Oh, Archibald!

Here's a comic I made for students last week when I was stuck at my desk during testing:

I didn't do my usual lousy lettering but instead awkwardly inserted computer text so Japanese junior high school students can read it. In this world of astounding if, at times, inappropriately surreal AI art, my poorly formatted font looks like 1999. You're welcome!

AI art's kind of starting to remind me of William Burroughs' cut-up technique (attributed to Brion Gysin). It's interesting when it makes unexpected deviations. That's now but I suppose, sooner or later, someone's going to figure how to make AI reliably do what they want it to do. And all the artists who have a hard enough struggle proving they have value in this world will have an even harder time. I can see it being particularly hard in Japan where artificiality has long been seen as an intrinsically valuable. I see the young artists at the school where I work and can't imagine the insurmountable challenges as they try to make careers for themselves three or four years from now. It's good to keep in mind it's always best for writers to write for themselves first and foremost but that might be pretty cold comfort.