AI-generated art won a fine art contest last month, beating humans and causing a roar.
AI art made the news this week for beating humans in a fine art competition. This has caused a firestorm of conflicting opinions in the art world. And now, there is a new evolution of the skirmish. A graphic novel featuring AI-generated art is due out next week.
A graphic novel featuring art generated by artificial intelligence (AI) with mesmerizing imagery has hit virtual newsstands. And it only took 100 hours to manufacture.
The theme of AI-generated art has really exploded. Anyone who loves the idea of the next metaverse is intrigued by the idea of how many virtual worlds can be created like this.
The notion that the metaverse is even closer than we think using this kind of technology is tantalizing to Metaverse enthusiasts. But for now, the subject is bothering many people in the art world.
AI Art and Graphic Novels
Author Kevin Hess is a staunch lover of science fiction. His favorite book is Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker, first published in 1937. The book describes the history of life in the universe and addresses philosophical ideas such as the meaning of life, birth and death, and the unity of civilizations.
Hugely popular science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke said it was “probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written.”
Hess decided to pay homage to his favorite book (which is now out of copyright due to its age) and reinvent it as a graphic novel. He used the Midjourney artificial intelligence art generation platform to create what could be the world’s first fully illustrated novel.
It’s not only the first fully illustrated novel… It’s the first fully illustrated novel in which an AI created the illustrations. And this is where highly skilled artists who have studied their craft for years start to get upset.
Classic Literature as a Graphic Novel
These days, there are many graphic adaptations of famous novels. However, they are not the same as the original novels: they lack the full text of the novel and rely on art to communicate the missing parts. This is where Hess’s book is different.
In total, Hess’s graphic novel has 706 fully illustrated pages. Says Hess, “My goal was to bring the visual feel of a graphic novel with an epic, sweeping story into a well-deserved, somewhat forgotten novel. It is visualized for modern readers in a way that simply would not have been possible until now. Star Maker is my favorite novel by far, and I’ve been trying to get people to read it for years.”
Hess says that if Star Maker proves popular enough, he’ll make the next Stapledon book, and maybe even Dante’s Inferno, or the Book of Revelation.
“It’s great to be (potentially) the first in human history to do something specific, and an entire fully illustrated novel is way more meaningful than a Guinness World Record for stacking Solo glasses on your chin.”
By Audy Castaneda
