Introduction
As little as ten years ago, the capabilities of publicly accessible image generators were mere fantasy. Now, images can be made in seconds or minutes and children’s books can be generated in an hour. In some instances, like in the case study between Beihang University and Tsinghua University, text-to-image AI is heralded as a resource to expand production, increase communication, efficiency, and boost creative design (Hu et al 2023). Some AI proponents argue that artists against image AI advancement have technophobia, and fail to recognize image AI models can act as a creative medium and, potentially, as a creative partner (Mazzone and Elgammal, 2019). In fact, some creatives have begun to identify themselves as AI artists, exploring new mediums by interacting with AI algorithms. Yet, other artist communities are incensed over questions of authorship and integrity, lambasting AI models for plagiarism and copyright infringement. The main argument concerns if AI model training falls under fair use, or if model outputs are unlawful derivatives of copyrighted works. For more information on the development of AI copyright law, you may reference this previous AMT Lab article, U.S. Copyright Office Ruling and Implications on A.I.
Many artists have expressed fear that they may lose their jobs to AI models that will do the work at the fraction of the cost, particularly emerging creatives in need of entry level positions (Lovato et al 2024, 5-6). It may be easy enough for large companies like Netflix or Marvel to cut corners with generative AI, but how will this impact an industry where the art is at the forefront of consumers' minds? Comics, whether they be digital or print, have been heavily dependent on individual or small groups of artists to weave together stories. The ease of using AI to replicate that work may not be simple. Such a change will require an expansion of current diffusion AI capabilities, the opinions of industry artists and publishers, and most importantly, the receptiveness of comic book consumers. Is the market willing to buy AI comic books and, if so, for how much? After all, if comic books could be made in a matter of days, couldn’t market saturation or lower production costs drive down consumer demand?
It is important to acknowledge this line of inquiry is operating under the assumption that consumers are aware if content is AI generated or not. A discussion between Thinking Critical and comic shop owner Shawn Hudachko points out the ways that AI art is being passed off as human made, particularly as cover art. In most cases, these ruses are often single images, not entire comics. This correlates with current AI studies, such as Bowling Green State University’s findings that we cannot reliably discern AI art from human art, in which only single images were tested.
Is the Technology There Yet?
As of early June 2024, there are no sample studies to assess the reception of AI comic books. Several individual case studies have been performed to see if diffusion AI is capable of generating a series of panels. The most common case studies have concerned the educational use of AI models to create comic strips. Evelyn Galindo experimented with Midjourney to create open-ended strips with mixed results. Similarly, Krunoslav Bedi had a group of students use DALL·E Mini to generate short sets of panels. These are, however, far different from the type of content comic book fans pay for.
Several experienced artists have experimented with DALL·E and MidJourney to create comics. However, AI comics with only two Amazon reviews should not be considered indicative of its potential or limitations. A blog review by C. Stern outlines the current strengths and weaknesses of AI comics. Results generated in 2022 and 2023 have been labeled as being suited for surrealist, sci-fi, or horror genres, due in part to consistency issues. It is of note that Stern’s best rated comics incorporated visual elements created or manipulated by artists and comics crafted by art directors, not authors with no prior experience. Overall, it is Stern’s opinion that AI comics can be enjoyable despite their limitations, but the consistency issues are the basis on which some artists believe AI will not immediately impact the industry.
It is also of note that there are growing online communities and businesses like Skyreels promoting the use of AI models to generate comic books, although there is a distinctive lack of examples available. While full comic issues appear to exist on the fringe of the market, their existence could be seen as a push in blue ocean strategizing.
Artist Opinions
Infographic covering key findings from two studies on AI art.
Image source: Author
True North Country Comics interviewed 12 comic book artists about their thoughts on AI. Opinions ranged from the call for unionization and boycotting to mildly favorable views that it can be used to help artists keep their visual ideas fresh. Overall, it was the opinion of the group that visual artists cannot be replaced by AI generated content, and AI models will always need human assistance to produce valuable art (True North Country Comics, 2022).
