The same technology fuels applications like Midjourney and DALL-E 2 that produce synthetic digital imagery, including “ deepfakes.” It took just two months from its introduction in November 2022 for the artificial intelligence (AI)- powered chatbot ChatGPT to reach 100 million monthly active users-the fastest growth of a consumer application in history.Ĭhatbots like ChatGPT are Large Language Models (LLMs), a type of artificial intelligence known as “generative AI.” Generative AI refers to algorithms that, after training on massive amounts of input data, can create new outputs, be they text, audio, images or video. Finished illustrations not seen.Ī fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.Fritzchens Fritz / Better Images of AI / GPU shot etched 5 / CC-BY 4.0 Introduction But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on-but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.Ī long-running series reaches its closing chapters. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.įinding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. Facts about wombats and instructions on how to draw Batty appear at the close.Īge-appropriate, deadpan shark-er, snark at its best. The unlikely duo of Shark and Bot (with Batty the wombat in tow) inhabits large, colorful panels full of fourth-wall–breaking humor and wombat facts. Yanish’s second graphic novel for new-to–chapter-books readers is even more fun than the series opener. Summer camp turns out to be more fun than they expected…despite all the rainbow sparkles and uber-happy song breaks. They even come up with a killer (nothing deadly) act for the talent show. They get care packages from home that include the newest Glo-Nuts book. Shark succeeds at craft time (with Bot’s help). Bot lives through mandatory swimming (their counselor puts him in a giant hamster ball). Shark and Bot survive a glitter encounter and escape signing up for the Sweety-Fluff Happy Choir, but what about the Ghost of Sweet Sunshine, who haunts the boys’ bathroom? They settle in as the absurdity ratchets up. But both find themselves at Camp Sweet Sunshine, where camp director Tilton Findleswip hosts a mixture of racially diverse human and species-diverse animal kids who, except for Shark and Bot, are 11s on the 1-to-10 happiness scale. Shark would rather have stayed home writing poetry. Will Shark and Bot survive being Glitter Bugs at summer camp?
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