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Matt Kindt’s Flux House Unveils “100% Human-Made” Open-Source Certification for Comics Creators

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Graphic Policy Team Leave a comment

Oni Press has revealed Matt Kindt’s newest initiative in advance of the forthcoming launch of the creator’s Flux House imprint: “100% Human-Made” – a new, open-source certification for comics, graphic novels, and other visual, musical and audio forms of creative work to designate them as fully derived of the human imagination and otherwise free of elements designed or enhanced by generative artificial intelligence.

Featuring an emblem designed by Kindt himself that will first debut on June’s Mind MGMT: New & Improved #1 – launching a brand-new beginning for the creator’s widely acclaimed comics masterpiece at Oni Press – the “100% Human-Made” certification is created under the Creative Commons “Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International” license. Under those terms, artists seeking to utilize the “100% Human-Made” certification can “distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format” for commercial and not-for-profit purposes, as long as it carries the following Creative Commons attribution:

100% HUMAN-MADE © 2026 by Matt Kindt, LLC is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Potential users can download a high-resolution .eps copy of the 100% HUMAN-MADE emblem HERE and at OniPress.com.

Comics

Midjourney Files a Motion to Compel against Disney and Warner Bros. in AI Fight

Posted on March 28, 2026 by Brett Leave a comment

While the comic world is mainly focused on the court drama that is Diamond’s chapter 11/chapter 7, we’ve also made sure to keep track of other major cases making their way through the courts. One that may have just as big an impact on the world of comics is the lawsuit by Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery against Midjourney.

In June of 2025, Disney and Universal launched a lawsuit against Midjourney over what they called its “bottomless pit of plagiarism” that generates “endless unauthorized copies.” Warner Bros. Discovery launched their lawsuit in September for similar reasons, and those two separate lawsuits were combined in November.

Marvel and DC Comics are both named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit with characters from each being used as examples of Midjourney’s theft.

The parties have been figuring out discovery in the case, the part where they each hand over relevant documents to each other so they can go over evidence. Documents can be relevant emails, text messages, memos, etc. Discovery has been a bumpy process with a place hashed out in February and then a dispute happening March that went before the judge.

Now, Midjourney has filed to compel the complainants to produce further documents in response Midjourney’s Requests for Production (the process of getting the documents during discovery).

In other words, Midjourney believes Disney, Universal, and/or Warner Bros. Discovery are holding back documents or there’s more documents than what they’ve received. Midjourney is asking a judge to step in to make them hand over more documents to Midjourney. This is a pretty big action, much like going to a teacher to settle a dispute you should be able to have handled yourselves.

In the world of discovery, this is potentially a big deal and shows this court case might be having some drama and animosity behind the scenes.

Below is the main motion and we’ll update with more supporting documents when we can.

OpenAI shuts down SORA and with it goes Disney’s Billion Dollar Investment

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Brett Leave a comment

OpenAI is shutting down Sora, the generative-AI video creation platform that was launched in 2024. No specifics were given as to why, the Sora team released a statement:

We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing.

We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work. – The Sora Team

With the shutdown, goes the investment Disney promised just three months ago. The two companies announced a three-year licensing agreement that allowed Sora to use some Disney intellectual property from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars, for the creation of videos. Those videos were going to be added to Disney+ in a new curated section. That deal included a $1 billion stake in OpenAI.

That’s now evaporated like the value of an NFT.

Disney released a statement to Variety:

As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere. We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.

While Disney cut a deal with OpenAI it has been more adversarial with other platforms including sending Google a cease-and desist demand and it, along with Universal and Warner Bros., are suing Midjourney.

Technology

GlobalComix Updates its AI Content Policy Removing Fully AI Generated Works

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Brett Leave a comment

Last week, GlobalComix announced it closed a $13 million round of funding by AI friendly investors and acquired INKR, a digital manga/comics platform with AI tools focused on translation. That news put a new spotlight on GlobalComix and its policy towards AI and comics.

At the time their policy stated:

We allow AI comics to be uploaded at this time, although that may change in the future. We also reserve the right to remove AI content at our discretion.

