There’s nothing all that new if you take Guto Dias’ cartoon in the broad, overall sense. Both graphic and literary artists have had to leave creativity aside when entering the commercial arena, and if some leaks in, it generally gets committeefied into pap before anybody in the public sees it.
But the advent of AI is making the issue more dire, as we see animators being replaced by computers. My immediate reaction to this was that most animation has turned into crap anyway, and not just in animated TV shows but in more serious stuff.
I remember, as a small lad, a segment of Disneyland in which Walt walked us through the process of capturing the falling of raindrops in Bambi, and it’s been a long time since anyone did work like that. I also remember everyone’s jaws dropping over the use of CGI in a stampede scene in the Lion King and maybe we should not have been so celebratory, but here we are anyway.
Tuesday, the Washington Post published a guest essay by Garry Trudeau, which was an extended bit of satire which, as someone who has written that stuff in the past, I didn’t think worked. It was like disinterring Art Buchwald, who was funny a generation or two ago but whose schtick doesn’t have much zing today.
The article (which didn’t include a “share” button) was topped with a picture of the fictional fellow Trudeau pretends to have interviewed, with the disclaimer “Note: Picture of ‘Rocket’ featured in this story, is AI generated to protect his identity.”
Tee-hee! The Post is pretending a fictional character is real! Tee-hee! The Post is saving money by not paying a real artist to whip up a picture of a pretend person!
I think we’re going to have to amend Sturgeon’s Law to state that 98% of everything is crap.
While I’m in grumpy old man mode, I’ll deal with today’s Lola (AMS) because I, too, am not only immensely over 30 but just got an upgrade on my phone and I hate it.
Of course, I recognize that there’s always a learning curve and that, while nothing much changed, I’m going to need to pick up on a few things here and there, but I think that I’m going to disable the assistant because it keeps asking me to do things.
The things I want to do are (A) make phone calls, (B) text a friend or (C) look up something on Google, but this new phone is like a reminder that, when you move into a new neighborhood, you should be wary of the first person you meet because he’s gonna turn out to be really hard to get rid of.
Every time I pick it up, it asks “Would you like to …?” and suggesting “Ask me ….”
All I want to ask it to do is bugger off and I hate to be rude.
I’ve also heard that Alexa is going to be enhanced with AI so that she can be a major PITA instead of a discreet helper. I intend to take very good care of my current model so we don’t have to have any enhancements around here.
Dagnabbit.
And another thing. I particularly like this Lynn Hsu cartoon because when I looked her up the other day to provide a link to her work, I realized she seems to be several decades younger than I am, so it’s not just my advanced years that make me hate movies that alternate between mumbling and explosions.
Speaking of movies, I watched Meet John Doe the other day, a classic Frank Capra movie from 1941 with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwick, and afterwards looked up A Face in the Crowd, a classic Elia Kazan movie from 1957 with Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal, and boy oh boy are they a progression of where we’ve gone as a society.
I recommend both, but watch them in the order they were made, because the first is heart-warming and the second is scary as hell. And way too relevant.
But nobody mumbles in either of them, because that’s not how acting was done back then.
Juxtaposition of the Day
The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee — KFS
You might think that I’m juxtaposing this pair because Orville is cooking and Betty and Bub are at a restaurant, but that’s not the connection.
Edison’s grandpa has had a cooking show this week, and it’s mostly a reminder that people don’t cook anymore, though you sure wouldn’t know it from social media, where you see amazing recipes for things that make everyone oooh and aaah but that they will never make themselves.
And Betty is about being out in public and Bub looking over his wife’s shoulder at a pretty girl at the next table.
I’m probably the only person to connect them this way, but they reminded me of an old thing about why National Geographic and Playboy are similar: They both feature fascinating, well-written articles and beautiful, breath-taking photos of things you will never actually experience in real life.
Which in turn made me think of this Mauldin cartoon for which I don’t have a date, except that Look Magazine went out of business in 1971. Life started going in and out of business about a year later, but still pops up with “special issues” now and again.
I looked up National Geographic and Playboy and they’re both still being published regularly, but I think Playboy is using a lot of CGI. At least somebody there is.
And speaking of dying print, Non Sequitur (AMS) notes the takeover of newspapers by vulture capitalists. When I was working in the trade, I considered myself lucky to be reaching retirement age before retirement reached out for me.
