The Abolition of Man: The Deluxe Edition - by Carson Grubaugh & Sean Michael Robinson & Luciano Floridi (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"The Abolition of Man is a thorough test drive of AI image making, and the results are extraordinary, appalling, compelling, cold, hot, beautiful, repellant, and should be abolished." -- Dave McKean, Prompt, Sandman, Cages

"Chilling. Exciting. Bizarre." -- Jim Rugg, Cartoonist Kayfabe, Street Angel, Hulk: Grand Design

"The Abolition Of Man is a curiously uneasy experiment. One that almost seems as if the construction of it is trying to discover why it should exist. That alone is worth the time to explore it." -- J H Williams III (Echolands, The Sandman Overture, Batwoman, Promethea)

Don't miss out on one of the most innovative graphic novels of the decade.

Conceived of and executed by fine-artist/educator/philosopher turned Eisner Award nominated cartoonist, Carson Grubaugh, The Abolition of Man Deluxe Edition collects all five issues of the groundbreaking series of the same name, the first comic series in history to be entirely illustrated by an Artificial Intelligence.

In a series of four interwoven experiments, Grubaugh used Midjourney AI to interpret an essay by renowned thinker, C.S.Lewis, imagine a satirical dystopian future, illustrate an AI generated script, and finally, to produce graphics for an essay provided by Oxford Philosopher of Information and AI & Data Ethics policy advisor to the EU, UK, Google, etc., Luciano Floridi. All of these strands, alternately hilarious and terrifying, weave together to give a chilling peek into the world of the future, where humans and their most treasured passions have lost all purpose.

This deluxe hardcover edition contains loads of exclusive content, including a reprint of the extremely rare Dall-E 2 variant edition of The Abolition of Man #1, in which the entire interior of issue #1 was re-illustrated using Dall-E 2. The collection also includes two pieces of philosophical writing produced by Grubaugh between 2007 and 2018 that were the source of inspiration for this project. These essays included predictions about the banal, content apocalypse AI is now making a reality.

Also accompanying the Abolition of Man project are a series of long-form discussions about the ethics and impact of AI art with superstar guests Dave McKean (illustrator), NFN Kalyan (fine artist), John Mahoney (concept designer, filmmaker) and Luciano Floridi (Philosopher of Information, Data and AI Ethics policy maker). These are posted to Living The Line's YouTube channel and linked in the book.

This singular project will hold an important place not only in the history of comics but in the history of art as it is the first of its kind to engage with the most important moment in the history of art since some wasteful cave-person blew juice at their hand on a wall instead of drinking it.

Review Quotes

" JG Ballard filtered through Franz Kafka and Terry Gilliam's Brazil wrapped in what looks like pencil drawings and woodcuts generated by an uninspired Francis Bacon-spambot... a valuable addition to the comics field." --Alex Kielland, Empirix

"... a well-executed and thought-provoking project that shows the potential of AI to create art that is both beautiful and meaningful." -- Google Bard AI

"...nightmare squared..." -- Alex Sarll

"...the stuff of nightmares... If anyone wants to buy a contemporary horror comic that you will never get over the images you saw within, this is the book for you." -- Alex Ross (Fantastic Four: Full Circle, Marvelocity, Marvels X, Kingdom Come, Mythology: the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross)

"Chilling. Exciting. Bizarre." ― Jim Rugg, Cartoonist Kayfabe, Street Angel, Hulk: Grand Design

"The Abolition of Man is a thorough test drive of AI image making, and the results are extraordinary, appalling, compelling, cold, hot, beautiful, repellant, and should be abolished." ― Dave McKean, Prompt, Sandman, Cages

"The Abolition Of Man is a curiously uneasy experiment. One that almost seems as if the construction of it is trying to discover why it should exist. That alone is worth the time to explore it." ― J H Williams III (Echolands, The Sandman Overture, Batwoman, Promethea)