Panelfly, the most recent entrant into the increasingly crowded iPhone comic app market, has launched the second version of its reader, Panelfly 1.1. The new version adds Panelfly News, improved download manager functionality, the ability to jump directly into a publication as download completes, improved library functionality, which allows access to the publication info while reading, Twitter & Facebook functionality, publications ratings, and read next issue and buy next issue functionality at the end of each publication.
Panelfly, which offers in-app purchases, has a user interface that’s “like nothing else that’s out there,” according to Wade Slitkin, Panefly CEO. “It knows how to read the comic and mimics normal reading patterns,” he told us. “When you go to the next page you see the whole page, then it dives into the page for you.”
Panelfly plans a new feature, MyFly, which will allow artists to upload their own work and sell it through their store, either free or at a price that they set. It will help artists “reconnect directly to the fans,” Slitkin said.
The company is privately funded, and although based in
Panelfly currently offers comics from about fifteen publishers, including Antarctic,
We asked Slitkin how Panelfly will be successful in the competitive environment of mobile comics. “It will come down to content and the ability to be out there and get to the new customers that the phone provides, and provide a platform that the fans like,” he said.
