🚀 The TfC Ramble: 2023.06.24
Superman, Warhol, Hawks, and 🔥
The TfC Ramble is a weekly buffet of content from the intersection of technology and comics.
AI
Character.ai
So I’m late to the party here (Character.ai was made public in September 2022), but I wanted to bring this neural network chatbot application to your attention. What intrigues me is the possibility of comic book fans actually interacting with avatars of their favourite characters. There are guidelines on the site about how to make that happen.
On the negative side, I’d be surprised if any licensing fees have been paid to use the recognizable IP characters seen here. If not, I see lawsuits in the future as this is destined to become a non-trivial revenue source. As an example, Snapchat influencer Caryn Marjorie created an AI version of herself. Charging $1 a minute, she reportedly earned $71,610 in about a week. “Waifu” is a thing; this takes it to an entirely new level.
NFTs
The Flash: Enter The Multiverse FAQs, also
Unleash the power of the DC3 The Flash: Enter the Multiverse on June 15th!
There have been several NFT drops since the last Ramble, but the most interesting one involves a “multiverse” drop where having one type of Flash NFT gives you early access to other DC NFTs over the course of several weeks. It’s a very cool concept, designed to coincide with the movie release.
If you still have Twitter, you can see Jim Lee discuss this drop HERE. This week’s drop was Superman #1 (Multiverse Edition).
NFTs - Infrastructure
ERC 6551 - Token Bound Accounts. NFTs have their own wallets.
It is now possible to essentially associate NFTs with a “master” NFT. I’ll be watching how people use this feature. Some possibilities are listed in the article.
Cashing out NFT sales just got harder
Sometimes collectors want to sell their collectibles to pay a bill or buy something new. Getting proceeds into a bank account is critical, and for several years Wyre offered this service for the cryptocurrency and NFT communities. In a Medium article they posted, “After nearly a decade, Wyre is winding down. Due to market conditions, we made this decision to protect the best interest of our key stakeholders and customers. This decision is not due to any regulatory agency direction.”
One Comic NFT-related site affected by this is ToppsNFT.com, home to Godzilla “Rage Against Time” & Bazooka digital collectables (as well as MLB, Bundesliga, and more). In an e-mail to collectors, they state “Last week, WYRE notified Topps NFTs that they will cease operations in early July. Due to the announcement and the safety of funds we are requiring all users to withdrawal (sic) wallet balances by July 7th.” This is positioned as a temporary measure but is still problematic for collectors.
Digital Comics
GlobalComix raises $5 million more in equity funding
This brings their recent investments to $6.5 million out of a total offering of $9.5 million.
GlobalComix supports many independent publishers and has recently added publishers such as Archie, Boom, and Image to their platform.
They aim to support the creator ecosystem and deliver on their promises with the funds, including launching their app later this year.
Dark Horse on Omnibus
It’s great seeing Dark Horse with the likes of Image and CEX on the Omnibus App on my iPad. I plan to do a full review in the future.
Tech Adjacent
One of the most important precedent-setting intellectual property cases was settled last month. If you missed it, you should read this 87-page ruling. Just kidding. Some key points follow.
Legality of AI Art Could Be Affected by Supreme Court's Warhol Ruling
If derivative works like Warhol's "Orange Prince" are not protected by fair use, it may affect all copyrighted works used in AI processes.
Questions arise regarding consent and compensation for copyrighted works used in AI training, and the transformative nature of resulting AI art.
Will Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith impact comics?
Using a photo as a reference in comics without a license could potentially be considered infringement.
Project Canon Builder
U.K. Bans Crypto & NFT Giveaways, Sparking Investor Concerns
FCA targeting promotional activities, not NFTs or crypto airdrops.
Crypto classified as "restricted mass market investment," ads require risk warnings.
What it means for CB, my comic incubator project:
Not a roadblock, but another chicane. The UK is an important English-language comic market. While not a ban, this does make it harder to implement the free “here’s a perk while you wait for the finished comic” aspects of the project in this area of the world.
Writer Accountability
The quick summary is that I should have held off committing to start season two of Tech for Comics a little longer! Ha!
On the plus side, my children planned an awesome 60th for me, which included a trip to Pacific Northwest Raptors, followed by a lovely barbecue with friends and family. Thanks to my children for making me feel special and to “Slightly” the Harris’s Hawk for letting me be a temporary member of his hunting pack.
That was the fun part and I knew my milestone birthday would take up a little time. I’d taken that into account. But what I did not count on was my sister-in-law’s apartment going up in flames. 🔥 The amazingly fabulous news is that it appears everyone got out safe. The downside is that there has been a lot of added stress, paperwork, and things to do around here. Life got in the way of my writing, and that is how it should be. Sometimes comics need to come second. (The hard-learned lesson? Plan ahead to “flee with ID.”)
I did manage to write another scene for V2 of my Lump Dog script. It looks like I’m headed to into double-sized issue territory.
I submitted a funding proposal to the HBAR foundation to see if I could get some funds to seek legal clarification for NFT projects in general and Project Canon Builder in particular. I doubt anything will come of it, as the grants are usually aimed at code development, but I took a shot.
With Project Canon Builder sidelined, I’ve been building a spreadsheet and playing with the numbers to see if I can’t rationalize bringing Lump Dog to life using more traditional methods. I hope to share that with you in a future post.
Sorry to hear about your sister’s apartment! I’m glad everyone is okay at least.