The PSP’s Digital Comics store launches today. The service adds a new section to the PSP’s Store and a Digital Comics application to the PSP’s XMB. The service boasts “approximately 550″ comics from publishers such as “Marvel Entertainment, Disney, IDW Publishing, iVerse Media, and others.” Most of the comics will be $1.99 with presumably more or less popular titles costing $2.99 and $.99 respectively. If you’re new to comic books, you can download the 16 free comics.

In the store, mature content such as Insomnia Production’s Burke and Hare sits right next to Disney’s Donald Duck and the Fussy Genie. All the comics are given age ratings that can be restricted by the PSP’s parental controls.

I personally downloaded Star Trek Year For: The Enterprise Experiment #1 and Cages #1 to try the service out. The comics ranged from around 11MB to 30MB. The program seems easy enough to use. You can browse your downloaded collection by individual comics, series, and genre.

Once you get into a comic the reader compensates for the PSP’s relatively small screen by zooming into each page. Pushing left or right on the D-pad runs the Autoflow feature that focuses on each frame of the page. In theory, the feature is supposed to simulate your eye moving across the page. In practice, the close zoom tends to cutoff the outer edges of each frame. Also, Autoflow tends to pan across art very quickly. Luckily, its speed can be adjusted from the options menu. Also, at any time, you can use the PSP’s analog stick and shoulder buttons to guide the camera and zoom on your own.

The reader comes with a music player. At any time you can hit select to bring up your PSP’s music folder and play tracks by folder. The player is only as competent as the PSP’s XMB music playing capabilities. Songs sound fine but the PSP confines them within the static folders on the memory stick.

Overall, the application felt like a convenient way to read comics on the go on a device that fits in my pocket. It’s almost like the Kindle for comic books. Will the service revolutionize the comics industry, democratizing content through digital distribution as Scott McCloud has prophesized? Considering the service’s small stable of publishers and the PSP’s limited install base, I doubt it. If Sony secures more publishers and advertises the service smartly Digital Comics has potential.

Press Release:

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that PSP (PlayStation®Portable) system owners in the United States can now purchase and enjoy hundreds of classic and new comics from a variety of leading publishers, including Marvel Entertainment, Disney, IDW Publishing, iVerse Media and others.
The new PlayStation®Network Digital Comics service puts favorite comic book characters and popular franchises at consumers’ fingertips, when and where they want them. PSP owners can check out Marvel Entertainment’s G.I. Joe, Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four; TRANSFORMERS and Star Trek from IDW; and, in partnership with iVerse Media, brands like Archie Comics, and Image Comic’s Proof.

Digital comics are available through PlayStation®Store. Approximately 550 comics are arriving today on PlayStation Store, with additional content to be added weekly. PSP users can purchase comics either directly from PlayStation Store on their PSP via WiFi, or access and download comics from PlayStation Store from their PC with Media Go software, then easily transfer their digital content to their PSP via USB cable. (Go to http://www.us.playstation.com/PSN/mediago for more information about Media Go.)

Digital comics purchased from PlayStation Store are easy to view and enjoy on PSP. The Digital Comics Reader application, currently available with PSP firmware update (v6.20), enables PSP users to feel like they are browsing through a print comic book right in the palm of their hand. Due to an exclusive Autoflow feature, consumers can flip from page-to-page, zoom in and move from frame-to-frame on each digital page — similar to the way eyes move across a print page from left to right. Comics are graphically stunning due PSP’s high contrast LCD screen.

The majority of comics can be purchased for $1.99, with select comics available at $0.99 and $2.99. The PlayStation Store also features a variety of free comics for everyone to enjoy, including Disney’s Donald Duck and the Fussy Genie, and Marvel’s Transformers All Hail Megatron.

The addition of digital comics further establishes PlayStation Network as the premiere destination for digital entertainment. From over 18,000 movies and TV episodes, to hundreds of games and game add-ons for PSP, to original content and digital comics, PlayStation Network offers great entertainment choices for every PSP owner.

Consumers can find out more information about PlayStation Network Digital Comics at www.playstationcomics.com and http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/12/psn-digital-comics-launch-today/.