I am not, I will confess, a comic book kind of guy. I know people who read comics, I will happily read them if I am given them, but I will not go out and religiously dedicate myself to a universe, mainly because I just can’t be bothered.

But then I had a go at the new PSP Digital Comics Reader, and I changed my mind.

While the PSN Digital Comics service doesn’t actually launch til next month, the nice folks at Sony have decided to give people a sneak preview of it – a move that has more than paid off for me, personally. One promo code entry and a 45MB download later and I had myself the first issue of Transformers: All Hail Megatron, a storyline launched last year revolving around Decepticons taking over Earth.

From there it’s a case of just choosing the Digital Comics option from the new Extras column on the PSP’s XMB and you’re good to go, ready to read all the comics you like. Provided you’ve, y’know, downloaded them.

What makes reading comics on PSP neat is the Autoflow feature, which makes the “camera” — if you want to call it that — swoosh around the panels in reading order, all controlled with a single button press to continue the action and jump from page to page. This works brilliantly on the PSPgo especially, since one tap of the shoulder button is all that’s needed to read on.

In this, the worst (but only conceivable) way of showing off Autoflow, I'm turning a page. Pressing one button! Neat!

It’s Autoflow that got me really worked up over reading comics because there are all sorts of cool effects to draw you into the action a little more. In All Hail Megatron Issue 1, to give you an idea of what I mean, the Decepticons roll into Times Square and cause mass panic and havoc, as Decepticons tend to do. As shit blows up and Decepticons throw themselves about, as one would expect, but the Autoflow camera shakes about and rattles and throws itself from speech bubble to speech bubble with rather more intensity than I was perhaps expecting.

While reading comics itself is enjoyable (like I said, I’ll read them if I’m given them) the Autoflow feature makes it that little bit cooler and pretty much sells the entire Digital Comic Reader to me. The chances are, I’ll end up buying the rest of the All Hail Megatron series to find out what happens, and then I’ll end up moving onto the more classic Marvel stuff when I’m done with that – and it’ll all be conveniently stored on my PSP, which is even better than hefting comics around with me.

I’m not the type to collect comics and stash them in plastic bags and preserve them. I’d read them for a kickass storyline and that’d be that. With the PSN Digital Comics Service, I can do that and listen to my own music while doing so from my PSP, with no papery fuss and the awesome Autoflow feature. I’m sold on it and I bet if you were to give it a spin you would be too.

Check out @psncomics on Twitter for info on how you can grab a free comic to try out for yourself.