DC has removed three upcoming variant covers by artist Daxiong (Jingxiong Guo) after allegations that Daxiong used generative artificial intelligence (A.I.) at least in part to produce the three variant covers for upcoming issues of Wonder Woman, Power Girl and Shazam. DC has already solicited new variant covers for each of the three comic book titles.

Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool revealed that DC had made the move after a number of people online had accused Daxiong of using generative A.I. to produce the aforementioned variant covers. When the accusations were first made, DC made the statement, “DC Comics has longstanding policies in place that all artwork must be the artist’s original work. We are looking into the specifics of this situation.” This follows similar accusations about recent Batman artwork.

How did Daxiong respond to the allegations?

Award-winning colorist Jose Villarubia noted on his Facebook page that the artwork by Daxiong hit a 99% on a popular A.I. detector (Villarubia went into a number of other details in his post about his reason for why he believes that Daxiong used A.I. on the covers. This isn’t a case of him randomly putting three covers into an A.I. detector program, there were indications, as Johnston noted in the Bleeding Cool piece, as well, that led people to believe Daxiong was using A.I. before any detector program was brought into things).

Daxiong denied that he used A.I. to create the covers, telling YouTuber 2quadrinhos, “I haven’t used AI, but I am an artist who was hurt in this witch hunt. I’ve been in this industry for over thirty years and my drawing has always been traditional by hand.” As Daxiong notes, he regularly works in traditional areas of drawing, and often shares videos of him creating his art on his social media. However, while he has shared what he purports to be sketches of the above covers, he has not shown a process video of the covers, and critics of his allege that he created the “sketches” after the fact. In the same interview, Daxiong noted that an outside coloring studio colored the work. His critics would say, “Okay, then show us the layered files of the coloring, that would prove it wasn’t A.I..” That he hasn’t yet has bolstered his critics’ claims.

He also noted, “DC and I considered changing the cover because the controversial image might affect their sales. It does not mean it proves that it is an AI work.”

Who are the new Wonder Woman, Power Girl and Shazam variants by?

DC replaced Daxiong’s covers with new variants by a trio of comic book artists who have all been in the comic book business for at least 30 years, with Dave Johnson now doing the variant cover for Power Girl #10, Cully Hamner doing the variant cover for Shazam #12, and Dan Panosian doing the variant cover for Wonder Woman #10.

Daxiong continues to deny the use of generative A.I., posting on his social media two days ago, “I am now waiting for Dc’s permission to publish our correspondence and our discussions about the painting process. This is also my respect for my collaborators.”

Source: Bleeding Cool