There are a few key things to be aware of regarding AI content, and by uploading to GlobalComix, you agree to these:

You must disclose the use of AI, whether visual(Art) or written(Story), as part of the release upload process
AI content is not eligible for monetization at this time, including but not limited to GlobalComix Gold revenue and PDF sales
The donation button is disabled in releases utilizing AI Art
We take violations of this policy very seriously. Repeat infractions, particularly around disclosure, may result in actions taken against your creator profile and GlobalComix account.

As you can imagine, the renewed highlighting of GlobalComix’s acceptance of AI and the investment and acquisition within that space raised concerns by creators whose comics are available on the digital comics platform.

GlobalComix has updated their policy this week with what feels like a 180 turn from the previous one. While it doesn’t prevent the use of AI within the creation process, it does prevent “fully AI generated works” from the platform.

TLDR;

GlobalComix changes policy to remove fully AI generated works

These works have been hidden today from the platform

Our content team is working through finding mislabeled/undisclosed AI contents

We support using AI tools supporting creator workflows, but not as fully generated

GlobalComix is, first and foremost, a home for human creativity.

We recognize that emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), can be used as creative tools, but also that their use raises valid concerns about originality, respect for artists’ rights and quality.

In this policy, we wanted to:

Prioritize and protect human artistry

Protect our creators and their work

Enable creativity and expression across skills and use cases

Create forward-looking guidelines and create a stable environment for creators as tools and technologies continue to evolve

Set clear expectations for when and how AI-generated or AI-assisted materials can appear and be monetized on GlobalComix.

Our Principles

GlobalComix celebrates human storytelling, art, and originality.

We want creators to be able to thrive from their art and artistry.

AI tools may be used to assist creative work, but they should never fully remove the human from the workflow.

When AI Use Is Acceptable in Comics

The uploader has full rights and licenses to use the AI tools and any resulting outputs.

AI is used for supporting or enhancing a creator’s original work (for example, coloring assistance, idea exploration, background generation, effects, animation).

When AI tools are used as a part in the broader creative workflow in concert with human artistry.

The creator discloses AI involvement clearly when it forms a meaningful part of the artwork or writing (e.g., in the release description or credits).

GlobalComix may provide exceptions to our policy on the use of AI with regards to content creation when considering the guidelines above.

If GlobalComix requests material documenting licenses to characters, likenesses, intellectual property, or copyrights, it is the burden of the uploader to provide said material. When evidence is not provided in a timely manner, we will assume that these criteria have not been met.

Anyone considering uploading content utilizing generative AI should email content-violation@globalcomix.com and a member of our team will review the submission.

When AI Use Is Not Acceptable

Content that violates any of the following will not be allowed:

Generated AI graphics that imitate or copy another creator’s intellectual property, style, likeness, or characters without permission.

Works that misrepresent AI outputs as entirely human-made.

AI-generated content that violates GlobalComix’s broader obscenity or hate-speech rules, including depictions of sexualized minors or sexual violence.

Works where visuals are made fully via Gen AI prompts, instead of using AI as just one tool among many in a broader creative workflow.

If there is doubt about the origin of a work, GlobalComix may ask for supporting information (such as which AI tools were used, or documentation of rights).

Anyone considering uploading content utilizing generative AI should email content-violation@globalcomix.com and a member of our team will review the submission.

Protecting Creator Rights

GlobalComix will not use creator-uploaded content to train Generative Visual AI models without the creator’s explicit opt-in consent if such systems are ever developed.

Uploading content to GlobalComix does not grant third parties permission to train AI on that work unless the creator explicitly grants permission.

Monetization of AI-Generated Work

Content that is created with human artistry, but uses AI assisted tools (examples listed in section 7) can be monetized.

GlobalComix reserves the right to decide what qualifies as acceptable content and may remove monetization from any work it determines lacks sufficient original artistry from the creator.

Review and Updates

As laws, technologies, and community standards evolve, this policy may be updated.

GlobalComix will publish updates explaining how new policies affect both human and AI-assisted creators.

Questions or concerns about AI use can be sent to content-violation@globalcomix.com.

Examples of acceptable use of AI

Clip Studio Colorize & Smooth, Tone Remove features

https://help.clip-studio.com/en-us/manual_en/390_filters/AI_Tools.htm

Reasoning: These features empower creators and work as a small part of the creative process. Subjectivity, taste and creative decision-making is used extensively while creating the end product.

