Human Hands, Artificial Intelligence, Anthropomorphic Animals

Discussing AI's role with Bovodar's Folks and some behind-the-scenes conversation

Mary MacArthur, my illustrator and trusted team member, recently mentioned this site on her blog, Snowflake Clockwork. And she discussed what I’m doing in regards to the AI aspect of this site:

Since there are those who will object, I must state, yes I know Jack is using A.I. trained on my art to make pictures for this, and he has my full permission. As long as folks are open and honest about use of A.I., I do not condemn it. As a collage artist, it would be awfully hypocritical of me to do so on the basis of it using bits and pieces of other art. And on the basis of it not being made by a conscious mind, yes that does mean it's not art, but that doesn't mean all of it is necessarily worthless and shouldn't exist. Much of it is objectively more beautiful than a lot of art made by human minds, some of which shouldn't exist. So there's no point preaching at me, but if you wish, you are absolutely free and fully informed so as to avoid it. I myself generally prefer not to read fiction written with A.I.; I'm not condemning you either.

I went to Mary first with this concept before launching the site. She has been central to this project from the beginning, and her contributions remain tremendous. We are not racing ahead of her; we are expanding the project together in hopes that Bovodar’s Folk will bring new readers to the larger endeavor.

With that qualifier out of the way…

The Visual Medium

Close to perfection?

Mary is right: there are going to be people who think that AI is cheating. They will say there was no human touch to this “art.” That a person needs to sweat and bleed over a work, losing lots of time and putting in lots of effort for it to be art.

No doubt, when people look at a European Catholic cathedral, and they see a glorious, artistic monument constructed over a century with just stone and chisel, it is a fantastic, highly authentic wonder of the world, and people love it. But our team does not have a century. We’ve been very patient with this project, but one hundred years is far too long.

My intention with Bovodar’s Folk is to visually manifest Bovodar’s world—more of it than I’ve even written down—for the public viewing audience. I could write down reams and reams with what little writing time I have, and so many people just will not have any idea or way to conceive of the story I’m trying to tell.

But a picture is worth a thousand words. And most importantly, it is instant. To get the gist of a story, you have to read through so much text to fully digest the creator’s work. But with an image? Bam. You know at once what is happening. Instant payoff. A picture caters to the immediacy of a world with short-attention spans—which we all have these days. This is the 21st Century, after all.

Furthermore: the hyper-realistic picture of the Evil Deer Queen above didn’t come from nothing. It didn’t merely pop into existence. A lot of work had to transpire for that image to be made. A computer didn’t suddenly get creative and make that thing.

And honestly, this picture is a favorite. It says so much. It’s so colorful. So much is happening in it. It really expresses the effeminate decadence of a society gone wrong. But it wasn’t easy to put together. Several things had to happen before this image came into existence.

The Human Process Behind the Image

First and foremost, the story had to be written. There is an entire story behind this picture that you are seeing. A history, a future, a protagonist, and antagonists. And that little story about the Deer Village weaves into a grander story of Bovodar’s journey with the bears.

Then I had to meet an artist one day. And after having met that artist and agreeing to the project we would undertake, I had to tell her what I wanted with this picture. Because this is actually a one-page panel in our comic book. To describe to Mary what I wanted, I did two things. Firstly, I told her what we were aiming for in one of my communications:

I’ll type up some official script, but this is going to be a full page reveal. And what we are seeing is the Deer Queen’s inner court. If this page were to have a theme song, it’d be “Venus in Furs” by The Velvet Underground. And frankly, this should be one of the best, most memorable, evil pictures of the comic.

What do I mean by this?

Well, we are looking at something like a “Dionysian court.” It is a complete inversion of patriarchy, order, and sense. Instead of a king, we see a queen. Instead of her favored guests sitting on her right, they are on her left. Instead of a royal court of people, we are seeing animals. The three lions that sit near her are not virile, dangerous lions. Instead they are soft, emasculated, harmless versions of their natural selves. They are effeminate lions, and they reside near her.

What is the nature of this royal court?

