The rise of AI has led to some bilge-filled books in recent years times, and now it’s becoming the bane of British comic fans interested in exploring the history of our medium.
Not only are fans having to suffer Substack articles by either drug-imbibing authors or aspiring trolls, that degenerate into inexplicable nonsense after a couple of paragraphs; they’re also being offered books published without any apparent sub-editing or fact checks that are so bad, Amazon is refunding buyers for their purchase.
A case in point is the recently released, independently published The Great British Comic Riot from Axon Press, written by “Inky Fingers”, which has a factual error on almost every page, not only assigning comics of yesteryear to the wrong publisher, but making up the names of strips they featured, too.
Worse still, the “author” cites a mix of both fictitious and genuine sources, the latter including Pat Mills and downthetubes, in an attempt to bring some legitimacy to its inaccurate outpourings of bilious inanity.
Discussing specific strips, characters are wrongly identified, by name and profession, too. Tiger’s professional wrestler, Johnny Cougar, for example, is described as a motorcyclist!
Hopefully, before long, Amazon will introduce more checks on the books being independently published utilising their self publishing tools, but until then, we strongly advise you to avoid so-called publishers who provide limited samples of their work, and appear to have little or no web or social media presence.
Caveat emptor, buyer beware! That is, don’t buy it!
Is it AI? Useful Checks
When checking out a book by an author you aren’t familiar with on Amazon, click on the author link and check a couple of things.
Firstly, links and/or comments from the author. Secondly, other books from author and when they came out. If they self published five books in less than a week, it’s a safe bet they were created in AI.
If those two items are suspicious, give them a hard pass.
Also: search for the “author” or stated publisher online. If you can’t find either, avoid the book!
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Books, British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, Digital Media, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Other Worlds, Reviews
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I reckon AI is just fooling us, making us think it’s still in its infancy.
a great book with zero AI is The Unofficial History of The Beano. Another good book that I would recommend is the official history of the Beano tho it has a few lies and a fair bit of white washing and revisionism
Indeed! The Unofficial History of The Beano by Iain McLaughlin was reviewed here by Andy Boal on downthetubes, back in 2022. You can still buy it from online retailers, including AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
I am almost tempted to buy the paperback just so as to write a highly negative review on Goodreads. Then my critique of Crawford’s Encyclopedia of Comics might not feel so lonely. As well the errors contained in it might give me some chuckles.
The only good thing is that no one will die as a result of such errors which can’t be said for their books on foraging for food in nature
A useful warning. It’s disheartening to learn that the Author’s Guild raised a red a flag about AI driving a surge of Sham “Books” on Amazon back in 2024, and it has gotten worse since.
Useful advice: First, when checking out a book by an author you aren’t familiar with on Amazon, click on the author link and check a couple of things. (1) Links and/or comments from the author. (2) Other books from author and when they came out. If they self published five books in less than a week, it’s a safe bet they were created in AI.
If those two items are suspicious, give them a hard pass.
Also: search for the “author” or stated publisher online. If you can’t find either, avoid the book!
This is awful.
Also, I really want to read “The Wolfman of London” strip. AI should get on with collecting that! 🙁