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But How Can I Get Toren’s Comics?

Recently I’ve restocked a bunch of the comic anthologies in which my work appears, and I’m making them available at very reasonable prices indeed!

EXPLODED VIEW – contains my 5 page ‘prequel’ comic that ties in with the Spaceship Zero: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.

Cover price is $11 and I’m letting them go for $5 for a limited time

ACTS OF VIOLENCE – Back in stock! Back in the day Kevin Leeson asked me to do the art for his story “Reggie-Town” which Ed Brisson published in the anthology ACTS OF VIOLENCE along with many other impressive creatives! The book contains 4 stories and ours was 37 pages – definitely the longest comic project I’ve worked on. I’m charging $10

HISTORYONICS (Cloudscape Comics) – Contains a 4 page, black and white, dialogue free “Secret Files From the World Wildlife Federation of Justice: The Ominous Origin of Rhinosferatu.” Cover price $10 my price $5 for a limited time.

MEGA FAUNA (Cloudscape) – The culmination of my anthropomorphic animal superhero characters (so far) in print. Contains the 9-page full colour “Eye Eye Eye!” written by Ian Boothby and colored by Tanya Lehoux. Cover price $25 my price $12 for a limited time!

GIANTS OF MAIN STREET (Cloudscape) – Featuring a four page story called Tales of the Underbelly written by Kolja Liquette. Cover price is $10 and my price is $5 for a limited time!

Giants of Main Street is Cloudscape’s massive tome exploring the theme of fantasy and magic within an urban environment. This graphic novel carries the reader through a multitude of impossible cities inhabited by all manner of strange creatures. From communities ravaged by sorcerous wars to thriving metropoli preserved in bottles, this anthology has it all. After all, anything imagined can be found between the cracks if you are brave enough to look.

FUNDAY SUNNIES – Cloudscape

Contains a 1 page parody of those old Hostess Fruit Pies ads. In”Mid-Afternoon of the Living Dead” Go-Rilla finds the only way to stop Elk Diablo’s evil plan is with General Woodcock’s Wholesome Flax Pies! Free with any purchase but it’s wider and longer than the other books so that may affect shipping prices if we’re doing this through the mail

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Hey! Cheap Original D&D Art! My Annual Birthday Sale

Yes it’s time once again for my birthday art sale. These original pencil drawings (and a couple of inks) were produced for various D&D and other RPG books and are marked down from now until my birthday June 28.

Everything listed here is on offer for $54 USD (unless you’re in Vancouver and we can arrange in person, then $54 CAD)

CONTACT ME at :

You can see more D&D art going all the way back to AD&D/2nd edition at https://torenatkinson.com/dungeons-and-dragons-original-art/ and I’ll be giving discounts on offsale stuff too if you buy two or more pieces!

Shipping to the US is typically $20 and that includes tracking and stiffening boards for maximum protection.

Arbalest

From Terror in Freeport – Reikert

From If Thoughts Could Kill (Monte Cook/Malhavoc Press) – crystal consciousness amulet

From Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra (3.5 edition, Green Ronin)

Skull & Bones (Green Ronin)

From BONDS OF MAGIC (Malhavoc Press)

From THIEVES WORLD GAZETEER (Green Ronin)

Demonologist (slight blemish from ink bleed through on left edge)

BOOK OF ELDRITCH MIGHT

From MINDSCAPES: BEASTS OF THE ID (Malhavoc Press)

From CAVALIER HANDBOOK (Green Ronin)

Cults of Freeport (Green Ronin)

From Temple Quarter (Game Mechanics/Green Ronin)

From Advanced Players Manual (Green Ronin)

From Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin 2004)

From Minions (Chaosium, Call of Cthulhu)

From Monte Cook Presents: Year’s Best d20 (Malhavoc Press)

From Shaman’s Handbook (Green Ronin)

From Wrath and Rage: A Guidebook to Orcs, published by Green Ronin

From Spaceship Zero: The Roleplaying Game (2001 Green Ronin)

