Posted in: Comics | Tagged: A.I., Dundee Univesity, Katy Stone

Dundee University Accused Of Publishing A.I. Comic, Artist Pushes Back

Dundee University is accused of publishing an A.I. comic book, but the artist has pushed back against accusations.

The Navigating Menopause in the Workplace comic, made available for free from the Henpicked website, was created in collaboration with Dundee University's Humanities Department in collaboration with a PhD student studying menopause. They state "This comic was created to bring those experiences to life in a way that feels real, relatable and human. Instead of statistics alone, it tells a story — one that helps people understand what menopause at work can feel like… The comic was developed using research interviews with women about their experiences of menopause at work." And that "The comic was developed by Dr Chithramali Rodrigo from the University of Aberdeen as part of her PhD research exploring how menopause affects women at work. It was written in collaboration with Professor Christopher Murray, Chair of Comics Studies at the University of Dundee, with artwork created by comics artists Katy Stone and Phillip Vaughan."

Scottish comic creator and publisher, and former Dundee University student, Eve Greenwood, has spoken out, challenging the university over the alleged use of AI-generated comic book strips in an awareness campaign. This is particularly galling as Dundee and the University have a long-standing relationship with the comic book form, home of The Beano and The Dandy, and run many comic art courses. They write "Dundee Uni has just put out a comic that blatantly uses AI-generated images for a project that is meant to spread awareness about a serious topic – a project that, let me be clear, did NOT approach or consult the comic professionals who work AT THE UNI – and I am frankly f-cking disgusted. I don't blame the PhD student whose project it was nor any of the contributors. I /do/ blame the artist, who has either shamelessly used AI or, the worse option, used AI and then very, very, very poorly traced over it to try to pass it off as her own. I also blame the two comic professors involved – who either signed off on the artist's use of AI or are such poor editors that they couldn't spot the countless mistakes, logical inconsistencies, and honestly terrible comic craft. Hello to Chris Murray, Phil Vaughan, and Katy Stone: I am appalled." Eve Greenwood posted images with the following text, stating, "This should embarrass you."

• A man and a woman are talking on a couch, but the man's eyes are not facing the woman. Their hands are blended together in AI spaghetti.
• Two panels of a man and a woman in an office. The background is the exact same between panels but the chairs are completely different.
• Multiple rows of people working on computers at desks, but one person is floating in the middle of a row with no discernible desk or computer.
• A door with a nonsensical knob and lock. The other side of the door has no knob.

Eve continues, "You can see that AI is used throughout the comic – not just in characters, but in backgrounds. Look at the design on the desk or the buildings in the far distance in the second image. I'm so pissed off at this, especially when comic-related courses at Dundee Uni get no support from higher-ups. This morning, I emailed the University of Dundee, the University of Aberdeen, and several of the contributors to this project to flag my disgust at the use of generative AI. There is no room for generative AI in Scottish comics, particularly not for topics like this, which deserve respect and care." And they include a letter sent to the University.

"To whom it may concern, I am writing in regards to the artwork for an educational comic recently released by the University of Aberdeen and the University of Dundee, Navigating Menopause in the Workplace, funded by Henpicked. The artist credited for this project was Katy Stone.My name is Eve Greenwood and I am an alumnus of both the University of Aberdeen (undergraduate) and the University of Dundee (where I completed a Masters of Design in Comics & Graphic Novels). I am also the founder of Quindrie Press, an internationally recognised publisher of independent comics, and the co-director of Small Press Scotland CIC and TAGS Festival, both of which aim to support independent comic creators and other self-publishing artists.Furthermore, it is particularly disappointing to see this coming from Chris Murray and Phillip Vaughan, both of whom were my lecturers when I took the comics masters. I am sure that both Chris and Phil are well aware of the many, many comic professionals in Dundee and in Scotland who have worked on similarly educational comic projects and who would be available for hire, and that they would also be aware that these professionals would not minimise the importance of a project like Navigating Menopause in the Workplace by lazily using AI-generated images.

