Comic Artists are wrong about AI Art

Comic Reviews for week ending 12/11/2022

Good morning, my friend,

Too many comic artists are freaking out about the rise of experimental AI art engines, such as Midjourney, because they view the tech’s potential as a job stealer. It’s not. In the sum of human history, very few innovations replaced a human’s profession without opening the door to pivot in a new and improved direction.

What is AI Art?

In simplest terms, AI Art is computer-generated art based on an amalgam of inputs from hundreds or thousands of art samples from the Internet to match the request. In some cases, the AI Art output looks oddly familiar to art created by a human. In others, the output can be more surreal and bizarre than anything you’ve ever seen.

Why are Comic Artists freaking out?

Money. Innovations like this always come down to money. Comic Artists who react negatively to AI Art are in fear that a computer program will a) “steal” their art to create art for somebody else, and b) will take away their art gigs if the output quality gets good enough.

To be fair, the potential is present for both scenarios to occur in very specific edge cases. AI Art will pull art sections from publically available art. It doesn’t know the difference between art that should be touched or not, so the concept of “stealing” is a wrinkle that needs to be worked out. As for taking art gigs away from humans, that’s a little more tricky and also where the opportunity for a pivot comes into play.

AI Art potential

Used correctly and ethically, AI Art has the potential to benefit Comics Publishers, Comic Artists, and Comic Writers - all for different reasons. Here are a few easy examples:

Variant Covers

This one is a no-brainer for Comics Publishers, big and small. In the variant-scheme-heavy, speculator-focused world of comic collections, a Comics Publisher could generate dozens of variant covers based on their characters in an infinite number of styles, poses, and scenarios. You can never replace a Jae Lee cover or a Derrick Chew cover, but you can create a unique cover solely owned and licensed by the Publisher.

Reusable, Licensed Assets

Creating reusable assets for licensing is trickier, but if done right, has the biggest potential to save time and make money for everyone, including Comic Artists. Here’s why.

By far, the biggest hurdle to putting out monthly comics is the time it takes to create the art. Instead of creating a comic from scratch with every single issue, imagine a scenario where a Comics Publisher uses an AI Art engine to generate all the backgrounds and machinery set to appear in a comic.

For example, DC Comics could use AI Art to produce a fully rendered model of Gotham City. Every building, every street corner, and every alley would be wholly unique and approved by DC Comics as the “official” version of Gotham City. When an artist gets an assignment to draw a Batman Comic, DC supplies all the backgrounds for every panel and every page. The artist’s job, keeping the page rates the same, would be to focus on penciling/inking characters and integrating the backgrounds into their art style.

This one example saves time for the artists, establishes art consistency in the Publisher’s product, and when taken a step further, DC Comics could license out the “official” art of Gotham City to video game developers, toy manufacturers, and more.

Indie Projects

Again, the biggest hurdle in time and expense in making a comic is the art. That’s not a criticism of artists but an acknowledgment of reality. Art takes a long time and costs more to produce compared to writing… unless you’re a very slow typer. So, if you’re an aspiring comics writer and don’t have the resources to get an artist onboard with your vision, AI Art could be the first stepping stone toward getting at least a portfolio of the work done.

Here’s just one of many examples of tutorials using AI Art to create a comic strip for the DIY comics writer on a budget.

Could DC and Marvel use the same approach to make a complete monthly comic? Right now, no. The tech isn’t good enough, and you’d still need people on staff dedicated to creating the pages, so they'd simply be hiring a different kind of artist. However, a new writer who doesn’t have a network of friends at Publisher could use this approach to create a fully rendered draft of their comic pitch or create small indie projects that help gain crowdfunding support for bigger projects.

Who stands to lose from AI Art?

The losers in this innovation are Publishers and Creators who fail to pivot into these opportunities. The combination of “fear of the unknown” and a “scarcity mindset” will always leave people behind when the market is disrupted. The examples above are just the tip of the iceberg as long as creators shift their thinking from “I don’t want to change” to “I can use this tech to do more and better.”

What do you think? Will AI Art be the death of Comics Artists? Do you think AI Art could pave the way to golden opportunities? What ideas can you conjure that are better than the ones listed above? Let me know in the comments section, and we’ll post the best ideas in the next newsletter and on all our social accounts.

Now, let’s generate some more comic reviews.

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MAEVE #1 – Comic Review

GARGOYLES #1 – Comic Review

VAMPIRELLA VS. RED SONJA #2 – Comic Review

BLADE RUNNER 2039 #1 – Comic Review

DAHLIA IN THE DARK #1 – Comic Review

AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY MONSTERS #1 – Comic Review

DOCTOR WILDER #5 – Comic Review

TIGHTS #2 – Indie Comic Review

IRIS- Indie Comic Review

BIG BANG ADVENTURES #18 – Indie Comic Review

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• Lovecraft: Unknown Kadath #4 (Ablaze Publishing)

• Nature's Labyrinth #2 (Mad Cave Studios)

• Belle: Deep Freeze (Zenescope Entertainment)

• Grimm Spotlight - Red Agent: Friendly Fire (Zenescope Entertainment)

• Grimm Tales of Terror Quarterly: 2022 Holiday Special (Zenescope Entertainment)

• Atom: The Beginning (Vol. 2) (Titan Comics)

• Kamen Rider Kuuga (Vol. 1) (Titan Comics)

• Cherish #2 (Dynamite Comics)

• Elvira in Horrorland #5 (Dynamite Comics)

• Lord of the Jungle #2 (Dynamite Comics)

• Red Sonja/Hell Sonja #1 (Dynamite Comics)

• Sweetie: Candy Vigilante #4 (Dynamite Comics)

• Vampirella: Mindwarp #4 (Dynamite Comics)

• Dreamtown Amusement Park #1 (Indie Submission)

• Lynx: Grindhouse Special #1 (Indie Submission)

That’s the shortlist for now. We’ll add more titles and adjust as time and resources allow.

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