From Liber Bestarius (Eden Studios 2003)

From Black Sails Over Freeport (Green Ronin)

From MONSTERS OF THE MIND (Green Ronin)

From Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)

From Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed D&D 3rd edition pencil on paper

From Bastards & Bloodlines D&D 3rd edition (Green Ronin Publishing) pencil on paper:

From Black Company (Green Ronin Publishing):

Book of Fiends (Green Ronin Publishing)

Aasimar and Tiefling: A Guidebook to the Planetouched (Green Ronin)

Mindshadows (Green Ronin)

Noble’s Handbook (Green Ronin)

From ORK! The Roleplaying Game (Green Ronin)

From Chaositech (Malhavoc Press)

From Creature Collection (White Wolf)

From Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts (Green Ronin)

From Creatures of Freeport (Green Ronin)

From Denizens of Freeport (Green Ronin)

from Touched by the Gods (Atlas Games)

From Thieves World (Green Ronin)

From THIEVES QUARTER (Game Mechanics)

from Unholy Warrior’s Handbook (Green Ronin)

From HARP (High Adventure Roleplaying Game – Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE)

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20 Minute Monster Series: Fiend Folio

For the first Monster Manual series, click here

Berbalang breaks a bard

Diana debates a dark stalker in a dank dungeon. The Darkling was seen in the cartoon episode “Winds of Darkness”

Evil ettercap entices an eager elf with an emerald

bonus E entry

Four flail snails frolic in a fuschia foyer

A grey-green grell grapples a gravid grimlock with a greataxe in a granite grotto

Hook Horror appeared in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon “City on the Edge of Midnight”

Jermlaine jousting for jars of jujubes

Khaki kenku with katana kicks a khargra in the keel

Lilac lachrymose lava children lamenting the loss of their luggage

Many merciless maroon meenlocks menace a manly mountain mage

Nude nilbog nerfs a noble knight and a needy gnome in a navy nave

Ochre ogrillon observes obvious osquip in the old outhouse

As seen in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon episode “The Garden of Zinn”

A reliable retriever wrecks a rector in the reredorter

Three theatrical thorks threaten a thief (Sheila from the D&D cartoons)

Underneath an undulating ultramarine umpleby unveiling it’s umbilical ulexite

Various vexing volts victimize a vizier in a vermillion void

Wild warty witherstenches worry a wayward wizard in a winter waste

Xill, as seen in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon episodes “Servant of Evil” and “P-R-E-S-T-O Spells Disaster”

Y is for Yellow Musk Creeper and Z is for Zombie, Yellow Musk. Featuring Ruddiger the elf!

Stay Tuned for the Monster Manual II, coming later in 2024. Like what I do? Send me a dollar on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/torenatkinson

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Why Are Artists Decrying Procedurally Generated Images? Five ( and 1/2) Reasons.

Note: I’m not going to refer to procedurally generated images as “AI art” because by definition, art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.” I will instead refer to it as PGIs.

1. It’s threatening their livelihood. Artists also have bills to pay.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/16/ai-job-losses-are-rising-but-the-numbers-dont-tell-the-full-story.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/lost-job-chatgpt-made-me-obsolete-copywriter-2023-7

2. Every piece of art a human artist makes is copyright (mostly owned by the artist and sometimes a publisher that made a contract with the artist to acquire that copyright).

The AI corporations used those artworks without compensating or acquiring permission from the copyright holders (again, usually the artists). This is unethical and probably illegal (we’re figuring that out presently).

https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-copyrighted-material-parliament

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/07/openai-warns-copyright-crackdown-could-doom-chatgpt/

More Sources: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/visual-artists-fight-back-against-artificial-intelligence-companies-for-repurposing-their-work
https://bnnbreaking.com/world/us/artists-rally-for-rights-the-legal-battle-over-ai-generated-artworks
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/02/01/how-we-should-regulate-ai-is-the-trillion-dollar-question

3. The proliferation of AI is making it hard to tell what is real and what is fake, an extremely dangerous trend that contributes to conspiracy and scams.

