In Second Shift, the new graphic novel out now from Avery Hill Publishing, writer/artist Kit Anderson introduces an AI that may or may not be friendly, and may or may not be malevolent. And that’s sort of the point.
“Second Shift is basically speculating how incessant interaction with highly-catered AI might affect someone’s life and personality, and how that influence could be utilized,” Anderson told Comic Book Club over email. “Of course it hasn’t just been the book—it’s also been the environmental, labor, artistic (and on and on) concerns we’ve all been observing over the past few years.”
To find out more about the creation of the book, Anderson’s thoughts on AI, and what’s next, read on.
Comic Book Club: This is a book about fictional AI, in a way it doesn’t exist in the real world — but how much has your take on AI changed from when you started working on this graphic novel, to now?
Kit Anderson: Second Shift is basically speculating how incessant interaction with highly-catered AI might affect someone’s life and personality, and how that influence could be utilized. In the book, the basic premise is that all media, interactions, the environment—everything, basically—is manufactured to meet whatever needs these workers have. Their world is entirely customizable, and subject to various levels of control. I hope that exploration feels nuanced, but I do think the time I spent working on this book clarified some of my feelings relating to AI. Of course it hasn’t just been the book—it’s also been the environmental, labor, artistic (and on and on) concerns we’ve all been observing over the past few years.
I think it’s important to consider our place in a universe of created things—that relationship is changing, getting cheapened pretty quickly here. In the context of this book, when something like nature becomes only a synthetic image and is removed from its context of place, time, carbon, etc., there’s nothing that makes it essentially natural. I feel the same about AI “art”—there’s nothing about it that makes it art to me. There’s no intention, time, care, expertise, deep thought, emotion, vitality, all that good stuff. I’d argue art isn’t there to pacify whatever fleeting need we might have in the moment—it exists in its own right, we seek it out and meet it where it is (and it changes us a little) or we don’t. When I encounter great works of art (or nature) it can feel almost transcendent, and the thought of connecting that way with something essentially meaningless/creatively empty frankly creeps me out.
Anyway, I think it strengthened feelings that were already there, but honestly I find myself getting worked-up about it a little more than I used to (and taking off when people hint at asking for an opinion as above haha). I can go on and on about any aspect, really, but I’ll just end with saying I think it’s a real privilege to make things, and it’s meaningful and important to interact with and try to synthesize the real world around us…using AI in these processes doesn’t feel like it’s honoring that to me.
At least one of my takeaways from the book was how corporations are forcing AI into every aspect of our lives… Is that something you were addressing?
God, sometimes I write these involved emails complaining to businesses who are pushing this on us and then (of course) get AI responses back. It’s bleak. Anyway, in Second Shift AI is one of the more effective tools of a highly extrapolated version of capitalism, so I think it’s something I’m addressing, yeah. It’s that original question of control and influence/manipulation. I feel like, if left underregulated, corporations would love to see this relationship to the world (e.g., media, environment, each other) collapsed and concentrated and serving their goals, and seeing AI as this tool that can conveniently simulate all of that. Obviously the book is showing an extreme version of this corporate tendency to grow and concentrate and “innovate” and bring us into its use, but I don’t think it’s a totally off-base concern.
I’m curious about your influences here, because this is a smaller, more personal sci-fi tale, versus your big budget blockbuster. Is there anything else you looked at, movie or TV-wise?
Solaris (Tarkovsky) is an important one—it was one of the first really thoughtful pieces of sci-fi I encountered as a kid. I think it was on the tv really late and I was sneaking it on a school night for some reason, and it was so slow and strange and pretty incomprehensible to me at the time but lots of stuff about it stuck somehow. Stalker (and the book that inspired it, Roadside Picnic) are also big for me, as is 2001, Moon, and Alien, but probably lots of others, too. I also have to mention a few authors—I am always absorbed by Ray Bradbury’s stories about astronauts in weird situations (“The Long Rain” from Illustrated Man being an example of this), and I think Kelly Link, Shirley Jackson, and Tillie Walden are in there, too. I’m probably inspired by Star Trek a bit, too…there are some incredible episodes that are highly personal and psychological, and I know those stay with me (“The Inner Light” from TNG being one).
I love the story within a story approach here as we get a fantasy story inside of a sci-fi story. Why was that important to the tale you were telling?
Cool, thanks! Yeah so I wanted an example in Second Shift of what AI “art” might look like in the future—for the station AI to show its visual and writing chops (the results being arguably derivative and cheesy). I messed around with a few kinds of stories, one was a sci-fi story about a lost starfighter pilot, another a gothic mystery, but the “ruined castle” fantasy story ended up feeling right. Functionally it’s showing the immersive capabilities their station AI provides for them, and it provided a departure from their more circumscribed, workaday lives—kind of an opportunity to show how their emotional landscapes were changing. It was also just fun to draw, and I like to give myself self-indulgent breaks like that.
As mentioned above, this is a very personal tale focused on one person — or two. What makes Birdie the ideal protagonist?
Birdie starts from a place of pretty much accepting the world around her and then starts to wake up to its real problems; I think she’s someone that (I hope) shows a change and movement towards more agency throughout the story—she’s more or less figuring out what’s going on along with us. I think her tendency towards passivity and avoidance makes her a good instrument for the corporation (and arguably the cartoonist), and maybe I relate more to Heck’s cynicism, but I empathize with—and genuinely like—both of them a lot.
I’m always curious about the process when it comes to art and writing, since you’re doing both… Which do you tackle first? Do you go back and forth?
I basically started with a few images that felt exciting to me, along with tons of freewriting, then focused almost exclusively on scripting for quite a while. After that I used a visual scripting method that Alison Bechdel developed (https://jessicaabel.com/visual-scripting-using-indesign-to-write-comics/) in InDesign (I’m trying to switch to Affinity, though), which was so helpful for this book. For every story I make (including this one) when I start thumbnailing I always see that there’s stuff I didn’t plan in the script phase correctly, so there is always a lot of reworking, but basically for this book I kept this Indesign document throughout the entire process, updating with new art/text many times a day. At some point it feels like the art and writing are moving together towards something, all very tied together, and it doesn’t feel right until the very end. I find comics pretty cool that way—how married those two pieces are, and how they don’t become a comic until it’s all working together the right way.
What’s next for you? Third Shift?
Haha, I don’t know! I am enjoying working on a few short stories again, and also working towards pitching a couple of longer things as well, but basically I’m not sure yet what the next big project is. It’s a weird place to be, but I trust that something will reveal itself before too long. The last few years were pretty full with Safer Places (my other book with Avery Hill) and Second Shift , and I didn’t really have the capacity to put my head up and think about the next thing/give air to another idea, but right now I have a pretty strong inclination to work more collaboratively, so my longtime best friend and I are trying to get something going together—I’m really excited about that.
Second Shift is in stores now.
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