I had a very good time over the past few days at San Diego Comic-Con International–an event I’ve been attending off and on since 1988. One of the highlights was meeting Dave Gibbons, the artist of Watchmen and other exceptional examples of comics storytelling. Gibbons was at the booth of Smith Micro Software, the publisher of an application called Manga Studio. He told me that he does almost all his cartooning digitally these days, using a Wacom Cintiq tablet.
I have mixed feelings about the notion that pencils, pens and brushes may be growing obsolete–hey, I collect good old fashioned original artwork–but Gibbons’ enthusiasm for digital tools, and the work he produces, makes me feel better about the whole idea.
Here’s a video clip of him drawing with Manga Studio and a Cintiq, and explaining why he does so: