Comparing Human and AI Performance in Visual Storytelling through Creation of Comic Strips: A Case Study

TL;DR

This case study compares human and AI abilities in visual storytelling by having both recreate a comic strip from instructions, revealing strengths and weaknesses in coherence and artistic mimicry.

Contribution

It introduces a novel comparative framework for evaluating human and AI performance in visual storytelling through comic strip recreation.

Findings

AI excels at mimicking professional art styles

Humans outperform AI in creating coherent visual narratives

AI struggles with story coherence despite artistic skills

Abstract

This article presents a case study comparing the capabilities of humans and artificial intelligence (AI) for visual storytelling. We developed detailed instructions to recreate a three-panel Nancy cartoon strip by Ernie Bushmiller and provided them to both humans and AI systems. The human participants were 20-something students with basic artistic training but no experience or knowledge of this comic strip. The AI systems used were popular commercial models trained to draw and paint like artists, though their training sets may not necessarily include Bushmiller's work. Results showed that AI systems excel at mimicking professional art but struggle to create coherent visual stories. In contrast, humans proved highly adept at transforming instructions into meaningful visual narratives.