Unhinged Rant I Had About AI With My Therapist

And, Oh Yeah, I Am Quitting Cartooning

Cartoon courtesy Electric Speed magazine

I am sending this issue early because I had a few requests to announce a couple of upcoming events.

Appearing in Reader’s Digest

As I reached this category, I was trying decide on what to write here. I have been working on four new upcoming books and one script and I have a few magazines articles out on writing, which I will share in future newsletters. The hardest part, of course, is hopping back and forth between books and trying to remember where you left off. So, what can I say about that? I use spreadsheets to organize some facts of each project, including a chart showing who has read it. Whatever we write, we have to make it interesting. What makes something interesting for a reader?

A reader gets emotionally invested when they put themselves in the story and relate with or imagine themselves being in the same shoes as one of the characters. That is why it is so tricky to have a movie with no likable characters. Readers will put themselves in your characters’ shoes if you give your characters decisions to make. And the way to do that, of course, is to present your characters challenges. Easy, right?

James Breakwell has one of the biggest Substack newsletters in the world. The Cartoon Pad podcast discussed with him some of the nuts & bolts to publishing your own Substack newsletter on this new episode.

From the good people at Funny Times magazine, “Funny Times Live” with stand-ups Ron Placone, Diana Wright, Larry Arnstein, Melanie Chartoff, Robin Tran, Graham Elwood, Siege Gary and Nicole Rossa at The Crow, Nov. 18th, 8 pm. For tickets.

There is a special early bird deal for the April 4-6, 2024, Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop at the University of Dayton. The one-day-only early bird fee of $499, includes the choice of dozens of sessions (as well as meals) begins at noon (ET) on Wednesday, Nov. 15. A block of rooms will be made available at the University of Dayton Marriott.

Carol Isaacs, The Surreal McCoy produced a three-minute documentary on being Jewish in Britain, called Growing Up Mizrahi. It premieres at the UK Jewish Film Festival on Nov. 14th at London and shown at Leeds, Nov. 19th, Manchester, Nov. 20th and Liverpool, Nov. 22nd, 6pm. It will also be part of the UK Jewish Film online festival from Nov. 20th to 27th. For details go here.

Brian Caruso has a new book out, Gideon's Revolution, an American origin story based on real historical events, “an odyssey that reveals the profound human tensions between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, revenge and the possibility of forgiveness.”

Courtesy of Milford Reader’s & Writer’s Festival

I will be doing an event with New Yorker cartoonist, Roz Chast at the Miami Book Fair (Miami) Nov. 12-19. Her new book is I Must Be Dreaming.

I will also be signing books at the Hawley Library in Hawley, Pennsylvania for Hawley Winterfest December 9th from 10am to 1pm. Hawley. There will be LOTS of baked goods. There may be a big bonfire. Hawley.

Atlas Obscura’s Winter Wonder: Exploring the History of Wintertime Traditions is this great new series I’m really loking forward to next month. It begins Dec. 18th (and I will be speaking Tuesday 19th 7–8:00 PM ET — The History of the Snowman). For details CLICK HERE.

I really never did have a rant — that was more of a click bait. But I am very concerned about AI as everyone should be. And I can make the threat of retiring or quitting the business of gag cartooning with no fear because 1) no one cares or 2) no one would notice as opposed to someone else, like let’s say Mad Dog Russo who promised to retire if the Arizona Diamondbacks lost. They won, he went back on his “bet” and then tried to fix things on the Howard Stern show by offering a compromise — he would walk down a Manhattan street in a Diamondback bikini carrying a sign that read: “I am a liar and a dope.” (He, as of this writing, chickened out of that, too.) I AM a fan, and now conflicted.

But I would like to share my thinking here and bring it back to my favorite subject, me. I was recently shown a cartoon batch by a friend, who was asking my opinion (maybe seeking encouragement to submit them) and I responded to that, wow, and wow, I didn’t even know he drew or wrote gag cartoons. “I don’t. I used AI.”

