Are We Nearly There Yet?

It's Halloween again and as usual I'm wondering what I can dredge up for October 31 this time.

Last year I dragged out the Adult Wednesday Addams videos which I thought were both hilarious and seasonal but no-one seemed very interested. At all. Just like no-one cared the first time I did it, which for some reason was right after Valentine's Day, although it seems I was just celebrating Wednesdays in general, which seems weird even for me.

Anyway, yesterday I began to feel the pressure of another Halloween with nothing much to bring to Show and Tell, when the obvious occurred to me: let the AIs do it! I was saying only a few days ago how they seemed to getting so good I might try getting one to draw a comic for me. Why not now?

Yeah. About that. It started out looking like it was going to be easy. It really wasn't. It was impossible.

Impossible for me, anyway. I'm far too lazy. Which is why, even though I can write, I wasn't going to be writing this script myself. As the saying goes, why buy a robot butler then fetch your own drinks? If the AIs were going to draw the damn thing, they could write it, too.  

That part was easy. Really easy. ChatGPT is getting very good at this sort of thing. So good, I didn't even bother to put the job out to tender with Bard or Bing. I asked the latest free version of ChatGPT - 3.5 - to do it. (There's a later model, 4.0, but you have to subscribe and it's $20 a month, which I think is a bit steep. I'd seriously consider $10 just to get the speech but I'm confident that will come to the free version in time and I can wait.)

I wanted to keep it simple and short so I asked:

Please write a Halloween-themed script for a comic-book featuring a talking fox, a talking cat and a young girl.  The script should be suitable to give to an artist to draw and should result in 2-4 pages of finished work. The script should include both dialog and necessary descriptions.

ChatGPT started typing instantly. It finished the whole script before I could read the first panel. When it responds that fast you know its on familiar ground. It must have seen lot of "Halloween" and "script" and "comic-book" data during its training.

The first draft was about what I expected. It was cheerful, bland and unoriginal but also very coherent. As a story it doesn't really go anywhere but then neither do most human-scripted amateur comics. I've read plenty of worse comics that were written by real people giving it their very best shot. Like some of mine, for example.

Here's the full script:

Title: "Halloween Haunters"

Page 1:
Panel 1:

    A full moon casts eerie light over a small, suburban neighborhood. Decorated houses line the street, with carved pumpkins and cobwebs adorning the porches.
    In the foreground, a young girl named LILY (around 10 years old) in a witch costume with a pointy hat, stands beside a gate, clutching a trick-or-treat bag.
    Beside Lily, a TALKING FOX named FINN (who's wearing a wizard hat and cloak) sits on his haunches. His eyes are wide with excitement.
    Beside Finn, a TALKING CAT named WHISKERS (wearing a vampire cape) lounges on the gatepost, looking nonchalant.

LILY:
(Excited)
Alright, guys, let's fill this bag with goodies!

Panel 2:
    Lily, Finn, and Whiskers approach the first house, which has a spooky skeleton decoration on the porch.
    The front door opens, and a WITCH (in a classic witch costume) hands out candy. A cauldron with treats sits nearby.

WITCH:
Happy Halloween, little witch!

LILY:
Happy Halloween!

Panel 3:

    Lily, Finn, and Whiskers each receive a candy from the witch and place them in their bags.
    Finn whispers to Lily.

FINN:
(Whispering)
I heard there's a legendary haunted house nearby. Want to check it out?

Panel 4:

    Lily, now holding a full bag of candy, grins at Finn and Whiskers.
    Whiskers looks skeptical, while Finn winks at Lily.

LILY:
Absolutely! Let's go on a spooky adventure!

Page 2:

Panel 1:   

Lily, Finn, and Whiskers stand before the infamous HAUNTED HOUSE. It looms in the background, dark and foreboding. Eerie sounds emanate from within.
LILY:
(Excited)
This place looks amazing! Let's go in!

WHISKERS:
(Skeptical)
Are you sure about this, Lily?

Panel 2:

    The trio enters the haunted house. Cobwebs, eerie portraits, and mysterious sounds create an unsettling atmosphere.
    Finn leads the way, lighting the path with a small glowing orb.

LILY:
(Laughing)
This is fantastic! So spooky!

FINN:
(Whispering)
Keep an eye out for surprises, you never know what you'll find in a place like this.

Panel 3:

    Suddenly, a GHOST (semi-transparent with a mischievous grin) appears in front of them, blocking their path. It hovers in mid-air.

GHOST:
(Playful)
Boo! Did I scare you?

LILY:
(Laughing)
You almost got me!

FINN:
(Admiring)
Nice costume!

Panel 4:

    The trio shares a laugh with the friendly ghost as they continue their journey deeper into the haunted house.

