Marvel, DC Cover Artist Artgerm Says “Increasing Number Of Young Audiences Accusing Me Of AI”, Shares Sketch Work To Prove Them Wrong
In the latest example of ‘unchecked good intentions boiling over into outright hysteria’, the ongoing vigilance against the use of generative AI for artistic endeavors has resulted in prolific comic book cover artist Stanley ‘Artgerm’ Lau having to defend himself from accusations that his more recent artworks were produced via said technology.
If one holds even a passing familiarity with the world of comic books, they’ve likely already come across Artgerm’s work at one point or another (or often, if you’re a fan of variant covers).
A Hong Kong native, Artgerm made his Western comic book debut in 2007 as the cover artist for BOOM! Studios’ Warhammer: Forge of War Vol. 1 #5, and following a few more indie one-offs would get his first Big Two assignment providing the covers for DC’s Final Crisis: Aftermath: Dance Vol. 1.
In the nearly 20 years since, he’s gone on to illustrate not only a number of covers for practically every Western comic book publisher, from the aforementioned DC, to Marvel, to Image, to even Top Cow, but also a number of individual artworks featuring various comic book, anime, and video game characters, many of which he shares to his widely-followed and -shared social media accounts.
Over the years, Artgerm has come to define himself by his clean, vibrant, and anime-esque art style, which when applied to a given subject renders them in a particularly eye-catching and ‘soft’ light, particularly so when it comes to female characters.
However, it is in the midst of the current generative AI obsession, with the technology being rampantly forced into nearly every medium by both lazy ‘artists’ and corporations seeking to cut costs wherever possible, that the popular artist recently found himself defending his work against the technology’s more ‘trigger happy’ critics.
Taking to his personal Instagram account on January 12th, Artgerm shared a number of before-and-after progress pieces and declared “It’s funny to see that there has been an increasing number of young audiences accusing me of AI. For what it’s worth, here is another round of Sketch to Finish post for those who find them useful. 🙂 Thank you! :)”
Notably, each of the progress pieces were taken from his more recent cover works, including those seen on today’s Psylocke: Ninja Vol. 1 #1:
The Catwoman-debuting Absolute Batman Vol. 1 #13:
The upcoming Superman/Spider-Man Vol. 1 #1 one-shot, his variant featuring Silk and Supergirl:
The Krakoa Era, X-Men-related one-shot Sin of Sinister Vol. 1 #1:
X-Men of Apocalypse Vol. 1 #1, the debut issue of the Age of Apocalypse team’s Earth-616 black ops mission:
Deadpool/Batman Vol. 1 #1, its cover depicting a duel between Magik and Catwoman:
Two of his recent Supergirl Vol. 8 covers, as respectively taken from Issue #1:
And Issue #6:
The front-half of his Batman Vol. 3 #1 wraparound cover:
and finally, while not an officially commissioned work, a portrait of Who Framed Roger Rabbit‘s Jessica Rabbit illustrated for last year’s ‘Arttober’ art challenge:
All in all, while Artgerm can and has easily weathered such wanton attacks against the authenticity of his work, that he so wantonly came under fire serves as a prime example as to why it’s important to exercise caution in making such consequential accusations, regardless of how ‘righteous’ ones cause may be.
