Great interview... on both sides. Ian did a great job and your responses felt very real. Ian seems to facilitate authenticity.
I will follow you for a bit. I would like to subscribe but will see... . Your cartoon today was topical... status quo thinking I felt. Sure , there may be a stark choice... but to suggest that one party represent oneside is a simplistic view of the echo chamber. Now, maybe that is the "job" of an editorial cartoonist... to represent the "state of thinking"... so forgive me if I missunderstand. Great interview!
Lovely interview. I've liked Ian for decades and sometimes feel that he's a little trapped in the current iteration of the mothership, but he projects a calm that certainly wasn't part of the RM version of CCC. I can only hope that we get a window into your painting endeavours when that happens...I get updates from Cindy Procious, partner to Clay Bennett whose work helped me through the Bush II. years, and who continues to be, along with you, a favourite in the cartoon realm.
...were you in Van.? You could have have brought me, my cartoons...would have saved me postage. Are you prepared to accept the demise of the donnie gold mine i
Just had a moment to listen/watch this interview. What a great interview: two intelligent men talking about the state of editorial cartooning in this day and age. So glad I found you on Twitter—6 or 8 months ago. Your work is appealing to me—the cross-hatching is elegant—but the entire piece, sometimes with a scathing comment, other times not is always very clever. I wish you all the best and that your income picks up again to surpass your last gig.
I feel fortunate that I was able to watch two video interviews today with two rather awesome cartoonists! You and Dave Coverly and both insightful. Wonderful interview!
Michael - hope you read this note/fan letter. I really appreciate your being available to the CBC for interviews, especially the last on with Ian. H.
I just spent the better part of the afternoon going through your archive to unearth all of the 100 worst things of the Trump presidency. What can I say, such a brilliant archive! It's so chilling to see them all together. Boy I hope to see the end of that guy!
I've not be a subscriber long - maybe 6 months,, and so I'm wondering if your previous books sold well? Would it be a good idea to make a new collection? I would love to show my non-Substack friends your work and maybe even pin some drawings on my wall. (Please don't even think of a calendar! Maybe a small non-wall sized calendar would be ok. I could put it in my purse. xoxo)
Best regards Michael.- from Leslye in Montreal. :-)
I enjoyed the interview. As a young adult science fiction writer who at one time wanted to become an artist, you really inspire me. I do my own book covers but my artwork is very amateurish. I've been publishing on Kindle since 2009 and mainly use GIMP, DAZ Studio, and VUE 2016 not to mention canva.com and one 3D model I managed to do in Blender. I do draw occasionally but my hands don't cooperate so most of my stuff is digital these days.
I'm wondering if you have thought about putting your work on Wattpad? I see that you're on Amazon, and I'm sure you're selling there. With your popularity, might that be another income stream for you? Another probably useless comment, but oh, well. I'm happy you are making it despite the decline of newspapers.
My mother wrote for a medium-sized city paper, The Times in Gainesville, GA as a stringer, and my dad had a cartoon strip in the paper for a year. When he got turned down for syndication, he quit. So I grew up with typewriters blazing and Dad painting, doing his Featherheads strip, and colored pencil portraits for friends that could've jumped off the page.
I'm also very concerned about AI. But, every once in awhile, I experiment with getting it to write something or do art to test what it can do. I think no matter how good AI gets, it will never generate art or creative things as we do. It can imitate, sometimes well. But it can't replace us. It will always think as a machine thinks, measuring and condensing and rearranging as a machine can. It won't come up with original ways to see the world. A lot of corporations are implementing AI to replace workers but if the outcry of people sick of talking to a computer instead of a person is any measure, I think they will decide they still need people.
AI is good at things with a very simple goal, but it takes a human to define that goal. It's not good at complex goals. When we set out to create art, whether with a virtual pencil or a real one, or with words, the process of creativity is a very complex operation. We look at reality and translate it using our dreams. No AI, no machine can do that. They are copycats. We produce original works.
You've probably noticed that little checkbox when you publish on Amazon. The bit about "I have not used AI to produce any of this work". AI-produced things are great for a quick blog post, but they are not copyrightable here in the US.
I don't see anything wrong with using AI to generate a scene, if an artist wants to rework that scene with his or her style. IMHO, the artist uses it to shortcut the start of the scene, but then mixes their imagination to create something new, that has the human ingredient, much as I might alter a photo on pexels.com to have my alien species' hands, or work with the eye or skin color in GIMP.
