By Dr. Michael Robinson | Communication Studies Professor
Drawing using Mighty Men and Monster Maker device; Photo credit: GeekDad.com
I cannot draw very well. This created a problem for much of my life because I played role-playing games.
Character sheets are dense little forms that organize quickly needed information for any RPG encounter. But no matter how much information was needed, there always seemed to be a blank spot for character images. For Dungeons and Dragons sheets, it was just a small square. It wasn’t too noticeable if you left it blank. For the superhero RPG Villains and Vigilantes, though, it was a huge rectangle that ran down the right side of the sheet. Any blank space was an aching void that demanded some kind of visual image. And really, what is a superhero or supervillain without a costume?
Fortunately, there was the Mighty Men and Monster Maker. Created by Tomy, this “toy” was basically a set for generating images. There were six plates with head designs, six plates with upper torso designs, and six plates with lower body designs. When a piece of paper was held down over the plates, a kid could rub a piece of graphite across it and create an image of a hero or monster.
As an aside, this was the era of highly gendered toys. The same company created Fashion Plates to help girls create high-fashion outfits. Unfortunately, the systems were not interchangeable, so you couldn’t say a monster head on an elegant evening gown.
The MM&MM seemed to offer an infinite number of choices, but in reality, there were only 216. And that well could run dry pretty fast.
Soon, I was tracing existing superhero figures from other sources and drawing costumes on them. Turns out my real issue was making the human form. Metaphorically speaking, I could put clothes on a mannequin– it was really cool if that mannequin was drawn by great comic book artists like John Byrne or George Perez.
In 2000, an even better way to draw arrived online with Hero Machine. This template-based art system offered many more choices for creating superhero or adventuring costumes. There were multiple options for poses, costumes, effects, and color. It was a dream come true for artistically challenged folks like me. I had a lot of fun creating or re-creating looks for some of those old V&V characters.
Four possible creations made with Mighty Men and Monster Maker; photo credit: Robert Atkins Art
Now we have AI. Just like anything else related to artificial intelligence, this is a giant leap forward for the artistically challenged among us. I started experimenting by running old Hero Machine designs through it. No surprise, the AI improved everyone. Now it was possible to create not only a character’s look but also a whole comic book cover for that character. I could even ask for certain art styles from certain eras of comic books.
This is a ridiculous amount of fun, by the way. You should try it.
As with anything AI-related, I had to stop and think about what is going on. AI art is heavily frowned upon in the comic book community. The general consensus is that AI trains itself on the artistry of others. Of course, so do real comic artists, but the process leads to the development of their own style. Was I creating? Probably not. But was I prompting something else to create, or, dare I say it, even collaborating with an artificial intelligence? Possibly. I’m still not sure.
I do know this.
I’m still essentially playing with a Mighty Men and Monster Maker. AI is just the most sophisticated MM&MM ever.
