Creating Comics with AI

Creating Comics With AI showcases student-created, three-panel comics. The images were created using AI while the written text was made by the student. While the topic and visual style of the comic was open, students were asked to demonstrate their knowledge of comics layout by incorporating different text-image combinations. The goal of the project was threefold: to give students an easy way to experiment with comics art regardless of skill level; to have students gain a hands-on understanding of how to use different strategies of combining text and image to create meaning; and to raise questions about the ethics of this form of text and image creation.

To prepare for the project, students had a hands-on session with library staff to learn about the software and to gain an overview of three-panel comics. Students also read two articles critiquing the use of AI image generators specifically for comics. 

In the process papers that accompanied their creative work, students discussed their take-away. Several students had difficulty creating women superhero characters that had realistic body types. They also noted bias in creating certain categories of characters. Many students expressed frustration with creating consistent images across multiple panels, which required extreme care in creating prompts for the AI. Students likewise found that the AI ignored details of complex prompts.  Finally, students responded very positively to how using AI allowed them to experiment with comics layout and art style even without any artistic skill or training– the process opened visual experimentation to a wider group of participants.