The TfC Ramble is a weekly, skimmable smorgasbord of content from the intersection of comics and technology. Enjoy!
AI & Machine Learning
There was so much going on in the world of AI this week!
Are we headed towards a world where, as Mark Waid jokingly suggested, you could make your own Marvel comic? And if you could, would that be a good thing or a bad thing?
If you didn’t get to attend, this video is a “Wow, we just scratched the surface” must-watch for comic creators, if, for no other reason, it is the first panel I’ve watched that includes comic creators, legal opinion for actual lawyers, and an AI researcher.
For the technically inclined. Not specifically comics related.
There were some other massively consequential announcements in the world of AI this week, most notably the introduction of ChatGTP and an interesting paper from Stanford. While the articles and videos that follow are not explicitly related to writing comics, they are still fascinating and do impact how we should think about the future impact of AI. I can feel my opinion piece on how we should proceed as creators bubbling to the surface.
GPT-4 by Dr Alan D. Thompson
TL;DW - Self-training AI makes a new model possible for $600. “Alpaca behaves qualitatively similarly to OpenAI’s text-davinci-003, while being surprisingly small and easy/cheap to reproduce (<$600).”
TL;DW - If the first thing you think of AI is Skynet, and not Lt. Data or the movie Her, you might want to skip this one so you can sleep tonight.
AI Explained is a very deep rabbit info-hole if you are looking to follow an AI overview YouTube channel.
TL;DW - It’s all about productivity.
NFTs
Meta Stops The Support To NFTs On Instagram And Facebook ← This is more evidence that PFP-style NFTs are finding it harder to find an audience.
Notable Drops
Whiz Comics #2 - The first appearance of Shazam
Oof, this drop was WAY oversubscribed. The general sales feed had only 4450 available (5000 if that number doesn’t include the sale to Cowl holders). At one point, I had 52,587 people in the queue ahead of me! The fact that this drop happened in the same week as the movie dropped undoubtedly didn’t hurt. There were five rarities, and the few that are in the aftermarket are selling very well, with commons selling for $35 and the legendary selling for $989.
Uncanny X-Men #28 - The first appearance of Banshee.
This was another instant sell-out. Edition size: 5,000 copies. $6.99
In the aftermarket, commons are selling for below list ($3.25 floor) and Secret Rare is currently selling for $96 each.
I haven’t talked about this before, but VeVe also actions 1-of-1 artist proofs. Looking at past sales, the final prices tend to fall in the $3000 to $6500 range. I am more interested in NFTs as a comic distribution stream, but 1-of-1 art does still sell.
For the Technically Inclined
A great tool essential to marketing the date of your NFT drop: Navigating Our Interactive Calendar: A Guide to Discovering New Events and Drops
Business
GlobalComix Partners With Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Archie Comics, TOKYOPOP, and More!
GT: Chris at GlobalComix is a technical wizard. With the introduction of their app just around the corner, we may finally see a proper “Netflix” of comics. Here is hoping it is so successful that Marvel & DC integrate some of their titles (maybe keeping archival issues exclusive to their own platform?) on GlobalComix as well. The precedent has been set with Webtoons, so here is hoping.
An excerpt from Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence
Thanks to Gamal Hennessy from Comics Connection for flagging this policy statement at the federal register.
“When an AI technology determines the expressive elements of its output, the generated material is not the product of human authorship. As a result, that material is not protected by copyright and must be disclaimed in a registration application.”
It goes without saying that this only applies to US law, but it is a precedent that will influence other jurisdictions.
Writer Accountability
The first draft of Lump Dog #1 is out for peer review
by a gallant group of long-suffering souls.I’ll be looking for themes in the feedback.With some time away from writing, I am doubling down on getting my accounting done for my taxes. I just finished my crypto-trading summary. Thank heaven for Koinly.io tax software. The final auto-generated report is over 600 pages long, all in service of generating just three numbers that end up going into my income statement!
I wish those numbers weregoodnumbers!
Just for Fun
I chuckled way too much at this one.