Adobe Illustrator AI features

https://www.adobe.com/learn/illustrator/web/illustrator-generative-ai-introduction

Reasoning: These features empower creators and work as a small part of the creative process. Subjectivity, taste and creative decision-making is used extensively while creating the end product.

Adobe Photoshop AI features (including generative fill)

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/ai.html

Reasoning: These features empower creators and work as a small part of the creative process. Subjectivity, taste and creative decision-making is used extensively while creating the end product.

Custom Trained Visual Generation Models

Reasoning: It’s acceptable to use Generative AI to create visuals based on original and owned artwork. Original character design and world building is required to train the model, and the output needs to be composed to a final comic product with artistry and creative decision-making.

Retouching AI features

Reasoning: Using software and tools that edit original artwork (e.g. changing colors, up-scaling, smoothing, changing select details) is allowed as they work as a single step in a larger workflow that requires subjectivity and creative decision-making.

The Lawyers Behind the $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Slash their Fee Bid after Pushback

Posted on March 23, 2026 by Brett Leave a comment

In December 2025, the lawyers behind the $1.5 billion settlement requested $302 million in fees and expenses from the court for their work during the lawsuit against Anthropic for use of copywritten material to train its AI model.

The lawsuit was over the artificial intelligence platform Anthropic’s use of copywritten material. The settlement includes $1.5 billion, about $3,000 for each instance of use. If an author has 3 books that were used by Anthropic, they’d receive $9,000 as an example.

The plaintiff’s lawyers asked a federal judge for $300 million in attorney fees plus expenses of about $1.97 million and $17 million reserve fund for future expenses in December 2025. That’s around 20% of the settlement. There was also a request of $50,000 for each of the three named plaintiffs in the case. $75 million of the $300 million would have gone to three firms, Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard, Edelson, and Oppenheim + Zebrak, while the rest would have gone to Susman and Lieff Cabraser.

That amount received pushback and was objected to and that request has been lowered.

Law firms Susman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser asked the federal court in San Francisco to award them 12.5% of the settlement fund, or $187.5 million.

The final approval of the settlement will be considered during an April 23 hearing. A preliminary approval happened in September 2025.

Lawsuits

GlobalComix Closes a $13 million round and Acquires INKR raising Questions about its future and AI

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Brett

On Thursday, GlobalComix in an interview with Rob Salkowitz at Forbes announced that it had received $13 million in new capital in a round led by SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures. It had previously raised $6.5 million in 2023. They also announced the acquisition of digital manga platform INKR adding over 200,000 volumes of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean comics as well new technology the company brings, including AI translation lettering. Finally, Henrik Rydberg has been named CEO after having joined the company as a board member in January 2025.

We’ve been digging into the venture funding in the comic industry, a rather difficult task with just glimpses of information from various sources. Thankfully a release like this makes things a bit easier to dive in to examine a rather large investment in the industry.

The reality is, today’s venture capital and investment is quite different than a decade ago. AI funding has sucked up investments and focus with over 61% of global venture capital investment going towards it in 2025 (though some put the number at 50% or more). That’s up from an estimated 27.5% of funding in 2023. In other words, unless there’s some AI hook in your tech company, it’s much more difficult to get funding resulting in fewer investments and smaller amounts in non-AI related tech. It’s an issue that has been raised regularly in 2025 and 2026 by tech firms both in and out of the comic industry.

In total GlobalComix has received $19.7 million in total funding with $13 million of that coming this March. Point72 ventures was part of the Series A funding for the platform in 2023 along with another investor not listed by Crunchbase, a platform that tracks this information. That funding round involved $6.5 million. What’s intriguing is Crunchbase has its “Heat Score” and “Growth Score” both trending down for the digital comics platform.

Sensor Tower estimates GlobalComix with an install range on Android between 500,000 and 1 million, ranked #17 in “comics downloads” in the US. Apple’s install range isn’t listed but it’s estimated to be 30,000 downloads last month, ranked #19 in “Magazines & Newspapers – Downloads” and between the two Sensor Tower estimates a revenue of about $90,000 in the previous month. Add in a reported 2.2 million monthly web visits by Crunchbase and we get an idea of where the platform stands, though the data is questionable and flimsy. Marvel Unlimited, VIZ Manga, Tapas, K Manga, Crunchyroll, Shonen Jump, MANGA Plus, and Webtoon are examples of apps that rank higher for Google Play. Trends are really what matters here, not the snapshot.

