The best comic reader app around is being unceremoniously killed as Amazon merges the Comixology app with its Kindle ecosystem. After crippling the app over the years, Amazon is taking Comixology out back for good.
Founded in 2007, Comixology offers a massive library of comic books and manga across DC, Marvel, Vertigo, IDW, Shonen Jump and more. Acquired by Amazon in 2014, the service has slowly been made worse, and now its on its way out.
Revealed in a press release sent to users on November 14, Amazon announced its plan to merge the Comixology platform with a revised Kindle app across iOS, Android, and Fire OS. Users will no longer be able to keep their comic and book libraries separate, a feature fans loved due to the issue-based nature of comic books.
On December 4, 2023, the Comixology platform will be officially merged with the Kindle app. Any comics purchased on the former should already be visible on the latter, but the Comixology app won’t be usable after December 4th.
“We’ve been hard at work upgrading the Kindle app to deliver the great digital comics, graphic novels, and manga experience you’re accustomed to in the Comixology app,” the press release reads.
The move to kill the Comixology experience has infuriated the digital comics fanbase to no end. After years of the platform being made worse following its acquisition by Amazon, fans are completely unsurprised, but still annoyed, at the decision.
“I don’t want a single one of my comixology comics mixed up with my Kindle books,” one user said. “I have never seen the destruction and downgrading of a service the like of what has happened to Comixology. This app used to be so, so good,” said another.
Despite Amazon claiming that everyone’s comics and their read statuses will make their way over to the Kindle app, many are already experiencing issues with the merger. Some fans have complained about thousands of comic issues being missing from their accounts.
“Just checked my library and literally hundreds of books are missing - have started a new sync and it’s done nothing,” one user explained. “Missing over 1000 books in my library. I try to re-sync the library, but the sync fails. Titles don’t appear to be grouped - just a long list of individual issues. Will this be fixed? Because what it is now is truly awful,” explained another fan.
Amazon’s treatment of the Comixology platform has been nothing if not horrid. Since the platform’s acquisition, updates have only made the service worse. After 9 years, the platform is now dead, despite being immensely popular.