David Blumenstein
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Video screen grab of David and his A.I. duplicate

Octane Render open for preorder now!

Posted on August 15, 2023 by David

Hi! I made a comic called Octane Render about A.I. generative art, which you might have seen earlier in the year. I had a really big response to it, and got into a few conversations I thought I should try to address. So the print version is now available for preorder on Pozible. If this crowdfund / pre-order goes well, you’ll get about 70 pages of material instead of the 28 in the original.

The front cover of Octane Render: Cartoonists talk about A.I. art. It features Hamburger Garfield, an off model Garfield clone

The book itself has extra material that isn’t in the Friends With Benefits piece, so it’s bumped up to 50 pages. This is some further discussion on topics brought up by readers, including generative A.I. as an accessibility tool, “ethical” uses of A.I. art and whether we can expect A.I. to save artists (as opposed to burying them).

Comics page: "Let us return to OCTANE RENDER to continue the conversation just a little bit and reply to a bit of correspondence on A.I. stuff"

Because we hit the target required to cover the first printing of the book in two days (thank you all!), the stretch goal is an extra comic for everyone who’s pledged.

I visited Sam Emery at Tree Paper Gallery and we worked out that, if I can double the original preorder, I can get another Riso-printed book done containing more material from the interviews I did.

Dean, Kate, Ryan and David (go check out their work and follow them) had so much interesting stuff to say, and we couldn’t fit very much of it into the story.

So I spent this weekend drawing more bits of our conversations, and will print them up in a little extra book (for Riso nerds: probably 2 colour covers, 1-colour interiors on a coloured stock).

Comics page from the extra Octane Render interview book

I’m super happy this is happening and I hope we can get to the new goal of $2400. I recognise things are tough all round and I put no expectations on anyone to buy the thing (there’s a reason it, like most stuff I do, is readable online for free). But know that all your preorders (and, maybe even moreso, your shares with others on- and offline) are very appreciated — and it doesn’t take much encouragement to keep an artist going. Especially this one!

Tags: A.I.AnimationCapitalism hey?ComicsDavid MahlerDean RankineKate MoonmidjourneyOpenAIRyan EstradaStability AI
Category: ComicsUncategorized

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David Blumenstein

I’m a service designer, cartoonist and co-founder of Squishface Studio. I’ve done comics for The Guardian, Crikey and Australian MAD. Currently also deputy president of the Australian Cartoonists Association.

I usually write about things that shit me off, from bad bosses (The Bret Braddock Adventures) to pick-up artists (#takedown) to white supremacist trolls (The Internet’s Most Trolled Cartoonist) to predatory cults (Why Los Angeles is Scientology’s perfect city) and nasty tech bros (Octane Render: Cartoonists talk about A.I. art).

I’m working on graphic novels called Sciensatics (about cultists) and Free Money, Please (about wealth and passive income).

Sarah Howell

I regularly collaborate with my wife, Sarah Howell.

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