Programme

The image is a black-and-white illustrated poster promoting an academic event titled "COMICS & AI: Critical Prompts." The illustration style mimics hand-drawn comic art with cross-hatching for shading. Visual Elements: On the left side, a cute cartoon robot is depicted coming out of a laptop screen. The robot has a round head with large black circular eyes and a small antenna on top. It's holding a pencil in one hand as if ready to draw. Around the robot, there are floating icons symbolizing creativity: lightbulbs, stars, and another pencil. On the right side, there is a drawing of a woman with wavy dark hair, wearing a sweater. She is gesturing with one hand and has an expression that suggests she is speaking thoughtfully. Above her is a speech bubble that reads: "A multidisciplinary conference on the future of comics, technology, and creativity." Text Details: The main title is bold and prominent at the top: COMICS & AI: CRITICAL PROMPTS At the bottom, the date and venue are clearly stated: THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2025 CITY ST GEORGE’S, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Event start: 9:00hrs. End: 18:30hrs followed by social.

Schedule, abstracts and bios here

The City St George’s Interaction Lab, The Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design (HCID), and The Artificial Intelligence Research Centre (CitAI) cordially invite you to Comics & AI: Critical Prompts, a one-day, in-person multidisciplinary conference exploring the vibrant intersections of comics and artificial intelligence. 

Our speakers come from diverse disciplines and backgrounds combining Comics and AI.  

Our keynote speaker on GenAI 101 for Comics, Dr Eduardo Alonso, Professor in Artificial Intelligence and the Chair of the AI Research Committee at City St George’s University of London 

Dr Despoina Farmaki, Lecturer in Law at City St George’s, University of London 
The Ink Was Never Human: AI, Copyright, and Comics 

Dr Gareth Brookes, graphic novelist and comics scholar  
Truth Claims and Trace: The Autographic Witness in the Algorithm  

Dr Julian Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Comics and Graphic Novels at Teesside University 
Fun with AI: Digital Technology Through a Lens of Comics-Based Research 

Dr Linda Berube, Visiting Lecturer at the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design at City St. George’s, University of London 
The Digital Sociology of AI and Comics  

Dr Aaron Humphrey, Senior Lecturer in Media and Digital Humanities at the University of Adelaide, Australia 
Tracing Nationalist Legacies of Generative AI  

Dr Giorgio Busi Rizzi, FWO Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Ghent University, Belgium AI, comics, and creativity: or, why are we talking of ghosts in the machine again

Karrie Fransman, comics creator, Creative Director at PositiveNegatives.org and founding member of The Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) 
Creating IRL Comics for an AI Future  

Jasleen Kandhari,doctoral researcher, University of Leicester 
Drawing the Line: AI & Ethics in Comic Book Character Design. 

Jane Burns, Director of Education & Public Engagement at the Technological University of the Shannon, Ireland 
The Intersection with Social Innovation Education 

Viraj Joshi, designer, technologist, futurist, and  Visiting Tutor in Speculative and Human-Machine Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London 
Eliza – The Ghost in Every Machine.

Dr. Per Israelson, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Media and Communication at Linnaeus University, Sweden 
Affect and Generative AI: Reading Ilan Manouach’s manga Fastwalkers (2021) 

We will cap off the day with a panel discussion headed by Paul Gravett, comics activist and organiser of Comica, the London International Comics Festival,

with Dr Ian Hague, Associate Dean of Research at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, starting off the closing session with Beyond #NoAI: How Accepting AI Might Change Comics 

The closing panel will also include members of the Organising Committee: Ed Alonso, Linda Berube, Francesca Benatti, Senior Research Fellow in Digital Humanities at The Open University, and Ernesto Priego, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design, and a co-director of the Data, Policy and Society MSc at City St George’s, University of London, and editor and founder of The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship

Registration is now closed.

Registration deadline: 22nd August 2025, 23:59 hrs. 
Registration fee: £15 (academics / professionals), £5 (students / unwaged)
 

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to rethink comics and AI with a multidisciplinary community! 

Attendance at City St George’s events is subject to our terms and conditions

Full information at https://comicsandai.org/

Programme subject to change.

Schedule, abstracts and bios here