Reflecting on Super Shifter: 2 Years In

Obviously, this channel has a lot of comic projects. I like longform storytelling, but certain projects also burn me out if I just continue

Obviously, this channel has a lot of comic projects. I like longform storytelling, but certain projects also burn me out if I just continue to push the same narrative forward every single day for months in a row. That's why I tend to shift between a few titles.

Even then, this is the first time in a long time I've returned to the Super Shifter world, which I first introduced with the preview image sequence all the way back in 2023: https://www.patreon.com/posts/super-shifter-88715658

At the time, we were still in the world of SD 1.5, and all my tests pretty much confirmed that making Super Shifter into a longform comic would probably be an ordeal.

But, it is one title that almost every time a new model comes out, I do test images to see if "can I make it yet"?

Like, given how much AI has advanced in the last year, it's probably incredible to think that the below image, which is obviously bad, still 'kinda impressive' even just a year ago. Two characters, one of which has wings, the other of which has magic powers, both of which are in distinct outfits, in the same frame, without being layered in? You could in theory do that with 1.5, but in practicality it was a nightmare.

The problem is that even though some new models have allowed greater compositional control for some elements, dynamic poses, non-human characters, LLM-integrated models suffer from severe censorship, and only until fairly recently was character costume consistency not... just always bad. Even now, the best models still struggle.

Because I do ultimately want Super Shifter to be an action comic, something I haven't really done yet, in part because I could taste the sense that the models are almost there, but not quite.

I also keep thinking back what the exact tone is I would want for the project, since the tone and the narrative tend to go hand-in-hand. I want it to be sexy, fun, action-driven, but maybe also critically, funny. The problem is that some of the aspects that are strongly part of the narrative core for me (the nature of Shifter's transformation and origin story) can sometimes veer toward the darker side of things, and so there's narrative challenges in managing tone I need to think about, beyond the visual problems. You could describe it as, "I have Marvel sensibilities, but interest in DC-style character archetypes and themes." Otherwise, I would probably just release it as a Prose Project (something I might plausibly do if visual models still can't execute this story by mid-2026).

The result is that I now have been iterating on the designs of some of the key characters for years now. Here's a classic iteration of "Femme Fatale."

One model's version of Foxfire:

A different style of Super Shifter:

So basically, as the models continue to advance, I will continue exploring different types of comics. I will do Super Shifter when I have a model that isn't hamstrung by censorship and can handle character consistency.

And I guess, this is just a casual reminder that -- I still have plenty of gas in the tank, and I'm still thinking about projects I want to do two, three, four years from now.

In the meantime, I do hope you've enjoyed "Tent Story", set in the Super Shifter universe!