In case there’s any doubt, Last Kiss is now in full Christmas mode—with extra comics this week. And, on Friday, a new Felina Vie Christmas photo comic.
Transcript:
SCENE: Image of a cat wrapped up like a mummy.
CAT (thinks): Curses! Defeated by my 2-ply nemesis again!
CAPTION: Now in no theaters Near You!
CAPTION: Mummy Cat™ vs. The Toilet Paper Roll…from Heck!
Lucky_Duck_Portrait_of_a_cat_mummy_wrapped_in_bandages
Today’s comic is the product of artificial intelligence.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking: “John, your humor is always the result of intelligence that is somewhat suspect and artificial.”
True. But, for the first time, the art itself was created by a computer program. No human artist was involved. I just typed a few words into a program and after a lot of insanely lame images, I finally got this one. Then I wrote the dialogue and from there everything was pretty much normal.
Rest assured, the bread and butter of Last Kiss is always going to be old comic book images. But I do like the idea of having a new tool and new image possibilities.
By the way, sometimes creating A.I. art is easy. But it often doesn’t go the way you planned. (Why does that woman have an extra head? Are those blobs supposed to be fingers? Is that a gun in his pocket or…something else?)
As a teaser, below are a few other images that I’ve created while playing around with various A.I. engines. Warning: These are the raw images. If I use any of these, it’s likely that I’ll be fixing them up in Photoshop first:
Created using the Dall-E 2 AI engine.
Created using the MidJourney AI engine.
Created using the MidJourney AI engine.
Created using the Dream Studio AI engine.
Created using the Dream Studio AI engine.
Created using the MidJourney AI engine.
Transcript:
SCENE: We see a cat leaning over a chess board. He/She/It is talking to a dog who is off panel.
CAT: Checkmate again, Rover!
DOG: <Groan> So this must be why they say…“Dogs play checkers. Cats play chess.”
CAT (thinking): Plus…we cheat.
Art by A.I. Smartie Dogged Dialogue: John Lustig
Lucky_Duck_Portrait_of_a_cat_playing_chess_with_a_mouse_in_the__03c3d134-85e1-46ee-beee-836365e8783c_2
Happy International Cat Day!
Artist unknown. From the story “Deception” in Romantic Marriage #4, 1950. Ziff-Davis. Curious to see more? Click the link to read the entire vintage comic book.
Transcript:
DEJECTED BLONDE WOMAN: At least my cats love me!
1950 Artist Unknown Restoration & Color: Diego Jourdan Pereira
Real Cool Cat: John Lustig
DJP.lk172
Romantic Marriage #4 (Ziff-Davis Publications) 1950