I fled from a paper that was having buyouts to one that was then sold to Lee Enterprises and escaped to edit one that got sold and escaped again to one that went out of business and finished my career working for an Alden paper.
All the bloodshed, betrayals and horrors of Candide, but without the laughter, which brings us back to satire, only Candide is a good one, illustrated here by Sheilah Beckett, a for-real artist.
I like the work of for-real artists.
The Hsu cartoon reminded me that when I’m out for dinner I’m sometimes tempted to have the entire conversation with my tablemates by text because the restaurant is too damn noisy for any of us to hear each other.
My take on Wiley Miller’s cartoon is less concerned with “vulture capitalists” seizing swathes of the newspaper industry than the mainstream media forming a united front to ensure the public is shielded from such inconvenient matters as vaccine side-effects and the contents of a certain laptop. “Nothing to see here” is an all-too-familiar refrain in an era of approved narratives.
They’re profit-driven businesses, not freemasons or rosicrucians.
Yes, and the vast amount of government advertising placed with British newspapers and television channels kept many of those businesses in profit. When your national tabloid suddenly lands a four-page wraparound cover extolling the virtues of lockdowns and experimental vaccines, you may not be too eager to look behind the curtain.
Ooh! Ooh! I got my fourth COVID vaccination shot yesterday. Being a righty, I had them do it in the left deltoid muscle. It swole up and is a bit stiff this morning—just like the first three.
Is that one of the side-effects you are referring to?
My apologies for the error—the “n” above should read “Neal Umphred.”
I had more in mind such catalogued side-effects as myocarditis, blood clots, Bell’s Palsy and death. There’s a neat little list issued with the boxes of vaccines.
I’ve had a few Covid jabs, and even some of the basic side effects (post vaccination fatigue). But I have not been able to light a bulb or pick up small iron objects from the injection site.
I kinda feel like I’m missing out on the fun, TBH.
Did I say anything about covid or vaccines or side effects?
Every medication approved by the FDA is required to publish all reported side effects on the package insert, even the rare ones. Package inserts are not “super seekrit” information that They don’t want you to know, but a lay person may have a hard time interpreting them. Please talk to a real doctor about this.
While National Geographic is still being published, Playboy stopped publishing the magazine in 2020.
And National Geographic Partners LLC, the publisher of the magazine, is 73% owned by Walt Disney Co., having acquired it in their takeover of 20th Century Fox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Partners
I thought that, but the website is still active, so I figured they had a print component. My own theory is that such places should give you a discounted rate to access their website if you agree to let them send you the magazine so you can throw it out. I’ve got a couple of subscriptions that insist on sending me a really skinny print version.
I must vehemently disagree with the statement ‘Both graphic and literary artists have had to leave creativity aside when entering the commercial arena’
The outstanding example that this is NOT TRUE is Wiley Miller, who is one of the most innovative and creative people on this crumbling planet. There are others that are truly creative, but he is the most prominent one.
Nice to see Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee here. I only wish John Hambrook’s hometown paper, the Kenosha News would promote his terrific work better. Lee Enterprises took over a few years ago and recently removed Edison Lee and a couple others ( Brian Crane’s -Pickles) . But we now have Beetle Bailey and Sally Forth. I suspect there was a savings there. In their announcement , the News boasted its expanded e-edition with more comics available. Fortunately, Edison Lee is there, but not Pickles.
At some point I’ll be conceding that my preference for paper will not prevail in the industry. I recently converted a paper subscription for the Chicago Tribune to an e-version and find myself viewing it less and less. I’ll probably change my habits by necessity but not without complaint first
I’m only 38 and it really is amazing how so much “new” technology tends to be worse than the old one, which worked just fine. Ask any Windows user.
It’s not something we often think of, and usually take for granted, but it is incredible to look back at old Disney films (or animation in general) with the realization that it was all 100% hand-made. Even something as simple as a spring shower takes on an almost magical quality.
I have to disagree with your assessment of movies, however. I’ve seen far too much MST3K and RiffTrax not to acknowledge that there have always been films with terrible sound an inaudible dialog. Oh well.
I guess 98% of everything really is crap. No matter what era it’s from.
Hi Mike, I agree ? with your column. Lately when I find an old movie, I mean the way back there ones with the Big Names of the studios, the channel presenting the film has chopped it to air commercials!! How infuriating!
That’s why Turner Classic Movies is my default station – uncut and no commercials.