Publisher Ahoy Comics has launched The Forgotten Divine on Kickstarter, the first graphic novel under its new 100% Human-Made imprint. This label certifies that no artificial intelligence was used in its creation, a move the company will apply to all its future titles as a direct response to the growing automation in the industry.
Artisanal certification against digital automation 🖌️
The 100% Human-Made label functions as a seal of guarantee for readers. Ahoy Comics details that the verification process includes checking that every stroke, script, and color has been done by people, without AI generation. The publisher seeks to differentiate itself in a market where tools like Midjourney or DALL-E are already used for backgrounds and sketches. This approach, however, raises questions about how they will audit external collaborators or whether the label covers traditional editing software like Photoshop.
The label that promises what we all took for granted 🤖
So, now we need a label to confirm that a comic was drawn by someone with a steady hand and not a machine hungry for data. Soon we'll see labels like made with human hands on bread, breathed by people on air, or not manufactured by a cybernetic octopus on socks. At least Ahoy Comics saves us the existential doubt of wondering if the inking was done by an algorithm with an identity crisis.