I used to make comics. I know that because strangers would look at my work and immediately share their most excruciatingly banal experiences with me:

— that time a motorised wheelchair cut in front of them in the line at the supermarket;
— when the dentist pulled the wrong tooth and they tried to get a discount;
— eating off an apple and finding half a worm in it;

every anecdote rounded of with a triumphant “You should make a comic about that!”

Then I would take my 300 pages graphic novel out of their hands, both of us knowing full well they weren’t going to buy it, and I’d smile politely, “Yeah, sure. Someday.”

“Don’t try to cheat me out of my royalties when you publish it,” they would guffaw and walk away to grant comics creator status onto their next victim.

Nowadays I make work that feels even more truly like comics to me than that almost twenty years old graphic novel. Collage-y, abstract stuff that breaks all the rules just begging to be broken. Linear narrative is ashes settling in my trails, montage stretched thin and warping in new, interesting directions.

I teach comics techniques at a university level based in my current work. I even make an infrequent podcast talking to other avantgarde artists about their work in the same field.

Still, sometimes at night my subconscious whispers the truth in my ear: Nobody ever insists I turn their inane bullshit nonevents into comics these days, and while I am a happier, more balanced person as a result of that, I guess that means I don’t make comics any longer after all.

  • 29 Posts
  • 168 Comments
Joined 5 months ago
Cake day: November 23rd, 2024
  • haverholm@kbin.earthtoDeGoogle Yourself@lemmy.ml•Should i disable google play services ?
    8·
    1 day ago

    Ideally, yeah, you should. It’s a privacy shitshow.

    The question is, will it break some of your apps and do you have an alternative? My first go to is always microG that spoofs google play services for apps that (think/claim they) need it to run.

    Usually, installing microG requires 1) that you’re able to install system apps. You can probably do that if you can uninstall google services. Or, 2) that you can flash a custom ROM on your device — I know of a few ROMs that come with microG baked in:

    Unfortunately, not all devices can be rooted or bootloader unlocked — thanks manufacturers! — so depending on your make and model you may be SOL in terms of that kind of control over your phone.

  • haverholm@kbin.earthtoFuck AI@lemmy.world•AI Art Turing Test
    1·
    2 days ago

    The site mentions it’s from ACX at the top

    …no? There’s a link mentioning Scott Alexander which does lead to ACX, but without any background or context. It’s a fairly big assumption that others know what “ACX” is and how SA is connected to it.

    I didn’t connect the dots immediately, but turns out I tried reading Unsong back in the day. I quit when I realised Alexander’s ties to rationalist and effective altruist thought 🤷

  • haverholm@kbin.earthtoFuck AI@lemmy.world•AI Art Turing Test
    3·
    3 days ago

    It’s not clear to me what the purpose of that test is, other than a gotcha. Are we going to see a snarky reveal of the hit and miss rates in some clickbaity newsicle next week?

    A few images were quite clearly in the supersaturated colour scheme that “genAI” favours; others were artworks or artist’s styles I recognised, like Basquiat and Miro. The harder ones to identify were the generic DeviantArt artworks, and a couple of false positives made by “genAI” that were quite obviously trained on fine art masters.

    But again, not a Turing test, only a test of the participants’ art history skills and visual literacy 🤷

  • haverholm@kbin.earthOPtoDoctor Who Social Club@startrek.website•"Doctor Who is a cartoon" (Mark Strickson, 1990)
    0·
    4 days ago

    Oh, for sure this applies more to pre-Wilderness Who, and as you say — it was a convention of the times. I still think this history has some relevance for the current production.

    It sort of has a free pass to be ridiculous and riff rather freely on its own lore, because even through the '60s, '70s and '80s writers were making stuff up as they went along. That’s a freedom that Star Trek doesn’t have to the same degree, because there is a more (but not entirely) established continuity.

    For example, I’m pretty certain Who could have gotten around the Disco Klingon redesign much easier than Trek did. I mean, how many times have the Cybermen changed their appearance without explanation? Or the Master? 😄