Allison Bannister

A sample page from the webcomic At the Inn in which a panel 3 word balloon uses an inverted tail to indicate an off-panel speaker.

I use it for off-panel speakers (like in panel 3)--must have picked it up from reading other webcomics.

AI impoverishes us at every step of the process: - data centers pollute our environment - energy use drives up costs - content theft robs creators of income - the actual output is used to displace workers and depress wages - using it harms our mental health and impairs our competence - the flood of AI slop is damaging our sociopolitical landscape All in service of making a worse product - and world - to enrich a handful of already spectacularly wealthy people

While defending the luddite argument in Discord, I stumbled into this IMO succinct explanation for opposing generative AI:

At every step in the process, it impoverishes us.

A political cartoon that shows giant dominos lined up, each domino has a different label on it. The first domino is labeled "Trans Rights" and is the colored like the trans pride flag and is beginning to fall. There are people trying to stop it from falling on them and knocking over the next domino labeled "Gay Rights" and "Freedom of Expression". People behind the second domino are looking around to the first one, possibly walking over to help. The third domino is "Women's Rights" and "Free Love", the fourth is labeled "Free Speech" and "Democracy", the fifth is "Freedom of Religion" and "Modernity", the sixth is labeled "Literacy", there are at least four more dominos but their labels can't be seem and the people behind the dominos also seem to be going to help with the first or at least looking forward in concern. Below the cartoon it says "United We Stand ⭐️ Divided We Fall"

For those that need alt text

One of the grosser things about “AI“ integration in a lot of search engine results is it’s a furtherance of the hypercentralization we’re all already dealing with; another fucking speed bump to stop you from clicking through to anyone else’s websites.

One of the most common arguments you hear from fans of generative ‘AI’ is that it’s not plagiarizing people’s work, it’s just learning like a human learns. So I’m going to break down why that’s just not true, and why it can never be true, with the existing systems. 1/

Self-publishing is a power, it's a gift. You can put whatever you want into your little 'zines and minicomics, absolutely nobody can tell you no. Tell your story, don't worry if it's "good enough", make it anyway.

HARD CO-SIGN!!!

Pencil, paper, done.

Generative Al is being marketed as a tool designed to reduce or eliminate the need for developed, cognitive skillsets. It uses the work of others to simulate human output, except that it lacks grasp of nuance, contains grievous errors, and ultimately serves the goal of human beings being neurologically weaker due to the promise of the machine being better equipped than the humans using it would ever exert the effort to be. The people that use generative Al for art have no interest in being an artist; they simply want product to consume and forget about when the next piece of product goes by their eyes. The people that use generative Al to make music have no interest in being a musician; they simply want a machine to make them something to listen to until they get bored and want the machine to make some other disposable slop for them to pass the time with. The people that use generative Al to write things for them have no interest in writing. The people that use generative Al to find factoids have no interest in actual facts. The people that use generative Al to socialize have no interest in actual socialization. In every case, they've handed over the cognitive load of developing a necessary, creative human skillset to a machine that promises to ease the sweat equity cost of struggle. Using generative Al is like asking a machine to lift weights on your behalf and then calling yourself a bodybuilder when it's done with the reps. You build nothing in terms of muscle, you are not stronger, you are not faster, you are not in better shape. You're just deluding yourself while experiencing a slow decline due to self-inflicted atrophy.

re: generative AI

I have finally fully and accurately explained my problem with how it’s marketed and used.

And now, you can use it, too.

A hand holds a stack of index cards held together by a metal ring, which a tabby cat is attempting to bite. In the background is a laptop with a script document up; the beginning of a page layout has been sketched on the top index card.

Nora is being VERY helpful with the thumbnails for the next chapter of At the Inn.

I'll be there! It's probably going to be the only convention I do this year. Truly an amazing group of people!

Oh hey I guess it's #webcomicday? I draw one of those! At the Inn is a story about a wizard school drop out who finds a home of sorts working at a roadside inn. It's episodic, with an ensemble cast of coworkers, locals, and guests. I just started inking the second-to last page of this chapter!

