Mind Control Comics Forum

(https://mindcontrolcomics.com/media/comics_promos/ri/ri-i061.jpg) (https://mindcontrolcomics.com/comics/ri/i061/preview)

Script: Daphne • Art: Zen

Wow! I haven't seen one of these in years! I thought you discontinued the title?

A girl can change her mind. :-)

Obviously Rapid Inductions 61 is going to be about Daphne being hypnotized to reopen the title. That's why she changed her mind

I like to think of Rapid Inductions as what you would see in the pages of some alternate-universe New Yorker that's a dedicated MC fetish magazine. So happy to see it back!

New artist: new view. Same great name.

Are there AI-generated elements to this image?

Glad to see it back! Was missed!

Why would you say that?

Hm! I thought it looked AI as well; I also noticed that it was "Copyright 2022."

However, looking today, the image is different! And it's "Copyright 2024." Curiouser and curiouser.

I really have no idea what you are talking about. (innocent look)

More seriously, the artist and I understand that there are concerns around the use of AI elements in art, so Zen redid the piece using his traditional drawing style. I'd be curious to hear everyone's opinion on it.

On his traditional style? The character and the lighting look great (if a bit dark/nighttime); the background's pretty simplistic, but if this was a rush job, that's understandable.

As for AI: it feels like you're feeling around for how it fits in your product line? I noticed you're using it over on MCT Backstage. My preference is for artists to get paid for art, but I understand you want to experiment. (Literally all of entertainment is in this spot.)

Now I'm curious: did Zen do the character himself, but use AI for the background? That seems like what everyone's trying to figure out right now: how AI assists (rather than replaces) the artist.

There's a particular kind of smooth waxiness to the female form that's very common in AI images, which the first version of this image seemed to possess. I guess it's a byproduct of using art from several different cartooning/anime styles, that it ends up with that waxy texture? (Also the breasts are the same pair of breasts over and over, especially noticeable in images that include multiple sets, but that's not relevant to this specific discussion.) The background, when it was there, looked a lot like the sort of semi-detailed sketchy background that, again, I've seen come out of a lot of Midjourney and DALL-E processes. These details are def not unique to AI images, and I'm sure there are many AI images that I don't notice that lack these details.  When I notice those sorts of details enough to recognize (or suspect) that what I'm seeing is AI-generated, it deprecates the artwork. Intellectually I know that it's still the result of human curation and editing, but nonetheless something's been cheapened.

I assure you, Zen is getting paid for his art. :-)

We use AI-generated images as spot illustrations in MCT Backstage. We tried going with hand-drawn illustrations, but it did not work for reason unimportant here.

Hi everyone! I’m the artist who did this image, so I wanted to hop in this conversation quick.

Ai was used in the first draft of this image, however it was minimal. I wanted to bring a fully rendered piece for this series, given that rendering takes quite a bit of time, I used Ai to assist with the color palette and background.

However, I do understand the ethics of Ai is being heavily debated (including in the courts) and for that reason I decided to redo the image in a more comic-book style that excludes the use of Ai.

I have many friends who are staunchly for and against Ai. I don’t hold any particularly strong opinion on it, I could take it or leave it. Ai is a complex issue, and if Ai ever tries to replace artists, i stand with artists. Daphne and I have both decided it’s best if I continue using my comic book style, which isn’t assisted by Ai.

Hopefully you will all enjoy the work I’ll be bringing to the table! I’m very excited to be working in this community after being a spectator for so long.

Cheers,

Zen

With the debate about AI images being so heated, I've come to recognize certain tells very quickly, which has the effect of distracting me from the art itself and thus lowering my enjoyment. The ideal AI assistance is the invisible AI assistance. If I was told that, say, today's HMB pinup guest page of Expanded Universe was created with AI tools, my response would be "good for them, streamlining their production process without it affecting the quality of the output."

Most AI art rolls right on down into the uncanny valley for me. That's not to say I'm completely or even particularly opposed to it, but personally it does detract and distract from an art piece, however more detailed or vibrant or well-rendered or whatever it may be. Then again, I do also long for the days of hand-drawn anime, and ain't nobody got the time or the money for that. Technology does march on though, so maybe a happy medium will be reached at some point, kinda like how it has been in a lot of animation.