AI-Assisted Apocalypse Comic Assignment
Matt Hedstrom is an associate professor of religious studies and 2024-2026 Faculty AI Guide at UVA. For the final assignment in his Engagements course on apocalypse, he asks students to use generative AI to create a comic depicting their vision of apocalypse.
A note from Matt Hedstrom: We discussed AI quite a bit in the class, and so the students were prepared for the metacognition part of the assignment – using the AI tool to generate images, but also reflecting on what it did well and what it did poorly. Students had read about the social implications of AI in a previous class.
This assignment builds on your previous two cultural artifact analyses, but now you have the opportunity to craft your own narrative.
For your final project, you will, first, use Microsoft Copilot, a generative AI tool, to create a 10-panel graphic novel or comic that depicts your own vision of apocalypse. It can be humorous or serious, a commentary on other apocalyptic narratives or a unique vision of your own. It can be dystopian or utopian (or neither), bleak of hopeful, or really just about anything as long as it is apocalyptic. Be creative!
A few guidelines:
- It should be 10 panels in length
- Each panel should have either a short caption or dialogue bubbles
Either link to or upload your graphic novel.
Second, as before, you will write an analysis of the artifact, this time 3-4 pages in length.
This should include a description of the creative process, including an account of at least some of the main prompts you used to create it. You might also note any oddities of the AI generation, and how well the final product reflects your desired outcomes.
Most of your analysis, however, should be a close reading of the artifact. Describe the apocalyptic themes of the artifact, and what you intend them to reveal. In your analysis, you must discuss 2 of the readings from this course, detailing how these readings relate to, or inspired, or in some other way contributed to or offered perspective on your creation.
Possible questions you might address, as before: What hopes or fears are expressed in this artifact? Is it dystopian or utopian? A warning? A message of hope or consolation? Does it illuminate any critical dimensions of difference in US society—economic, racial, religious, political, educational, gendered, sexual, or in some other way?
Please upload your analysis as a PDF or Word document, with your name and the date at the top.