Well, it is sort of like a Persian court. I’ve been looking at artwork of Persian and Egyptian royal courts. This artwork usually features people on opulent rugs, jugs and jars of wine, bowls of exotic fruits, treasures, fan bearers, incense, and lots of spectators. So that’s where I want to go with this.

So, firstly, this court is outdoors. Though there are rugs, the Queen sits on a throne. Though the book describes a throne of antlers, I don’t know how well that’d translate for us, so it’ll be a solid, more traditional throne. The deer Queen is not dressed in clothes (though, if you have any recommendations, such as a cloak (?)) feel free to suggest or try it out. But the ONE adornment she should have is a golden crown in the shape of antlers. The idea being that she is acting against the nature of her own sex.

To her left, on an opulent rug, sits the three effeminate lions. In the book, it is written that their teeth are filed down. I do not know how well that’d translate to this comic, so it might be better to just have sharpish-yet-blunt teeth. Their posture needs to be flamboyant and obnoxious. They need to be limp-wristed. Instead of stoic and grim, their countenance is to instead be soft and inappropriately relaxed. They are there to flatter the queen. Near them, on the rug, are wine jugs, bowls of plums and apples, and perhaps some treasure. Behind them stands a retinue of deer—-she-deer, no bucks.

On the queen’s right stands another retinue of deer folk. For now, I cannot think of any special, distinguishing characteristics of these deer. However, I WILL say, there should be two fan-bearers on standby for the Queen.

In the background are only trees. These are deer, after all. They live outdoors.

Returning to the Deer Queen, as much as possible, I want her to resemble that infamous baphomet statue. The parallels should be obvious. I’m even thinking she’ll have her right hand up, like the statue. There should be no mistaking the fact that this creature is one of the perennial bad guys of Bovodar’s stories.

After this description of the scene and some official comic script, I sent her a picture of my own storyboard of this scene. My sketch is absolutely, hilariously bad. Because guess what? I’m not an artist. But my slap-dash, ramshackle sketches seem to be enough to help her figure out the “lay of the land” with these pictures.

So, in the spirit of self-deprecating humor [NERVOUSLY GULPS], here is what I sent her that day:

I give it a shot.

And in addition to all this, I sent her some classical pictures of Persian and Egyptian courts, scenes from movies, and things like that. This particular panel took some work. And I remember her saying to me that this would be an ambitious, fun attempt. And I think I recall her saying she’d reference some of Andrew Lang’s work for this endeavor.

The result was some of her best illustration and paint work:

The Deer Queen at the height of her glory.

The point? A lot of human thought and creativity—the hand-drawing, the abstract idea of it, and the stringing together of themes and images—this was all an authentic drive to create something new. And we were proud of this one. I discussed the completed panel over at my own author website. And Mary, too, featured it on her site as well.

Conclusion

This is all to say that a lot of authentic, human work is going in to these creations. AI is certainly an accelerant that aids us. I regard it much like a spell check, a glorified search bar, or an Adobe Photoshop tool. And I believe that Vox Day does a good job of discussing this notion of AI vs “organic” creations, both in this article as well as in continuous discussion at his site: AI Central.

With the assistance of newer technology, there is a good chance that the stories of Bovodar’s adventures can be brought to a wider audience, as his tales are more and more easily translated from the mind of the author to the hearts of the audience. Of course, this all hinges on the drive of our team, the support of people, and the reach of our content—all which are human interactions. But while the mechanisms are getting to be much more complex and helpful, I assure you all that the push for this effort is 100% authentically human.

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You can read about Bovodar’s very first adventure in the novel, Bovodar and the Bears, available on Amazon at THIS LINK HERE. And if you do decide to journey into Bovodar’s world, please consider leaving a rating and review—it truly helps independent creators like us.

You can also catch the serialized comics of Bovodar and the Bears at THIS LINK HERE, exclusively at Arkhaven Comics.

And if you want to support our ongoing work with Bovodar and His Folk, then please like, subscribe, share, and even consider becoming a backer. Growing this community will help ensure the next leg of the long journey.