On October 3, a new, rather unusual work was included among the literary releases for the month of October. Her name ? Initial. A, a comic strip by Thierry Murat created entirely using Midjourney, a software generating images using artificial intelligence that we have already talked to you about in several articles like this one .

This comic tells the story of a lonely young girl in a futuristic world who interacts with a disembodied voice while traveling through a planet similar to ours. A plot that he created several years ago now to be the subject of his seventh project after his six collaborations with Delcourt editions. And although the author wanted to continue this partnership for this new project, things did not go as planned.

Delcourt Editions have in fact decided, just a few months before the publication of the comic strip scheduled for August 2023, to cancel the project. They took a dim view of the use of artificial intelligence which, according to them, constitutes a bad signal sent to the profession. Because the technology poses a problem for one thing: its database is based on the work of numerous artists used as a reference without the latter receiving any compensation. Something that displeases a lot of people in the industry. So the author had to publish his comic strip himself and resorted to crowdfunding to do so. A profitable choice which allowed him to collect more than 23,000 €. A sum that allowed him to print his comic book in more than 2000 copies.

Because Thierry Murat defends his project tooth and nail. “I didn’t do anything illegal. I did not endanger the publishing sector. I do not bear responsibility for the invention of this machine. I'm just a free artist, who allows himself to look at the world, by adding this tool to my creator's kit. » he assures. So, visionary project or certain threat? We'll let you decide. Still, this release is here, that it now opens the way to a new way of creating, so that it might not stay alone for very long...