Page 3:

Panel 1:

    Lily, Finn, Whiskers, and the friendly ghost approach a door with an eerie green glow. The ghost gestures towards it.

GHOST:
(Cheerful)
This is the spookiest room! You have to check it out!

Panel 2:
    Lily, Finn, and Whiskers push open the creaky door, revealing a room filled with FLOATING PUMPKINS and GHOULS. The pumpkins have wicked grins, and the ghouls dance around, creating a mesmerizing spectacle.

LILY:
(Amazed)
Wow, this is incredible!

FINN:
(Wide-eyed)
I've never seen anything like it!

WHISKERS:
(Pretending to be unimpressed)
Eh, it's not bad.

Panel 3:

    The friendly ghost joins the dancing ghouls, and they all laugh and have a great time.

GHOST:
(Laughing)
Happy Halloween, my friends!

Panel 4:

    The trio continues to enjoy the mesmerizing room, filling their Halloween night with enchanting memories.

Page 4:

Panel 1:

    Lily, Finn, Whiskers, and the friendly ghost exit the haunted house, waving goodbye.

LILY:
(Smiling)
Thank you for the incredible adventure!

GHOST:
You're welcome! Have a spook-tacular Halloween!

Panel 2:

    The trio, now outside the haunted house, sees the moonlight casting an enchanting glow on the neighborhood.

LILY:
(Reflective)
That was the best Halloween ever.

FINN:
It sure was, Lily.

WHISKERS:
(Smiling)
I have to admit, it was pretty fun.
Panel 3:

    Lily, Finn, and Whiskers head back down the moonlit street, bags filled with candy, sharing in the warmth of their friendship.

LILY:
(Filled with joy)
Happy Halloween, everyone!

FINN:
Happy Halloween!

WHISKERS:
Happy Halloween, indeed.

THE END

(Note for the artist: Feel free to add your own creative touches, especially in panel layouts and the design of the haunted house and its spooky inhabitants.)

Now, I think everyone can agree that's not really a story. It's more of a slice-of-life vignette and not a very interesting one at that. It is, however, exactly what I asked for and excellently presented. You could absolutely hand that to an artist and have them draw you four pages of a comic book. Your problem would be getting anyone to read it.

It also looked a bit long for my purposes. I know I asked for 2-4 pages but that's a full-on four. I hit the Regenerate button to see if take #2 would be better. 

It kind of was and it kind of wasn't but it was definitely shorter:

Title: "Spooky Adventures with Foxie, Whiskers, and Emily"

Page 1:
Panel 1:

    Full-page panel. It's a dark and eerie Halloween night, with a full moon shining above the creepy old forest. The wind is blowing leaves around the ground, creating an unsettling atmosphere. The shadows of the trees are long and ominous.
    In the foreground, we see our three main characters: Foxie, a cunning and sly fox with a mischievous grin, and Whiskers, a charming but sardonic cat, are both dressed in makeshift costumes. Foxie wears a black witch hat, and Whiskers is dressed as a vampire with a small cape and plastic fangs. They stand on a cobblestone path leading deeper into the woods.
    Behind them is Emily, an adventurous young girl of about 10 years old. She's in awe of the spooky surroundings, clutching her trick-or-treat bag tightly.

Caption (top):
Narrator: "On a night like this..."

Foxie: "Alright, Whiskers, let's find that legendary haunted house!"

Whiskers: "This better be worth the candy, Emily."

Page 2:
Panel 1:

    Three-quarter page. Foxie leads the way, and they follow the winding path, flanked by tall, gnarled trees. Emily holds a small flashlight, which casts eerie shadows in the darkness.
    Emily looks nervous but determined, while Whiskers appears skeptical. Foxie, on the other hand, is full of excitement.

Emily (whispering): "I can't believe we're doing this."

Whiskers (grumbling): "This better not be a wild goose chase."

Foxie (grinning): "Oh, it won't be, Emily."

Panel 2:

    A close-up of Emily's face, illuminated by the flashlight. Her eyes reflect her sense of wonder and trepidation.

Emily (whispering): "What if we see real ghosts, Foxie?"

Panel 3:

    A wide shot that shows Foxie and Whiskers exchanging a glance of disbelief.

Whiskers: "Ghosts? Seriously?"

Foxie: "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Em."

Page 3:
Panel 1:

    A small panel at the top of the page. The trio continues down the path as the wind howls, making it more ominous.

Panel 2:

    Emily stops suddenly and shines her flashlight ahead. The path leads to a dilapidated, ancient mansion. Broken windows, overgrown ivy, and a rickety gate give it an eerie vibe.

Emily (whispering): "There it is... the haunted mansion!"

Foxie (whispering): "Well, well, well... Let's see what this place has to offer!"