Well, these cartoons were alarmingly very good. Two vintage New Yorker styles were mashed together to create a new, yet clearly familiar look. They looked hand-drawn but very accomplished and polished…and the set-ups were funnier than many cartoons one would see published nowadays. The captions were not great: predictable and relied often on puns. Many sounded like runner-ups in the caption contest. I thought about it, but I removed the cartoons I was sent not because the “cartoonist” would object but I’m convinced that would only give them strength or maybe even encourage others to pursue this.

This is not good. I was informed it took minutes.

Are AI-generated cartoons being submitted now? Have any AI cartoons been published…under the guise of being created by humans? I don’t have the answer for that (one cartoonist said he was going to, just as a test) but I can tell you that some artists have already lost their job to AI. I personally know two Art Directors who have stopped hiring freelance illustrators, opting to use AI instead. There are some institutions and publications claiming they will not tolerate AI created content, which behind closed doors spurred discussions asking how would anyone know. I was totally faked by the AI cartoons and I’ve seen thousands of cartoons.

One advantage I see is the robot’s limitations to creativity, being masters of imitation. But I know many would argue that the forte of the cartoons of late has not been creativity but relatability, cartoons that make the viewer feel like they are in on the joke. Also on the issue of diversity, well AI at least finally makes me a candidate of diversity when lined up along robots.

In Jane Friedman’s The Hot Sheet, she explained to the AI Governance conference, that Amazon is littered with books deceptively using real people’s names for works created solely by a robot. “Things are moving fast, my friends. There were 1,000 people in attendance: lots of lawyers, lots of privacy officers, lots of people who deal with international regulations and compliance. I told everyone about my experience of having six books published with my name on them that I didn't write—and why what happened to me could happen to anyone…online sources are filling up with AI-generated materials that aren’t labeled as such.”

“…A.I. needs less office space than older tech: the great promise of A.I., after all, is to obviate the need for labor….A.I. First means you turn to A.I. before you talk to a human…if A.I. doesn’t do it, then you hire someone.” — Nathan Heller, Letter From San Francisco, Spectacular Fall, New Yorker, October 23. (Plus, I take up more space than a A.I. robot.)

The National Writers Union made clear their stance last week, “…our careers, already precarious and devalued, are increasingly under threat, as corporations turn to generative AI as a ‘cost effective’ silver bullet.”

It was shown to me that someone seeking gag cartoons using AI, had requested, quote, “Think Bob Eckstein.” Ugh, on many levels. I am wondering if this doesn’t tip the scales as to whether to continue creating cartoons if now they’re adding robots to the competition. If you ask if I am a glass half full or glass half empty type of guy, I’m a when lose the brakes going downhil, throwing your arms up to the sky and let go of the steering wheel.*

I don’t claim to be an expert on AI, despite reading up on the subject everyday. Nobody is an expert. That’s just it. I heard a couple of top AI scientists state nobody knows how this will effect everything. If anyone says they know, they’re lying. That said, this may look good for medicine and science, but AI, I predict, will destroy the Arts.

I find myself in the minority and give it a thumbs up for the last Beatles song, musically, which was helped by AI. To what degree, I’m not sure. It doesn’t feel right morally. John Lennon is not alive to approve how his intellectual property is being used.

I was invited to discuss this all Dec. 22nd, Wednesday, 11 am on WTBQ but I will keep it light and won’t be spoiling people’s Thanksgiving by doing a deep dive about my demise. Say that five times fast.

* classic scene stolen from Strange Brew

Drumroll….this issue The Felix goes to Joe Duffy.

Appeared in The New Yorker, October 30, 2023

Joe has a new, fun Substack newsletter, THE 10 STAGES OF CARTOONSTIPATION. Be sure to check it out and give him some love.

Funny Times is getting into the Holiday groove with my Dancing Santas. The perfect Secret Santa gift can be found here.

Or maybe not….perhaps…

To order online at Bookshop, CLICK HERE.

“Hilarious, humorous.” – The Daily Beast

“Bob Eckstein is rapidly becoming the Dean of American Cartooning.” – American Bystander

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