Good for you, brother!

And it may or not matter, but I was listening to 'Bwana, Bwana A' by The Waitiki 7 From the album 'Charred Mammal Flesh: Exotic Music for BBQ' while drawing this. https://waitiki.bandcamp.com/track/bwana-bwana-a

So I was in a mood! haha

Funny that I'm seeing this on the very day that I got my 1979 "Heavy Metal presents: Alien, The Illustrated Story" mag by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson! Thanks for posting. I wasn't aware of this Polish art.

Great points! I’ve love AI as a research engine, especially for tracking down obscure older comic art. I’m not anti-AI at all. I think it’s one of the best tools we’ve gotten in a long time. I also think future generations will have less knee-jerk pushback, and they’ll use it to make genuinely cool stuff, both in art and in tech.

Again, to me, there’s a difference between AI slop and AI as a tool. A lot of people aren’t making that distinction. They’re using “AI slop” as a generic insult because they’re angry at the idea of AI, not because they carefully looked at the result. Maybe.

Another thing that I think may be happening, especially with non-artists who don’t know the tools, is they might be seeing sign of computer involvement and assume it must be AI. I scan my art into Photoshop-type programs to clean up lines, fix circles, fill black spots, add text, and handle textures. That’s normal digital cleanup, but I think some people interpret that as “AI artifacts.” Not to mention, most cartoonist these days create entirely on the computer. I should probably get a tablet to draw my stuff on, so I should make that update too. I have to find a good one that works with linux tho.

At first I told myself I’d ignore the AI comments. But I wasn’t getting neutral questions like, “Is this AI?” I was getting stuff like “I smell slop,” and “Get out of here with your AI slop!”

So I posted my step-by-step process, and some people still refused to believe it. That’s when I realized a lot of them weren’t actually interested in the truth. They were venting. And I think some of your points touched on the reasoning behind that.

What disappointed me most was the toxicity it brings out. I expected Lemmy to be a more nuanced, fun cutting edge indie version of Reddit. I figured the slightly higher barrier to entry would lead to better conversations.

That hasn’t been my experience! lol

People here often seem more angry, more sarcastic, and more eager to dogpile.

And it’s not about people disliking my work. I’m fine with that, and I’m used to it. The frustrating part is the accusations, and then the doubling down even after I show evidence.

So now, if I get an AI comment, I'll just send a link to my process and move on. Trying to persuade people or argue with them didn’t work. That one’s on me, lol

Yeah, it was such a great scene back then. I'm old, but not THAT old, so I was too young to see it all live as it happened. I did live in San Francisco for a bit, so I got to see a lot of leftovers from that time period. Fun stuff.

As for me being flippant, it’s pretty hard to stay friendly when people literally reply with just “AI slop!” after I post something I spent all day working on. Then when I explain that I drew it myself, how I did, and post pics of me doing it, I get some variation of, “But it looks like AI drew it! Spammer!” That logic makes no sense, because if you know anything about AI, you know AI is trained on real drawings and real images. It looks like real art because it learned from real art. So now people act like real images “look like AI,” when in reality AI was built to look like real images in the first place.

I legit got accused of using an "ai font." Like, really? What does that even mean?! lol https://lemmy.world/comment/21579257

(I'm cool with that poster now, by the way. But it just shows the extremes some people look for when they want to see ai everywhere)

It won't stop me. But what really bothers me is thinking about the 14-year-old kid in his bedroom who posts his stuff on Lemmy and it gets called AI over and over. How long is he actually going to keep sharing his work after that. Maybe he just says, “Fuck Lemmy,” and leaves. That’s our loss. Worse scenario tho, maybe he thinks, “What’s the point of drawing or showing anything at all?” and stops drawing completely. That’s the world’s loss.

I actually don't hate AI. I think it can do some amazing shit. Even art. For me, it's the end product. I don't have to imagine someone working hard or crying or being crazy or whatever to appreciate an image. If ya just pushed a button, and it looks cool, cool! I don't do that, but I don't care if you do. It's just the mean and rude comments right off, and calling freakin everything slop now.

AI isn't going to go away, no matter how angry Lemmy is about it. But real world artists WILL go away, or at least leave Lemmy, if they constantly have to defend themselves. I'd rather just someone keep their rude comments to themselves.

Yeah, I tried to ask her years later, and she couldn't remember. And I was too young to know the details, but some of them were pretty legit. I'm sure he was still just a salesman for them, since it's not like they were giving me a free ride there, but I was still pretty stoked! I should spend a day or two doing a deep dive into them, cuz now I'm curious! lol

Good eye. I remember those too.

What’s wild is that when I sent in a different drawing from another comic, a guy actually showed up at our house about three months later and talked to my mom. He saw my age, I was probably around 10, and he told her I should come to their little illustration school when I got older.

I was thrilled, but my mom said art school wasn’t happening because we couldn’t afford it. :(

I did end up going to local state university for graphic design tho, and worked my entire career in the field before retiring recently. So it's fun to be able to just make little random toons for Lemmy now. :)

According to many on Lemmy, yeah, we all are.

Yep, it works now! Thank you!!

Nah, homie, people gotta use snail mail and send a S.A.S.E.

Thank you! You're doing awesome and this is an awesome instance, so no worries, brother!

Yeah, I wanna see what one looks like.