"Most of all, I am disappointed for the PhD student whose research the project was based on, the contributors, and the charity Henpicked for having their names attached to a project that has ended up looking like this. I believe Katy Stone, Chris Murray, and Phillip Vaughan need to apologise for allowing such a poorly-produced project to be released, particularly with no disclosure about the use of generative AI, and that any future comic projects released by the University of Dundee or the University of Aberdeen need to be further scrutinised to ensure that generative AI was not used. Ideally, this project would be redrawn and given the attention it deserves by a different artist. It is utterly shameful that Henpicked's funding was misused to allow someone to sloppily put a comic together in such a way."

"I believe this reflects incredibly poorly on both the University of Aberdeen and the University of Dundee, particularly as Dundee has recently shuttered its comics masters, and the use of generative AI can only harm the universities' reputations and opinions of prospective students. It is easy to find other people discussing this project online and raising concerns about its use of generative AI. I am aware that none of the actively working comic professionals employed at the University of Dundee were approached or consulted on this project and the fact that a piece like this, which so blatantly and lazily uses generative AI rather than giving the topic the time and attention it deserves, was released is an embarrassment to all creatives involved. The use of generative AI for this project runs counter to the viewpoints held by the comic professionals currently running the comic-related courses at the University of Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, who I am aware expressly denounce using generative AI, and it is even sadder coming from a city whose culture and history is so heavily steeped in the art of comics. If the University of Aberdeen and the University of Dundee believe that generative AI is an appropriate tool to use in a project like this, then I can only conclude that both universities have little to no respect for this important and flourishing art form.Despite zero disclosure for this anywhere in the final product, Katy Stone has unequivocally made heavy use of generative AI for Navigating Menopause in the Workplace. I am aware that Katy Stone and her collaborator Phillip Vaughan have released joint projects for which they have emphatically denied using AI, but Navigating Menopause in the Workplace features a series of completely nonsensical artistic decisions which only make sense if generative AI was used to produce the final work, or if generative AI was used as an underlying base which was then traced over to produce the final work. This includes tangles of hands and fingers that don't make sense, backgrounds that change dramatically from panel-to-panel or shot-to-shot, furniture that changes completely between panels, backgrounds that heavily feature generative AI's signature detail blur, characters' bodies blending into each other, and many, many more tells. Comics are an excellent medium to easily share information and express emotion and they have seen particular success in the "graphic medicine" genre for this exact reason, yet the use of generative AI actively works against both of these goals. I am, to be honest, completely shocked by the fact that Katy Stone was permitted to hand this in, that Chris Murray and Phillip Vaughan signed off on this comic being ready for release as comic professors, and that the work was deemed a good-enough product by those involved considering the low quality of comic craft. Regards, Eve Greenwood"

On Reddit, where this comic was posted, Katy Stone, using the Singularity Comics Redditor ID, has appeared to defend her work, answering critics, saying, "There's a video of me drawing that singularity cover. Amazing, you couldn't find that. And the yellow is an overlay on the work in the menopause comic to give it texture, any artist could tell that… I am an illustrator and the client asked for that style" as well as posting a panel layout sketch for one of the pages, which we have posted next to the art in question.

And this is an issue that means a lot for Katy Stone. She posted to Instagram last year, saying "Being an artist in 2025 be like: spend weeks drawing, go mildly insane, drink too much coffee… get accused of using AI." and showing then-work-in-progress. You can also see other work Katy Stone has done for the University Of Dundee such as this adaptation of William Blake's Tyger, Tyger from 2024 also with Chris Murray and Philip Vaughan. As well as the science-fiction anthology Singularity featuring her work, with a No To A.I. label on the covers.

Katy Stone and Phil Vaughan, the creators of Singularity, Brighter Minds and co-founders of VHS Publications, have published a number of issues, blatantly opposing A.I., while Katy Stone's Instagram shows her work in a very different style. But also going back to at least 2022, and just before this kind of A.I. was being generated by anyone based on anything.

While from 2024, posting "I have been falsely accused of my work being AI quite a bit recently. So I thought the trolls could feed my dragon. Nom nom nom."

Obviously, you will come to your own conclusions. Or maybe none at all. But I'm most worried by the idea that clients are now requesting artwork that looks like A.I.

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