MacMost Now 271: Comic-Con International 2009

Macs are commonly used by comic book artists. Artists Duncan Rouleau and Karl Christian Krumpholz talk about which Mac hardware and software they use, and how popular Macs are in the industry.

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Video Transcript: Gary Rosenzweig: Hi this is Gary with MacMost Now. Last week I got the chance to go to Comic-Con International in San Diego. As you would expect, the place was filled with IPhones and MacBooks. A lot of the comic artists use Macs to make their art. I got a chance to talk to two of them while I was there. 
Duncan Roleau: Hello, my name is Duncan Roleau and I'm a partner at a company called "Man of Action". Uh, we created a show called "Ben 10" that airs on Cartoon Network, also another show that comes out next spring called, "Generator X". I've written and drawn comic books for the last 15 years, worked on such titles as the "X-Men" and "Superman" and "Spiderman".
Karl Christian Krumpholz: I'm Karl Christian Krumpholz. I'm an illustrator and cartoonist, I do a book called "Byron" for "Slave Labor Graphics" and I'm also an illustrator for portraits for many different magazines, like "Modern Drunken" magazine in Boulder, Colorado.
Duncan: I've been exclusively a Mac user for the past 12 years, I've grown up with them, everything I do, I do on my Mac. I have, I have a PowerBook, I have a G4...
Karl: I use a MacBook Pro. I mostly use "Creative Suite 3, "Illustrator" and "PhotoShop" mostly. What I basically use it for is, I scan in my artwork, the black-and-white artwork and I clean it up in "PhotoShop", letter in "Illustrator" and color in "PhotoShop" again. 
Duncan: All of the Adobe, all of the Adobe programs, the entire studio, principally for my work, for my illustration work I use an awful lot of "PhotoShop". Even more than "Illustrator" because I still do an awful lot of things hand-drawn, I scan them in and then I'll use it, I'll manipulate the images inside, once I've got them scanned in on "PhotoShop". Yes, I use "Whack 'Em Tablet"-the large one, I've got the big one, the big, the 20.
Karl: I do have a scanner, of course, and I've got a "Whack 'Em Tablet. I use the "Whack 'Em Tablet", rarely...um, mostly touching up the art work, making some corrections to some of the line work, and stuff like that, I don't use it a lot. I know a lot of artists, personally, who use only the "Whack 'Em Tablet", they don't even draw on paper or Bristol anymore, they only use the "whack 'Em tablet" and I...haven't got to there yet, and I don't know if I'll ever get to there, I like working with paper, I like the texture, the feel of it, rather than drawing right into the computer.
Duncan: I have had a G3 that I've been running, since I first got it in...that's about six years ago, seven years ago, and it has never crashed, I've never had a crash, I've never had any issue with it at all and I've abused that machine to its full extent. That is one of the things I love about the equipment, the integration, the ease with which I can use it...I'm not actually, particularly a strong technologist and it's very accessible for me. I can pick it up, it's very intuitive, and specifically for my needs as an artist, it's extremely intuitive.
Karl: I love Macs (laughs), actually my first, one of my first computers was a Mac, a long time ago. I had one of those...I don't even remember what they're called, just the "Cube" with the screen built into it. The original, I had one of those, I had to have been, what,'88, '89, '90...that area.
Duncan: I know that the general feeling, is that if you are in a graphics, or an art background, almost 80% to 85% seem to be Mac users.
Karl: I know a few artists who use PC, but the majority of them use Macs. Especially on the more graphic side of design and so forth.
Duncan: When you're individual, and you're creating your studio, you want to make sure that all of it works, and it works well, and it lasts a long time and you're willing to pay, I think, a little more up front for those necessities and I think that a lot of artists are familiar with that and that's why they're drawn to Mac as a business decision, as well.

MacMost Now 271: Comic-Con International 2009

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