20 Best Sites to Read Comic Books Online for Free

20 Best Sites to Read Comic Books Online for Free

Posted by

Are you a comic fan too? Have you been having issues downloading and accessing these comics for free? Welcome my friend. I will show you the 20 best sites to read comic books online for free.

Yes, for free.

The world of comics is a fun world to be in. Watching heroes overcome their weaknesses and fight the villains. We create this mental picture of a world we want to be in and sometimes make ourselves heroes there. 

Reading comic books online is a fun way to spend our leisure time. I am personally a fan of the X-men and the Manga series: Naruto, Attack on Titan, etc.

As a digital comic reader, the prices of reading comic books online at different sites are not encouraging. As we find out that our hobby is slowly taken away from us by cost. I used to have those problems too.  But now I can read my favorite comic books online for free. And in this article, I will show you the 20 best sites to read comic books online for free.

Let’s go. 

I would start by answering some of your questions.

As digital comic readers, there are a lot of places we have been to find the best of comics. 

Different people would have different choices of places to read comics online for different reasons. 

These comics books online may be available at different sites like:

  • Tapas
  • ComiXology
  • Marvel.com
  • Webtoon
  • DCComics.com

Me, whenever I choose to read comic books online, I prefer using Webtoon. I find it soothing. 

Webtoon is a digital comic platform owned by Korea and created in 2004. By then a good number of us had not started reading comic books online.   From then till now they have improved and have a lot of updates on their online comic book production.  

Firstly, webtoon is beautiful especially because it is mobile friendly and we could have access to our comic books online anywhere we wish to.  

Secondly, the webtoon allows us to scroll our pages vertically. I don’t know if I am the only one, but I find this quite aesthetic as I am able to cover more pages at that rate and enjoy the fun in the books.

Finally, webtoon actually offers some comics free of charge for users who read comic books online. However, some comics have inside purchases we could enjoy the free comics available. 

My choice might differ from others, but it is nice to whichever you find best.

Where Can I Download Comic Books Pdf?

Yes, of course. We may not have to read these comic books online for free or not, or we might want to download these books and read them offline and there are various sites where we can do this.

The odd side of this is that these sites are not legal.  A good majority of them violate copyright rules. And it is advisable to download from the original sites. 

I would give them to you regardless. 

They include. 

  • Comic Book Plus
  • GetComics
  • Digital Comic Museum
  • The Pirate Bay 
  • 01 Torrent 
  • 1337x 
  • Books-Share
  • Drive Thru Comics
  • Comic book 
  • MyComicPosts

Are These Sites Compatible With Different Devices, such as Laptops, Tablets, and Smartphones?

I would love to give answers for both the places where we can read comic books online for free and where it is not.

For free sites like Comic Book Plus and others, I have listed them above. Comic books could be downloaded in PDF form which is accessible to both laptops and mobile phones. We just have a PDF reader on both of them.

Sites like Webtoon, are very mobile friendly as a good majority of us use mobile phones.  

Webtoon allows us to scroll through the pages of these books vertically. This makes it even easier to read and more interesting. 

Sites also like Comixology are mobile-friendly allowing users to have access to them with both phones and laptops.

Generally, most sites are. The greater number of people currently using mobile devices is increasing. Digital comics are on the increase too, so websites have to make their comics mobile-friendly to keep their customers. 

Can I Download Comics from These Sites for Offline Reading?

A WiFi source might not always be available for you. And may need to read your comics in the absence of internet connectivity. 

Most non-free comic online websites have this feature too. They allow downloading of comics and their availability offline.  

On the other hand, free comics online that are obtained from illegal sources can be available offline. Especially the free comics online that are available in PDF format. 

These sites read comic books online for free offline including: 

  1. Comic Book Plus
  2. GetComics
  3. Digital Comic Museum
  4. The Pirate Bay
  5. 01 Torrent
  6. 1337x 
  7. Books-Share
  8. Drive Thru Comics
  9. Comic book
  10. MyComicPosts

20 Best Sites to Read Comic Books Online for Free

1. Webtoon 

Let’s kick off with my favorite. 

About webtoon: Webtoon is one of the best sites to read comic books online for free. This comic site was launched by South Korea in 2004 and has since then accumulated popularity for its quality. 

