๐ The Tech for Comics Ramble: 2023.11.18
The double-sized Ramble you get when we skip a week!
The Tech for Comics Ramble is a weekly digest of news from the intersection of technology and comics.
๐ Reminder: You could win!
This is just a reminder that Iโm holding a giveaway! The prize is a CGC 9.8 slabbed Jeffrey Veregge variant cover of The Lump Sum Saga #1 worth $179 CAD courtesy of my web store (tlsscomics.com).
The 100+ Posts Celebration Contest will run until 9:00 a.m. PST, December 15th, 2023, and all free and comp-ed subscribers are already entered! To gain additional entries, simply answer the weekly contest question in the comments of The Ramble. Did you miss a question? You have until the contest cut-off to add your voice.
NFTs
Veve.me
Nov. 3 Wizards of Mickey - The Grand Tournament (2006) Price: $6.99 Total Editions: 6,000
Nov. 7 Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #700 The first appearance of the Superior Spider-Man Price: $6.99 Total Editions: 7,500 (Sold out)
Nov. 8 Tarzan of the Apes #216 Price: $6.99 Total Editions: 3,500
Nov. 9 Spider-Man (2022) #7 The first appearance of Spider-Boy. Price: $6.99 Total Editions: 6,000 (Sold out)
Nov. 14 Ms. Marvel (2014) #1 The first ongoing series of Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel. Price: $6.99 Total Editions: 6,000
Nov. 16 Marvel Super Heroes (1967) #13 The first appearance of Carol Danvers. Price: $10.00 Total Editions: 10,000
nft.dcuniverse.com
Nov. 16 All-Star Comics (1940โ1978) #3 The first-ever team-up of the Justice Society of America. Price: $19.99 (Max purchase: 2 per account) Total Editions: 3,500
The cadence of drops at DC has slowed to once every two weeks, but they are offering some seriously important comics.
Star Atlas
Nov. 16 Core Act 2 - Episode 4 (Star Atlas)1 $20 Only available for 14 days.
Tibles
Introducing Crafting to OneShots.
โCrafting in a Tibles app allows you to convert several โcommonโ items into one โrareโ item. This not only creates a new, rarer collectible, it also reduces the overall supply of the original items.โ
Their first โcraftiblesโ - gold edition Valiant cards - sold out.
NFT Infrastructure
There has been a lot of news coming from the Flow blockchain recently. The home of NBA Top Shot, several recent developments are luring more and more IP to the platform. Just this past week, Disney announced plans to introduce digital pin trading on Flow. For a little technobabble about the merits of the chain, this thread on X is a good place to start.
Digital Comics
Amazon to Merge Digital Comics Platform Comixology With Kindle App
While many are lamenting the demise of the purpose-built Comixology app, Iโm taking a wait-and-see stance on this move. In the long term, access to comics via Kindle Unlimited (something we already subscribe to in our house) could be a real boon, but a lot will depend on whether they upgrade the Kindle app. I can also imagine a day when an e-ink reader for comics could become a reality.
That said, the fact that a service as large and ubiquitous as Comixology could basically disappear so quickly has definitely reinforced my belief in the value of decentralized NFT-based comics where the content and portal to that content can be different.
AI
Judge pares down artists' AI copyright lawsuit against Midjourney, Stability AI
AI is coming to comics whether we like it or not. Are there ways it could help?
Update: Keeping your work away from AI
Disallowing GPTBot โAdd this to your website to keep GPTBot from training on your data.
OpenAI Artist and Creative Content Owner Opt Out form โ And/or use this.
Sam Altman Out at OpenAI
OpenAI announces leadership transition โ The official statement.
While not comics-specific, this surprise transition at OpenAI (the company behind ChatGTP) sheds light on a lot of the narratives around AI.
NaNoWriMo
What is NaNoWriMo: The Ultimate Guide
Is anyone participating this year? You can write a script for a graphic novel. I give you permission. ๐
Just Charts
DappRadar reported that the NFT market saw growth for the first time this year in October even though initial sales were down 5% compared to the previous month. There is a lot of great information here: Dapp Industry Reverses Year-Long Downtrend.
๐ Contest Question: Do you spend more time reading or creating comics?
One of the weird things about being a comic creator is that you often have less time to read comics. If you were recording time spent with comics, where do you spend more time? For me, it is currently about 80% reading and 20% creating, but that is an anomaly resulting from my knee injury. Normally, it is the inverse. How about you?
Leave your answer in the comments below to receive an extra entry in the 100th post contest.
Writer Accountability
Stupid knee update: It appears Iโve sprained the LCL on my left leg. Besides hobbling around, it makes it difficult to spend much time on my keyboard. No bueno.
Purging my e-mail accounts is an ongoing challenge that I can largely tackle from my phone. Iโm still not at inbox zero, but Iโm getting there.
I created a shared virtual writing space on Kumospace. More on this in the future.
What I am reading
One of the benefits of being laid up is that Iโm getting a lot of reading in. I am finally up to date with Spy x Family and Chainsaw Man on the Shonen Jump app.
What I am watching
I finally got to watch season two of โSweet Toothโ on Netflix. It is quite different than the comic but has managed to maintain its soul. I look forward to season three!
The entire 1966-1967 run of The Green Hornet is available on YouTube! Itโs definitely โof its timeโ
read some things wouldnโt fly todaybut worth it just to see Bruce Lee and Van Williams at work. The similarities and differences between this series and Batman from the same era are an interesting study.
๐ Canโt spell my last name from memory? Seriously, who can?! ๐
Fortunately, you can now reach this substack via two easier-to-remember domain redirects: techforcomics.com and tech4comics.com.
Just for Fun ๐
I love the commentators! Sound on.
Full disclosure. This is a referral link.