How I feel about Ai Images

Last post I mentioned that I used Ai in making this latest Chuffin' Billy strip. Generating Ai images using Microsoft CoPilot sounds grander than it is but it is something I want to talk about. I love hand drawn comics and everything I know about the medium has been learnt because I loved the escapism from reality that hand drawn comics in the seventies', eighties' and nineties brought me.

To me Ai generated artwork is synonymous to someone flicking through a magazine, with no intention of buying it. Fantastic images are perceived as hyper reality and easily forgotten leaving very little for the viewer and nothing for the maker. But, the ability of a computer to generate an image that encapsulates what you are trying to communicate is... impressive and it can be used.

So where is the Ai in Chuffin' Billy episode three?

Page Three

Frame 1 – bob, billy and mick are sat around a table in mick’s canal side house.  

Eric is curled up on the floor. There’s a bottle of whiskey and glasses on the table. 

Bob – “He’s a billy, mick. Remember them?” 

Mick – “That I do, bob, that I do.” 

Mick – “Where the feck did you find him?” 

The group sitting around a kitchen table and the design of the kitchen also caused me problems. Where do you start in the modern era of Ikea furniture. Having lived in/on Heartbeat film sets I know there is a feeling to be caught for the nostalgic alternate world of Chuffin' Billy.

Frame 2 – ¾ Aerial of outside of Mick’s canal side home, a rustic terraced house. A flat barge floats past, loaded with bags of produce, with rough looking men in flat caps poised on it. 

Bob (from house) – “It’s a long story, mick. How long have you got?” 

Mick (from house) – “For you, Bob?  All night if we need it.  We’ve barely dented this bottle yet.”

Even though it's all there in the script I just couldn't draw what I knew should be there. I asked CoPilot for general images of 1950's canal boats crewed by rough sorts...

Frame 3 – Inside the house, Bob and Mick chink glasses. 

Bob – “We’d rather not attract any attention here, Mick, if you get my meaning.” 

Mick – “That I do Bob, that I do.” 

Bob – “To….Dublin?  Absent friends.” 

Mick – “Aye, Bob, to Dublin.  Never forget.” 

Again, I needed reference for Bob and Mick reminiscing...

Page Six

Frame 2 – Inside Mick’s, Billy is being placed inside a victorian diving suit. Mick is just lowering the helmet on to billy, muffling his speech. 

Mick – “I kept this rig from the old days, handy for getting scrap out of the canal. Billy might not need to breath, but his engine needs protecting.” 

Billy – “………..” 

Bob – “What was that, billy?” 

The environment is what catches me out. Fair enough for a writer to ask for a certain scene but it all takes research and imagination. What I find fascinating about the Ai generated images is the backgrounds, almost bundled in as an afterthought to the original request. A lot of my comic art has been around making something feel right, rather than look right. A particular curve might suggest a bottle on a shelf, an old wheel what the cellar might have been used for in the past.

Page Seven

Frame 3 – Billy walking along the bottom of the canal toward a tangle of scrap and sunken barges. He is trailing wires and cables to the surface.

Bob (via telephone) – “How’s it going? What can you see?”

Billy – “I’m…a little out of my depth, sah….and a little worried about rust….”

Billy – “There’s a maze of scrap metal and sunken boats down here. I am going to investigate.” 

Again, it's all there in the script and easy to say in my head but making it look like I thought it should need reference. What the Ai gives you may be way off but the inclusion of a rusty car might be enough to make the panel work.

Page Twelve

I mentioned using Ai for reference here to help envision a Barsoom canal city.

There that's about it, I used photo reference for Birmingham Gas Street Basin canals and 'The Ace of Spades' pub. I have confessed my drawing reference sins and feel better for it. I can go out and commit the act all over again for the next episode!