🚀 The TfC Ramble: 2023.04.29
Here's to the end of season one. Also, that time I had hair.
The TfC Ramble is a weekly buffet of content from the intersection of comics and technology.
Today’s Ramble marks the end of “Season 1” of Tech for Comics. ‘See you again in June!
Intellectual Property
This is only comics-related if the industry makes it so, but imagine if you were given the opportunity to Kickstart a Star Trek comic and you only had to pay royalties when your gross revenue exceeded $1,000,000!
This isn't Trek, but it is a fabulous emerging space-related IP. Star Atlas is a SciFi space game community with:
195,000 people subscribed to their Discord server
an active alpha-release gaming community
BEAUTIFUL ships, and
some good existing lore (I’ve talked about their comic before).
The link to the first artwork repository is a bit hard to find. The google drive is here.
Also
HNN Hologram News Network - A fan-created news site.
P.S. If any artists want to get involved, I have script ideas & Kickstarter experience. 😉
NFTs
Veve.me
VeVe knocked it out of the park with a rare Monday drop for the first appearance of The Punisher. Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #129. 10,000 at $20 each. Even with the higher-than-average price, this drop sold out instantly.
On Wednesday, they also dropped Silver Surfer #44 - The first appearance of the Infinity Gauntlet! 10,000 at $6.99. This foreshadows the pending drop of a digital infinity gauntlet and a crafting event where collectors will try to acquire each infinity stone! It is my understanding that details will appear on the VeVe site next week.
nft.dcuniverse.com
Action Comics (1938–2011) #242 - The first appearance of Brainiac. 5000 at $9.99. Limited to one per collector. Sold out.
Dibbs.io
Dibbs.io, a platform that tokenizes physical collectibles, dropped an educational comic this week. It is available to read online and as an NFT on the Polygon blockchain available for the price of “gas”… roughly $0.04 when I grabbed mine to take a look.
Interpop Comics
In the disappointing news department, InterPop Comics is shutting down.
My TL;DR? Wrong “shopping mall”; misguided(?) marketing
They were torpedoed in part by being on the wrong blockchain. Think of the Tezos blockchain as the equivalent of an “empty shopping mall” in terms of daily sales.
Their marketing was either misguided or not there to the degree that was needed. Why do I say this? It is just anecdotal, but I am neck-deep in the NFT-based comic scene, and I’d never even heard of InterPop until this week! Similarly, with my expert comic industry friends.
Their primary comics were superhero comics, putting them head-to-head against the most prominent players in the industry.
Looking at the website, they appear to have given it a really good try and, from all appearances, some excellent people were involved.
For more information, read:
Web 3 publisher InterPop and the Emergents TCG shut down after two years
NFT-based comics publisher InterPop calls it quits after two years
This is an interesting piece for a deep dive into the associated game’s demise. I’d file this under “read this first” before launching an NFT-based TCG.
Business
Writer Accountability
This week was productive, exciting, and a tad frustrating. There aren’t enough hours in the day, right?
The major accomplishment of the week was getting my taxes submitted and paid. It’s been painful, but now I know where I stand financially and can try and move forward.
The latest podcast episode about why selling NFTs of indie comics is so hard involved writing new content. (I posted it early Friday morning, and I’d already like to edit it. Ha!) I hope, if nothing else, it helps people set realistic expectations.
I sent a “pitch,” more precisely a pseudo-pitch, to an editor to test the waters regarding a Star Trek storyline I believe has serious legs. We’ll see if anything comes of it. I am too new to be trusted with such shiny toys, so whether it comes to light will likely involve finding a co-writer with Trek experience.
I made progress getting my Shopify store closer to launch. I got a key answer to a technical issue I was struggling with in a serendipitously timed Zoom session with “Wholesale Ted,” which made my day. I also commissioned some custom art for the “Curiosities” section of the site. I look forward to seeing what
comes up with!Notice the thing missing? I didn’t actually write or even edit a comic this week. That realization, coupled with the sudden arrival of some amazing opportunities, is the impetus behind my decision to take the month of May off from posting content to the public blog and podcast. It will leave me significantly more time for me to concentrate on several important time-sensitive things, not the least of which is my 40th wedding anniversary on May 14th. 😍
I hope you’ve enjoyed “Season 1” of Tech for Comics. Thank you so much for joining me on my journey. See you again in June!