Webtoon has a special feature of providing the scrolling version of comic books online on mobile phones. This feature is so aesthetic as comic fans get immersed in their online comic books forgetting time and reality. 

Types of comics present: Based on the genera of comics we have 

    • Action
    •  Romance
    • Science Fiction
    • Fantasy
    • Horror
    • Drama
    • Slice Of Life
    • Comedy.

Legality: Yes comics here are legal. They work properly with the original producers in accordance with the copyright laws to produce comic books online. 

Available offline: Yes actually, a feature called Line Webtoon allows readers to download and read their favorite comic books offline.  

Click here

2. GoComics

About: Founded in 2005 by Andrews McMeel Universal first with print comics then with digital comic books.

The company offers a whole variety of comics for online comic book readers.  They have about 200 comic strips, graphic novels, and  editorial cartoons

GoComics is considered one of the best sites to read online comic books for free because of how free the site is. A good majority of the comic books online are free and the app generally is free. 

It only has a small premium feature but we can enjoy all the comics on the free side.

Types of comics present: Variety they say is the spice of life as site species your comic life with the following types of comics. 

  • Classic comic strips
  • Editorial Cartoons
  • Graphic Novels
  • Webcomics
  • Humor Friendly Comics
  • Family Comics etc.

Legality: Yes they too are legal. They ensure they work with the original producers to produce comic books online in accordance with copyright laws.

Available offline: Yes the comics are available offline.  To access them, just download the app, go to the comic of your choice, and download them offline.  

Click here

3. Tapas

About: This is one of the best sites to read comic books online for free. This site was established in 2012 in California, USA

This digital comic site is reputable for its mobile friendliness. The producers of the app optimized it properly to aid users who read their comic books online with phones and tablets.

The site offers to like and comment on comics too, aiding new comic readers better make good choices on comics to read. 

Types of comics present: The genera of comics present here are diversified too. 

They include:

  • Romance
  • Horror, Action 
  • Fantasy
  • Drama Comedy
  • LGBTQ

Legality: Yes, the comics here are legal. The app producers ensure that they work with the original producers to produce comic books online in accordance with copyright laws.

Available offline: Yes, they too have a feature called offline reading. Offline reading allows users to download their favorite comic books and read them at their leisure offline.

Click here  

4. ComiXology

About: This digital comic site is owned by Amazon. It was launched in 2007 and it spiked quickly to become one of the leading producers of online comics.  

They are the major producers of DC, Marvel, and Image comics.  

It is optimized properly for mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops so as to ensure readers have a good experience while. reading their comic books online. 

They have both free and paid versions. You can enjoy your free digital comics from the pool available. 

Types of comics present: They bring a whole new type to the kind I have given before.  

These types of comics include: 

  • Superhero Comics (like Marvel and DC)
  • Manga (like Naruto, Attack on Titan, and One Piece)
  • Classical Comics (like Hell Boy)
  • Digital Exclusives
  • Kids Comics.  

Legality: Yes, the comics here are legal. The site producers ensure that they work with the original producers to produce comic books online in accordance with copyright laws.

Available offline: Yes, users could read comic books offline too. Accessing it offline is just as simple as clicking the download button on the comics we find appealing.  

Click here

5. GetComics

About: The history of this website is really unclear although it can be traced back to around 2014. This website is one of our best sites to read comic books online for free. 

The site provides links to download comics free of charge, the comics exist in different forms. No comics are sold here, all are free.  

Types of comics present: The types of comics present here include

  • Superhero comics
  • Classical Comics
  • Adult Comics
  • Independent Comics
  • Manga

Legality: GetComics is not a legal comics website. They don’t work with the producers and they violate copyright laws. 

Available offline: Yes the books are available offline in very different formats for readers. These formats include CBZ, CBR, PDF, and other formats. The formats are all mobile-friendly.

Click here 

6. Dark Horse Digital Comics

About: Created in 2011 and one of the largest producers of comic books in the USA is Dark Horse Digital Comics. 

They offer comic books online to their different readers. This mobile-friendliness of their digital comics increases their online comic fans.  For example, they offer features like panel-by-panel viewing, double-page spreads, and guided view for a more pleasant reading on smaller mobile devices.

