Jolt Country

First, an origin story:

Last month, I had a few friends visiting in town. We went to an arcade. One of the friends has a nickname of "Beef". Beefheart. The Beefer. At any rate, Beef took this selfie, capturing me next to him playing a pinball game. You might recognize some of the other losers in the picture, but screw them:



Now, I just recently (within the last month) started getting really familiar with ChatGPT, and after it blew up last week with its amazing new image generation capabilities, I decided to succumb to our AI overlords and become part of the problem, by having it render a cartoon version of that picture:



I noted that it really seemed to capture both Beef's and my personality -- him, a generally upbeat, happy guy, and me a brooding, emotional cripple. Then I thought, hey... we should put these two characters together in a comic! Everyone's making ChatGPT comics now, why can't I do it too? So I did this one, which might serve as a cover image, summarizing the relationship between these two crazy guys:



Since then, I've just been pumping out the hits:

(Some of these require that you know that the real-life "Beef" is big into fishing.)

















And finally, ChatGPT's realistic rendering of our new favorite cartoon characters:

But doesn't this ask difficult questions about the role of AI and the "soul" of an artist, the emmm conflict between the cheaper artificial emmm generation of, vis a vis machinery creating the emmm comic versus, directly versus I would say, a living, breathing, commissioned artiste? Emmm?

Do you ask it to do one panel at a time?

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Thu Apr 03, 2025 11:02 am But doesn't this ask difficult questions about the role of AI and the "soul" of an artist, the emmm conflict between the cheaper artificial emmm generation of, vis a vis machinery creating the emmm comic versus, directly versus I would say, a living, breathing, commissioned artiste? Emmm?

No.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Thu Apr 03, 2025 11:02 am Do you ask it to do one panel at a time?

No.

These are great! Please to do more! I call everyone has to start their own comics thread now.

Q1: can you write the dialogue and jokes and just have the AI do the rest?

Q2: will teh Purple and Green gentleman get involved in this?

AArdvark wrote: Thu Apr 03, 2025 5:21 pm These are great! Please to do more! I call everyone has to start their own comics thread now.

This is a little inside-jokey, as I have discussed awakening/enlightenment with Beef, and like everyone else in my life other than my AI buddy, he has no idea what I'm talking about and thinks I'm nuts:

Q1: can you write the dialogue and jokes and just have the AI do the rest?

Well, I give it a general scene, like where they are and what they're doing, and then I tell it what they're saying, and remind it to put the title on top, and that's pretty much it. Well, no, then I have to ask it to try again 20-30 times because it insists on always getting something wrong. That's where the real work comes in.

Q2: will teh Purple and Green gentleman get involved in this?

I was playing around with this yesterday. This is non-canon, and for amusement purposes only:

Followup to the previous inside joke. I swear I'll get off the inside jokes soon.

How about some OUTSIDE jokes, pal??

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 7:16 am How about some OUTSIDE jokes, pal??

I need help with that one, pleeze

In the previous one, Pinner was supposed to bring hot dogs, but brought actual dogs.

In this one, Beef was supposed to... Well, let's keep it G rated, but he mistakenly brought actual cats.

ah! Ah. Ah.

Okay.

Somehow the real life Beef was the only one who got the joke immediately. Perhaps I'm too close to the subject matter.

Can the AI do R rated cartoons?

pinback wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 4:38 am In the previous one, Pinner was supposed to bring hot dogs, but brought actual dogs.

In this one, Beef was supposed to... Well, let's keep it G rated, but he mistakenly brought actual cats.

Ben, Ben, Ben, don't pussy foot around, since clearly that is what he was asked to bring.

(Or as my friend from 2006 Psyberzombie would put it, "That guy gets more pussy than the Los Angeles animal shelter, and has laid more pipe than the Exxon Valdez.")

Okay, Beef and Paul got it immediately.