But, when it comes to venture investment, one thing is always clear, they’re looking for return on their investment.

In the interview, Rydberg states that “growth continues to accelerate.”

GlobalComix, the company has seen month-over-month increases of 20% after adding top publishers DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Kodansha and Seven Seas to its lineup, and augmenting its subscription-based pricing model with a la carte sales.

The AI Question

When it comes to AI on the platform where does GlobalComix stand? Directly from their Support FAQ:

We allow AI comics to be uploaded at this time, although that may change in the future. We also reserve the right to remove AI content at our discretion.

There are a few key things to be aware of regarding AI content, and by uploading to GlobalComix, you agree to these:

You must disclose the use of AI, whether visual(Art) or written(Story), as part of the release upload process
AI content is not eligible for monetization at this time, including but not limited to GlobalComix Gold revenue and PDF sales
The donation button is disabled in releases utilizing AI Art
We take violations of this policy very seriously. Repeat infractions, particularly around disclosure, may result in actions taken against your creator profile and GlobalComix account.

GlobalComix already was friendly towards the use of AI in the creation of the comics on its platform, but with the acquisition of INKR, the company is diving further into the controversial technology:

Rydberg says the addition of INKR enables GlobalComix to implement a suite of technologies that he characterized as “Figma for comics”: collaborative, AI-assisted tools for translating, formatting and distributing IP globally, overcoming some of the cost and timing issues related to localization.

“AI as a technology gets a lot of attention,” said Rydberg. “We see creators as the very heart of storytelling. But the same way we use computers and software to paint, we want to extend tools to creators and translators to amplify what they’re doing, to make their lives easier and more efficient. We are not in the business of creating foundational models.”

Figma is a “collaborative interface design tool” described as a “web-based graphics editor software” and has dived into app development.

In the article, Rydberg leans into INKR as a “tool” to enable translators to replace text on the “page directly in the balloons and captions, without needing the artist involved.”

There’s been a lot of discussion of the use of AI for translation services, often rejected by fans and readers, receiving a very negative response. Like many industries, the implementation of AI in translation services is costing jobs and driving down salaries. Netflix has said it would use AI for subtitles resulting in boycotts. While this doesn’t sound like a complete replacement for manual labor, any mention of AI brings caution and skepticism in the creative field.

With the acquisition of INKR it’s clear that GlobalComix is focused on that global part not only expanding its offerings but leaning into AI to allow “simpler” translations of the comics hosted on its platform.

SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures

Point72 Ventures isn’t new when it comes to investing in GlobalComix having previously done so. Point72 Ventures invests in artificial intelligence, enterprise software, financial services, and FinTech. Crunchbase reports 249 investments with a wide range of values in investment. AI music platforms, technology for the Department of War, video games, and more. Their investments have recently been AI heavy, but diverse in industries and technology focus.

SBI US Gateway Fund is described as a “venture fund that provides funding through investment to early-stage start-ups in US.” Their history is far shorting with just 6 investments beginning in 2023. Their $13 million in GlobalComix is in range with previous investment which range from $3.8 million to a high of $18 million. Their focus is all over with their earliest in Kite AI but from there expanding into IT consulting and healthcare.

While Point72 Ventures has history with GlobalComix, the addition of SBI is interesting as a recent newcomer.

Henrik Rydberg, the new CEO

In the announcement, Rydberg is named the new CEO with co-founder Christopher Carter remaining with the company leading innovation and technology development.

Rydberg has served on the board since January 2025 coming from a the world of startups such as Date Like Goblins, a spin on the dating app, as well as venture investment like Mach49. But, he does have experience in “user experience” as part of Shapeways that can help GlobalComix. A platform whose two top priorities are content and the user experience to consume it and post it, that experience and background could be handy.

Conclusion

GlobalComix has been invested in AI for quite some time now, and at least one major funder, Point72 Ventures, isn’t new. This announcement is an interesting infusion into the company that shows signs of a focus on growth and its investors see potential for it. There’s nothing really new in the vision or goal, they’ve just doubled/tripled down on it. But, with that investment comes a reminder that they are invested in and embrace AI, a technology which has numerous detractors within the comic industry and seen rejection by consumers. It’s easy to see this investment turn sour with such a high profile clear lean into AI.