Another feature they have is syncing comic books online on different devices.  This allows you to continue from wherever you have stopped on one device on the other.

Types of comics present: The offer 

  • SuperHero
  • Comics
  • Manga
  • Fantasy
  • Science Fiction
  • Crime and mystery comics 

Legality: Dark Horse Digital Comics are legal as The site producers ensure that they work with the original producers to produce comic books online in accordance with the copyright laws.

Available offline: Yes, they allow users to download comic books. 

Click here

7. ElfQuest

About: Next of the best sites to read comic books online for free is ElfQuest.  

ElfQuest was launched in 1978 by Wendy and Richard Pini. 

While ElfQuest is a little different from other digital comic sites. In it was launched to produce a particular set of comics. 

ElfQuest has its own set of comics. Interesting, fantasizing, and beautiful as they are, they are a different series of comics. 

Types of comics present: The present here is mostly fantasy. About elves, humans, and other magical creatures. Even among this, they explore further themes such as themes of love, war adventure, and the search for identity. 

Legality: Yes, they are legal producers of comic books online. Some parts of the series are produced by Dark Horse Comics and other publishers.   

Available offline: Yes, this series is legally obtained offline on some sites where we can read digital comics. These sites include ComiXology and Dark Horse Comics.  

Click here

8. Marvel Unlimited

 About: Marvel Unlimited is one of the 20 best sites to read comic books online for free. 

Marvel Unlimited produces one of the most popular digital comics we know ie The Marvel Series. This includes Comics like Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, X-men, The Avengers, and The Fantastic Four.   

The Marvel series is mobile-friendly, allowing their digital comics to be read across different mobile devices. Like mobile phones, Laptops, tablets, etc.

Although some are not free, Marvel offers some free digital comics to readers that they can always enjoy. 

Types of comics present: There are a lot of comics present here which include. 

  • Superhero Comics 
  • Teamup Comics 
  • Even Comics 
  • Classical Comics 
  • Alternate verse Comics
  • Newer Comics

Legality: Yes, the comics here are legal. The site producers ensure that they work with the original producers to produce comic books online in accordance with copyright laws.

Available offline: Yes the site allows users to get their comic books offline. 

Click here 

9. Comic Book Plus

About: The comic books plus website is a good example of the best sites to read comic books online for free. 

They have been up since around the early 1950s and have then evolved to fit into the current generation of readers of comic books online. 

The site has been made very mobile-friendly for digital comics on smartphones, tablets, and Laptops. 

Types of comics present: The types of comics present here include 

  • Superhero comics
  • Crime Comics 
  • Horror Comics 
  • Humor Comics 
  • Western Comics 
  • Romance Comics 

Legality: Yes, these comics are legal. They know how to bypass laws.  They publish comics with expired copyrights or the copyright owner has released the material for the public domain.  

Available offline: Yes a good majority of the digital comic books here are available offline.  They can be downloaded in mobile-friendly formats such as  CBZ, CBR, and PDF. 

Click here

10. Comicextra 

About: This website is one of the 20 best sites to read comic books online for free. The site defies all legality to publish comic books that are against the will of the owners.  

Anyways the website allows the reading of comic books totally for free. 

Types of comics present:

The comic books here are of different varieties. 

  • Superhero comics
  • Crime Comics 
  • Horror Comics 
  • Humor Comics 
  • Western Comics 
  • Romance Comics 
  • Adult comics 

Legality: The site is illegal as it publishes comics against the will of the original producers and against copyright laws.  

Available offline: Yes a good majority of the digital comic books here are available offline.  They can be downloaded in mobile-friendly formats such as  CBZ, CBR, and PDF. 

Click here 

11. Read Comic Online 

About: This website is one website that allows users to read comic books online for free.

Although these versions disobey copyright orders, they provide these digital comic books for free.  

Aside from producing a mobile-friendly version of digital comics, they have a distinguishing feature of producing their digital comics in a variety of languages like English, Spanish, Italian, and others languages.  