Back To Earth - A Sapphic Post-Apocalyptic Graphic Novel A world that fell over the edge. A hostile wasteland cloaked in peculiarity. Yet, Sasha and Leora’s bond is stronger than extinction. Join us on this tale about the aftermath of a big collapse, and ...

We’re entering the last stretch of this campaign!

Help us bring a post-apocalyptic sapphic graphic novel full of lesbian love to the world?

We’re closing in on the funding goal! $2,149 USD ($2,970 CAD) left to go. We can do it✨ 💙📚🌈

Shares appreciated💖

🌺 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/m...

The first time a friend of mine came out. They posted such happy photos; I was like, "oh, this is right. This is them as they should be." Rooting for their joy was the easiest thing in the world.

Before that, I was supportive in theory but not actively engaged. I had a lot to learn and unlearn.

Six Centuries of Type & Printing: New Edition Help create an affordably priced version of this book that spans 600 years of the history of typography, type casting, and printing

Please back this cool book so it makes it's goal and I can get a copy!

Original 1925 jacket cover of The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby Here is a novel, glamorous, ironical, compassionate a marvellous fusion into unity of the curious incongruities of the life of the period which reveals a hero like no other one who could live at no other time and in no other place. But he will live as a character, we surmise, as long as the memory of any reader lasts. "There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life. .. It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again?" It is the story of this Jay Gatsby who came so mysteriously to West Egg, of his sumptuous er-tertainments, and of his love for Daisy Buchanan a story that ranges from pure lyrical beauty to sheer brutal realism, and is infused with a sense of the strangeness of human circumstance in a heedless universe. It is a magical, living book, blended of irony, romance, and mysticism. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS The GREAT GATSBY FITZGERALD

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

-FS Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, published 4/10/1925.

"Those who have drank the AI Kool-Aid don't understand that all this brainstorming and iteration *is* making the game, it’s a crucial everyday part of game development (and human interaction) and is not a problem to be solved.”

Update 18: Transgender Day of Visibility! 94% of Goal! Stretch Goals! · Come Out and Play: The Queer Sports Project We hit 94% of Goal on Transgender Day of Visibility! Thank you!Come Out and Play: The Queer Sports Projects features several transgender comics creators!Our co-editors Meghan Kemp-Gee and Megan Praz h...

Celebrate and support Trans Day of Visibility by helping this queer sports comics kickstarter race across the finish line!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/sta...

A great thread clarifying the stakes of the trans kids in athletics panic:

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

Seems like a venn diagram with a lot of overlap.

If I sound calm, I was actually not calm.

this haptic display absolutely rocks. basketball is for everyone.

The orange light coming through looks great!

I used to be much more scripted and practice everything in advance but... I don't have time for that now that I'm in the classroom daily. Now I'm often running material for the first time in front of my students and hoping it works. That made me super anxious at first, but it's gotten easier.

I make slides. They give me a structured outline/reminders of what I want to hit, and anything that needs to be referenceable in the future is available (and is there for my students who missed class, too). Homework, directions for activities, videos, illustrations, all in the slides.

Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling – The White House By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose and

1. Breaking News: Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting trans youth and teachers in schools who teach for them.

It goes after "social transition" and threatens arrests.

I will go through line by line, as I have the last 3 nights.

Find the EO here:
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

A sample panel from the webcomic At the Inn, in which someone is adding an ingredient to a mortar and pestle filled with teal paste. A voice from off-panel says "Just a dash of powdered clove. You're doing great."

A sample panel from the webcomic At the Inn, focused on a hand, covered in angry purple veins. The hand has been smeared with teal paste and wrapped in a bandage.

I've got new pages of At the Inn posting tomorrow and Feb 10th! I'm aiming to post every other Monday (but make no promises--life's busy). Snippets from both pages are below! It's poultice-making time. You can read all of the story so far at basictelepathy.com

Being a person with deadly, incurable cancer who is nonetheless still alive for an indefinite timeframe gives me an interesting metaphor that helps me deal with things like large-scale corruption in government or commerce.

Bear with me for a second while I try to explain.

Can't seem to stop making myself draw bookshelves with stuff on 'em.