Has anybody tried out Comixology Unlimited? It’s comixology’s subscription service, 5.99 for all-you-can-read of selected titles.
I tried it out because I haven’t really read comics in forever, and knew of a lot of stuff that I’d heard good things about but never bothered to track down. The day I signed up, It didn’t work for me at all, I couldn’t get it to realize I had an account, so when I clicked on a book I would ostensibly borrow, it just kept redirecting me to the sign up page.
Checked in again a week later, and it mostly seems to work now. Eligible titles have a little “Unlimited” banner on the cover, and when you open it, in addition to buying there’s a “borrow” option, which I assume is available as as you’re subscribed.
The selection so far seems…OK. There’s some good titles, but it’s mostly limited to the first X issues or the first one or two volumes of the trade paperback compilations, so you’re unlikely to get a good long satisfying story run, even for older stuff. Now, that might also just be so that they have stuff they can add over time without blowing out the initial offering, but it sounds like only ever offering the first volume or arc in a series might be their long term plan to get you to convert on spending more to get the rest of the story. For instance, only the first couple of volumes of Irredeemable were available, whereas the whole thing was in a humble bundle a couple of months back, so it’s clearly already in long tail sales status already.
Some stuff that I read. People said all this stuff was good,a and they’re not wrong, but this gives a sense of what’s available and in what quantity:
Wicked + Divine, Vol 1
The Boys, Vol 1 and 2
Hellboy, Vol 1-3, Baltimore. Vol 1, Witchfinder, Vol 1: All Mignola’s stuff is pretty similar, if you like one, you’ll like them all.
Sex Criminals Vol 1
Umbrella Academy Vol 1 (this wasn’t particularly good)
Saga Vol 1
Red Sonja Vol 1 (this was fine, I guess)
Some terrible stuff that’s also there:
Lots of Fathom.
Like 8 issues of Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose
I got a free month, and I will probably stick around long enough to pay for a month or two for the value I already got, but I don’t see myself sticking around long term as a subscriber. What I really wanted was a way to cheaply read outstanding older titles (really, I just wanted to read old Hellboy and Powers arcs I missed), basically “pay 6 bucks to have a friend with a huge comic collection”, but I doubt I’ll stick around if it’s just a first one free business model.