sources: https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/shoppers-think-click-ai-generated-image-scams-infiltrate-web
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2024/02/14/the-dark-alliance-addressing-the-rise-of-ai-financial-frauds-and-cyber-scams/

https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14293%2FGOF.23.15

https://marinaamaral.substack.com/p/ai-is-creating-fake-historical-photos

4. It’s Highly Polluting

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/05/1084417/ais-carbon-footprint-is-bigger-than-you-think/

AI’s Growing Carbon Footprint

5. Over-reliance on technology de-humanizes us, and can lead to more problems

https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/automation-ai/over-reliance-on-generative-ai-top-ethical-concern-for-workers-report/379412

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/25/big-tech-existential-risk-ai-scientist-max-tegmark-regulations

5.5. Other considerations:

Medical records in ‘training’ data set (Ars Technica and biometricupdate.com)

It’s not just independent artists who are trying to take action against PGIs.

Getty Images is suing Stability AI, creators of popular AI art tool Stable Diffusion, over alleged copyright violation.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/17/23558516/ai-art-copyright-stable-diffusion-getty-images-lawsuit

AI is flooding the book market with garbage… according to The Guardian and PCmag…

…and following the information in AI generated instructional books could literally kill you (link: the Guardian)

From March 2024: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/ai-worm-infects-users-via-ai-enabled-email-clients-morris-ii-generative-ai-worm-steals-confidential-data-as-it-spreads

A group of researchers created a first-generation AI worm that can steal data, spread malware, spam others via an email client, and spread through multiple systems. This worm was developed and successfully functions in test environments using popular LLMs. 

read the paper: https://sites.google.com/view/compromptmized

FURTHER RESOURCES, COLLATED:

Anti AI Generative Art Resources
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20 Minute Monster Series: AD&D Monster Manual

In 2022 I started a drawing series in which I attempted to draw a monster from each letter of the alphabet from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual (1977).

These were livestreamed on my twitch channel twitch.tv/torenatkinson and I am as of this writing doing the same thing for the Fiend Folio so come visit on Sunday mornings!

You can watch the old videos on my youtube channel, I’ll post the link below. I also post to instagram @torenatkinsonartist

If you enjoy what I do please send me a dollar on patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/torenatkinson

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20 Minute Monsters: N-S

Every Sunday morning I livestream monster drawings from the 1st edition Monster Manual on twitch.tv/torenatkinson with the time limit of 20 minutes (ish)

Ned the nerdy neo-otyugh nibbles nervously on a nymph in a negligee. Nightly.

Ollie the orange owlbear ogles an octopus in the ocean.

A prowling pack of petite purple worms preys upon a panicking paladin

Quentin the quintessential quasit in a quarry of quartzite quiet quits his quest to quaff a quart of quicksilver

Rudy the ruddy rust monster revoltingly retches remnants of Ruddiger’s ringmail

Six stubborn stirges swarm a sorry straggler and his steed

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20 Minute Monsters: I to M

I stream these every Sunday at 10am pacific time!

Around this time I started putting the monsters in alliterative situations!

Invisible Stalker. Poor Ruddiger the elf is getting a handful

Jerry the jackalwere with a jerkin and javelins

Kobold riding a Ki-Rin

Lani the lavender Lich in a loincloth and lanyard casts lightning bolt

Mauve Mind flayer mentally messes a Mimic in the mold of a massive monstrous morning star

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20 Minute Monsters – Week 2: C is for Carrion Crawler

It’s my goal to draw 26 monsters from the original D&D Monster Manual, each with a 20 minute time limit. I have recorded my twitch livestream which you can find here: https://www.twitch.tv/torenatkinson

Hey, betcha didn’t know I have a Patreon? Support the stuff you love! https://www.patreon.com/torenatkinson

Want to buy some original art from me? https://torenatkinson.com/artwork/original-art-for-sale/

Also my social medias:
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/torenatkinsonartist/
TUMBLR https://www.tumblr.com/torenatkinsonartist