DC Comics Using AI Artwork-Do You Care?
Hi everybody, hope everyone is doing well.
This one is for all my comic book fans and those who read comics regularly, or anyone who is interested in AI in the corporate space.
Just wanted to gauge peoples thoughts on AI being used in comic books, see the article in question here https://www.cbr.com/dc-comics-batman-alleged-ai/.
Now in looking at the images in question, I personally believe there is definitely evidence that AI was used in the process, to what extent is the real question, but this also reminded me that the comic book industry have been using similar tactics for ages now. The closest example I could think of is actually another Batman comic from a long time ago, 1989 to be exact, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (great read by the way). The artist is Dave Mckean who is known for taking photographs and then painting over/manipulating them to a point of no recognition. The fever dream style that he incorporates reminded me of the latest Batman iteration which uses AI. In fact if you compare the two comics you will see some similarities and an you might think something from 1989 was using AI.
The comic book industry as a whole is known for taking photos of people and tracing over them with comic book characters.
The real question I want to ask is if you are a comic book reader, do you care that the images are generated by AI.
For me the answer is simple, as long as I don't see any flaws in the work (eg extra fingers , limbs) and it does the job of conveying the story well, I don't care. The reality is, you can create some really compelling comic book pages with a multitude of different styles if you use AI and Photoshop together, and artists can even do it in their own styles. Sure this is going to cut a lot of jobs in the industry, but the reality is we have to move with the times and advancement of technology. We used to have phone operators for example, now we don't because there is no need for them, AI directs all our calls. All those jobs are gone, its a sad truth but this is where we are. However, if you are a smart artist, you will take this advancement and run with it, expand upon it, make it work for you. A single person can create their own comic book really easily now, and if you have the technical and artistic knowledge you will do nothing but excel in your craft.