That’s it, I’m done, it took almost 10 years to draw, and much longer to write, but now I’m finally done, and feeling a bit drained and tired I confess. Maybe there will be a sequel some day, but I can’t promise anything. Thank you for following Lisa on this journey. She says hi, and she loves you.
I’ve read through this at least twice, admired the artwork of every page, and thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Thank you for sharing such an incredible story with us. I have loved every moment of Lisa’s journey and (I have to admit) I am really looking forward to someday owning this comic of yours.
Rest, Relax, and be proud of your accomplishment here, Steven. You can bet we’re proud of you for it.
A tour de force. Bravo!
I think that I’ve been reading since the beginning, certainly admired your work since at least your virtual model, “Rhayne”, was it?
I wonder about the future for hand-drawn graphic novels. It must already be possible to dictate a scene setup to Dall-E and tell it to draw it in the style of Steven Stahlberg…
Thanks!
I’ve suspected for a while now that AI is a bubble, like VR, crypto, NFTs, Meta, and many others. Hyped by the people who want VC’s to invest, and by a certain type of tech-loving nerd (I used to be one). But it’s over-hype I suspect. If you dig into what it can actually do, and plot a curve of its growth, you see that advances have leveled off in the last year.
For instance, it could probably do my style even without specifically training on this comic, by typing in the obvious sources of my inspiration like Moebius, Manara and Serpieri. And maybe after a few attempts you’d get 1 page of almost coherent consistent art. (Or maybe not, AI is notoriously random and error-prone.)
But the second page? And the third, and the tenth, and the 100th? AI has no memory, no knowledge, no understanding. And it never will, it’s in the basic architecture. It could never keep any character looking guaranteed exactly the same for any length of story.
Definitely a fad. Unlike some of the fads I think it will remain and have its uses, but the most successful uses of AI will be in the hands of creators and *actual* thinkers for the foreseeable future, not the business types.
Meta is another one I find hilarious because if you take out the obsession of having everything require a VR headset, the metaverse has existed in various specialized use cases for decades now.
No, I wasn’t suggesting that a present-day AI could write a complete story from scratch, that’s full General Intelligence. What I had in mind was that an author writes a story outline, maybe even most of the dialog for the speech balloons, then the AI does almost all the drawing. (Memory of what it drew on the previous pages is a relatively trivial problem that existing text AIs have already in the toolkit). Maybe some post-processing e.g. to add “sound effect” notations, might be needed. I really don’t see it as at all outlandish. I believe that present technology has the capability.
I’ve recently been experimenting with Dall-E’s “in the style of” facility. So take a look at
deviantart.com/133049/art/after-Manara-1073800012 [don’t worry, it’s SFW, though the website name may trigger the censor bots]. I’m not sure of the woman but the man is clearly Manara’s, I can even guess which books he comes from.
Looks cool, but yes as you say, it’s not exactly his style so I doubt he would be pissed off about it if he saw it. 🙂 About ChatGPT remembering stuff, not sure how that works because I read about someone testing it in conversation and it kept changing facts when asked the same question twice… but maybe that was a different version.
Dave Nix
Congrats Steven! It’s been a long, long journey. I remember WAY back when… Back in the PowerAnimator days, pre web comic times…
Sorry for not keeping up, I sort of got out of the checking CF daily habit.
Interesting ending, do androids get ‘reincarnated’ or just have their programs recycled into a new container ?
Nice way to tie up some loose ends too, as well as leave the door open for ‘the further adventures of…’
I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and the chance to drag out a few forgotten memories for the comments, thank you for sharing it all with us and tolerating our ‘what-ifs and maybe’s’.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing this adventure with us. I enjoyed the ride immensely. The almost 10 years took me right into my retirement. Grateful for the time spent in Lisa’s world. Sorry it is over. Best wishes to you my friend.
Wow! 10 years in the making and here we are at the end (have to admit it almost felt too abrupt). It truly is quite the ride as I recall eagerly frequenting the site for updates over the past few years. I can imagine a lot has happened in life from the moment we picked up on the first page. I hope this long run that the webcomic took would soon live up to be an internet sensation.
Great Steven, thank you very much!
I came here as a follower of your 3D work (and topology research :)), ending up as a graphic novel fan of Lisas story 🙂 Me world apreciate a printwork of Android Blues as well – will you still follow this idea, you spoke some day of it?
One last question, maybe I did‘t get the point: where is Lisas new body from?
( I have to have a look at „LoR“, maybe something happened there as well ;))
Well done Mr Stahlberg (due respect for an immersive and entertaining tale)
I haven’t been here from the start but I have read it all, as well as archive diving from time to time and necro-posting when I found things I hadn’t realised the previous times through.
I agree with Arthur about a dead tree version, digital is notoriously ephemeral as shown by recent culls by digital publishers. Doesn’t have to happen immediately, take your time and have a well earned rest after your Herculean and almost Sisyphean endeavour.