I do object to telling an AI, 'create a painting in [name of current, working artist]'s style' because that is theft. You work a lifetime to develop your own style, whether in art or writing, and it's using data from the Internet and that artist's work to synthesize a copy. That is where I want to focus my complaints.
If I'm using a photograph in one of my book covers, I'm very careful to credit the artist who took the picture. I think AI should be required to label the sources it used to produce a picture, so the person knows which artworks went into it. If the style[s] is recognizable to a particular artist's work, the output should belong to that artist or artists, legally.
I worry that no one will listen. AI in the US is unregulated and this government wants it to stay that way. These stupid corporations fired all of their ethics people. Now these billionaires are going after any agency that could possibly regulate them.
As for me and my daughter, we're planning to leave the US when my daughter's house sells. We can't afford Canada. Wishing you the best and I hope you get someone good to run your government. I don't hold out much hope for mine, and I certainly didn't vote for the orange Idiot-In-Chief. People around me think their Social Security checks and SNAP will keep coming. I'm job-hunting for remote work on LinkedIn. We shall be First World refugees and Digital Nomads, but it's better than staying here, two blue dots in a sea of red in tiny Trion, Georgia.
I wish you and your family well, and hope for your success. Artists like you who are successful give artists like me hope. Thanks for all you do! Looking forward to your next cartoon!
I remember first looking at your toon of "Everybody" & "his monkey". All I could think of was The Beatles 'white album' & the song "Everybody's got something to hide except for me and My monkey".
When I read that it caused controversy, I realized how thin-skinned & ready to jump to conclusions, people have become. I certainly didn't read it as referring to an individual. I honestly thought the association of 'Everybody & his monkey' was hilarious in much the same way I thought the 2016 Republican 16 person presidential slate was cartooned as a giant 'clown car'. Cartooning can be satire at its best. Yours certainly are.
Loved the reveal cartoon of you & Ian Hanomansing. Soapbox indeed.
Just saw this on CBC News last night ... very insighful and fun interview! Didn't realize Ian H. was relatively short either!
Two greatly loved and respected Canadians doing their thing. Fabulous interview.
Great interview.
I’m sooo glad you got to do this interview with Ian. Awesome 🤩.
Great interview... on both sides. Ian did a great job and your responses felt very real. Ian seems to facilitate authenticity.
I will follow you for a bit. I would like to subscribe but will see... . Your cartoon today was topical... status quo thinking I felt. Sure , there may be a stark choice... but to suggest that one party represent oneside is a simplistic view of the echo chamber. Now, maybe that is the "job" of an editorial cartoonist... to represent the "state of thinking"... so forgive me if I missunderstand. Great interview!
LOVE the incredibly talented, editorial cartoonist Michael De Adder. 👏
Lovely interview. I've liked Ian for decades and sometimes feel that he's a little trapped in the current iteration of the mothership, but he projects a calm that certainly wasn't part of the RM version of CCC. I can only hope that we get a window into your painting endeavours when that happens...I get updates from Cindy Procious, partner to Clay Bennett whose work helped me through the Bush II. years, and who continues to be, along with you, a favourite in the cartoon realm.
...were you in Van.? You could have have brought me, my cartoons...would have saved me postage. Are you prepared to accept the demise of the donnie gold mine i
Just had a moment to listen/watch this interview. What a great interview: two intelligent men talking about the state of editorial cartooning in this day and age. So glad I found you on Twitter—6 or 8 months ago. Your work is appealing to me—the cross-hatching is elegant—but the entire piece, sometimes with a scathing comment, other times not is always very clever. I wish you all the best and that your income picks up again to surpass your last gig.
Enjoyed the interview. I really like the 100 tRump cartoons.
I always thought it was "everyone and his sister". A sexist thing from the 50's.
I feel fortunate that I was able to watch two video interviews today with two rather awesome cartoonists! You and Dave Coverly and both insightful. Wonderful interview!
Michael - hope you read this note/fan letter. I really appreciate your being available to the CBC for interviews, especially the last on with Ian. H.
I just spent the better part of the afternoon going through your archive to unearth all of the 100 worst things of the Trump presidency. What can I say, such a brilliant archive! It's so chilling to see them all together. Boy I hope to see the end of that guy!
