Nowadays, professional comic book artists effectively “have” to use some form of graphics editor in their work, and Adobe Photoshop has long been the most popular graphics editor on the market, but recent turns of events have seen the industry thrown into a bit of a tailspin from the rise of online companies using artists’ work to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) artwork. Artists are already dealing with Instagram using their work to train A.I,, and a recent Terms of Use update by Adobe made artists around the internet believe that Adobe was not only doing the same, but also appearing to be making some claims about being granted a license on any work done through its products.
Star artist, Yanick Paquette, who drew Wonder Woman: Earth One with Grant Morrison, as well as launching Morrison’s Batman Incorporated series back in 2011, took to social media to explain why Adobe Photoshop was now “dead to me,” in a post that has since gone viral.
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Why is Adobe Photoshop “dead” to Yanick Paquette?
Paquette posted on his Facebook page (with some very light editing):
Adobe Photoshop is dead to me.
Their fully embracing of Ai is the last nail in the coffin.
That software was never intended for us comics people anyway. Drawing has nothing to do with filters and specific lense corrections. Their subscription pricing is clearly not aimed at starving digital artists.
I’ve been using Clip Studio Paint exclusively since Wonder Woman Earth One. Awesome perspective tools, better ink assist, lettering, now even colors is on par with Adobe. It’s $49
The post has been spread far and wide by other professional comic book artists, like Gene Ha, who added, “What Yanick said. I currently use Adobe Photoshop CS6 (from 2012), software loaded from a disc. Determined never to give Adobe another penny if I can help it. Willing to put in the effort later to master Clip Studio, which I currently only use for panel borders and rough lettering placement.”
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How has Adobe responded to the backlash over its new terms?
Earlier today, Adobe released a blog post pointed at responding to the backlash to its recent terms of Use update:
We recently rolled out a re-acceptance of our Terms of Use which has led to concerns about what these terms are and what they mean to our customers. This has caused us to reflect on the language we use in our Terms, and the opportunity we have to be clearer and address the concerns raised by the community.
Over the next few days, we will speak to our customers with a plan to roll out updated changes by June 18, 2024.
At Adobe, there is no ambiguity in our stance, our commitment to our customers, and innovating responsibly in this space. We’ve never trained generative AI on customer content, taken ownership of a customer’s work, or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements. Nor were we considering any of those practices as part of the recent Terms of Use update. That said, we agree that evolving our Terms of Use to reflect our commitments to our community is the right thing to do.
Source: Yanick Paqutte via Facebook
