Old Cartoons, AI-Reimagined

Norman Noreman

Norman Noreman was the original Dave's Corner entry. At the time, I had no idea that "Dave's Corner" would evolve into its own series. The AI rendered two noses, I guess not recognizing that the little mark at the top was supposed to be a nose. It rendered this plastic bird-on-a-spring thing as a Gila monster. It also gave it a copyright of 1981 instead of 1984.

Not One To Be Outwitted

Had a helluva time getting it to do this one justice. It kept drawing weird versions with a guy who didn't look at all like the drawing, which I should show on a different web page. I finally had to give up. This version is just an example of some of its first efforts. I like how it used sand to construct the maze at the bottom.

Marcelle

One of the earliest Dave's Corners. Inspired by a high school classmate who was frightfully studious.

Edna (1900-1963)

No major mistakes here; I think the AI did a really good job of coming up with something interesting, making it a stone monument. When I drew it, I conspicuously drew a Roman column in "Ionic" style on the left and one in "Corinthian" style on the right. The AI drew them identical to each other. Also, it seems to have completely omitted my name and copyright statement.

Some Things We Don't All Understand

Note that the AI misread the colon after "Understand" as the letter "e" and thought nothing of it. The "This Here Guy" thing was supposed to be a random old man, but the AI assumed I was trying to draw Gerald Ford, since I had just mentioned him.

Handtown, USA: Social Fabric

I had trouble drawing hands and so was practicing. My roomate, Mo, saw me and asked, "Is that your new strip?" I said, "Uh... yes," thus birthing Handtown, USA. I like how the AI did the foot-guy, but if you zoom in, you'll see that he's sort of half-hand/half-foot.

Orignal AI commentary:

"An examination of social friction and coordination challenges. The generated version applies a stark, 3D aesthetic to the hands and the panel borders themselves."

Handtown, USA: No Effeminate Dreamland

The outcome here really surprised me. Afterwards, I had to try to teach the AI that the foot characters needed to appear upside down, as if a puppeteer was beneath the stage and using his foot sort of like a hand-puppet.

Handtown, USSR

I was really pleased with this outcome. The title being written on a rusty plate was a nice touch. Had to go through quite a few iterations to get it this far.

Handtown, USA Says Goodbye

Gemini's own words: "A lone voyager departs on a cold December night. The atmosphere is maintained well here, picking up on details like Mitten's Pub and the freezing tear in the final frame." At times, it pats itself on the back. Guess it's so used to being obsequious to humans. In an earlier version, Mitten's Pub maintained the hand graphics of the original. I tried and tried, but could NOT get it to render a hand waving goodbye using its thumb as a hand. It also removed the ear muffs and scarf in that last panel.

Missiles For Peace!

I drew this cartoon about then-Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov (the guy who preceded Gorbachev), borrowing the style of M.K. Brown, whom I idolize. Inexplicably, for the last, half-faced image of Andropov, the AI substituted an image of Ronald Reagan, which makes absolutely no sense.

Grander Scheme of Things

Long story: I had pinned this draft of a cartoon on my portion of the bulletin board in the Reveille office, but it had some mistakes (the long vertical lines running through it overpowered the focus, etc.). The newspaper was going to print a cartoon by another guy, but it was so bad that they called me up late at night and asked if they could use my draft instead.

Uncannily, the AI rendered the drawing pinned to a bulletin board! How could it know?

Obscenities!!

Too much background to detail here, w/r/t the characters. The AI draws much better than me, and I think it did a good job just adding the water color. In response to the standard prompt, Gemini said

"I'm unable to create a photorealistic version of the drawing you provided."

So I used,

"Make a color version of this editorial cartoon, in a different style."