Once again, thank you Steven for this story.
First, thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this to a close. Gorgeous work, as always. TBH, not quite the HEA ending I was hoping for: Maddie is still out there — a threat to Lisa if she ever learns that Lisa survived — and Lisa and Elvis don’t get to be together as romantic partners. That’s just my Hollywood heart, wanting what it wants. Pay me no mind about that…
…but please, after you’ve rested, DO pay us mind when we beg you to release Android Blues in hard copy. It’s a story I’m going to want to include in my permanent library, and I’m obviously not alone.
Hi Steve
Thank you very much! It is a great novel. For past few months I was waiting for the next page, checking this site almost every other day…
Thank you.
Would you please get in thouch with me? Via the provided email… I have a proposal for you… 😉
I have read a lot of web comics over the last 20+ years some good, some mediocre and some that started out good and turned dire, but I can’t think of any that actually made me cry. Only a handful (literally – I could probably hold them all in one hand) out of the thousands of books I’ve read have ever done that and ironically I find them a more visual medium than comics.
Your engaging plotline, inventive worldbuilding and lovely artwork combined to give me some of the best comic reading times I have had since I discovered this little gem of a web comic a couple of years ago.
Congratulations on finally finishing your magnum opus – so few actually do.
Take a break, you deserve it.
Then, if you feel you want to, you can come back with something else.
I am sure I speak for all your fans in saying that we will wait in hope that you will.
OGH
Hi Steven.
I just came across your comic this week, when you posted a page of it on insta. I must say you did awesomely well! I liked every page. Thanks for this, YOUR, piece of art. Would love to read more from you.
That’s it, I’m done, it took almost 10 years to draw, and much longer to write, but now I’m finally done, and feeling a bit drained and tired I confess. Maybe there will be a sequel some day, but I can’t promise anything. Thank you for following Lisa on this journey. She says hi, and she loves you.
You did a great job, the art is amazing and everything is super well written!
A hug from a Brazillian fan of your work!
Dont forget to rest, take care
Agradezco tu trabajo, esfuerzo y dedicación, felicitaciones!!!!!
I’ve read through this at least twice, admired the artwork of every page, and thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Thank you for sharing such an incredible story with us. I have loved every moment of Lisa’s journey and (I have to admit) I am really looking forward to someday owning this comic of yours.
Rest, Relax, and be proud of your accomplishment here, Steven. You can bet we’re proud of you for it.
A tour de force. Bravo!
I think that I’ve been reading since the beginning, certainly admired your work since at least your virtual model, “Rhayne”, was it?
I wonder about the future for hand-drawn graphic novels. It must already be possible to dictate a scene setup to Dall-E and tell it to draw it in the style of Steven Stahlberg…
Thanks!
I’ve suspected for a while now that AI is a bubble, like VR, crypto, NFTs, Meta, and many others. Hyped by the people who want VC’s to invest, and by a certain type of tech-loving nerd (I used to be one). But it’s over-hype I suspect. If you dig into what it can actually do, and plot a curve of its growth, you see that advances have leveled off in the last year.
For instance, it could probably do my style even without specifically training on this comic, by typing in the obvious sources of my inspiration like Moebius, Manara and Serpieri. And maybe after a few attempts you’d get 1 page of almost coherent consistent art. (Or maybe not, AI is notoriously random and error-prone.)
But the second page? And the third, and the tenth, and the 100th? AI has no memory, no knowledge, no understanding. And it never will, it’s in the basic architecture. It could never keep any character looking guaranteed exactly the same for any length of story.
Definitely a fad. Unlike some of the fads I think it will remain and have its uses, but the most successful uses of AI will be in the hands of creators and *actual* thinkers for the foreseeable future, not the business types.
Meta is another one I find hilarious because if you take out the obsession of having everything require a VR headset, the metaverse has existed in various specialized use cases for decades now.
No, I wasn’t suggesting that a present-day AI could write a complete story from scratch, that’s full General Intelligence. What I had in mind was that an author writes a story outline, maybe even most of the dialog for the speech balloons, then the AI does almost all the drawing. (Memory of what it drew on the previous pages is a relatively trivial problem that existing text AIs have already in the toolkit). Maybe some post-processing e.g. to add “sound effect” notations, might be needed. I really don’t see it as at all outlandish. I believe that present technology has the capability.
I’ve recently been experimenting with Dall-E’s “in the style of” facility. So take a look at
deviantart.com/133049/art/after-Manara-1073800012 [don’t worry, it’s SFW, though the website name may trigger the censor bots]. I’m not sure of the woman but the man is clearly Manara’s, I can even guess which books he comes from.
Looks cool, but yes as you say, it’s not exactly his style so I doubt he would be pissed off about it if he saw it. 🙂 About ChatGPT remembering stuff, not sure how that works because I read about someone testing it in conversation and it kept changing facts when asked the same question twice… but maybe that was a different version.
