Sunday Mailbag

Q: What are your thoughts on the new Wacom Companion (the new Cintiq/tablet mashup)? Any plans to get one?

A: When I was at the Stanley Awards in Australia a week or so ago I got a chance to play around with one of the hybrid Android tablet Cintiqs, which was brought to the conference by Jason Chatfield. Jason, incidentally, did a comprehensive review of that device on his blog and on YouTube which is well worth watching.

I was not impressed. I thought there was significant lag with linework, and I just didn’t like the feel of it. Now, I was using it in tablet mode in Android with SketchbookPro, which I absolutely hate working with. I had a problem with the palm rejection, and I would move or zoom in and out of the image I was working on intermittently. I believe the Windows version of this has a “touch on/off” switch which would solve this problem, but I don’t know if the hybrid has this.¬¨‚Ć Also, Jason’s pen had the hard plastic nib on it and I much prefer the felt nibs, so it was not a very fair assessment. The jury’s still out for me, but I think if I was to get one I’d go with the full Windows version so I could use PhotoShop.

I would love to get a chance to try the version that runs Windows 8 and full PhotoShop or other graphics programs. I actually had one on order but cancelled it at the last minute… sticker shock on the price. It’s just a little too much money to drop hoping it will be what I want it to be, rather than knowing. I’m going to wait until I can actually try one out, or at least until someone I know does a full review of it. In theory it seems to be exactly what we’ve all been waiting for, but at that price I need someone to tell me the theory works in practice first. I am tired of the Cintiq 12wx, with the giant tangle of cords, bricks and power source needs… I’d love to get a truly portable solution, but I need something that is capable of doing really finished work on it, not just sketching in a coffee shop.

If Wacom wants to send me one to evaluate, I’d be happy to write an honest review of it!

Thanks to Cedric Hohnstadt for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!