"Are comics made to be read on cell phones, Kindles and iPods the new pulp of pop culture?" CNN asks. "While mobile manga has become increasingly popular and lucrative in Japan, in recent months start-ups have been mushrooming around the world to bring comics and graphic novels to both loyal fans and new audiences -- all in the palm of your hand."

"I wanted to break all the barriers between comics and their potential readers," CNN cites Hermes Pique, director of Robot Comics, a company that produces and publishes comics for mobile devices. "In a world where 60.6 percent of the population has a mobile, and where mobiles have evolved from phones to all-purpose gadgets, mobile comics seemed the best way to start."

Apple's App Store has seen an increase in applications dedicated to reading comics, many of which are also available for other mobile platforms. Among these, several offer digitized titles from top U.S. comics publishers such as DC Comics and IDW, while Dark Horse has even launched its own series of iPhone comics.

Comic series, like their print counterparts, are usually divided into parts, which in the App Store sell from $0.99 to a few dollars or more for graphic novels. The first installment is sometimes offered as a free preview.

The mobile Kindle reader can display e-versions of graphic novels (albeit optimized for the larger-screen Kindle DX), as can other mass-market e-readers such as Barnes & Noble and Stanza.