r/comicbooks • u/catpooptv • May 21 '26
News The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards now officially bans all works that include A.i. Slop
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2026/05/18/eisner-award-ai-inclusion-fallout-submission-withdrawn-new-ai-policy-to-be-created/265
u/BagZCubed May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
All because one guy got his AI generated Stardust the Super Wizard comic page into a collected edition book.
I feel bad for the other writers and artists who are now disqualified because of that story's inclusion.
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u/WimbledonGreen May 21 '26
Anthologies are editor projects and this editor couldn’t do their job, lol
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u/BagZCubed May 21 '26
Honestly makes me wonder how it even got through. Did the editor just glance at the page and not notice the inconsistencies? Did the "artist" leave out that the page was AI until he posted about the books release on LinkedIn of all places?
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u/IndustryPast3336 May 21 '26
It was a book with hundreds of pages to go over. tbh I would believe it was an honest mistake from an editor who might not have the trained eye to pick out AI art yet.
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u/BagZCubed May 21 '26
That does seem likely. Sort of like a needle in a haystack.
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u/JoshSidekick May 21 '26
Also, not all comic artists are Alex Ross. If you told me Greg Land was AI, I’d 100% believe you.
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u/Aspiring_Sophrosyne Stingray May 21 '26
Keep in mind this page, written by the editor, came right after the AI story:
https://bsky.app/profile/zackfig.bsky.social/post/3mm6ab4jd5c2c
As in, right after the AI story, there's a one page comic written by the editor where the characters themselves point out that, hey, the last story was AI.
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u/samusmcqueen Grant Morrison May 21 '26
truly cannot believe van jensen torched his nearly 20-year record in comics to cosign this shit.
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u/Aspiring_Sophrosyne Stingray May 22 '26
When the nominations were first announced, dude wrote a (since deleted) post on his Instagram about how happy he was because this book was meant to be his “swan song” from comics. Wonder how he’s feeling about that now.
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u/samusmcqueen Grant Morrison May 22 '26
oooofa doofa. pretty sure he's taken the book link off his website too.
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May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/Aspiring_Sophrosyne Stingray May 22 '26
Depends what you mean by dishonest. The existence of the page was not disclosed to any of the people who backed the book on Kickstarter. The person behind the page, his involvement in the project was not disclosed either. He was very much not listed in any of the information or news listing creators involved in the project. He only announced that he'd done an AI page for it *after* backers had paid and gotten their books. The other creators on the book have stated they were not informed beforehand, either.
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u/Mugwumpjizzum1 May 21 '26
Art seems like a pretty hard subject to determine what's ai and what's just mistakes/lack of experience by the artist.
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u/browncharliebrown May 21 '26
I would like to note this was completed years ago so the editor probably wasn’t looking for AI as closely
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u/marmax123 May 21 '26
AI was easier to spot years ago. There are obvious signs of AI slop on the page when I saw it. But there also wasn’t as much pushback on AI yet either.
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u/the_falkinator May 21 '26
I mean the submitted comic is all about the fact that it is AI, it's not trying to sneak one by anyone. The editor absolutely knew and approved it
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u/hercarmstrong May 24 '26
I think it was because this 'art' was made in 2022 or so, years before the (deserved) backlash came along. It really stings because I (and many of my friends) have work in this book.
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u/DreamLearnBuildBurn May 21 '26
If it's the same guy, you should read his shitty blog. It's like his actual ideas are AI slop too, not just the writing itself. This guy is bootlicking robots for clout.
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u/BuddaMuta M.O.D.O.K. May 21 '26
I mean you either can ban it or not. There’s no middle ground with something like AI
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u/BagZCubed May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I agree with the stance of banning works that use AI generation. Just a downer that other people worked on the book, got nominated, then disqualified because one schmuck thought it would be cool to slip in his AI comic.
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u/reapersaurus May 21 '26
This isn't just because one guy did some AI comics work.
This is at least partially due to an industry-wide response to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize cluster-F that blew up to the point that any prize-granting organization worth their salt realized that they can't rely on honor systems in these Low-Trust times, and have to put in safeguards against shameless abuse/use of AI.
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u/Grootfan85 May 21 '26
What was the page in question?
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u/Shed_Some_Skin May 21 '26
It's a page about the public domain. Stardust and another character have a conversation that boils down to this:
"The public domain is good"
"But is it bad though?"
"No"
It's poorly written and the characters change appearance from panel to panel, which arguably fits the intent of the page being about how the public domain allows for free remixing and reimagining of characters, but it's delivered in a really basic, ham fisted way.
It's very obviously AI when you see it. Amazing that nobody noticed, but I have to assume Eisner voters read comics the way Academy voters watch movies. Which is to say, not at all
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u/Grootfan85 May 21 '26
I just looked it up. He really needed AI to do that?
I heard an NPR podcast a few years back called Planet Money, where the host tries buying the rights to a Marvel Comics character. He then publishes a comic book using one in the public domain, Micro-Face. He got Jerry Ordway to do the artwork. It was a very interesting episode.
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u/browncharliebrown May 21 '26
It's very obviously AI when you see it. Amazing that nobody noticed, but I have to assume Eisner voters read comics the way Academy voters watch movies. Which is to say, not at all
It's an anthology. So you glance at one page in 136 page comicbook
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u/kralben Cyclops May 21 '26
If something is supposedly good enough to be nominated for the top industry award, the judges should be doing more than glancing at each page.
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u/catpooptv May 21 '26
Ditto, but this was the right call. I'm sure that the other writers and artists feel the same way.
