Late last night artist Karla Ortiz posted the terrible news that the San Diego Comic-Con’s art show was allowing “A.i.” images. Ortiz also very clearly laid out why this is a horror for artists and provided the email to voice your opinions to the SDCC. Today, ComicsBeat wrote about the story here.
The great news? The SDCC has now changed its rules to disallow “A.i.” images from its art show.
Huge, huge thanks to Karla Ortiz, who did the entire comics community a great service last night, and to everyone who emailed to voice their opinions.
For posterity, here’s the email I sent last night. If any other comic book convention similarly considers allowing “A.i.” images, this letter applies to them as well.
Greetings. I’ve been working in comics for 21 years and I’ve never seen a more pernicious attack on the values of our industry than generative “A.i.” So I was shocked to learn that the guidelines for your art show includes this clause:
(3) Material produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be placed in the show, but only as Not-for-Sale (NFS). It must be clearly marked as AI-produced, not simply listed as a print. If one of the parameters in its creation was something similar to “Done in the style of <specific artist>,” that information must be added to the description. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.
Please understand that allowing “A.i.” art at all is an insult to every comics creator whose work has been stolen by “A.i.” companies for their databases without compensation. Please further understand that subtly encouraging applicants to generate “A.i.” garbage in the style of specific artists is an even greater insult. I have trouble even articulating how terrible it feels to see it.
Please save your institution from shame and stand up for actual artists’ rights and for the human joy of actually creating instead of “generating” art.
Please delete this terrible clause from your guidelines and ban “A.i.” materials altogether.
Thank you for your consideration. The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.
If you’re so inclined, please feel free to follow Karla Ortiz on Bluesky here and thank her for helping us all out this week.
