First off, there are the usual telltale signs - strange anatomy, errors a human is unlikely to make. The weird hands, Joker being insanely ripped in one panel and wasting away in another. His wandering nipples!

Secondly, there’s the style, which Sorrentino doesn’t appear to have used before outside of a couple of instagram posts. His other work is very distinctive - heavily photo-referenced, high contrast lighting. This is quite a departure from that. Not enough on its own, but telling.

This shift in styles becomes more suspicious when you note there seem to be additions in a much more basic brush - look at the repetition in shape on the large black stroke in the 1st image, the daubs of red in the 2nd & 3rd. If you’re actually painting these, why skimp here?

This image in particular feels like a prompt that’s been modified to look Jokerish. Why the washboard abs, the ripped jeans and sneakers? Hardly screams “Joker”. Smart move hiding the hands, though

Another thing that stands out is how low resolution the “painted” panels are compared to the rest of the art. Look at the pixelation and jpeg artefacts compared to the smooth speech balloons and non-painted art.

Here’s a good example of seemingly carefully painted art being modified in pretty rudimentary fashion, presumably because it didn’t fit the intended purpose. The sharp outlines around the cut & pasted hair in comparison to the brush strokes around it, the repeated elements

I’ve seen people say that you can’t achieve that kind of look with a machine, so here’s some examples of similar-looking AI art.

AI is useful for lots of things. There are medical applications, things that make our lives smoother, even photo restoration can be ok if not overdone (sadly it usually is). It’s not *all* bad. But generative AI art is soulless plagiarism. Keep it out of comics @DCOfficial

@DCOfficial It’s worth noting: people wondered if the more recognisably Sorrentino panels are AI art too, as it looks exactly like Batfleck. I’m sceptical of this; the more likely answer is he’s used his usual tracing process on screenshots. Not great, but I guess DC owns the rights

@DCOfficial Not that it’s the main point here, but I genuinely did love the work before and after this. Zdarsky’s a hell of a writer and Jorge Jiménez is perfect for Batman - so expressive and dynamic. The stuff I love about comic art that’s being drowned out by this stuff

@DCOfficial Here's some tests that I think back up the claim (they added the text and panel framing to their AI generated image) https://x.com/dibujantemierda/...

@DCOfficial one of the tweets I was referring to is embedded within the other one, here it is for convenience https://x.com/dibujantemierda/...

@DCOfficial as this has reached such a wide audience: I don’t voice this kind of suspicion lightly. I know it’s a big deal, I know people have been wrongly accused before. It’s why I spent time researching after someone raised the possibility, and pored over all 3 issues.

@DCOfficial separately, some of these points could be dismissed. It’s the fact that all the different telltale signs stack up together, with modifications that suggest the artist did not create the base artwork. I understand DC comics is being contacted for comment

@DCOfficial With multiple artists also facing AI allegations recently, it’s clear comics companies need to have a checking process in place if they want to make a stand for actual artists. The world is changing, and it’s only going to get harder to tell.

@DCOfficial I’ve been discussing this elsewhere and I think I should add: I’m not at all against tracing/repurposing photo reference or 3D models, provided it’s something the artist has the right to use. That’s not a moral issue at all, it’s one of taste, and the results can be spectacular

@DCOfficial I’m limiting the ability to reply to just the people mentioned now, as I think we’ve heard all the relevant points now. I hope this is resolved soon, and I would encourage people to be careful about applying the AI label to artists - I didn’t write this without weeks of thought

This, from his work on the last issue of Image’s Bone Orchard: Tenement, also has the hallmarks mentioned earlier in the thread: very detailed but low-resolution art, with hi-res but very basic modifications https://x.com/comicskirby/stat...

Although our opinions on AI in art differ, I found this a very interesting read. Jim has gone into further detail and analysed the material using his expertise as someone who uses AI regularly https://x.com/JtheAIwhisperer/...

This is another pretty convincing case of someone using generative AI for official DC Comics work, from Francesco Mattina - logos are another thing to look out for, as, like text, the AI struggles to generate them accurately

This is key, really: Jim Lee has made his opinion of AI art known, but @DCOfficial haven't made a statement addressing these incidents, so we're left to wait and see whether Sorrentino's art is still included once Joker Year One is collected. https://x.com/ComicsWithDan/st...

@DCOfficial This is good news!!

@jamesdleech @And_Sorrentino I've seen a lot of AI stuff try to render kissing and it almost always looks that way, flat profile, no actual contact, likely because actual smooching would make some sort of nightmarish merge of the two. Also there appears to be a speaker on the Bathorse for some reason.

@zippedbinders @And_Sorrentino to be fair, the speaker is part of the story, but you’ll notice that it doesn’t appear to be painted like the rest is, probably because AI couldn’t generate a speaker on the side of a horse without looking bizarre

@jamesdleech @And_Sorrentino Looks like you finally got the big outlets talking about this James.

@captain_Nelson @And_Sorrentino Thanks! I hope we get some kind of answer out of this.

@jamesdleech @And_Sorrentino A very interesting thread James. Have @DCOfficial or Sorrentino issued a statement about this at all?

@MelMellonie @And_Sorrentino @DCOfficial Thanks Mel - nothing yet, not that I’ve seen anyway

@jamesdleech @And_Sorrentino what the hell is a lachsack

@noahwayhome smh Noah, not the point

@jamesdleech @And_Sorrentino Dude, if anything, he’s doing AI art for reference, and then drawing his own thing

@Wr3nCh00 @And_Sorrentino I’d recommend you read the entire thread. If he was drawing his own thing, the painted sections would be higher quality.