The TfC Ramble is a weekly, skimmable smorgasbord of noteworthy content from the intersection of comics and technology. Enjoy!
NFTs
It is possible that the most-collected full-page comic of the past month is a comic NFT. ComicZoom is claiming over 2 million views over 3 issues (dropped weekly) for Ashfall starring Michael Le (of TikTok fame). The PDF issues are being delivered on the Hedera “blockchain.1”
I have no way of independently verifying the “views” number, and frankly, that term can mean different things. In addition, most of the comics minted (i.e. digitally printed) to date are in a "custodial wallet” held by CoinZoom in trust for its users. Translation: Using blockchain data, I can confirm there are a lot of editions out there, but I can’t tell you how many unique individuals hold them. At least not yet. I personally own edition 125,993 of issue one, so it is pretty reasonable to assume that there are at least that many copies of that issue out there, which is pretty impressive in itself.
In fairness to this project, and waving a finger at the industry a little, we don’t have a way to 100% verify print comic numbers these days either, so there is that. If a reliable source can contact me (anonymously, if necessary) to prove a better total for a print comic, I’d love to hear from you.
A new issue of Ashfall drops each Sunday on CoinZoom (the easiest route for people who don’t own cryptocurrency) and directly at https://web3.liithos.com/. While this is technically a free comic, you’ll pay a slight fee (I paid $1.49) to the platform selling the comic.
Other Notable Drops this week
VeVe
VeVe celebrated Valentine’s Day with the wedding of Jean Grey and Scott Summers (X-Men #30). Edition size: 10,000 at $6.99. (4370 sold as of Friday morning.)
Thursday, they dropped Black Panther #5, the first in-story appearance of Shuri as the Black Panther. Edition size: 10,000 at $6.99. (3600 sold as of Friday morning.)
This morning, Avengers (1963) #181 dropped. This made me super happy as it represents the kind of deliberate comic/movie tie-in that the comic community often talks about. This issue introduces Scott Lang, the man who would become Ant-Man.
nft.dcuniverse.com
On Thursday, nft.dcuniverse.com dropped Static #1.
...the debut of STATIC, Virgil Hawkins, a typical 15-year old, has undergone a bizarre biochemical change. This change involves a secret identity, powerful manipulation of electrostatic forces... and the threat of a superpowered punk, Hotstreak!
Edition size: 10,000 at $9.99. (3,552 sold as of Friday morning.)
For NFT Creators
Hedera Protects NFT Creator Royalties at the Protocol-Level
Non-NFT Digital Comics
A great discussion of non-NFT digital comics here. If you aren’t already subscribed to the Comics Connection channel, you are missing out.
The Metaverse
The Countries Which Most Love And Hate Metaverse ← Guess before you look. You’ll be surprised.
AI
GLAZE: Protecting Artists from Style Mimicry by Text-to-Image Models
This paper from Cornell University offers a technical solution to the mimicry problem. My take is that implementation could help, but it should be noted that it isn’t a foolproof solution.
Crowdfunding - Ending Soon
It is the home stretch for a number of campaigns by friends and colleagues. Here are a few I’ve backed:
Paul Allor’s campaign will be in its final (3?) days when this reaches you. Paul was my instructor for many courses at Comics Experience and was the editor of the first issue of TLSS. This talented teacher/writer has written for TMNT, GI: Joe, and many other books and series. Check out his latest book while you still can. (As an aside, this was the first time I backed a project on Zoop. Pretty seamless.)
Link: https://zoop.gg/c/thebutterflyhouse
Pink Midnight Presents: The Butterfly House
by Paul Allor, Juan Romera & Claire Napier
Pink Midnight Presents: The Butterfly House is the first in a planned series of weird, one-shot comic books from writer Paul Allor, artist Juan Romera and editor Claire Napier, all presented in Juan's stunning black-and-white art.
The acclaimed Kung Fu [wuxia] graphic novel series comes back to Kickstarter with these epic 90 & 100 page graphic novels.
Patrick Lugo [@PLUGO or @PLUGOarts] is one of those rare creators who make me jealous because he writes and illustrates his own work.
Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plugoarts/a-tigers-tale-volumes-1-and-2
Bullet Adventures 1-3: The Speedy Superhero Series ContinuesContinuing the adventures with the SECOND & THIRD issues! Fast paced action + family dynamics = modern approach to classic superheroics.
If I am being brutally honest, I backed Randy’s first campaign because he is a local writer, and there was the chance to get an indie comic from a Kickstarter without the cross-border shipping fees! Without spoiling things for you, I was just expecting YASS - Yet Another Speedster Story. I was wrong. Issue 2 is available as a free download on the campaign page, but I’d encourage you to back a tier that gets you the first issue.
Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/altruistcomics/bulletadventures2
Weekly Accountability Summary
Progress on the next issue of TLSS was mixed this week. I didn’t get much writing done early in the week, but mid-week, I had a breakthrough that will allow me to link the prologue with the next issue, Lump Dog #1, in what I hope will be a satisfying way. In support of this, I also put together a character description.
The cadence for Tech for Comics is coming together well. Tuesday is for Scrivener, world-building, and craft; Thursday is for NFTs (the read-aloud for now; tutorials eventually); Saturday is The Ramble. It seems like having this steady writing flow is actually helping me engage with my comic writing, but that may be a bit of self-delusion. ha.
On Thursday, a project I have been watching went live with its public beta. I took a few hours to set up a profile at Nft.com/comicnfts, where I displayed a few comic-related NFTs on the ETH blockchain. NFT.com has already expressed an interest in expanding the site to support other chains over time.
Hedera Hashgraph does not technically use blockchain technology but instead uses a different type of distributed ledger technology.