As a whole, artists are hostile to the introduction of AI in commercial industries. A study released in February 2024 reflects current attitudes towards AI (Lovato et al, 2024). The key findings of Foregrounding Artist Opinions: A Survey Study on Transparency, Ownership, and Fairness in AI Generative Art are highlighted in the infographic on the left. While many artists see AI as a positive development, a majority still see it as a threat to creative industries and do not wish for their works to be used for profit by AI creative model companies. So ardent are some of these feelings that visual artists like Karla Ortiz are filing copyright lawsuits against AI companies for the creation of derivative works and the use of art in AI model training without permission. Such sentiments are backed up with specific findings from a recent study on Twitter posts, revealing illustrators have an aversion to AI image models, and that illustrators and artists have negative sentiments toward AI technologies regarding copyright, one of the leading topics in AI related posts (Miyazaki et al, 2024).
Consumer Responses to AI Art
DC Comics was embroiled in controversy after accusations that three comic art covers were AI generated (Johnston 2024).
An allegedly AI generated image used by DC for a cover of a Wonder Woman issue. Note the ambiguous ‘W’ on her belt line, an iconic character element that a human artist would not overlook.
Image Source: bleedingcool.com
While the artist, Jingxiong Guo, maintains that he drew the covers himself, he received ridicule from other artists, and DC Comics pulled and replaced the covers. Public comment garnered in the midst of accusations indicated hostility toward AI art.
True North Country Comics also conducted an informal poll with its followers, of which, 88% said they would not buy a comic book generated by AI, although that poll has since been deleted. Other comic book related communities such as the subreddit r/spiderman voted to ban AI art from being posted. There is a lack of published findings specifically on comic book consumers' opinions regarding AI, ergo one must extrapolate from studies to address general populations.
A poll published by The Verge indicates that the general population has similar sentiments regarding AI acting as an artist. Out of 2000 participants, over 75% support regulations on AI including fact checking, transparency, and restrictions on imitating a real person. Many users indicated they used AI to imitate a specific person’s work and also - humorously enough - that companies should be banned from copying artists (Kastrenakes and Vincent 2023). Given the prevalence of the use of AI to imitate specific artists, as well as the dominating concerns on its ethical and legal ramifications, it may reflect that current AI technology cannot develop a strong foothold in the comic book industry yet.
Returning to the aforementioned Twitter study, however, trends indicate an overwhelming positivity toward AI use. Over three million tweets covering January 2019 through March 2023 were analyzed by occupation. With the exception of occupations wary of ChatGPT, and illustrators averse to AI image models, occupations expressed positive sentiments. Moreover, the more AI exposure a given occupation has, the more likely the sentiments would be higher in positivity (Miyazaki et al 2024). Results may indicate that the general public, when more familiar with AI advancements, may be more open to the introduction of AI comic panels, or at least comfortable with the idea of an AI model being an artistic medium. This information appears to contradict the qualitative evidence of negativity in online comic book settings.
Shifting from conscious to more subliminal opinions, another pair of studies that was published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications tested whether participants preferred human art compared to AI-created artwork. Participants were given a set of 15 images labeled as human created art and 15 images that were AI generated. In actuality, all of the images were generated by AI. The four main criteria of the study were “Liking”, “Beauty”, “Profundity” (emotional resonance), and “Worth” (economic value). Participants were asked to rank each attribute on a Likert scale. Results from the first study are reflected in the table below (Bellaiche et al, 2023).
Scatter plots from “Humans versus AI: whether and why we prefer human-created compared to AI-created artwork.” Plot indicates that art labeled as AI ranked lower in all categories than art labeled as human made.
Image Source: Screenshot from author.
In both studies, participants ranked “human-created” art more highly than AI-labeled art. This difference in value is stronger in profundity and worth, revealing an intrinsic preference for human ingenuity and time, so the demand for AI comics may always be less due to negative bias. Publishers and would-be creators may be inhibited by this bias value as well, although currently published studies ignore the multimodality of comic books: the combination of words and narrative with visual art. Perhaps if a story still has human authorship, this could influence readers’ perception of an AI comic.
Thus, human-created work is still preferred by audiences, but that may change with time. Artists may lean on AI for inspiration, but generative AI is not widely accepted by the field, and, is in many cases at odds with artists and creative rights. In part two of this research, the results of creating an AI comic book and a survey studying comic book fans’ opinions on AI introduction in the industry will be analyzed. Do comic book artists have anything to fear from the AI industry or will ardent fans keep the technology at bay?
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