The TfC Ramble is a weekly digest of content from the intersection of technology and comics.
Digital Comics
DSTLRY's Gone #1 Preview: A New Comic Publisher Is Born
Sales Charts: DSTLRY’s THE DEVIL’S CUT sells over 50,000 units
The digital functionality of DSTLRY has yet to launch, but I love seeing work from some of my favourite creators already having an impact in the physical comic space.
AI
Artificial Intelligence Study | U.S. Copyright Office
Do you have strong feelings about AI as it pertains to copyright law? The U.S. Copyright Office has launched a survey where you can voice your opinion and hopefully inform future policy.
I ‘ve found the app to be an excellent tool for separating newsletter content from my day-to-day e-mail avalanche. It also makes it easy to have posts read to me while exercising or driving. 10 out of 10 recommend!
NFTs
Veve.me
Aug. 31 Avengers (1963) #1 Published: 1963 Price: $20 Total Editions: 10,000 (Sold out)
Veve absolutely dropped the hammer with this release. It was sold out in minutes even with a max purchase limit of one per account from the store. It is also one of the first issues in a long while where even the “common” variant is reselling for more than the issue price in the aftermarket.
Aug. 29 Marvel Digital Comics — Ultimate Fantastic Four (2003) #1 Published: 2003 Price: 6.99 Total Editions: 7,500 (still available)
nft.dcuniverse.com
Aug. 31 Wonder Woman (1987–2006) #1 Price: 9.99 (Still available. Max purchase: 1 per account) Total Editions: 5,000
Pitch Deck
I’m running the risk of becoming a dReader hypeman! It is just that they are methodically creating an NFT platform for independent comic creators with so much potential.
Have a look at their pitch deck. One huge unique feature, glossed over in this presentation, is the encryption of content in a way that reportedly will leave your comics accessible even if dReader, the company, disappears.
The other thing of note is that some date targets in the original plan have not been met but, following along on Twitter and in their Discord, it is awesome to see the team still plugging along in a transparent fashion. Ironically, rather than being a negative for me, this transparency about delays is very reassuring.
NFT Technology
Empowering Creators: Baked-In NFT Royalties on WAX
I’ve talked previously about marketplaces moving away from explicitly honouring NFT royalties, with many opting to make honoring them an option for the buyer. This is especially true on Ethereum and Solana, where all it took was one marketplace to go royalties-optional to tip the competitive apple cart for everyone.
For creators, one way around this is to choose to create NFTs on blockchains where royalties are built-in. WAX is one such chain.
Just Charts
Thank you to everyone around the world for subscribing to Tech for Comics. What a time to be alive!
Writer Accountability
Learning without doing is fun but sort of a waste. With this core belief as my motivation, I am working on a pitch document for a Batman series that could be expanded into a full-on DC event. Realistically, I am not at a stage of my career to be pitching to the Big Two, so this is more of a practice exercise that will lead to a two-pager I can submit if a DC editor ever asks me to submit a pitch in the future.
This week has been about researching the main characters. OH! MY! GOODNESS! The DC canon sure is dense and confusing! 😂 It’s been fun diving into the lore. I am pretty sure I now know more about Carol Ferris than most of my nerdy friends
but definitely not Brad. If you know, you know.
Just for Fun
The triplets were back this week. I swear I am a city dweller. 😂 Click through to see the video.