by Carson Grubaugh, Midjourney AI, Luciano Floridi, and Sean Michael Robinson
“The Abolition of Man is a thorough test drive of AI image making, and the results are extraordinary, appalling, compelling, cold, hot, beautiful, repellant, and should be abolished.” ― Dave McKean, Prompt, Sandman, Cages
Conceived of and executed by fine-artist/educator/philosopher turned Eisner Award nominated cartoonist, Carson Grubaugh, The Abolition of Man Deluxe Edition collects all five issues of the groundbreaking series of the same name, the first comic series in history to be entirely illustrated by an Artificial Intelligence.
In a series of four interwoven experiments, Grubaugh used Midjourney AI to interpret an essay by renowned thinker, C.S.Lewis, imagine a satirical dystopian future, illustrate an AI generated script, and finally, to produce graphics for an essay provided by Oxford Philosopher of Information and AI & Data Ethics policy advisor to the EU, UK, Google, etc., Luciano Floridi. All of these strands, alternately hilarious and terrifying, weave together to give a chilling peek into the world of the future, where humans and their most treasured passions have lost all purpose.
This deluxe hardcover edition contains loads of exclusive content, including a reprint of the extremely rare Dall-E 2 variant edition of The Abolition of Man #1, in which the entire interior of issue #1 was re-illustrated using Dall-E 2. The collection also includes two pieces of philosophical writing produced by Grubaugh between 2007 and 2018 that were the source of inspiration for this project. These essays included predictions about the banal, content apocalypse AI is now making a reality.
Also accompanying the Abolition of Man project are a series of long-form discussions about the ethics and impact of AI art with superstar guests Dave McKean (illustrator), NFN Kalyan (fine artist), and Luciano Floridi (Philosopher of Information, Data and AI Ethics policy maker). These are posted to Living The Line’s YouTube channel and linked in the book.
This singular project will hold an important place not only in the history of comics but in the history of art as it is the first of its kind to engage with the most important moment in the history of art since some wasteful cave-person blew juice at their hand on a wall instead of drinking it.
About the Book
- Creators: Carson Grubaugh, Midjourney AI, Sean Michael Robinson, Luciano Floridi
- Publisher: Living the Line
- Publication Date: September 5, 2023
- Format: Deluxe Hardcover Edition, 228 pages, full color
Reviews & Press
- Academic note (C.S. Lewis Journal):
- “In this bold use of a
- controversial medium, The Abolition of Man asks questions that demand a
- thoughtful answer, no matter the reader’s persuasion.”
- Read the full review here.
