About a month ago, I asked Jason Snell about an app for the iPad Pro to read comic books on. And that's how I started my process of rediscovering all the favourites from my childhood.

@jsnell Can you recommend a CBR file comic reader for iPad Pro which supports the new resolution?

— Wojtek Pietrusiewicz (@morid1n) November 24, 2015

 

First of all, I'm a comic book newbie. I never got into the Marvel and DC universe, and never much cared for all the Batmans, Spidermans, and various other superheroes. I have no clue how old I was when I read my first comic book, but it must have been about thirty years ago. My absolute favourites were 'The Adventures of Asterix' and 'The Adventures of Tintin'. A few years later I also discovered 'Thorgal', which stayed as my favourite for a number of… decades probably. I still have a first edition of the first book from 1979 — my own little treasure. Basically what I meant to say was that none of the above are available for purchase anywhere on the App Store or internet (that I know of). While the comic books were available to download illegally, I never bothered — the 9.7" screen of the iPad wasn't big enough to read them comfortably.

When I first got my iPad Pro, I realised that the screen would probably be large enough to read a scanned comic book in comfort. I also assumed I would not get any of the fancy new features, such as zooming in on specific scenes, and automatically advancing to the next ones with a tap — Asterix, Tintin and Thorgal would have to be viewed more traditionally. Luckily, my eyes are still good enough to decipher the dialogue without zooming in.

And this is where Michael Ferenduros comes in — Jason Snell referenced his app Chunky Comic Reader [App Store] in his reply to me, and he offered to set us up with a beta version which supports the iPad Pro's higher resolution screen. I have been using it for the past month to read all the my childhood favourites — it's been a truly nostalgic journey and wonderful experience.

Since I haven't used any comic book readers in the past, this was my first experience with an app of this kind. This means I can't really compare it to anything, but I can say that Chunky Comic Reader has a lot of options, and practically every part of the UI is customisable. What I found most important however, is that when I go fullscreen, the chrome disappears and I'm left with just the comic book itself, displayed on a huge window into my nostalgic past.

I'm off to read another one now, but I would like to thank both Mike and Jason — for getting me on the beta and for showing me Chunky Comic Reader.

Cheers guys!

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• Chunky Comic Reader – iPad – Books – Free