A tale of nun-sense written by my pal Tony Isabella!
Adventures in A.I.
The vast majority of Last Kiss art is based on old panels of published comic book art. But over the last year I’ve been experimenting with A.I. art. And occasionally it’s found its way into Last Kiss.
This one started like this. Tony Isabella wrote to be with an idea: “John…I thought I would give you another A.I. challenge. The image should be of a deliriously happy man looking at his wife dressed as a sexy nun. The wife, not the guy.”
This turned out to be a surprisingly difficult challenge. A.I. content generator MidJourney wouldn’t accept any prompt with both the words “nun” and “sexy.” (Or any synonym for “sexy.”) It kept placing the nun and man inside a church. And the man? MidJourney kept dressing him as a priest. Clearly, this wouldn’t work with Tony’s gag.
It took many attempts and changes in prompt verbiage to come up with the art for today’s comic. (Instead of a priest, the man now looks more like James Bond.)
Anyway, I thought readers might enjoy seeing the a few of my initial attempts at the art:
MAN: Gosh!
WOMAN: We’re playing “The Virginal Choir Boy and the Naughty Nun.” That’s why I’m wearing my bad habit. Your choir robe is in the bedroom.
CAPTION: Joe loved Cosplay Night!
Art: A.I. Magic Writer: Tony Isabella
Man_smiles_at_a_beautiful_attractive_nun
It is the best AI yet, but some of the others are just as good. Thank you.
Thanks, Peter. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
John, this seems to me to illustrate an existential issue about A.I. (and full disclosure, I’m not even a neophyte with A.I. – I know what A.I. stands for, and that’s about it). That issue, for me, is whether A.I. should be allowed – and expected – to create what it wants (based on the provided prompts), or be restricted to creating what we want it to create, in other words, what we would have created ourselves without its help. What do you think?
Ken, I Just wrote you a very long answer—most of which was lost to a computer hiccup. (Which seems ironic given what we’re discussing.) But I’ll do my best to recreate that text here.
It seems like you’re asking if AI should exist at all—especially if it lets people create art that they can’t draw themselves.
First, let’s be clear. There are all kinds of AI. Some are going to solve seemingly impossible medical, technical and other problems.
But what you’re really talking about here is generative AI–which creates artwork. (The same issues apply to some degree with generative AI which creates text.)
Personally, I consider generative AI a tool–much like Photoshop. Indeed, Photoshop—a tool used by many, if not most artists—has recently incorporated generative AI in a big way. So AI has already gone mainstream. And it’s here to stay.
So I’ve decided to use it. I won’t be using it a lot. But I will use it occasionally.
(I’ve used it quite a bit during the holidays because I have so little good holiday comic art.)
Does generative AI create a variety of moral, legal and employment issues? Absolutely. But most major, new technologies do.
John, you’ve inspired me to learn a lot more about A.I. No, I wasn’t contemplating whether A.I. should exist at all, but rather whether it should be expected to help the user do what he intended, or to be allowed to run free and do what it wants. And I think you’ve helped me realize that it isn’t all one way or the other, but what you expect it to do for you at the time. I’ll figure it out in time as I continue on my journey of discovery! In the meantime, I look forward to seeing the fruits of yours.
AI is a tool. It’s the same as a pen or paintbrush. It’s all in how you utilize it.
And as a side note, you can also input your own artwork skills on top of the AI image to make it your own.
Love your work. Keep it up!
Surrender Artist! You Are Obsolete!
https://imgur.com/t/deez_nuts/eRoTG87
John, Saw your comment on Tom The Dancing Bug. We’ll see how modern Mickey works out for Ruben Bolling. Disney can muster a lot of lawyers.
I’m not sure what the legal ramifications are going to be in Tom the DB. I suspect it won’t be a problem, but I’ll be watching carefully. I need to read up on the copyright issues. And then there’s trademark law too!
Startling art! Triggers the pre-adolescent Catholic boy in me. (:^)
John, if you don’t mind, could you share the text description you finally used that got the image you finally used?
I don’t have time to do it now. But I’ll see if I can dig out the crux of that info over the weekend.
Got it. However, I’m removing which artists I asked AI to emulate. You can come up with your own artists. But when I ask AI for that, I’ve almost always asking for artists who are dead and/or who haven’t been working for decades. That way I’m not actively using the styles of current working artists.):
Here’s the prompt I used for the first set of 4-paneled art blocks. I hope that helps:
Man smiles at a beautiful, attractive nun. Intricate, elegant, 8 k, In the art style of ** **; ** –s 75
Funny thing, if the AI was coded to avoid anything approaching the suggestive, it did a very poor job – the sleazy grins on those priests look like another PR disaster awaiting the Catholic Church
Oddly, a few time I’ve actually had AI–unbidden by me–put bare breasts into artwork. Breasts without nipples, but still breasts.
AI is weird.
To clarify, MidJourney won’t even let you use the word “sexy”–with or without nuns in the image.
In the very bottom picture, she looks like Audrey Hepburn.
I was seeing Father Gregory Peck
It’s Late Night with Norman Rockwell
Ahhh… I miss Audrey…
I always thought she was one of, if not the most beautiful women who has ever lived.
Have there ever been this many responses before?
Years ago I ran some caption contests that garnered a lot of entries via comments. But a regular comic sans contest? Nope. I think this has received the most comments yet!