Before I start, and in case you know about Dolcett, and don’t like that stuff, this post has nothing extreme. When (if!) this series gets to anything strong, it will shift over to the ‘Cruelties’ section.
THW has been alerted to a new nsfw AGI tool (here it is). It has a variety of styles, including comic art. And it’s free, somehow.
Over at Cruxforums I started out trying to use AGI to reimagine Dolcett’s ClubX comic (Trigger warning: this link leads to a coloured version of the original, which gets extreme quite fast), but found it too much like hard work.
Long story short, it’s much easier at the new place. So here are the cover and the first page (I’m not bothering with comic page layout)
Since I made them, I’m showing both the ‘artwork’ style (about half an hour to get each image, mostly ‘one-shot’ - needing no further manipulation) and the first attempt with Mage (two or three hours on average, some fast, some taking many steps).
Then because it’s so easy, I’ve got Mage to animate the artwork, to bring it to life.
I have taken some mild liberties with the original texts, when the art has not quite matched up.
First images may take a while to load.
Dolcett’s ClubX, reimaged, PAGE 1
Cover: Click here to reveal.
This one I did in Mage.space - it does image-to-image, which is needed for complex scenes like this, if you want to retain anything like the original detail.
Panel 1
Meet Robin Kelly, a pretty Midwestern girl on a trip to visit her sister during the semester break of her school.
At the age of twenty, Robin has led a very quiet and sheltered life … so she’s hoping for a little excitement on this vacation.
Little does she know her real schooling is about to begin!
Panel 1, Comic: Click here to reveal.
Panel 1, Comic, animated: Click here to reveal.
Panel 1, Mage: Click here to reveal.
Panel 2
“Nancy, Jim, it’s so great to see you again! Have you been waiting long?”
Gee, I’d forgotten quite how much older Jim is than Nancy!
“Hi Sis! .. No, we just got here. Let’s get your bags and get back to the house!”
Panel 2, Comic: Click here to reveal.
Panel 2, Comic, animated: Click here to reveal.
Panel 2, Mage: Click here to reveal.
Panel 3
LATER…
“There’s towels in the closet. When you’re finished up, come join us by the pool!”
“OK Jim, I’m going to take a shower.”
Panel 3, Comic: Click here to reveal.
Panel 3, Comic, animated: Click here to reveal.
Panel 3, Mage: Click here to reveal.
Panel 4
Hmmm? Where do I hide my bedtime stories? I really don’t want Jim or Sis to find these!
Panel 4, Comic: Click here to reveal.
Panel 4, Comic, animated: Click here to reveal.
Panel 4, Mage: Click here to reveal.
That’s the cover and page 1 done. Do you like the animations? Would you prefer stills? Would you like to see both? Do you care about my earlier attempts, or should I stick with the new images? Are the images too big?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Here are the originals for reference.
Original Cover Click here to reveal.
Original Page 1 Click here to reveal.
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Big fan of Dolcett and excited to see your take on it. Prefer the stills as suspension of disbelief is easier.
I tried playing around with the perchance app and I would love to hear more about your process, prompt generation, e.t.c. especially how you get the characters to look consistent across images.
Thanks. I will add stills - easy! Choose your poison.
I don't really have a 'process' with AI, just a number of ways to go at problems, and many things I just can't do.
I have mostly used Mage, relying heavily on image-to-image and face reference for consistency and control.
With Perchance, it's more a matter of spray and pray - less specific prompts, churn out lots of candidates (perchance is fast), keep tweaking the prompt in small ways looking for novel outcomes (it seems to have a much smaller set of reference points), hope to strike gold.
I do go back to photo manipulation (esp for multi character images - create subsets of the image and merge together) and back into mage with these as well (crudeness in photo manipulation smooshed out by 'image to image' with low prompt strength and careful use of 'refine').
Thanks!
Have always loved Dolcett's work (and I know it is not for everyone) so looking forward to your interpretation. For me I prefer stills to animation. (Moving on to Farrel afterwards perhaps?)
Will definitely not go to Farrell.
For me, what makes Dolcett interesting is that his victims are so sweetly and mildly complicit. Terrible things are done to them and they have worries which are like 'Gosh this is going to hurt'. American culture's general deprecation of affect?
Farrell's victims, by contrast, are visibly unwilling, and visibly in appalling agonies which they utterly reject. European culture's sensitivity?
A fine distinction perhaps, but that is kink for you.
I am neutral for now!!! I have NEVER Liked Dolcett, I tried it when I found out about BDSM and never, never went back. WIth the Images, it feels like a direct-rip-off and the Classic Dangers of A.I. Art. I would rather just READ THW'S take on Club X, with Scenes THW Prefers, thinks is hot, or original. NOT, The ENTIRE Comic Replicated in A.I.!?!?!?!