My Top 10 AI Images of 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - #5 Mycol

Comics were a huge part of my childhood and a big reason why I became an artist. As a teen, I drifted away from them. But post-college, writers like Frank Miller with "Dark Knight," Neil Gaiman with "Sandman," and especially Alan Moore with "Watchmen," "Miracleman," "Swamp Thing," and more, pulled me back in.

Alan Moore's run on "Swamp Thing" is a standout in my opinion. He took a character I loved and flipped its whole history in just one issue. It was groundbreaking. It felt like Moore was shaking me, saying, "Think you know Swamp Thing? Think again!" 

A character I dreamt up decades ago, finally appears as I envisioned
Mycology: the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi

Back then, I often contemplated the stories I would create if I were a comic book writer. Reflecting on Swamp Thing, Moore's distinctive twist opened up new avenues of creativity. This led to the conception of characters who could seamlessly integrate into that universe. Among them was Mycol – akin to Swamp Thing, but with a twist. While Swamp Thing represented the "Green" of plant life, Mycol personified the "Gray" of the fungal domain, a completely different realm. Spoiler: Mycol is the offspring of Swamp Thing and Abigail Arcane, unknowingly conceived through the sinister machinations of Anton Arcane.

This story lingered in my mind, yet it remained largely unexplored until the advent of AI image generation decades later. I am quite fond of how the Mycol image materialized. It closely aligns with my vision for the character, though it still lacks some additional fungal elements that I envision within him.

My Top 10 AI Images of 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - #4 The Hanged Man challenge

AI excels in numerous areas, but it also has its limitations. These limitations can be quite frustrating, particularly when you consider how AI can effortlessly generate incredibly detailed images within seconds. Yet, we still encounter peculiar errors and anomalies. As of this writing, some of the most common challenges include: generating coherent text messages, depicting realistic human hands, simulating archery skills, and my personal favorite, recreating "The Hanged Man" card from a traditional tarot card set.

This might be my favorite image of my Top 10. Quite a hauntingly beautiful image.
I added details of him being infected by a fungus - more on that later . . .

I stumbled upon this AI limitation in a Reddit group chat. A user was expressing their frustration with attempting to create a tarot card set using AI-generated images but faced a significant obstacle – they couldn't get AI to depict "The Hanged Man." Many of us in the group, including myself, attempted to generate the image, but no one came close to the traditional depiction of the card. (Which typically features a man hanging upside-down by a rope tied to one of his legs, the other leg bent horizontally, with the other end of the rope secured to a tree branch above.)

An example of the classic Hanged Man tarot card

Some argue this happens because the AI is censored from showing a hanging person. Others said, AI doesn't quite understand what "upside-down" means and still needs to learn about terms of placement, locations, directions, and alignment. I agree with the latter. Often you can not direct AI where you want things to be placed in a text prompt, it's very hit-or-miss.

My first attempt at The Hanged Man (left) and the flipped version (right)
The gravity-defying skull chains, lowered branches and bottom light source ruin the hanging aspect.
Even though he has two left hands, I liked this image enough to use as a reference for the top image.

Certain individuals believed that a potential solution to the problem was to create an image of a hanging man and then flip it upside-down to achieve the desired effect. However, this approach proved to be ineffective. This is primarily due to the presence of elements like the ground, trees, and tree branches in the background of this particular tarot card. Additionally, AI algorithms incorporate factors such as gravity's impact on clothing and the positioning of upper lighting sources in their image generation process. Consequently, when you flip an AI-generated image, it often still appears as if you simply flipped the original AI image.