First of all, if you’re 39 or older, I’m sorry for getting that song stuck in your head.
Also in case you were worried, don’t be - I absolutely know every lyric to this stupid song.
I’ve been thinking about writing about AI for a while, but even though I’ve got a lot to say on the subject, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say in this context. Generative AI is basically a seven-layer dip of things that suck…it’s hard to figure out how to digest it all at once.
Then I saw these Bluesky posts from The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle (shout-out to “This Year,” celebrating ten years as our national anthem), and they captured something I’ve been thinking about quite a lot. He was talking about the unfortunate trend of musical artists using generative AI to create art for album covers, posters, etc.
Sorry for the censorship but I write kids’ books.
John was talking about a musician collaborating with a visual artist, but the second post especially describes one of the very best things about being a comic book writer. And it’s the exact thing that generative AI can never replace.
The Human Element
I’ve already talked about how I can’t draw, even though I come from a family of artists.
I suppose it’s not without a certain charm….
Many times I’ve said that I wish I could draw, because it would make this whole “making comics” thing a lot simpler. So in theory, I should be overjoyed about generative AI, right? Here’s a machine that can bring my dreams to life! With a little patience and the right prompts, I can get exactly what’s in my head on the page. I can make comics all by myself. Isn’t that worth a few extra fingers or some Eldritch horror food between friends?
Well, first of all, I don’t know what’s in my head! I’m not an artist. I may have a vague idea of what I want things to look like, but just like AI I probably ripped it off of some other talented artist. If I make something that looks like that, I’m not putting anything new in the world. I’m just remixing or regurgitating something else I saw somewhere. Why go through the trouble of creating something new only to saddle it with reheated visuals?
Collaboration between two or more humans…that’s the stuff. That’s how you create something that’s truly new, something that a single human wouldn’t have thought up on their own because a single human didn’t think it up on their own.
Take the current book I’m working on with Max Bare. When I was writing it, I was picturing it in a very typical “American anime” style, a la Avatar the Last Airbender. As far as I knew, that’s just what this kind of fantasy-esque story for modern kids looks like. That’s what I was familiar with.
Sorry, dude. Maybe next time.
When I saw Max’s art, it didn’t look anything like what I had been envisioning. But there was something in it that spoke to me, that I thought could work with the story to unlock something in it. And it did! The story changed to match the art, for the better. There’s an alchemy that’s at work when people collaborate, and you can’t get that from a machine that just wants to please you.
Even setting aside the rest of the seven-layer dip (briefly: built on theft, terrible for the environment, enriching the world’s worst people, the aesthetic of fascism, erodes skills and makes you dumber, I could go on…) using AI to create art deprives you of one of the basic pleasures of being a human: making things with other humans.
By the way, since this newsletter is primarily about writing, in case you’re thinking of using AI to write…don’t. A simile I’ve seen a lot is that using AI is like bringing a forklift to the gym to lift weights for you. It makes a ton of sense…if you assume the goal of weightlifting is to literally lift weights. But it’s not, it’s to build strength in yourself, which is something the forklift won’t help with.
As I’ve said before, the point of writing is not to have an idea and then make sure that idea gets out into the world. It’s not to create content. Folks, we’ve got enough content. We’ve got enough content for the rest of time.
Pictured: me consuming content.
The point of writing is to get better at writing. So taking the forklift to the gym won’t help.
Create something that no one else can create. Then, even better: meld your mind with another weird human mind and create something together that no one human being could ever have created. That’s the stuff. In the words of the Bard, “Anything less than the best is a felony.”
GOT YOU AGAIN!
Word to your mother.
Links to Cool Things
I want to give the biggest plug possible to this cool new comic: The aforementioned Max Bare and his co-creator A.C. Medina are launching their new middle-grade graphic novel Ever Trip next month from Papercutz, and you should pre-order it now! It’s a mad-cap road trip through a classic video game-inspired world, full of memorable characters. Max is using a completely different style than he’s using on our book together, but you’ll be blown away by what he’s doing in Ever Trip. I’m going to get Max and A.C. in the newsletter soon to do an A Lot to Process column, so keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, the best way to pre-order is to ask for it at your local comic shop or bookstore to help get it on their radar.
It’s been a long time since my last newsletter…way longer than I would have thought if you’d asked me how long it’s been. (Accountability update: let’s just say it’s been a tough year.) But that means that there’s no point in me telling you to watch Widow’s Bay on Apple TV because everyone and their mother has probably already told you to watch it. Even so, let me add my voice to the chorus. It’s the rare horror comedy that’s both really scary and really funny. (Plus, like all the best entertainment, it’s got Toby Huss.)
Finally, it’s my birthday next week. If you’d like to get me something that’s totally free, please consider reading and enjoying one of my old books on Hoopla or a similar app and then leave a review on Goodreads or a similar platform. Or better yet, get a friend to subscribe to this newsletter!
Thanks as always for reading!
