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Sunday, April 27, 2008

Mustek RIP: 1999-2008

Around September 1999, acting on a tip I received from a listserve of cartoonists, I purchased a Mustek A3 EP scanner, capable of scanning pieces as large as 11x17, for only $69 at a local electronics store chain—the perfect size for original comic-book art! I had it up and running in no time, connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98—a computer that’s still my primary PC.

On April 24, 2008, the Mustek died after more than eight-and-a-half years of service. Of course Murphy’s Law was in full effect: it didn’t just die while I was working on a random page of my next issue, which would have been merely an inconvenience; instead, it died while I was in the middle of scanning the final-inked piece of my contribution for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International souvenir program, the night before the deadline!

Desperate to scan the piece, and with my wife and two children comfortably asleep in their beds, I drove down to my local 24-hours Kinko’s at 11:30 pm hoping they could scan it for me. Being the usual minimum-wage drones they are, of course they didn’t know how to scan the art as a high-quality tiff. (I suspect they could have, but they didn’t understand the full capabilities of the system.) Rather than attempt to take over the machine to figure it out myself, I decided to pack it in and hope to find an alternative the next day.

I did and submitted the piece a few hours before midnight the day of the deadline. But, of course, I soon learned that the Comic-Con emailbox for accepting these submissions was full. Fortunately, I have a friend on staff at the Comic-Con who promised to forward the file to the right person.

Despite the last minute panic, I hold no grudge against my old Mustek. It served me well over the years, and I was saddened to have to disconnect it from my computer and save it for the junk heap. The Mustek is the only large-size scanner available at its price spectrum (under $200). Though I’ve read many complaints about its quality, it always served my needs and was a workhorse. I plan to get another Mustek to replace it, but it won't ever take the place of my original A3 EP in my heart!

3 comments:

Gonzalo Martinez said...

My condolences.
Mustek A3 is a loyal hard worker scanner.
My scanner is actually working with a 12v 2a power adaptor instead of the former 15v 1a and it is still reliable, kind of slowish, but reliable.

I'd like to know what's the replace scanner.

BTW. I really love your stuff. Kind of Indiana Jones, Terry and the Pirates with european Tintin flair. It's the kind of stuff I'd like to do someday.

Best.

Gonzalo Martinez.

Randy @ WCG Comics said...

Thanks for the kind words about my work, Gonzalo! You identified many of my influences exactly!

I've actually ordered a Mustek ScanExpress A3, primarily because it appears to be still compatible with Windows 98, which is my primary PC for my comics. I also have a Mac, but I heard Mustek's are not compatible with OS X. Since you're interested, I'll perhaps post a follow up commentary about how it works out!

Gonzalo Martinez said...

Hey.
I actually use my Mustek ScanExpress A3 on a mac mini PPC with Tiger.
There's a SANE driver available at:

http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/

Kind of tricky to install but it works fine.

I understand the the new version of this scanner, Mustek ScanExpress USB A3 600 PRO comes with a Mac OSX driver (Is this your new scanner?). Take a look:

http://www.mustek.com.tw/apprg/showdriverinfo?LID=2&PRODUCTID=SE_A3USB600Pro&LSID=34

That's it.

Good luck and congratulations again, Rob Hanes is cool.

Gonzalo.