RE: The Ballad of Ava and the Reaper

Thanks for the offer. I created these with the help of AI, and I don’t feel the need to list every tool I use. People who use Photoshop aren’t expected to disclose every brush setting or filter. Musicians aren’t grilled about where their chord progressions came from. If someone asks, I’ll gladly tell them—just like anyone else working with the tools they have.

I’m getting older, and my hands don’t always cooperate anymore. I’m a published comic book artist on Amazon, and I didn’t want to stop being “an artist” just because my hands have betrayed me. So, I started using AI to help out. That’s a hill I’m willing to die on. I’m done entertaining gatekeepers.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the wax recording drum, musicians panicked. They thought live music was over, that no one would ever need a band again. Same thing when Warhol used computers for his Marilyn, people called it cheating, but now it's iconic. Every new tool gets called blasphemy until it’s just... the way things are.

AI isn’t cheating. It’s a mirror. Input, output—just like every other tool we’ve ever used. I say all this with love, and I hope it doesn’t come across as an attack. It’s just my usual damage shield when the AI topic comes up, because yeah... people can be real touchy about it.