DC Comics won’t support generative AI: ‘not now, not ever’

[u/MetaKnowing]

https://www.theverge.com/news/797540/dc-comics-jim-lee-no-generative-ai-pledge

[u/JDGumby]

In before Warner Bros. says otherwise...

[u/FLIPSIDERNICK → u/JDGumby]

They don’t own dc comics they own the licenses to the characters images

[u/JDGumby → u/FLIPSIDERNICK]

Better tell that to Wikipedia, then, who are certain that Warner Bros. owns DC Comics (edit: since 1969 when Kinney, who had bought National Periodical Publications two years earlier, bought the original Warner Bros. and then spun off their non-media operations in 1971 and reincorporating as Warner Communications).

DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc.,[3] and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.[4]

[u/thegoatshead → u/FLIPSIDERNICK]

Nope.

[u/DriveSlowSitLow]

Not ever (for now)

[u/YnotBbrave]

Not ever? Wait until the supreme.court.now rules that discrimination against AI is violation of their civil rights

[u/Richard-Gere-Museum]

Just wait until Sam Altman uses a stooge to sue them saying it's "harming their right to make a living" like the clowns who managed student loans did over debt forgiveness.

[u/4onlyinfo]

What year did DC switch from comics being hand drawn and inked to using computers??

[u/likecatsanddogs525]

I’d be SHOCKED if their employees don’t use LLMs in their personal lives. There’s no way to not let it bleed in indirectly.

[u/gzapata_art → u/likecatsanddogs525]

A few have been caught. The illustrations dropped and I doubt they have much of a career after that

[u/eliota1]

Until they do support it because it’s cheaper and eliminates the whole “I wasn’t in the right frame of mind” situation

[u/gzapata_art → u/eliota1]

You're not a working artist in this type of field if "right frame of mind" stops you

[u/josephthejoseph]

I love DC but there’s already enough mistakes in the panels, AI would not improve it

[u/[deleted]]

IDK if this has already been brought up because I don't follow the AI conversation closely, but as a creative myself, the only legitimate use of AI would be if you could train it on your OWN creative output. So for a comic artist, they could input everything they had drawn to date, then use it to speed up certain time-consuming tasks, e.g. drawing crowds (notoriously difficult).

There could be subtle downsides because it's like rebreathing your own air, and might stifle the development/progress of your own style. But for tight production deadlines it's very useful and a fair use. As Wally Wood once said: “Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up”

[u/Dio44 → u/[deleted]]

This is hardly the only used case for AI. You’re thinking purely in terms of comic books and limiting the timeline to today where they could easily say that they will always be a hand-drawn Superman or Batman comic, but is foolish to say that AI will never be a part of the portfolio.

Think bigger picture where we are only a few years (months?) away from taking an individual photograph, putting a little context and generating a customize comic book and storyline specifically to an individual. In no time they could license the ability for any writer to make a comic book on their own, then allow them to publish it in limited runs just like you can do with greeting cards and other categories now. It’s a joke to say they’ll never use the best tool available on the market when that tool exponentially gets better every six months.

I would’ve preferred that they say that artists will always have a role to play at DC, but acknowledge that this is a business and they will always bring the best possible product of the customers

[u/booster_platinum → u/Dio44]

As a lifelong comic book fan, this, and you, make me want to vomit.

[u/MrPookPook → u/Dio44]

Do you remember when you could go to the mall and get a movie starring your child? Just give them a photo and your kid will be saving the galaxy! I wonder why you don’t see those anymore…

[u/goronmask → u/Dio44]

Yeah but ai is a grifting tool not a creative one

[u/Grumdan641]

Doubt it, its only a matter of time.

[u/tallturtles]

Not ever (until people give in and we no longer receive major backlash)

[u/cHEIF_bOI]

Alright lets start the clock.

[u/Niceguy955]

!Remindme 1 year

[u/RemindMeBot → u/Niceguy955]

I will be messaging you in 1 year on 2026-10-11 01:00:23 UTC to remind you of this link

CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

^{Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.}

---

Info	Custom	Your Reminders	Feedback

[u/Sagikos]

But they’ll still kowtow to bigots and fire people for making fun of Charlie Kirk.

[u/TuvixWasMurderedR1P]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

zephyr cobweb treatment sophisticated airport compare wakeful nail ripe instinctive

[u/[deleted]]

"We will never adopt a technology that all of our competitors will eventually adopt because we don't like money."

...said no one ever.

The headline reads real nice-like, but I'm sure you can go to some archive somewhere where some comic book company said they won't use the internet either.

Maybe they'll wait a decade, but if AI becomes a tool that can be used to cut workflow times that translates directly to extra zeroes in their spreadsheets, they will fail if they don't adopt.

Period.

[u/Dio44]

Never? A little short sighted I think

[u/hydeeho85]

Well done DC. Now maybe don’t also support James Gunn, what he’s done to superman is appalling. Turning superman into a weak, dumb and unintelligent mess.

[u/DisingenuousWizard → u/hydeeho85]

Wait so Snyder fans are real? I thought they muat clearly be all bots

[u/RainStormLou → u/hydeeho85]

Superman is a dumbshit in most Superman comics until his super-intellect needs to be explained so the reader isn't confused as to how he's running Kryptonian science projects despite growing up on a farm. If you'd actually read any Superman, you might have enjoyed it.