 13 was downloaded more than 50,000 additional times by Android users in just a few short days.  These are some of their comments:

“Absolutely brilliant. Fantastic illustration and the way it moves from page to page is brilliant. Never seen anything like it before!” -Laura

“This is so cool. It’s the perfect balance between interactive and traditional comic book. It’s a lot of fun to read.” -Aaron

“Very cool I don’t really like comics but this is something I could get addicted to” -john

“Excellent way of writing a story. Love the extras like vibrations and zoom. Awesome. Purely Awesome.” -Cesar

Curious? Download Robot 13 #1, available for free both on Android and iPhone.

A new version of Droid Comic Viewer (ACV), the free comic, manga and image viewer for Android mobiles, was released today and is now available in the Android Market, AndAppStore and soon AppsLib.

Version 1.3.10 includes usability and performance upgrades, bug fixes and a new auto-bookmarking feature. The most significant changes are:

• Auto-bookmarking: remembers last read position of all viewed files
• Renamed SD Browser setting group to Memory
• New Memory > Clear history setting to clear all viewing history (auto-bookmarks in particular)
• Share this screen now shares the screen, not the image file
• New Support > Low memory setting to disable pre-loading and transitions. Might help for some files that cause out of memory errors.
• Improved memory management to decrease like-hood of out of memory errors
• Added ACV mime type to supported intents

A new version of Droid Comic Viewer (ACV), the free comic, manga and image viewer for Android mobiles, was released today. Version 1.3.7 includes usability, stability, performance and localization upgrades, and introduces support for the new ACV2 format that blends transition effects and frame-by-frame animation for a whole new mobile comics reading experience!  It’s features such as these that continue to make Droid Comic Viewer the best and most popular comic and manga reader for Android.

Some of the changes included in version 1.3.7 are:

• Pinch to zoom for devices that support multi-touch
• Italian and French localization (thanks to Davide Borin and Climbatize)
• ACV2 support
• ACV format features such as vibration can be disabled through Settings
• Improved CBR/RAR support for devices with memory class 24 or higher (but you should use CBZ or image folders instead!)
• Corners have optional transparent buttons
• Zoom up to 2x
• Reorganized Settings
• Zooming in and out with double tap or single tap centers the image on the tap point
• Brightness setting
• Volumes keys for navigation
• Volume keys can be configured in custom controls
• Improved sorting of images (1.jpg comes before 10.jpg)
• New high-res icon for high resolution devices (thanks to blunden)
• Taping on the welcome screen icon opens the menu
• New action for custom controls: Show menu
• Improved scrolling

Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now is the Creative Commons comics adaptation of six short stories by Boing Boing editor and science-fiction writer Cory Doctorow. Originally published by IDW Publishing, Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now was converted from traditional print comic to mobile comic by digital comics publisher Robot Comics. The result are eight Creative Commons mobile comics specifically designed for iPhone, iPod touch and Android devices, some of which are also adapted for Nintendo DSi. Combined, the mobile Futuristic Tales have been downloaded more than 60,000 times.
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