🚀 The Tech for Comics Ramble: 2023.11.25
DC NFT moving to Candy.com; The $4B fine!; My first comic purchase
The Tech for Comics Ramble is a weekly digest of news from the intersection of technology and comics.
NFTs
DC NFT Marketplace is Migrating to the Candy Digital platform
Well, that certainly explains the slower cadence of drops recently! The article includes instructions on what you need to do if you have collectibles on DC NFT.
McFarlane Toys Digital
Nov. 23 Mr. Freeze 1000 editions; 3 variants. $20 Matic/Polygon equivalent. (No longer available to mint.)
Oh, my! I had to get this one. The Mr. Freeze storyline in Batman: The Animated Series is one of my all-time favourite pieces of storytelling.
Veve.me
Nov. 20 Avengers Unplugged (1995) The first appearance of Monica Rambeau as Photon. #5 Price: $6.99 Total Editions: 6,000
Nov. 22 Avenging Spider-Man (2011) #9 The first appearance of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel. Price: $20.00 Total Editions: 5,000
NFT Infrastructure
Flow Blockchain Embraces Ethereum with EVM Integration
Implication: The chain behind NBA Top Shot & Mattel will be easier to program for those trained on Ethereum.
The 4 Billion Dollar Binance Fine
In my book, Comic NFTs - An Ethical Approach, I talk candidly about cryptocurrency’s role in criminal activity (jump to the 6:20 mark of this episode) and also predicted the inevitability of incoming regulatory clarity moving forward.
This week, we got more insight into the direction this will take when the “protect the status quo” shoe came down hard on one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, Binance.
Summary: Crypto exchanges in the US will essentially be treated the same as banks in terms of KYC procedures (i.e. “Know Your Client” identification verification) and support of US sanctions laws. It can be extrapolated that other US agencies will view crypto in the same light, which has significant implications for small players and project (including my Project: Canon Builder).
While some unknowledgeable critics will likely wag their finger at this action as confirmation of how cryptocurrency is the beachhead of criminality, illicit activity only represented about 0.24% of volume on chain in 2022. By some estimates, this is orders of magnitude less than the volume associated with physical cash.
Binance leaned hard into a libertarian approach to digital money, allowing for anonymous asset transfers and got smacked down as a result, it should be noted that other exchanges like Shakepay here in Canada have leaned hard into new compliance and reporting procedures. This has allowed Shakepay to open conventional banking services for clients. This reliable crypto exchange now offers Canadians the ability to pay bills, issue a crypto-backed debit card, and accept direct deposits.
Does all this matter for comic NFT creators? Hopefully not beyond added friction for customers to buy your digital comic NFT with cryptocurrency. But what if I unknowingly buy a digital asset from an anonymous seller in a jurisdiction sanctioned by the treasury department? Am I technically engaging in illegal activity? More clarification is required and inevitable.
One to Watch: Book.io
Book.io is “a Web3 marketplace for buying, reading, and selling decentralized eBooks and Audiobooks” - think Kindle and Audio.com, but using NFT tech. There is nothing keeping this multichain platform from eventually being a source for graphic novels, for example. That said, until very recently, they have focused mostly on issuing editions of public domain prose with covers of varying rarity.
I have only used this site as a customer, not an author, so be sure to do your own due diligence.
Notable Links
Whitepaper 2.0 ← i.e. The vision for the project and the $BOOK token. Items of note include their Read to Earn™ loyalty program and Mint and Print™.
Jpg.store - Primary aftermarket for Book.io NFTs on Cardano.
Video
In the Media
PR: BDMI Invests in Book.io, the First Ever NFT Ebook Platform
Mark Cuban collaborates with Book.io to release NFT e-book on Polygon Blockchain
Just Charts
Anecdotally, the 30-34 year old age group is an important buying group for floppy comics. If this is true, it is important to note that the number of buyers in this age group is set to decline in the US over the next 30 years even though the population of the country as a whole may increase over the same time period. (Of course, immigration policies could radically change this.)
Does anyone have any more recent data around comic industry sales demographics? If yes, please let me know. The best data I could find was from 2017 and it is my guess that things have changed.
NYCC INSIDER SESSIONS POWERED BY ICV2: A DEMOGRAPHIC SNAPSHOT OF COMICS BUYERS
Reminder: You could win!
This is just a reminder that I’m 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 comped 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.
Contest Question:
What was the first floppy comic you ever purchased?
I grew up a long way from any comic shop and, as a result, I was a late bloomer in terms of comics. The first “comic” I remember purchasing would be Disney Adventures for my kids, but this was a small digest format. The first actual floppy I purchased was likely Alpha Flight #1 (1997). It certainly was the first “run” I collected.
What about you? What was the first floppy comic you purchased for yourself?
Leave your answer in the comments below for an extra entry in the 100th post contest.
Writer Accountability
More e-mail purging this week. Honestly, I’m a little stalled writing-wise these days, and I can’t even blame the holidays. 🇨🇦 (Happy Thanksgiving to my US-based readers!)
What I am reading
I have another idea for a killer “one day if I’m ever invited to pitch” crossover pitch, so I have been reading the Spawn (Compendium) (on GlobalComix) to make sure I get the lore right.
Some of you who know me might be wondering how the heck someone with a middle-grade reader tolerance for violence could become a fan of Spawn.
First and foremost, what drew me in was the excellent storytelling accompanied by great art by a fellow Canadian, Todd McFarlane (and celebrity guests). The first issues are a masterclass in slowly revealing exposition in a superhero comic. Talk about making me feel unworthy!
The more personal reason is that it is the first comic series I ever encountered that portrayed spiritual warfare in a meaningful, non-condescending manner. While the theology in Spawn is very suspect, thematic threads like how an essentially good person could end up in hell really resonated with this church kid. And a portrayal of hell that isn’t necessarily the best place to hang with your friends or deliver a joke is also subversively counter-cultural.
So yeah, call me an unlikely Spawn fanboy.
Personal
So, my knee is still causing me grief. I’m headed back to the doctor, hopefully next week. Sadly, it makes time at the keyboard distracting, which isn’t helping my writing.
My wife had the week off and put down a new floor in one of our bedrooms. Besides being another guest room, used mostly when the kids are home, this room also acts as dry storage for inventory, collectibles, and so on. We are taking time to reorganize and purge as items get moved back in. With my kids being only mildly interested in collectibles, this exercise is putting a spotlight on the end-game for my collecting habit. What do we do with that large bin of Ninja Turtles? Ha!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my US readers!
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Just for Fun 😂
Mad skills. Also, I want one of these. Ha!