I've had my eye on the NFT (non-fungible token) market for a while now... researching a little bit here and there and contemplating how to approach it, experiment, and jump in! If you don't know what NFTs are, jump in the comments and let's discuss... and I'll try to take a deeper look at them in future posts as well.
I finally made my first foray tonight, entirely due to the emergence of https://nftshowroom.com, the very first NFT marketplace built on the Hive blockchain. Hive is my home, and I was so happy that my first experience in this emerging field could happen right here.
After first hearing about the pre-launch/alpha of NFT Showroom, I hopped into their Discord channel briefly and @juliakponsford was so informative and supportive, I knew I just had to give it a try. All I was waiting for was a little free time and liquid Hive. The first came about because I'm off work tomorrow... so I can pull a late night tonight! The second came about because my first powerdown of Blurt! hit a few hours ago and I exchanged it for Hive! So the reasonable fees to create my first NFT's were basically free thanks to Blurt! 😆
So what did I "tokenize?"
Original comic book artwork is actually a rather large market within the industry. Successful comic artists can often make a substantial portion of their income from the sale of their original work. This is a market and source of income that hasn't existed for artists who in recent years have moved to producing their work on digital devices. I'm intrigued by the possibilities for blockchain and NFTs to recreate this traditionally physical market in the digital realm. So that's what I aim to explore.
I have successfully tokenized the original artwork to the cover of "I Thought It Would Be Zombies..." #1!
For this I wanted to replicate as closely as possible the same physical art a collector might purchase. This was pretty easy for me as I tend to work in a very traditional manner, albeit digitally. I actually do utilize a template which replicates a traditional comic art board, do a "pencil" underdrawing and so forth. When creating my NFT I simply made sure to show and dial in some of those underdrawing layers to what I hope is an interesting level which helps show the underlying artistic process. This is what I value most about looking at original artwork by great artists, and I wanted to capture that.
As this token represents the original artwork, it is a unique edition of one only. As such it's a bit pricier, currently set at 350 Hive. You can check it out here!
Wanting to do a bit more and not price everyone out, I also created a run of digital "prints." Limited to an edition of 30, these are priced at a more reasonable 45 Hive, and feature the full color iteration of the cover artwork. In the comics world this is referred to as a "virgin" cover as it lacks the traditional logo and trade dress that would be on the final publication.
You can find that run of tokens here.
There are many great artists already testing out and experimenting with the amazing new platform of NFT Showroom. For more news and information be sure to follow @nftshowroom, and browse and explore https://nftshowroom.com!
I'll do my best to give updates, information, and my first impressions in the days to come as I learn a bit more myself. In the meantime, if you feel generous and intrigued... head on over there and buy some "I Thought It Would Be Zombies..." art! Obviously, every purchase helps support me and the continued development of this comic.
-Bryan "the Imp" Imhoff
Wow those look beautiful congrats! Also thanks blurt haha I really need to start powering mine down lol
Thank you! Both for all your support and your work in putting together this very interesting new platform! Can't wait to spend more Blurt! powerdowns there. 😁
Reading through this (and previous updates you've written), I never realised how long you've actively worked on this particular series. The token set-up seems like an interesting concept, hopefully it works out. It will be fun seeing how this potentially takes off ...
Indeed... it's been quite a while! 😬 Truthfully it dates back 10 years or more to the first scribbled notes and concept sketches. But the first serious finalized character designs were about 4 years ago and I've just been grinding away slowly since then. I do desperately need to pick up the pace a bit if I ever want to get this story told!
It's great to see you on, uploaded a profile pic, etc! Keep exploring and hit me up with any questions if you need a hand. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work posted here.
Grabbed #8
Love the energy and optimism.
I really appreciate it, and thanks for checking in here in the comments. I know NFT Showroom is working on plenty of new features, but right now I don't see an easy way to track who's purchasing my pieces, so it's great to hear from you!
I love all this tech. It's something you need to actually do before you 'get' it.
Chatting to a colleague, told her about it, and showed her the custom Json.
Just like my first bitcoin transaction; it only really makes sense when you do it yourself.
Looks like I may need to reserve some liquid Hive for some purchases. Hope your works sell well.
Sold a couple prints already, which is amazing to me! I'm sure I'll be reinvesting some of my sales back into other artist's work.
I really like it is incredible, all the colors effects are spectacular, kisses darling
Thank you! Color work is something I've been working hard at improving recently. I've been doing black and white far longer and have only delved into the color production of comics the past couple years.
Well done! I'll have to look more into this. I hope more collectors join NFTs. There are more and more ways artists can get support online these days. This is very exciting period we are living in.
I think it opens up lots of interesting possibilities. More than anything, purchasing an artist's NFT is really just a big show of support I feel, although some may do it for speculation. I envision myself doing some giveaways and "airdrops" of digital or physical goods to owners of my NFTs in the future. It's one more way of building a following and community.
Ahh good, someone had to
be a guinea pigset a trend for the digital comic artists in such a manner ;DI don't know the broader crypto art space very well... I would be very interested in finding out if I'm actually the first to tokenize a digitally drawn original comic art page... it'd make for some good publicity at least!
I don't know either as I don't keep on top of this stuff, I only know about whatever crosses my feed at the time. You're the first I know of for whatever that's worth XD
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