Types of comics present:

The types of digital comics present here include the following 

  • Marvel Comics
  • DC Comics
  • Dark Horse Comics
  • Manga 
  • Independent Comics 

Legality: The site is illegal as it publishes comics against the will of the original producers and against copyright laws.

Available offline: By right, these digital comic books are not easily available offline by the site, but with the help of some browsers, we can download these sites. 

Click here

12. DriveThru Comics

About: This is one of the 20 best sites to read comic books online for free. It is like a marketplace where digital comics are bought and sold 

The digital comic artists here could sell their comics for a really cheap rate and that is why I considered it free.  

Aside from having free digital comics, the site is mobile-friendly making it easy to read on tablets, laptops, and Smartphones.  

Types of comics present:

The types of comics here include 

  • Superhero 
  • Horror
  • Comedy 
  • Fantasy 
  • Science Fiction. 

Legality: The comic books online here are legal as they don’t sell comics against the copyright laws

Available offline: Yes they are available offline in different mobile-friendly formats such as PDF, EPUB, and CBZ. 

Click here 

13. Newsarama

About: This one stands out among the other websites that provide us with comics to read online.  Here is why. The Newsarama is a website that gives reviews on different digital comics. 

Aside from reviews it gives stories, interviews with creators, reviews of new releases, and analysis.

Every digital comic fan needs to know about this website.  

Types of comics present:

The types of digital comics present here include

  • Superhero comics 
  • Indie comics 
  • Science fiction comic 
  • Horror comics
  • Kids comics 

Legality: Yes, the reviews on different digital comics here are legal and standard.  The updates too are helpful. 

 click here

14. Read DC

About: Read Dc owned by DC Comics is a well-known site for reading Digital comics.  It has a large variety of comics, especially Dc Comics. 

The site is mobile-friendly and optimized and allows users to read comics online on small screens. Although reading Dc is not totally free it has two features that lift this burden off digital comic fans.  

Firstly, some comics are provided to the users at a discount rate allowing them to pick a select few of their favorite comics.  

Secondly, Dc Comics has a special offer  ‘DC Universe Infinite’ which after being paid for would let you have access to an unlimited number of comics.  

Types of comics present: The digital comics present here includes 

  • Superhero comics
  • Vertigo comics
  • Young Adult comics
  • Digital-first comics
  • Collected editions

Legality: Yes The comic books online here are legal as they don’t sell comics against the copyright laws

Available offline: Yes Dc Comics allows users to download their digital comics and read them offline. 

Click here

15. Libby

About: Next we have Libby.

This is a website that offers a different variety of E-books including digital comics. Libby is only a little different. It is like an online library.  

Libby offers all this at no cost. Only to access Libby we have to have a library pin as Libby is an online library. 

Types of comics present: Libby offers a variety of digital comics which include:

  • Superhero comics 
  • Manga and Anime 
  • Graphic comics
  • Classic comic strips 

Legality: Yes Libby is a legal library for publishing digital comics and other books. 

Available offline: Yes digital comics downloaded on Libby can be available offline  

Click here

16. View Comic

About: View Comics is one of the 20 best sites to read comic books online for free it allows users to have free access to different digital comics including Dc and Marvel.

Not only this view of comics is mobile friendly too but it allows fans of digital comics to read these comics on whatever screen they have available on both small and large screens.  

Types of comics present: View Comics offers a variety of digital comics which include:

    • Superhero Comics 
    • Graphic Novels 
    • Manga
    • Webcomics
    • Humor Comics
    •  Horror Comics 
    • Science Fiction And Fantasy Comics 
    • Autobiographical Comics.  

Legality: The digital comics here are not so legal as all do not obey the copyright laws.  

Available offline: Yes digital comics downloaded on View Comics can be available offline  

Click here

17. Digital Comic Museum.

About: A Digital comic museum stands out as one of the sites that let us read comic books online. 

The digital comic museum contains comic books from the golden age of comics (the 1930s- 1950s). Reading them takes us back in time.  

The comics are free, and the site is mobile-friendly. 

Types of comics present: Digital Comics Museum offers a variety of digital comics which include:

    • Superhero Comics
    •  Adventure Comics
    •  Horror Comics
    •  Romance Comics

Legality: Yes The comic books online  here are legal as the site doesn’t sell comics against the copyright laws

Available offline: Yes the digital comics here can be downloaded offline and are available in mobile-friendly formats like PDF, CBZ, and CBR. 

