What follows is a mostly skimmable smorgasbord of noteworthy content I ran across this week. Be sure to hit the like button if getting this kind of summary on a regular (weekly?) basis would be useful for you.
Industry News
AI Art
ChatGPT
Jump to the 2:50 point of this interview with Will.i.am . An interesting perspective.
Why Google isn’t a fan. No need to watch it all. Summary. ChatGTP could kill Google.
This an example of prompt engineering that actually vibes as engineering!
NFT Related
Insider DC Comic Collectable Comics: an Interview with Jim Lee. (There were technical difficulties at the beginning, so jump to the 13-minute mark.)
Recent drops on the VeVe app:
Uncle Scrooge: Back to the Klondike #1. Total editions: 10,000. Sold out.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11. Total editions: 10,000 units. Sold out.
Amazing Spider-Man #2. Total editions: 7,500. Sold out.
… and when I say sold out, I mean gone in minutes (or seconds)!
Star Atlas news:
During a Feb. 3 Town Hall, the possibility of creating & selling products based on Star Atlas IP up to a $1,000,000 cap before paying any fees was discussed. Attendees were encouraged to “reach out.” (3D printables as an example https://staratlassian.com/3dprintables/). It is unclear if this extends to creating comics, but if yes, this writer is VERY interested as Star Atlas is a rich universe with an engaged audience.
“Episode 4” of Core, the lore comic from the team, will be released soon.
This groundbreaking drop flew under the radar a bit. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first major comic NFT release minted on the Hedera “chain.” (Please let me know if you have other data!) While I can’t verify anything on-chain yet, early indication is that this free drop (associated with Tik Tok celeb Michael Le) was huge, potentially making it the most widely distributed full-page comic in any medium this past month. They may have just minted (think “printed”) a ton though, and I can’t see the number of unique holders yet. I’ll follow up when more data is available. Visit: https://nft.coinzoom.com/liithos/
The Siege Worlds drop is currently live at https://lightningworks.io/nft-comics-launch/ This is a very ambitious project with awesome art and a lot of excellent and unique features. Unfortunately, in the bad timing department, the launch stumbled because of an untimely surge in gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain. To compensate, the team is offering multiple copies per mint.
The Spawn #309 cover will be the next NFT from OddKey. Historically, these have not been full comics (like on VeVe), but animated cover art style NFTs.
TLSS / Personal Accountability
This week I :
Wrote an expository scene for Lump Dog #1. If “Only the Fate of the World” is a true prequel, this book would be considered the first official chapter of The Lump Sum Saga. Ironically, it’s looking like we still won’t see the namesake “lumps” until chapter 2! Ha.
Narrated the first chapter of my book Comic NFTs - An Ethical Approach and used it to start a podcast on substack; set it up on Apple podcasts as well.
Trained a Descript voice for myself. Very trippy. My family now has secret “Is it really you” words. Ha!
Sat in on the latest class from Brian Bendis and Taki Soma. The guest was David Walker. (If you are not already a subscriber over at Jinxworld, you are missing out!)
Enjoyed another session with Gamal Hennessy over at Comics Connection.
Took myself in for bloodwork per my cardiologist. My mother is currently in the hospital with heart (and other) problems, so getting this done took on a new urgency for me. #oldGuyMaintenance
Took the car in for a December snowpocalypse-related autobody estimate (a canopy collapsed on our car).
Who We Are Today
This chart makes me so happy. It is still early days but we already have a stable cohort of creators and comic fans from around the world reading “Tech for Comics.”
Just for Fun
Spoiler: This is a true story. They did indeed pardon the writer of the letter. My daughter-in-law used to work at this hotel and the story is part of their lore.