Pulitzer Prize-Winner’s Newest Work is AI Generated
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Art Spiegelman Uses Employs AI for Newest Work
See that gold and white sticker in the upper left corner of the 25th anniversary edition of Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers graphic novel in the above photo? That is AI generated.
In an interview with Zach Rabiroff for Publishers Weekly (or here) Spiegelman revealed that fact:
“[A] few things in the new edition have [changed]. For one thing, it’s physically smaller: as Spiegelman told PW, ‘People weren’t happy about having to take up table space for it back in the day.’ But he also says it was appropriate for the book’s last comic, which concludes, ‘The Towers have come to loom far larger than life…but they seem to get smaller every day…Happy Anniversary.’
“So he’s also included an anniversary present of sorts: a cover sticker ironically depicting the burning towers as candles on a birthday cake. The sticker marks Spiegelman’s first use of AI-generated artwork. ‘I wanted it to look like an old engraving, and I was lazy,’ he told PW.’“I said, let’s do it with AI [emphasis added] and see what happens.” Mouly lent a hand with the prompts: ‘She’s good at Claude whispering,’ Spiegelman said.”
That confession is not going well with the comics community at large.
Brian Cronin, comics researcher and historian for CBR writes
“Art Spiegelman is a genius, but holy shit, dude, “I was too lazy” is not an excuse for using AI to generate an image for the reissue of your book.”
Cartoonist Evan Dorkin drew his response:
In covering this story The Beat notes that Alison Bechdel admits getting an assist from AI for her Spent book.
“Art Spiegelman is a famous cartoonist, but, honestly, “I was lazy” is not an excuse for using AI to generate an image for a fancy reissue of your book. Come on. Take a nap. Recharge. Come back to it and actually draw it.”
“This is so sad to see.”
New Yorker cartoon contributor Michael Maslin notes that the “Mouly” is …
“Francoise Mouly, The New Yorker’s cover editor. Spiegelman and Mouly are married.”
Is Mouly “whispering” to Claude to edit New Yorker covers?
Cartoonist Gemma Correll’s reaction:
“ew”
An extensive search for the image of the new edition of In the Shadow of No Towers with the sticker I could find is the one photo above from the Publishers Weekly article.
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