Click here

18. Amazon 

About: Amazon is a well-known company for e-books in general and digital comics is no different. Amazon offers all kinds of comics you would want in the most mobile-friendly way possible. 

Amazon does offer all for free but has some which are available for free and others that are available for very good discount prices.  

Types of comics present:

Types of digital comic books present on Amazon include

  • Superhero Comics
  • Manga
  • Independent Comics
  • Children’s Comics
  • Classic Comics

Legality: Of course Amazon is legal.  They give their digital comics to users in accordance to the copyright laws 

Available offline: Yes the digital comics can be downloaded and read offline. 

Click here.

19. Internet Archive

 About: This is a nonprofit digital library founded in 1996 and aimed at giving easy and free access to e-books 

Comics are not different.  The internet archive contains a lot of all forms of comics, especially old comics.

It has a variety of comics, new, old, romantic, and others 

Types of comics present: Types of digital comic books present on the Internet Archive includes 

  • Superhero Comics
  • Manga
  • Independent Comics
  • Children’s Comics
  • Classic Comics

Legality: Here it is a little tricky as some editors are complaining about the violations of the copyright rules and publishing their books here. 

So it might just be a little illegal

Available offline: Yes digital comic books are available offline and in different mobile-friendly formats like  PDF, EPUB, Kindle, and others formats.

Click here

20. The Warrior’s comic book den

About: This is one of the digital comic book sites. 

They give users comic books almost totally free. 

They do have a handful of digital comics, especially older ones that would take us back to old memories. 

This site also has a comment section that lets the fans comment and rates the books for other fans to have guarded buying. 

Types of comics present:  The comics here vary they include 

  • Adventure comics 
  • Superhero comics 
  • Horror comics etc 

Legality: They don’t seem to be legal. 

Available offline: Yes the comics here are available offline in different readable formats. 

Recommendations

Frequently Asked Questions 

No, not all of them are safe and legal use. 

Remember legality here is defined by obedience to copyright laws. 

Some of the sites here, especially those that give these digital comic books totally free, don’t obey the copyright laws. Just a few of them do.

While others like Amazon and Read Dc do so and are therefore legal.

To find all the legal ones, please go through the article. I took my time to show which is and which is not.  

Do these sites require me to create an account or sign up for a subscription?

It depends. Some require that you sign in a subscribe 

Like Amazon, Read Dc, ComiXology, Marvel Unlimited, Dc Universe, Webtoon, Tapas

Others may not require signing up to access them like The Warriors Comic Book Den and Internet Archive. 

Are there any reviews or ratings available for these sites to help me choose the best one?

Yes, a lot of comic sites have these ratings so as to help the readers be better guided on the proper selection of comics.  

Some example of these sites includes:

  • Comic book roundup
  • Goodreads
  • Reddit
  • Comic Book Herald
  • IGN

Note that while some might not exactly be comic book sites, they all help give us a guide on the best digital comics to download.  

How frequently are these sites updated with new comics?

How frequently sites upload digital comics is dependent on the site itself. 

Some update more frequently while some update more slowly.  

For example 

  •  Webtoon: Uploads daily, weekly or biweekly basis sometimes. Depending on the comic involved. 
  • Marvel Unlimited: Usually on a weekly basis.  But for newly published comics, they upload them at least a week after publication.  
  • ComiXology: They usually upload on a daily basis. For newly published digital comics, they upload them days after they are published. 
  • DC Universe: Although they upload mostly DC comics, they upload newly published comics just within weeks after publication.  

Can I share the comics I read on these sites with others or use them for any other purpose?

 Nice question.  

This is especially easily possible for those comics books sites that allow you to download comics in PDF or other formats. You could share on any social media platform with any of your friends 

But always remember that sharing is not right as you have to review the copyright laws before you share the comics. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, as a fellow comic fan, this article helped me too and I am hoping that it would be of great use to you. 

There are many sites for downloading comics online for free and I have provided a good number of them. Some might be totally free and some might not be.  Happy reading.