Congrats Steven! It’s been a long, long journey. I remember WAY back when… Back in the PowerAnimator days, pre web comic times…
Cheers!
This was really good. Congrats Steven. Sad to know it’s done.
Thanks so very much! I’ve been following this story pretty much since you started posting. It’s been great journey
Great story! Beautiful art! Thanks so much!
Pinky is a loose end. Maybe a short one for her with an amusing twist?
Thank you. It’s been a hell of a ride
Indeed, welldone. Feel lucky to have been able to come along for the ride! Great work!
Great Story and very beautiful Art. I follow a few webcomics, but this was definitely one of the Highlights.
Thank you very much!
Good job! Next, movie rights…
Thank you for a good story !
Sorry for not keeping up, I sort of got out of the checking CF daily habit.
Interesting ending, do androids get ‘reincarnated’ or just have their programs recycled into a new container ?
Nice way to tie up some loose ends too, as well as leave the door open for ‘the further adventures of…’
I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and the chance to drag out a few forgotten memories for the comments, thank you for sharing it all with us and tolerating our ‘what-ifs and maybe’s’.
Thank you very much. I enjoyed that story.
Thanks so much. I’ll miss the story, but it was great watching you create it.
Until the next story, good luck.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing this adventure with us. I enjoyed the ride immensely. The almost 10 years took me right into my retirement. Grateful for the time spent in Lisa’s world. Sorry it is over. Best wishes to you my friend.
Wow! 10 years in the making and here we are at the end (have to admit it almost felt too abrupt). It truly is quite the ride as I recall eagerly frequenting the site for updates over the past few years. I can imagine a lot has happened in life from the moment we picked up on the first page. I hope this long run that the webcomic took would soon live up to be an internet sensation.
Great Steven, thank you very much!
I came here as a follower of your 3D work (and topology research :)), ending up as a graphic novel fan of Lisas story 🙂 Me world apreciate a printwork of Android Blues as well – will you still follow this idea, you spoke some day of it?
One last question, maybe I did‘t get the point: where is Lisas new body from?
( I have to have a look at „LoR“, maybe something happened there as well ;))
Sorry, i have troubles reading it, as it is a bit small. What does it say?
ah sorry, WordPress makes the art smaller. Here’s a link to another website that keeps the art bigger
https://androidblues.thecomicseries.com/comics/451
Congratulations Steven! Now are you going to publish a Dead Tree version for those of us that like to collect physical artifacts?
Well done Mr Stahlberg (due respect for an immersive and entertaining tale)
I haven’t been here from the start but I have read it all, as well as archive diving from time to time and necro-posting when I found things I hadn’t realised the previous times through.
I agree with Arthur about a dead tree version, digital is notoriously ephemeral as shown by recent culls by digital publishers. Doesn’t have to happen immediately, take your time and have a well earned rest after your Herculean and almost Sisyphean endeavour.
Once again, thank you Steven for this story.
Thank you! Yes I will try to publish it some day.
Thank you! yes I will try to publish, for now I’m going back and fixing errors in font sizes, colors and other things, which will take a while 🙂
Steven,
First, thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this to a close. Gorgeous work, as always. TBH, not quite the HEA ending I was hoping for: Maddie is still out there — a threat to Lisa if she ever learns that Lisa survived — and Lisa and Elvis don’t get to be together as romantic partners. That’s just my Hollywood heart, wanting what it wants. Pay me no mind about that…
…but please, after you’ve rested, DO pay us mind when we beg you to release Android Blues in hard copy. It’s a story I’m going to want to include in my permanent library, and I’m obviously not alone.
Cheers.
Long time fan an patron here!
Congratulations! This monumental work will stand for a very, very long time!
I only got here recently, and I’m so glad I did! Thank you! It was a wonderful ride! Nothing to do now but read it again!
Hi Steve
Thank you very much! It is a great novel. For past few months I was waiting for the next page, checking this site almost every other day…
Thank you.
Would you please get in thouch with me? Via the provided email… I have a proposal for you… 😉
George
I have read a lot of web comics over the last 20+ years some good, some mediocre and some that started out good and turned dire, but I can’t think of any that actually made me cry. Only a handful (literally – I could probably hold them all in one hand) out of the thousands of books I’ve read have ever done that and ironically I find them a more visual medium than comics.
Your engaging plotline, inventive worldbuilding and lovely artwork combined to give me some of the best comic reading times I have had since I discovered this little gem of a web comic a couple of years ago.
Congratulations on finally finishing your magnum opus – so few actually do.
Take a break, you deserve it.
Then, if you feel you want to, you can come back with something else.
I am sure I speak for all your fans in saying that we will wait in hope that you will.
OGH
After you’ve taken a well-earned break, I hope you would consider creating some other stories set in the same world. They would be very appreciated.
Hi Steven.
I just came across your comic this week, when you posted a page of it on insta. I must say you did awesomely well! I liked every page. Thanks for this, YOUR, piece of art. Would love to read more from you.
Greetings from Germany