Infurious Creates Heroes Comic Reader for NBC

Things may have been looking pretty quiet at Northern Ireland-based iPhone app producers Infurious Comics - creators of the banned iPhone app Murderdrome (see downthetubes blog news story), who've seen more sucess with their childrens' App, Eye Candy - but they’ve been busy on a top secret project: developing their iPhone App for US TV channel NBC Universal to create a Heroes Comic Reader, adapting previously published Heroes TV drama comics for iPhone.

Currently available only in the US, over 130 Heroes web comic-style strips are available from the NBC website, but the app allows you to download iPhone compatible versions and read them while on the go.

"The Heroes Comic Reader combines a pretty cool iPhone comic reader, allowing full sized comic book content to be displayed and read, along with an easy to use web based interface allowing NBC to upload content which is then published to the comic reader," say Infurious.

The reader downloads a list of available comics from NBC’s servers, displaying each title in a simple chapter list, allowing the user to click a single button to download the comic content.

Once downloaded the user can rate the comic, read it or remove it from the phone (if storage becomes a problem!)

Comics are displayed in landscape mode, using the full width of the phone - a surprisingly readable format. Of course, if you need to see the lettering larger there’s also a simple zoom mode; double tapping will zoom you in to the comic - making the text much larger. Using a fixed zoom keeps the emphasis on the reading experience rather than using a pinch and zoom which is more appropriate for looking for detail in photos.

NBC upload comic book content to their web backend, which is sent to a staging area - allowing them to test the comic content with a special ’stage’ version of the comic reader. Once everything is checked, the content is then moved into a ‘live’ area.

Infurious came to the attention of NBC after its Murderdrome comic was rejected last August by Apple on the grounds of "objectionable content".

2000AD artist PJ Holden said it was inspired by "incredibly violent" 1970s boys comics like Action! and Battle.

"The humour was very dark but very funny, and the level of violence was like Itchy and Scratchy in The Simpsons - it wasn't meant to be taken seriously," he told the BBC.

"After Apple rejected it, we put out a press release which attracted the attention of news media like the Wall Street Journal, and three days later a video on YouTube demonstrating the comic got 40,000 views."

The exposure gained them attention of NBC and, along with developing Eye Candy the company have also been busy with their Heroes app. They also have several other titles in development and are looking at licensing the app to other firms.

Comics are a labour of love for many artists who often find it difficult to get paid for their work, but Paul told the BBC the potential for distribution on devices such as the iPhone or eBook readers was enormous. But as a creator, he's still more interested in the form than the delivery.

"Whether the artwork ends up on a page or a mobile device, as long as I get to draw that's all that matters," he said.

• You can access the Heroes Comic Reader on iTunes from here, USA download only at the moment

Web: www.infuriouscomics.com

Infurious' EyeCandy App in action: