These images and the main part of the text were created by ChatGPT, with a healthy dose of revision, addition, guidance, recombination, and of course, laying out the basic story elements by… some silly person. That said, GPT absolutely did the lion’s share of the heavy-lifting here, and I’m quite impressed by the results(!) Note: the other two “Tintin” images are simply earlier models that I was unsatisfied with; just thought I’d include them for fun’s sake.
TBC-- this little exercise was conceived as an answer to the challenge posted here.
EDIT: For those downvoting, could you explain why you just did that? The reason I ask is mainly because I’ve busted my arse on this community for well over a year, with hundreds of my best content and mini-review posts shared for what I thought was the public good.
Indeed, have you read the side-bar and do you understand the mission of this sub? Thanks for explaining, if you choose to.
The Case of the Vanishing Vintage
The morning sunlight filtered through the antique windows of Marlinspike, catching on rows of mismatched gadgets cluttering the Professor’s workshop. The Captain paced the drawing room, clutching his hat as if it might float away. “Gone! My last bottle of 1927 Herringbone Reserve!” he bellowed. “Do you know what that means, lad?”
Tintin adjusted his cap, surveying the Captain with calm curiosity. “It means someone here has suspiciously good taste in whiskey,” he quipped.
“No, it means calamity! It means treachery!” The Captain leaned close, his voice dropping to a whisper. “And it means I’ll have to drink… gin,” a look of plain contempt on his face.
The boy detective sighed. “I’ll find it, Captain. Start from the beginning.”
Before the Captain could stammer out a reply, the Professor bustled in to the room, holding what appeared to be a metal umbrella with a whisk attached to the tip. “Ah,” the Professor exclaimed. “I’ve just solved Cutts’ problem of pigeons on his chimney. All it took was a spot of clever engineering!”
“What kind of engineering?” asked Tintin, tilting his head.
“Oh, nothing special—magnets, gears, a bit of wire…” The Professor trailed off and tapped the umbrella’s handle thoughtfully. “And a vessel of a certain, shall we say, vintage quality to balance the structure.”
The Captain, oblivious to the implication, waved a hand. “Yes, yes, but what about my whiskey?”
“I’m sure it’ll turn up,” the Professor said cheerfully. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a blueprint that needs refinement.”
The boy detective watched the Professor leave, his brow furrowed. Then he glanced at Snowy, who cocked his head expectantly. “Hmm…” the lad muttered.
It wasn’t long before Tintin and Snowy were on the cobblestone streets of the nearby Belgian town, weaving through bakers, bicyclists, and buskers. They found Cutts standing outside his shop, eyeing his roof with a mix of awe and terror.
“Cutts,” called the boy detective, “where’s the Professor’s invention?”
“Oh, it’s up there,” Cutts replied, pointing to a rotating monstrosity on the roof. The umbrella whisk twirled energetically, flinging breadcrumbs into the sky at intervals. “Thing scares off pigeons but attracts swans. I’ve got three nesting in my chimney now.”
Tintin tilted his head, observing the contraption as Snowy barked sharply. His eyes darted to the base of the device, where a faint glint caught his attention. “Great snakes!” he exclaimed.
Scrambling up the drainpipe with Snowy close behind, he finally reached the mechanism. Wedged in a tangle of wires, unmistakable amid the absurd construction, was the Captain’s whiskey bottle.
“Got it!” he shouted triumphantly. Snowy gave an approving yap, his tail wagging.
But just as he reached to grab it, the mechanism sputtered and roared to life, flinging the bottle skyward. Snowy barked furiously, and the boy detective muttered under his breath, “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.”
Just then, a despairing, spine-chilling wail met their ears from the street below, as it seems Captain Haddock had been surreptitiously following the investigation, finally understanding what had happened and what had just occurred.
EDIT: Days later and damn, I see I made a major ‘fox paw,’ here. As in, the professor would be nowhere near able to communicate so easily with the others. Also, it seems like the ending’s just a little inadequate. Hmm…
You are getting downvotes because this is a community called EuroGraphicNovels, and while you have put the work in to present a great range of posts on the topic, I don’t feel like AI slop with some creepy generic pictures fits in with the rest of the content. The fact that it has been pinned also makes it feel like this is representative of the rest of the community.
Thanks for the explanation! <3
As for me, the reason I pinned this specific one is because we’ve been having recent server issues, and many posts have been unfortunately not ‘seen’ as per the usual idea. So, when I post here sometimes feels a bit ‘weird’ in terms of common engagement, which is when I occasionally ‘feature it’ that subject as a post. If that makes sense…?
But, also-- dude…? I did, myself, not just found this sub, but also put in hundreds & hundreds of hours upon content upon the last one and a half year, and now you’re here scolding me because you didn’t get exactly what you wanted…?
Would it perhaps be better for you to cease your whining, hopefully growing up one day…?
Server issues are always fun to deal with, so pinning important posts makes sense.
Dude. With that response, I don’t think it’s me that needs to grow up. I have made it a rule to block accounts and communities that promote generative AI content. I thought I’d hold off because you seemed open to discussion, but I think I’ve heard enough. Thank you for all the work you have put into the community to this point.
If I created a community focused on traditional art though, and then pinned an ai image to the top of the community, I wouldn’t be shocked at the negative response. People come to the community for one thing, and you are presenting them with the opposite and granting it pride of place.
I have made it a rule to block accounts and communities that promote generative AI content.
Well, good for you. And to be clear, dude-- every time I’ve ever come close to sharing AI art here, I’ve made a big point of marking such things up, asking the community to weigh in on the merits of such. You can see that across the… sum total of three times I’ve ever indulged in that here, across 400+ posts.
(go ahead, look it up)
Pretty much everything else I’ve posted has been an attempt to shine a light on BD creators, with my own art being featured a *single time*, as a personal indulgence.
In this particular case, I thought I’d explore GPT’s potential to create a silly story as a cautionary tale (the context fully-explained, I might add).
What I wasn’t prepared for was the load of pitchforks and blazing branches to be thrust in my face over that trifle.
I feel what the downvoters are strongly telling me in this case is that I should focus my efforts upon Reddit, and other places. Honestly, that kind of breaks my heart in some ways, but… people do speak through their actions and inactions, mais non?
Go ahead then-- let’s see what BD content you all can produce over the next few weeks, here. Let’s put your words to the test!
The world is a hostile place for artists.
You’ll get used to it ;-)
Thanks, Valmond, appreciated. <3
And how are things on your end? Got those server problems under control? What’s going on with your Moeby community? (feel free to message if that’s best)
Crazy year, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.
The server is up but I had to clear out everything :-( the database alone was 10GB and made everything just crawl.
So I’m abandoning the Moebius part, I think it’s better if I post here right away, what do you think?
Ach, sorry to hear that. :S
But it was nice while it was up, so thanks for running that community for a while. I did have fun finding stuff to post there.
Anyway, yes please to posting Moeby content here. It is always welcome, and people enjoy it. ^^
Thanks!
So what do you think, should I restart the series of cards, or go from where I stopped?
Well, whatever you feel like of course. But as for the card series, I personally think it’s better to post them when you have the back sides, containing all the extra info. That is, I think they help give a better understanding of the ideas and character behind the individual creatures, and the loss of such usually made me feel like I was missing something important.
Btw, we seem to have trouble making thumbnails and lead images work after the latest software upgrade. I haven’t quite figured out the issue yet, and it may hinder you in trying to make your own posts on this instance.
Yeah, this is a short story with a few cover pictures . Not really a graphic novel in any way. And the AI art that doesn’t resemble the original Tintin style just hurts the overall piece.
Not really a graphic novel in any way.
Have you read the sidebar in terms of the mission of this sub? Because it sounds like you haven’t, unfortunately.
I’m on a server with downvotes disabled but I would downvote any AI slob. It’s hurting artists (stealing their work to train models, getting less jobs) only benefitting already rich white techbros, very energy intensive so increasing climate crisis, etc. Especially in a community about the appreciation of real craft (writing and drawing comics) I think it’s super distasteful to use AI.
EDIT: For those downvoting, could you explain why you just did that?
I’ve got the impression, many users downvote any content that is AI generated or related to AI.
That’s probably why
And rightly so.
Naturally, I find that a bit harsh in this case.
I rarely post AI content, and this was obviously a complete lark, not to be taken seriously. I also put a fair bit of work in this, learned some lessons in the creation process, and put everything in to context.
Don´t take it personal Johnny, it’s not about you or your past efforts. Most people who are into hand made art simply dislike AI generated content in general and downvote it wherever they see it. So they are not downvoting you, they are downvoting AI generated content and one could argue that AI generated stuff is per se misplaced content in a community of BD nerds. Just compare with the upvotes and positive replies all your posts of hand made art always get. Btw There are several AI communities that love AI generated stuff and whould certainly upvote this post, so I think this is in the first place a “choose the right crowd” issue.
Yeap, no doubt. Still, that was the worst reaction I’ve ever gotten here, compared to the few (two) times in which I posted AI stuff, one of which was actually adored, going by upvotes and all.
I can’t control how people react of course, but as the primary content creator here, I do feel heavily invested, and cultivating motivation to keep writing mini-articles and share content is a real issue for me. This kind of thing doesn’t exactly help with that, especially coming from those following this community for a while and who understand my role.
I like the way his face changes completely between images.
Seriously though, the great thing about Tintin was the illustration work. The writing was always a little … Meh.
I know you are not asking my advice, but you clearly have some talent. Concentrate on your own work and your own story. You can do it, I promise you, and you’ll be great at it.
And this is a genuine offer, when you write your own stories, based on your own characters, give me a shout and I’ll be your reader.
Fun fact: Cutts is known as Henri Sanzot in the original French.
https://antifandom.com/tintin/wiki/Cutts_the_ButcherEDIT: Oh dear, I should have pointed out a couple things earlier:
ChatGPT would not accept any copyrighted characters as a premise for eitger story or image, so I had to painstakingly re-create them by text description, even as I got scolded over and over again.
It’s funny, tho-- eventually the AI seemed to ‘get over that,’ and was actually calling the little white dog “Snowy.” I don’t recall ever declaring that! XD
Point is-- it’s almost like you can wear the AI model down, at least the current one, eh?
I got scolded over and over again.
Oh man I hate that so much about those LLM chatbots. It’s like: I’m not trying to do anything bad here, don’t take it out on me because you guys stole all that data…
That’s an interesting challenge you mention. If I was going to tell a custom Tintin story, I think it’d be a version of Tintin: Breaking Free, but instead of being a working-class anarchist he’d be the regular Tintin character who’s radicalized during an adventure.
Sorry to see all the downvotes. Yeah, I think it’s because of the AI-generated images.
Ah, Rolando…! (or Sergio I guess, haha)
Mucho gusto. It’s been a while. How are you? <3