I've not be a subscriber long - maybe 6 months,, and so I'm wondering if your previous books sold well? Would it be a good idea to make a new collection? I would love to show my non-Substack friends your work and maybe even pin some drawings on my wall. (Please don't even think of a calendar! Maybe a small non-wall sized calendar would be ok. I could put it in my purse. xoxo)
Best regards Michael.- from Leslye in Montreal. :-)
I enjoyed the interview. As a young adult science fiction writer who at one time wanted to become an artist, you really inspire me. I do my own book covers but my artwork is very amateurish. I've been publishing on Kindle since 2009 and mainly use GIMP, DAZ Studio, and VUE 2016 not to mention canva.com and one 3D model I managed to do in Blender. I do draw occasionally but my hands don't cooperate so most of my stuff is digital these days.
I'm wondering if you have thought about putting your work on Wattpad? I see that you're on Amazon, and I'm sure you're selling there. With your popularity, might that be another income stream for you? Another probably useless comment, but oh, well. I'm happy you are making it despite the decline of newspapers.
My mother wrote for a medium-sized city paper, The Times in Gainesville, GA as a stringer, and my dad had a cartoon strip in the paper for a year. When he got turned down for syndication, he quit. So I grew up with typewriters blazing and Dad painting, doing his Featherheads strip, and colored pencil portraits for friends that could've jumped off the page.
I'm also very concerned about AI. But, every once in awhile, I experiment with getting it to write something or do art to test what it can do. I think no matter how good AI gets, it will never generate art or creative things as we do. It can imitate, sometimes well. But it can't replace us. It will always think as a machine thinks, measuring and condensing and rearranging as a machine can. It won't come up with original ways to see the world. A lot of corporations are implementing AI to replace workers but if the outcry of people sick of talking to a computer instead of a person is any measure, I think they will decide they still need people.
AI is good at things with a very simple goal, but it takes a human to define that goal. It's not good at complex goals. When we set out to create art, whether with a virtual pencil or a real one, or with words, the process of creativity is a very complex operation. We look at reality and translate it using our dreams. No AI, no machine can do that. They are copycats. We produce original works.
You've probably noticed that little checkbox when you publish on Amazon. The bit about "I have not used AI to produce any of this work". AI-produced things are great for a quick blog post, but they are not copyrightable here in the US.
I don't see anything wrong with using AI to generate a scene, if an artist wants to rework that scene with his or her style. IMHO, the artist uses it to shortcut the start of the scene, but then mixes their imagination to create something new, that has the human ingredient, much as I might alter a photo on pexels.com to have my alien species' hands, or work with the eye or skin color in GIMP.
I do object to telling an AI, 'create a painting in [name of current, working artist]'s style' because that is theft. You work a lifetime to develop your own style, whether in art or writing, and it's using data from the Internet and that artist's work to synthesize a copy. That is where I want to focus my complaints.
If I'm using a photograph in one of my book covers, I'm very careful to credit the artist who took the picture. I think AI should be required to label the sources it used to produce a picture, so the person knows which artworks went into it. If the style[s] is recognizable to a particular artist's work, the output should belong to that artist or artists, legally.
I worry that no one will listen. AI in the US is unregulated and this government wants it to stay that way. These stupid corporations fired all of their ethics people. Now these billionaires are going after any agency that could possibly regulate them.
As for me and my daughter, we're planning to leave the US when my daughter's house sells. We can't afford Canada. Wishing you the best and I hope you get someone good to run your government. I don't hold out much hope for mine, and I certainly didn't vote for the orange Idiot-In-Chief. People around me think their Social Security checks and SNAP will keep coming. I'm job-hunting for remote work on LinkedIn. We shall be First World refugees and Digital Nomads, but it's better than staying here, two blue dots in a sea of red in tiny Trion, Georgia.
I wish you and your family well, and hope for your success. Artists like you who are successful give artists like me hope. Thanks for all you do! Looking forward to your next cartoon!
Wonderful interview....
I saw the interview on TV and enjoyed it very much
I remember first looking at your toon of "Everybody" & "his monkey". All I could think of was The Beatles 'white album' & the song "Everybody's got something to hide except for me and My monkey".
When I read that it caused controversy, I realized how thin-skinned & ready to jump to conclusions, people have become. I certainly didn't read it as referring to an individual. I honestly thought the association of 'Everybody & his monkey' was hilarious in much the same way I thought the 2016 Republican 16 person presidential slate was cartooned as a giant 'clown car'. Cartooning can be satire at its best. Yours certainly are.
Loved the reveal cartoon of you & Ian Hanomansing. Soapbox indeed.