Disney, Warner Bros., Universal and Midjourney Head to Judge Over Discovery Dispute

Posted on March 9, 2026 by Brett

In February, a plan was hashed out between Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, and Midjourney over discovery when it comes to their possible trial. Now, a dispute has arisen over discovery and the numerous parties need the judge to hash things out.

In June 2025, studios started to sue Midjourney. In multiple lawsuits, they claimed the AI platform was a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” In November, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. consolidated their two cases into one. Their cases were similar and made similar claims against the tech company.

This case impacts the comics community as both Marvel (via Disney) and DC Comics (via Warner Bros.) are part of the plaintiffs and specifically mentioned in filings.

We haven’t see what the dispute is but will update this article with more details or a full report when a decision is made.

The date of the conference will take place on March 12.

Disney vs Midjourney

Update: San Diego Comic-Con Quietly Updates its Art Show AI Policy Reversing Course

Posted on January 14, 2026 by Brett

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 is gearing up and had a bit of a dust-up already when it comes to AI’s presence at this year’s convention. Policies and more were released concerning the art show at the convention, which initially allowed “material produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI).” As you can imagine, with a convention built on artists that went over exactly like a turd in a pool.

Less than 24 hours after the issue was raised, the convention quietly updated the policy reversing the decision:

(3) Material created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.

We imagine extra scrutiny will be given towards every policy, presentation, exhibitor, when it comes to this year’s convention after this and speaking up can create positive outcomes.

Also, fuck AI.

Update: Glen Wooten, the individual in charge of the art show, gives much more context of the situation, explaining that the language has been that way for years but flew under the radar due to the fact the use of AI wasn’t as much of a thing. But, with the issue front and center, it needed to be updated instead of discouraging, outright banning its use. A check of the Wayback Machine has the language present in 2024.

Google Responds to Disney’s Cease-and-Desist by Removing Content

Posted on December 13, 2025 by Brett

On the same day that Disney cut a billion dollar deal with OpenAI for the use of its intellectual property in SORA, news came out that Disney went after Google for the same thing. Disney accused Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale.” Much like its lawsuit against Midjourney, Disney accused Google of exploiting its characters and distributing infringing images and videos. They sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google to get them to stop the infringement.

In response, Google has removed dozens of AI-generated videos featuring Disney’s characters. In their letter, Disney flagged YouTube videos and demanded they were removed.

On Thursday, those links were working and now a message reads, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Disney.”

Google released a statement that it would work with Disney on the issue:

We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them,” the company said. “More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.

Disney also demanded Google implement safeguards to prevent AI tools from generating Disney-owned characters and cease using Disney’s characters to train its AI models.

Disney Sends a Cease-and-Desist to Google over Copyright Infringement and AI

Posted on December 11, 2025 by Brett

On the same day that Disney cuts a billion dollar deal with OpenAI for the use of its intellectual property in SORA, news has come out that Disney is going after Google for the same thing.

Disney is accusing Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale.” Much like its lawsuit against Midjourney, Disney accuses Google of exploiting its characters and distributing infringing images and videos.

Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google to get them to stop the alleged infringement.

Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights.

Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale. And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney.

Disney included examples of images it alleges infringes. Disney has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta and Character.AI.

A Google spokesperson stated:

We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.

Disney has said they have attempted to engage with Google for months but Google hasn’t done anything to combat the issue and the infringement has increased over that time.

Disney is asking for them to cease “copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters.” They also want the implementation of measures to prevent further infringement.

With a billion dollar investment in one company, a lawsuit against another, and threats against others, stories of what lead up to each will hopefully eventually come out. OpenAI isn’t profitable and burning through cash, needing billions in investments to keep up the charade. Compare that to Google’s profitability which allows it to reject deals like Disney may have been proposing behind the scenes which involves the use of generated video on Disney+. Google has Youtube, which has been named as part of the dissemination of the material. Google wouldn’t want to share the generated content, or give it to Disney exclusively stream, wanting it for their own platform. Same as Meta with Facebook. OpenAI has no platform currently to which to do that. It’s likely Disney is suing those that aren’t buying whatever Disney is really selling when it comes to AI.

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