Mixed Initiative Comic Making in the Wild: Taking an Artist’s Approach Out of the Studio

This chapter delves into the widespread availability of generative AI tools and their impact on creative expression, making complex creative processes accessible through natural language prompts and intuitive interfaces. It focuses on casual creativity, spontaneous, non-professional creative acts like sketching or tinkering, valued for playfulness, reflection, and everyday engagement. The study presents a series of participatory workshops with non-experts using a mixed-initiative comic-making method that alternates between human hand-drawn frames and AI-generated interpretations. Participants, regardless of drawing skill, used this approach to construct alternating human-AI visual narratives. The chapter examines both the comics produced and participant reflections, highlighting the method's capacity to support creative self-expression among general audiences. It also shines a critical lens on the use of AI in creative tasks, contributing to an emerging critical AI literacy perspective in design and arts practice. The study aims to understand how the method can support creative self-expression and the implications of AI's real-world integration in playful and informal settings.