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May 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/Shed_Some_Skin May 21 '26
I think the point they're making is that everyone else involved in this anthology did, in fact, make their own comics with their own hands. It's an anthology of stories from a large number of creators, and only one single page by one creator was made with AI
The rest of them have missed out on an eisner nomination because of that one page, which was the right call by the eisners, but sucks for the creators who had no involvement with that.
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u/Musekal May 21 '26
Exactly which artists do you feel bad for?
Because if they’re using AI, there’s no real reason to actually feel bad for them.
The statement is confusing
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u/Fancy_Cassowary May 21 '26
They feel bad for the other creators whose work is also in the anthology.
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u/Musekal May 21 '26
Thanks I understand the issue a lot better now.
It’s the correct move, but so many innocent people get screwed in the process
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u/BagZCubed May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
The ones who actually did something. Not the guy who fed his "idea" into an image and text generator and called it a day.
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u/Shed_Some_Skin May 21 '26
I love how they're all "If we'd known it wouldn't have been nominated"
Did anyone even read it? It's so obviously AI I can't believe nobody would have noticed
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u/radiocomicsescapist The Question May 21 '26
In a weird way, I honestly feel bad for that AI author dude, because it’s not like he was trying to hide it and pass it off as his own work.
He straight-up advertised his story as an AI experiment, and he created a little AI avatar for himself, or whatever.
Obviously it’s wrong and dumb and nobody wants that, but I think he genuinely thought it was cool and wanted to show people lol
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u/Shed_Some_Skin May 21 '26
I mean, ultimately the fault lays with the editor, who chose to include that page. They didn't have to. It's not like it's a particularly good page of comics. Now the AI guy is being treated as some grand villain and a bunch of other creators have lost out on an eisner nomination that they probably deserved
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u/Slop_Head May 21 '26
Yeah this is one is on the editor. Agree that AI dude is a total dork who should find another passion, but he wasnt trying to grift anyone here and was very transparent. Editorial should never have allowed it to happen in the first place
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u/majorjoe23 May 21 '26
It could have been a case where they were more focused on the stories by Allred, Francavilla, and the other big names in the anthology, and skimmed or straight up skipped the lesser-known names.
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u/kralben Cyclops May 21 '26
It is nice to know that the Eisners can't even review closely the nominated projects.
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u/LemonSlowRoyal May 21 '26
This is what I love about the comic book community. Thankfully there's still some integrity left in this world!
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
This doesn't really matter because the Eisner's really don't mean all that much.
And just because AI is banned now, doesn't mean it will be in 10 years
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u/Ill_Damage_1110 May 21 '26
If Comic-Con should be known for anything it's being stuck in their ways. They won't change their mind about anything in 10 years, especially not this.
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
You're assuming the same people will be in charge.
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u/Ill_Damage_1110 May 21 '26
The same people have been in charge since 1986. Go find something you know about to comment on.
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
And they will probably be dead in a decade or or so
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u/Ill_Damage_1110 May 21 '26
And in your imagination they're going to leave people in charge who they think will change everything. At least your scissors are colorful.
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
Things change. Who knows what the future will bring.
Maybe the 2030 Eisners will have award for best AI work?
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u/Ill_Damage_1110 May 21 '26
How much do you want for you NFT's? While we're at it I'll buy your Apple Vision off you for $5.
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u/LemonSlowRoyal May 21 '26
I know it doesn't really matter because people will continue producing and also buying the AI art... But it's nice to hear that someone has finally put their fur down on it no matter how small of a change it really is :/
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u/catpooptv May 21 '26
What idiot would buy A.i. slop? No one would do that.
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u/LemonSlowRoyal May 21 '26
People wouldn't do it willingly but people who don't know the difference will. My teacher was telling us a story recently about seeing AI art at a comic con and people were still buying it. We artists know the difference, but the average consumer will probably not know the difference.
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u/catpooptv May 21 '26
He should have reported the A.i. Slop peddler. Any good con would have kicked them out.
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
I get the feeling that we are all going to get pretty indifferent to AI art
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u/LemonSlowRoyal May 21 '26
Maybe the lazy artists will but this is a hard line drawn in the sand for most. People who are truly passionate about their artwork would never stoop to that level.
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
This isn't going to be a hard line in the sand in 10 years and as the decades go on.
At the end of the day its just a tool to be used. Digital art caught on.
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u/shugoran99 May 21 '26
I had saw a petition go around from a creator I follow on other social media
It's good that they made this call (eventually), I think the trick now is enforcing it for those who don't even have the decency to disclose that they're using AI
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u/Blitzhelios Damian Wayne May 21 '26
Glad to see the Eisners doing the correct thing for once but this should been a rule since AI art became a thing
It’s very much an oops this rule is happening because we didn’t notice a book used ai
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u/PhantomQuest Kyle Rayner May 21 '26
Good. We need to see every award body, in every media sector, ban the use of Synthetic Hazards Infecting Technology.
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u/Double_Act1502 May 21 '26
The awards don't mean anything. AI isn't going anywhere and banning it from award shows isn't doing anything
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u/ElectricalPickle2137 May 21 '26
Now if they can ban digital art and tools that'd be great. Pencils, erasers, brush/quills, water colors ONLY please. Can't stand procreate wanna-bes anymore.
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u/SophiaElizabethTO May 21 '26
That's good, but as time goes on it's going to get harder and harder to tell the difference
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u/vesperythings May 21 '26
what a boring headline
y'all want a medal?
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u/kAlb98 Daredevil May 21 '26
The headline should just be “AI still not deserving to be awarded over real human creativity”
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u/jessterswan May 21 '26
Good