Today, Amazon announced that they’ve purchased digital comics portal comiXology for an undisclosed sum. Whatever the amount, it’s reduced the number of players in the digital comics space by one as well as showing that 2014 is the year that Amazon started making big, strange moves.

First came their acquisition of Double Helix back in February, then their launch of Amazon Fire. Now they’ve acquired arguably the biggest digital comics company.

So why would Amazon buy the seven year old comiXology? Well, in the press release (the full text of which you can read below), Amazon calls out comiXology’s Guided View technology, their patented method of navigating not just page to page, but panel-to-panel in a digital comic. It will be interesting to see if/how Amazon integrates this into their Kindle reading experience.

SEATTLE – April 10, 2014 – (NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon.com today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire comiXology, the company that revolutionized the digital comics reading experience with their immersive Guided View technology and makes discovering, buying, and reading comic books and graphic novels easier and more fun than ever before.

“ComiXology’s mission is to spread the love of comics and graphic novels in all forms,” said David Steinberger, co-founder and CEO of comiXology. “There is no better home for comiXology than Amazon to see this vision through. Working together, we look to accelerate a new age for comic books and graphic novels.”

“Amazon and comiXology share a passion for reinventing reading in a digital world,” said David Naggar, Amazon Vice President, Content Acquisition and Independent Publishing. “We’ve long admired the passion comiXology brings to changing the way we buy and read comics and graphic novels. We look forward to investing in the business, growing the team, and together, bringing comics and graphic novels to even more readers.”

Founded in 2007, comiXology offers a broad library of digital comic book content from over 75 of the top publishers as well as top independent creators. Following the acquisition, comiXology’s headquarters will remain in New York.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Subject to various closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.