Last week, Heather Antos and other comic book industry activists threw a fit over a booth using AI image generators at Fan Expo Canada, inciting BlueSky users who attended the con to nearly riot, at which point the police were called to protect the Bell Canada booth.
The comic industry is very afraid of artificial intelligence, and for good reason, as it’s going to be replacing most of the artists in the mainstream industry due to it being able to produce far superior work without the ego, missed deadlines, and crazy political baggage that comes with all of these creators.
Fan Expo Canada had a booth for Bell Canada where people could go up and take a picture and it would, with AI technology, make that picture into a comic book art style for fun for the show. It was an innocuous thing, but several industry professionals seethed on social media, led by IDW Publishing editor Heather Antos who went viral attacking the booth.
She posted to BlueSky, “So here's a fun one. there's a booth doing free on the spot AI portraits of people at fan expo canada. in artist alley.”
This post drew a lot of industry attention with more than 100 quote tweets and 148 comments from several industry professionals decrying AI’s existence as if they can somehow magically get rid of it through their angry words. Several calls to boycott Fan Expo were then made because of it, to where Antos tried to calm down the people responding.
She posted, “None of this is Kevin's fault and no anger should be directed AT Kevin or his team. FanExpo is saying it is being discussed and dealt with and I hope that there is a statement soon for the artists at the show. We know this team supports creators. We just hate that a SPONSOR of the show is using generative AI in the same building as the artists.”
However, Antos did apparently want people to harass the convention’s sponsor as she called them out in a seperate comment, complete with profanity showing her abject unprofessionalism as usual, “Fuck it. It's Bell Canada,” she said.
Bell Canada is a broadband and cable company, and the aforementioned booth was simply a fun thing for fans and didn’t have much to do with the arts one way or another. This didn’t stop the mob on BlueSky, however.
The uproar led webcomic creator Aaron Reynolds to stage a protest at the booth to try to gain clout.
Several creators joined a protest as was documented by another embattled industry activist, Stephanie Cook, who seems to get into controversies more often than not. She posted, “The stand in at the Bell Canada booth is happening right now to protest their AI Photo Booth” to try to incite a riot.
It looks like only a handfull of people were there, however she said the police were immediately called on them for harassing the convention’s sponsor. She posted, “They’ve sent the police to give us a warning that if this gets too big, we’ll be asked to disperse or be charged up to $5000 for ‘causing mischief.’”
She elaborated, “A few creators are staying behind to have a dialogue with the supervisors of the Bell Canada booth to try to talk it out. The convention center itself wanted to remove us, but many of the exhibitor and artist alley staff of FanExpo were unaware of this happening, and advocated for us.”
Apparently, the police action mostly ended the paltry protest, with Bell Canada allowed to produce their AI art along with the fans.
Reynolds, the organizer, posted afterward, “Honestly, the police officer was the best and most reasonable person in the entire thing. He understood the issue, asked what we wanted, told us what the show wanted, and brokered us a trade where most people would disperse if he let us talk to the manager of the booth.”
While it appears their protest accomplished nothing, the industry insiders are clapping for themselves for getting the police called on them at a convention.
What do you think of this protest at Fan Expo Canada? Leave a comment and let us know.
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The whole AI thing is fabricated hysteria.
Did the Nose Rings riot when computers replaced bookkeepers? When electricity replaced candlemakers?
People have a choice to use AI or not. Big deal. We should be more concerned about how much ability we give AI over our freedoms.
Ineffective signage, pink hair, and a mask. The unintentional comedy dial just blew off the dashboard.