Abolition of Man hardcover collection -- SIGNED DELUXE

NOTE: this is for a signed deluxe edition of the book, and also includes bonus materials pictured above.

"The Abolition of Man is a thorough test drive of AI image making, and the results are extraordinary, appalling, compelling, cold, hot, beautiful, repellant, and should be abolished." ― Dave McKean, Prompt, Sandman, Cages

"Chilling. Exciting. Bizarre." ― Jim Rugg, Cartoonist Kayfabe, Street Angel, Hulk: Grand Design

Don't miss out on one of the most innovative graphic novels of the decade.

Conceived of and executed by fine-artist/educator/philosopher turned Eisner Award nominated cartoonist, Carson Grubaugh, The Abolition of Man Deluxe Edition collects all five issues of the groundbreaking series of the same name, the first comic series in history to be entirely illustrated by an Artificial Intelligence.

In a series of four interwoven experiments, Grubaugh used Midjourney AI to interpret an essay by renowned thinker, C.S.Lewis, imagine a satirical dystopian future, illustrate an AI generated script, and finally, to produce graphics for an essay provided by Oxford Philosopher of Information and AI & Data Ethics policy advisor to the EU, UK, Google, etc., Luciano Floridi. All of these strands, alternately hilarious and terrifying, weave together to give a chilling peek into the world of the future, where humans and their most treasured passions have lost all purpose.

This deluxe hardcover edition contains loads of exclusive content, including a reprint of the extremely rare Dall-E 2 variant edition of The Abolition of Man #1, in which the entire interior of issue #1 was re-illustrated using Dall-E 2. The collection also includes two pieces of philosophical writing produced by Grubaugh between 2007 and 2018 that were the source of inspiration for this project. These essays included predictions about the banal, content apocalypse AI is now making a reality.

Also accompanying the Abolition of Man project are a series of long-form discussions about the ethics and impact of AI art with superstar guests Dave McKean (illustrator), NFN Kalyan (fine artist), John Mahoney (concept designer, filmmaker) and Luciano Floridi (Philosopher of Information, Data and AI Ethics policy maker). These are posted to Living The Line's YouTube channel and linked in the book.

This singular project will hold an important place not only in the history of comics but in the history of art as it is the first of its kind to engage with the most important moment in the history of art since some wasteful cave-person blew juice at their hand on a wall instead of drinking it.

"The Abolition Of Man is a curiously uneasy experiment. One that almost seems as if the construction of it is trying to discover why it should exist. That alone is worth the time to explore it." ― J H Williams III (Echolands, The Sandman Overture, Batwoman, Promethea)

"...nightmare squared..." — Alex Sarll

About the Authors:

Carson Grubaugh (Strange Death of Alex Raymond, The Abolition of Man) earned an MFA in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art as well as BFAs in Fine Art and Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley. He was named the Mercedes Benz Financial Services Emerging Artist of 2011, was a keynote speaker at the 2013 Difference That Makes a Difference Conference at the Open University, placed 3rd in the 15th Art Renewal Center Salon portraiture category, and has shown work at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, ABTART, Virginia Beach Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of New Art, Sotheby’s NY, the European Museum of Modern Art, among other venues. Carson is currently a Full-Time Instructor of Art at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Luciano Floridi currently holds a double appointment as professor of philosophy and ethics of information at the University of Oxford, and Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna, Department of Legal Studies, where he is the director of the Centre for Digital Ethics. Starting in the Fall of 2023 Floridi will leave his position at Oxford to found the Digital Ethics Center at Yale University. Floridi is known for his work in the philosophy of information, digital ethics, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and philosophy of technology, publishing several books and hundreds of articles on these topics. He has also consulted for Google, advised the European Commission on artificial intelligence, chaired a Parliamentary commission on technology ethics, and was recently awarded the highest honor the Italian government bestows, the Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

Sean Michael Robinson is a writer, illustrator, musician, and former high school art teacher, as well as a man-about-town. In his brief time as an adult human he's drawn hundreds of pages of comics, scribbled a gazillion portraits, sung two seasons as a mercenary Christmas caroler, performed on a hundred street corners, in a dozen plays, and written and recorded nine albums. This is the very short list, leaving out as it does candy salesman, lifeguard, and other unsavory occupations. He is the founder and publisher at Living the Line Books.