The Compleat Barks Disney Reader

The Compleat Barks Disney Reader is a desktop application designed for browsing, searching, and reading the complete collection of Carl Barks' Disney comics, specifically tailored for the Fantagraphics book series.

Built with the Kivy framework in Python, it provides a rich, cross-platform user experience with a focus on intuitive navigation and a visually engaging interface.

Features

• Comprehensive Browsing: Navigate the entire collection in multiple ways:
  • Chronological: View stories in order based on their original submission date.
  • Series: Browse by comic book series (e.g., Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge).
  • Categories: Explore stories grouped by tags, such as characters, themes, or story types.
• Search: Quickly find titles by name or stories by specific tags using the integrated search boxes.
• Rich User Interface: A dynamic 'TreeView' provides easy navigation, while the main view displays context-aware background art and information related to the selected comic or category.
• Integrated Comic Reader: A fullscreen, touch/click-friendly reader with intuitive page navigation (click left/right side of the screen) and a "go to page" dropdown for jumping directly to a specific page.
• No Censorship: Every attempt has been made to remove Disney and Fantagraphics censorship. This has been done using an override mechanism where censored pages in the original are overridden by fixed pages in the reader.
• Smart Loading: Asynchronously loads comic images in the background for a smooth, non-blocking user experience.
• Customizable Viewing: Supports optional override images for controversially restored or fixed pages, which can be toggled via a checkbox for specific titles.
• Persistent State: Remembers the last-read page for each comic and the last selected node on startup, allowing you to pick up right where you left off.

Screenshots

(Add screenshots of the main screen, the reader, and the settings panel here to showcase the application.)

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Requirements

• Python: 3.13 or newer.
• Fantagraphics Comic Archives: You must have access to the digital versions of the Fantagraphics Carl Barks Library, typically as .zip or .cbz files.
• Python Dependencies: The required Python packages can be installed via uv.

Installation and Setup

Follow these steps to get the application running on your local machine.

1. Clone the required repository

git clone https://github.com/glk1001/barks-compleat-reader.git
cd barks-compleat-reader

2. Install Dependencies

You need to use uv for package management and a Python virtual environment.

# Install uv
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Install the required packages
uv sync

And install just to conveniently run commands.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://just.systems/install.sh | bash -s -- --to ~/.local/bin

3. Initial Run and Configuration

The first time you run the application, it will create a configuration file. You will then need to configure the path to your comic archives.

just reader

1. When the application opens, click the Settings icon in the action bar.
2. In the settings panel, locate the setting for the "Fantagraphics Volumes Directory".
3. Set this to the absolute path of the folder containing your Fantagraphics comic book archive files (the .zip or .cbz files).
4. Close the settings panel and restart the application.

The application will now load the titles from your specified directory.

Usage

• Run the application:

just reader

• Navigation: Use the TreeView on the left to browse the collection.
• View Info: Click on a title in the tree to see its related comic art, publication details, and other information in the main panel at the bottom.
• Read a Comic: In the bottom right corner of the main panel, click the highlighted comic inset image to open the comic book reader.

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Building a Standalone Executable Using Pyinstaller

1. Install pycrucible:

   uv add --dev pycrucible
   

2. Run the build command:

   bash script/build.sh
   

3. This will create standalone one-file executable 'barks-reader-dist' where 'dist' depends on the platform the build script is run from.

Deployment

1. Goto 'Releases' on github (https://github.com/glk1001/barks-compleat-reader/releases/tag/v1.0.0) and edit the release:

   The Compleat Barks Disney Reader
   

2. Add the just built executable.
3. Update release
4. The updated release should be visible at https://glk1001.github.io/barks-compleat-reader/website/app.html

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License.