Gabby—Gab’s “Based AI Artist” De-Woke-Ifies April O'Neil, Velma, Tinker Bell, And More
Gab has a new AI art generator—Gabby—and now fans can turn the tables on Hollywood by de-woke-ifying pop culture characters.
boundingintocomics.com
Paul Hair
March 13, 2023
Gab recently introduced its brand new AI art generator—Gabby. It’s free to use and easy to understand. On top of this, it can be addictive and fun. And one way to have fun with it is to use it to turn the tables on Hollywood by de-woke-ifying fan-favorite pop culture characters that Hollywood has destroyed in recent years.
Gabby-generated images of an Arthur Rackham-style Maid Marian and a modern, digital art-style Tinker Bell (2023).
Gab introduced Gabby in late February, with the tagline that it’s a “based AI artist.” As with anything, there is a learning curve. But Gab provides a simple tutorial for using it and it doesn’t take long to start producing some interesting output. Indeed, some users have figured out how to generate outright gorgeous artwork, even as it’s clear that AI art generators aren’t going to replace actual artists just yet.
There are a ton of whimsical things to do with Gabby, and one of them is generating stunning images of pop culture characters that the entertainment industry has made woke in recent years. Are you tired of Mary Sues? Manly women and womanly men? What about “re-imagined” characters? If you’re fed up with all these things, then you’ll enjoy the below characters that Gabby has re-imagined away from Hollywood’s re-imagination.
APRIL O’NEIL
The new and improved April O’Neil compared with Gabby-generated images of her.
Might as well begin with one of the most recently re-imagined characters. April O’Neil started out with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a good-looking woman. But that has changed as the years have gone by. And the latest version is definitely a swing and a miss.
Meanwhile, Gabby generated some better interpretations of the character. Sure, they are still flawed but they are a yuge improvement over the official version of her. One of the AI-generated pieces looks like a comic book illustration (sort of). And the other shows how O’Neil would look as a 1950s comic book character. Which is the best?
TINKER BELL
The Tinker Bell for modern audiences compared with Gabby-generated images of her.
So the Wonderful World of Walt Disney has a new version of Peter Pan’s story coming out soon. And the woke company decided upon a unique look for Tinker Bell. While it’s an attractive version, it’s different than what audiences have ever previously seen. And definitely different than what J. M. Barrie imagined. Okay.
With careful input, the Gabby AI art generator crafted Tinker Bell designs closer to Barrie’s vision. One is similar to how she looked in the 1953 Disney cartoon, but it has its differences too. The second is one done in the style of famed English illustrator Arthur Rackham. In real life, Rackham provided the illustrations for Barrie’s 1906 novel, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.
GALADRIEL
The manspreading Galadriel on the cover of ‘Empire Magazine’ (July 2022) compared with Gabby-generated images of her.
Amazon Prime Video poorly portrayed Galadriel in its failed The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series. There’s not much left to be said that hasn’t already been said about it. Besides, the awfulness of the show is kind of self-evident—even for those who haven’t watched a minute of it. The infamous “manspreading” photo is a prime example.
But never fear. Gabby can produce new images of Galadriel. And the ones the AI art generator turns out are leaps and bounds ahead of the official version of her. No more Girl Boss Warrior. Instead, she’s a royal Elf. Adding a 1950s style to it puts it even closer to the source material.
LARA CROFT
Lara Croft for modern audiences compared with Gabby-generated images of her.
Lara Croft is slowly being Re-Imagined for Modern Audiences. While arguably not as extreme as the re-imagining of other characters, fans are noticing the changes creators have done to the character in recent years. And they aren’t that receptive of the changes. The 2018 Tomb Raider movie, for example, underperformed.
It’s Gabby to the rescue. Well, not exactly in this case. Gabby had trouble with generating a truly good-looking piece of art of Lara Croft, regardless of the prompts. It kept producing CGI-like, uncanny valley output. And when prompted to try a 1950s style? It didn’t come out looking like the character. (And there were a lot of strange things in the image.) Still, it’s better than the re-imagining of modern Hollywood.
VELMA
Velma for modern audiences compared with Gabby-generated images of her.
Scooby-Doo has always been a weird cartoon; just a weird concept in general. Nevertheless, people enjoy it. Or they did until Hollywood re-imagined it. The latest incarnation of Velma is all-out terrible. Her character design is awful and so is her eponymous series. No one likes it so HBO Max must’ve decided to renew it out of sheer spite.
Gabby generated a better version of Velma. In all fairness, it’s a re-imagining of the original character who was a short nerd. Yet it’s still closer to how she’s supposed to appear than what HBO Max chose to go with. Undoubtedly, fans would much prefer Gabby’s design than the current official character.
Gabby-generated images of a 1950s-style Lara Croft and a digital art-style Ariel / The Little Mermaid (2023).
Ultimately, the Gabby AI art generator is able to produce better artwork of favorite pop culture characters than diverse, inclusive, and equitable Hollywood is able to produce. That’s pretty remarkable. Better still, it’s something that Gab created. After all, the progressive-conservative uni-ideology rabidly hates Gab, and that just makes re-imagining of re-imagined characters all the more fun.