Panel 3:

    Emily takes a step closer to the gate, her heart pounding with excitement.

Emily: "Are you ready, guys?"

Whiskers (sarcastic): "Ready as we'll ever be."

Page 4:
Panel 1:

    A full-page panel, with Emily pushing open the gate with determination. The mansion looms ahead, and the moonlight casts long, eerie shadows on the overgrown garden.

Emily: "Let the spooky adventure begin!"

Narrator (top):
Narrator: "Little did they know that their Halloween night was about to get even spookier..."

End of script.

This script should result in 2-4 pages of comic book art. Feel free to adjust or expand upon it as needed for your specific project. Happy Halloween!

I was intrigued to see that Finn became Foxie and Lily turned into Emily, neither of which seemed like an improvement to me, while Whiskers, who I'd have liked to see renamed, stayed the same. Their personalities, such as they were, seemed to have survived the transition reasonably intact but the tone felt a tad darker, especially when the script inexplicably ended on a cliffhanger. 

It was closer to what I wanted and although it was also four pages it seemed much more compact. I thought maybe one of the Text-to-Image AIs might be able to make something of it. Spoiler: they couldn't. 

I fired up NightCafe, selected DreamShaper XL alpha2 and pasted the whole of ChatGPT's description of Panel 1 into the prompt field with "1960s comic style" as a prefix. I was surprised it accepted it all. I certainly wasn't expecting it to use much of it. I thought I'd be lucky to get "a dark and eerie Halloween night, with a full moon shining above the creepy old forest".

I didn't get anything except an error message telling me I'd used a "forbidden word". I had a look at the text but nothing was highlighted. Well, actually, all of it was, which was no help at all. Knowing what issues all of the AI projects are concerned about, I guessed it might be balking at "young girl of about 10 years old", which eventually did turn out to be the problem, although I had to Google to be certain because just removing either "young" or the specific age didn't work. 

"Girl" alone was acceptable so I carried on with that, which is why all the panels featuring Emily show a woman who appears to be in her late teens or early twenties. I mean, I guess I did specify "1960s comic style" so "girl" and "woman" would arguably still have been synonyms then. The acceptable use policy doesn't quite seem to have caught up with sixty years of feminism.

Outdated usage and moral panics were the least of my problems. After the first couple of panels it was obvious the whole project wasn't going to work. Text-to-Image AI is nowhere near being capable of interpreting the kind of long, detailed descriptive passages generative text AIs are fluent at creating. To get a meaningful result you have to stick to very short, declarative phrases.

I already knew that so it was no surprise. What I didn't know, and which was quite surprising, is that adding speech bubbles to pictures is also something AIs can't yet handle. It seems like it would be fairly straightforward but no, it's not. 

It's also not all that easy to do manually. I did a bit of reading on how to make and place speech bubbles in Paint.net and frankly life's too short so I settled for the old Classics Illustrated trick of using captions instead. Even then. getting the text to appear legibly was more work than I wanted to take on for what was supposed to be a gimmicky, throwaway blog post, which is how we ended up with the half-assed affair at the top of the page.

It was a learning experience in which what I mostly learned is that the technology isn't there yet to have AI write, lay out, illustrate and letter a comic-book page without a human doing most of the heavy lifting. Indeed, as things stand, it would seem to be a technology that's only of interest to people who can neither write nor draw because if you can do either, you'll be a lot more efficient than someone trying to speed things up by using AI. 

Also, your comic might make sense, which admittedly isn't a pre-requisite to success in the field...

I'm not going to say you couldn't produce a coherent, enjoyable, visually appealing comic by way of generative and interpretive AI but I'm definitely not going to be doing it. On the evidence I've seen, though, I'm convinced I could produce an illustrated children's book as good as many currently on the shelves where I work in a matter of hours. 

I'm pretty sure someone could write an app to generate them automatically, which would be very popular with the under fives and even more popular with their parents. If anyone ought to be worried about their career choice it's probably the people who pump out Peppa Pig spin-offs, although they presumably have enough to worry about already, what with the crushing weight of their own shame.

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, AI comics.

The most interesting thing I learned is that there's a new AI app called AI Comic Factory that's specifically designed for making comics. I tried it and it works amazingly well, so long as what you're after is the comic-book equivalent of Midjourney or DreamShaper. 

It produces really excellent full pages from a prompt but they're as random as you'd expect. It's not capable of rendering a recognizeable graphic version of a script. It is, however, potentially much faster and more successful at producing a number of possible panels that could be used for that purpose.

But that's a post for another day. And speaking of posts for other days, for Halloween itself I've asked the Text-to-Image AIs to do what they do best, namely make me some single images suitable for use on the blog. We'll have to wait until Tuesday to see how well that worked.