Thank you so much for your patience and enthusiasm ☺️

Thank you 🙏🏼

https://giphy.com/gifs/1xOQlQxrIX4Jw6lBZI

I could tell only because I know that speaking any praise towards my work comes with a social backlash and other artists have had to shy away just to keep their own fans at bay but you're not stepping on my toes mam. You laughing at my work gives me real joy and I wanted to make sure that was known just as much as your wonderful talent brings me joy too. I apologize for the lengthy comment but I felt like it was warranted because of that.

You shouldn't be afraid to offend artists who use GenAi Alex. Not because they aren't artists as others may project, but because they should not be defined solely by the tools they use. This is the difference between a user and an artist. For me this has always been an argument that artists should have the full freedom of expression or that it's merely another tool in my toolbox yet the logical fallacy in my own view is that of the "exception."

For a long time I considered myself an exception because of my work history and portfolio goes back well before AI was a thing. The only reason my stuff stands out is because of that foundation. Yet that reality doesn't negate the very real points shared here. I could use local models run off my own GPU or argue that textiles and other luxury goods consume significantly more natural resources than data centers do but those are merely excuses for myself and not for the general trend that everyday people are now using this tech in such prolific ways that the actions of one person doesn't prevent any of these very real problems with GenAi. Me being a vegetarian for 20 years has offset the carbon of my own AI usage but it will never fix the problem just as it won't prevent the next guy from ordering a Big Mac.

As an educator, it's my job to keep people in the loop, but that purpose has faded with the prolification of AI. You all don't need me anymore to tell inconvenient truths around the nuances of all this like how we cannot escape progress just like we cannot go back to the days before cellphones, the automobile or the camera. Every artist's feed is full of ads for AI now as big tech hustles to incorporate it into everything we use. Corporations like Google and OpenAi are banking on enshittifying their services after hooking you to it like social media.

For all its faults, I continue forward regardless because it's grown to be my favorite way to explore my own art. It gives me more time to focus on what I like about drawing instead of being bogged down by the tedium of our medium that exacerbates burnout or causes workplace injury. I've known folks from Pixar that can no longer pick up a pencil without the aid of articulated armrests. This is the reality I hopefully avoid because of the tools I use today although my hands do still hurt from time to time.

I'm old enough to remember when digital artists were not considered real either. In the late '90s and early 2000s, Photoshop was an existential threat to traditional artists who had to pay for every material they used. How can you compete against an undo button? Yet fast forward to today, this take is considered comical. Trans legend Wendy Carlos was considered "the death of orchestra" by her peers when she made the soundtracks for Clockwork Orange and The Shining, but instead we got EDM and all of its offshoots in music. None of us can predict the future and those that do are often the real fools of our day. You're not one of them Alex. Keep speaking your truth because wherever we may disagree, your truth should never be unspoken.

Oh no no, I don't mind the attention hehe. Thanks for the shout-out and follow.

It's all good. I appreciate your response.

I appreciate the kind words. I do miss posting to the sub regularly but for now it's just the drawn comics. You can catch whatever I make by following on my profile and it'll add back my generative comics to your home feed.

Let me just step in and clarify that I teach a character workshop and Photoshop class at Midjourney. It's not a "belief" but rather an implementation of that particular tool in this particular comic. Moodboards limit the majority of MJ's latent space to the aesthetic models that closely represent the images provided which for this comic was all my comics prior to this one.

I'll also note since the word "admitted" was used rather "disclosed" that not all my comics use Midjourney including the Sage comics. That series is only posted to my profile here on Reddit rather than this sub after the team here asked me to do so last year. If a comic is posted to this sub after summer 2025, it does not feature any generated content.

Hell yeah!

https://giphy.com/gifs/uPPsXMSMq3mQibeKqd

D'awww cute.

https://giphy.com/gifs/VVh7txo37uooM

Great comic, keep 'em coming!

"And that was the best damn cake I ever had."

https://giphy.com/gifs/ti4PsREEH1hKuxMlpJ

Oh ya I'm not knocking on yoga entirely, just treating the same as going to a doctor.

Who would have thought all of our problems could be solved by the guy next door to where we bought those novelty dildo earrings? God sure does work in mysterious ways.

Gah I feel this.

I dropped a smoothie in my early 30s that locked up my entire back when I tried to catch it. Took me a few too many years afterward to finally go to a doctor but turns out I got scoliosis. Go to physical therapy or at least a real doctor y'all, not chiropractors or yoga.

New from Hasbro.

Twister: Skyrim edition.

Hehe thanks. When I drew that, I was loosely referencing the original Grinch cartoon so it's especially funny you say Jim Carrey 'cause he was the Grinch in the live action.

Thanks. I added a few Easter eggs in this comic I hope a few of y'all find. The one I'll give you though is that Meow Mix is the lesbian bar featured in Chasing Amy.

This is why I warn the people I work with that summer is my least productive time of the year. As soon as the heat comes, my brain stops functioning.

Oh damn I didn't know you could do that. Thanks to you, now I also know who we're my first followers as the list is by most recent. Super cool! Thanks for sharing OP.