These images and the main part of the text were created by ChatGPT, with a healthy dose of revision, addition, guidance, recombination, and of course, laying out the basic story elements by… some silly person. That said, GPT absolutely did the lion’s share of the heavy-lifting here, and I’m quite impressed by the results(!) Note: the other two “Tintin” images are simply earlier models that I was unsatisfied with; just thought I’d include them for fun’s sake.
TBC-- this little exercise was conceived as an answer to the challenge posted here.
EDIT: For those downvoting, could you explain why you just did that? The reason I ask is mainly because I’ve busted my arse on this community for well over a year, with hundreds of my best content and mini-review posts shared for what I thought was the public good.
Indeed, have you read the side-bar and do you understand the mission of this sub? Thanks for explaining, if you choose to.
The Case of the Vanishing Vintage
The morning sunlight filtered through the antique windows of Marlinspike, catching on rows of mismatched gadgets cluttering the Professor’s workshop. The Captain paced the drawing room, clutching his hat as if it might float away. “Gone! My last bottle of 1927 Herringbone Reserve!” he bellowed. “Do you know what that means, lad?”
Tintin adjusted his cap, surveying the Captain with calm curiosity. “It means someone here has suspiciously good taste in whiskey,” he quipped.
“No, it means calamity! It means treachery!” The Captain leaned close, his voice dropping to a whisper. “And it means I’ll have to drink… gin,” a look of plain contempt on his face.
The boy detective sighed. “I’ll find it, Captain. Start from the beginning.”
Before the Captain could stammer out a reply, the Professor bustled in to the room, holding what appeared to be a metal umbrella with a whisk attached to the tip. “Ah,” the Professor exclaimed. “I’ve just solved Cutts’ problem of pigeons on his chimney. All it took was a spot of clever engineering!”
“What kind of engineering?” asked Tintin, tilting his head.
“Oh, nothing special—magnets, gears, a bit of wire…” The Professor trailed off and tapped the umbrella’s handle thoughtfully. “And a vessel of a certain, shall we say, vintage quality to balance the structure.”
The Captain, oblivious to the implication, waved a hand. “Yes, yes, but what about my whiskey?”
“I’m sure it’ll turn up,” the Professor said cheerfully. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a blueprint that needs refinement.”
The boy detective watched the Professor leave, his brow furrowed. Then he glanced at Snowy, who cocked his head expectantly. “Hmm…” the lad muttered.
It wasn’t long before Tintin and Snowy were on the cobblestone streets of the nearby Belgian town, weaving through bakers, bicyclists, and buskers. They found Cutts standing outside his shop, eyeing his roof with a mix of awe and terror.
“Cutts,” called the boy detective, “where’s the Professor’s invention?”
“Oh, it’s up there,” Cutts replied, pointing to a rotating monstrosity on the roof. The umbrella whisk twirled energetically, flinging breadcrumbs into the sky at intervals. “Thing scares off pigeons but attracts swans. I’ve got three nesting in my chimney now.”
Tintin tilted his head, observing the contraption as Snowy barked sharply. His eyes darted to the base of the device, where a faint glint caught his attention. “Great snakes!” he exclaimed.
Scrambling up the drainpipe with Snowy close behind, he finally reached the mechanism. Wedged in a tangle of wires, unmistakable amid the absurd construction, was the Captain’s whiskey bottle.
“Got it!” he shouted triumphantly. Snowy gave an approving yap, his tail wagging.
But just as he reached to grab it, the mechanism sputtered and roared to life, flinging the bottle skyward. Snowy barked furiously, and the boy detective muttered under his breath, “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.”
Just then, a despairing, spine-chilling wail met their ears from the street below, as it seems Captain Haddock had been surreptitiously following the investigation, finally understanding what had happened and what had just occurred.
EDIT: Days later and damn, I see I made a major ‘fox paw,’ here. As in, the professor would be nowhere near able to communicate so easily with the others. Also, it seems like the ending’s just a little inadequate. Hmm…
EDIT: For those downvoting, could you explain why you just did that?
I’ve got the impression, many users downvote any content that is AI generated or related to AI.
That’s probably why
And rightly so.
Naturally, I find that a bit harsh in this case.
I rarely post AI content, and this was obviously a complete lark, not to be taken seriously. I also put a fair bit of work in this, learned some lessons in the creation process, and put everything in to context.
Don´t take it personal Johnny, it’s not about you or your past efforts. Most people who are into hand made art simply dislike AI generated content in general and downvote it wherever they see it. So they are not downvoting you, they are downvoting AI generated content and one could argue that AI generated stuff is per se misplaced content in a community of BD nerds. Just compare with the upvotes and positive replies all your posts of hand made art always get. Btw There are several AI communities that love AI generated stuff and whould certainly upvote this post, so I think this is in the first place a “choose the right crowd” issue.
Yeap, no doubt. Still, that was the worst reaction I’ve ever gotten here, compared to the few (two) times in which I posted AI stuff, one of which was actually adored, going by upvotes and all.
I can’t control how people react of course, but as the primary content creator here, I do feel heavily invested, and cultivating motivation to keep writing mini-articles and share content is a real issue for me. This kind of thing doesn’t exactly help with that, especially coming from those following this community for a while and who understand my role.
I like the way his face changes completely between images.
Seriously though, the great thing about Tintin was the illustration work. The writing was always a little … Meh.
I know you are not asking my advice, but you clearly have some talent. Concentrate on your own work and your own story. You can do it, I promise you, and you’ll be great at it.
And this is a genuine offer, when you write your own stories, based on your own characters, give me a shout and I’ll be your reader.
Fun fact: Cutts is known as Henri Sanzot in the original French.
https://antifandom.com/tintin/wiki/Cutts_the_ButcherEDIT: Oh dear, I should have pointed out a couple things earlier:
ChatGPT would not accept any copyrighted characters as a premise for eitger story or image, so I had to painstakingly re-create them by text description, even as I got scolded over and over again.
It’s funny, tho-- eventually the AI seemed to ‘get over that,’ and was actually calling the little white dog “Snowy.” I don’t recall ever declaring that! XD
Point is-- it’s almost like you can wear the AI model down, at least the current one, eh?
I got scolded over and over again.
Oh man I hate that so much about those LLM chatbots. It’s like: I’m not trying to do anything bad here, don’t take it out on me because you guys stole all that data…
That’s an interesting challenge you mention. If I was going to tell a custom Tintin story, I think it’d be a version of Tintin: Breaking Free, but instead of being a working-class anarchist he’d be the regular Tintin character who’s radicalized during an adventure.
Sorry to see all the downvotes. Yeah, I think it’s because of the AI-generated images.
Ah, Rolando…! (or Sergio I guess, haha)
Mucho gusto. It’s been a while. How are you? <3
