Top NFT Comic Book Projects in 2022
One of the most intriguing phenomena to have emerged from the blockchain and metaverse age has been the rise of NFTs or nonfungible tokens over the past two years.
Blockchain technology and smart contracts have been around for years but the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns forced many techies to stay and work from home and this extended stay-at-home work-at-home lifestyle shifted much of the economy and day-to-day activities into the virtual world. Soon an asset class emerged that traded on seemingly worthless pieces of generative art, pictures, and other creations. It is a creator economy that has perfectly suited digital artists and creatives who can now employ their skill and talent to create digital artwork and sell them for hundreds or thousands of dollars in NFT marketplaces.
The NFT economy seemed to create value out of thin air. At the end of the day, investors have been buying AI-generated and blockchain-certified art pieces of sometimes dubious creative (or artistic) credentials and holding them as collectibles or trading them in some of the top NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. It is a trend that was bucked serious players early on including top artists, museums, and top global auction houses like Christie’s.
Initially, it was thought that the NFT was a passing fad, fueled by stimulus checks and bored techies, speculators, and creatives staying at home. However, it has proved its staying power over the past two years and the make-believe value is transforming itself into a real store of value that is worth something, just like cryptos, gold, or even real pieces of rare art.
The NFT is moving out of its gimmicky provenance (think Bored Ape Yacht Club in its early days) into more useful applications. The NFT economy is here to stay. It has attracted artists, photographers, crypto speculators, day traders, Redditors, and even traditional institutional investors.
One area that is seeing considerable traction in its embrace of NFTs is the comic-book industry. At face value, comic books and NFTs seem like a perfect match. Comic books have been the leading medium for character and IP creation over several decades. We don’t just love the characters and the plot in the comic books. Comic books are also something of collectibles among some of their most passionate fans.
Over the decades, the comic book industry has evolved its own culture, value system, community, and economy that consists of creators, dealers, fans, conventions, and much more. The comic-book community is also a community of collectors and traders. A lot of this stuff, particularly the prized originals, has been traded for decades. Fans love the original comic book creations that have been drawn and colored by hand by the original creators and these originals have generally fetched a premium price in auctions and aftermarkets.
NFTs Taking Comic Books to New Frontiers
These characteristics and value system, including the sense of community and the value users, attach to them makes comic books perfect candidates for the NFT economy. Many comic book creators are already embracing this blockchain-powered medium to extend their reach and unlock new revenue opportunities. Increasingly, the traditional comic book fan base is also beginning to accept the minted blockchain-certified digital creations as collectibles.
We now have comic book creations that have been registered in open blockchain ledgers, have proof of authenticity, and whose ownership and details like prior sales prices and the number of copies in circulation are easily trackable in a publicly accessible ledger. Sales of NFTs now run into billions of dollars and NFT comic books are increasingly taking a significant chunk of transactions in NFT marketplaces.
How Digital Comics are Becoming Popular
Although initially distrusted by many mainstream comic book artists, digital art has since grown in popularity and roped many artists into the world of NFTs and the metaverse. The success of the initial NFTs had a lot to do with it. Today many artists are setting up a foundation in the metaverse with blockchain-based artworks. For digital artists, NFTs represents a new frontier and potentially lucrative revenue source and community to tap into. The blockchain and NFTs take care of the piracy and appropriation concerns, enabling artists to preserve their IPs even in easily downloadable artworks.
Through NFTs, artists such as comic book creators are also able to generate more revenues than they would with conventional physical comic books and illustrations. The comic books and artworks can be packaged as NFTs and sold, and resold. Artists can still earn royalties on the resale of their work by incorporating smart contracts into their comic book NFTs.
Comic book NFTs are the non-fungible tokens of the original comic books, artworks, or comic book strips and allow a community of fans, collectors, and readers to own a digital issue as an NFT. It basically gives the buyer a digital “first issue” and like physical comic book first issues, they are rare collectibles and can be resold for good sums. Some comic book creators are going as far as bundling the digital and the physical, creating a phygital product that consists of the digital variant and a physical variant that the collector can touch and feel.
In this article, we look at the top comic book NFTs that you should take a look at this year: –
Marvel Comics NFT
Marvel launched its comic book non-fungible tokens in August 2021. The studio partnered with the VeVe app for the launch. The Marvel Comic NFTs are digital renditions of Marvel Comics #1, Journey Into Mystery #85, and Fantastic Four #1.
The first Marvel NFT collectibles were spun from Captain America and Spider–Man and were launched on VeVe from August 19, 2021, through to August 21, 2021.
Each comic consisted of a full digital issue of the comic books that’s readable on VeVe Digital Collectibles apps on iOS and Android. These were sold for $6.99 in blind boxes. The digital Marvel comic books were dropped with five rarity levels: –
- COMMON – Classic Cover
- UNCOMMON – Vintage Variant
- RARE – Hero Variant
- ULTRA RARE – Vibranium Variant
- SECRET RARE – True Believer Variant
The first Marvel comic book to be released as a non-fungible token was MARVEL COMICS #1. This comic book was first published in 1939 and contains the first appearance of Human Torch along with Namor the Sub-Mariner.
This was followed by JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #85 which has the first appearance of Asgard, Loki, and Heimdall.
The third Marvel comic published as NFT was FANTASY FOUR #1 where the Fantastic Four make their first appearance. This third installment was also sold out in less than two minutes, showing the ravenous appetite of Marvel’s fanbase for its comic book NFTs.
DC Comics NFTs
Legendary comic books publisher DC Comics joined hands with Palm NFT Studio to launch its NFTs comic book collection, the DC Fandome NFTs in 2021. DC launched its projects on the Palm ecosystem and is also planning to collaborate with creatives, artists, rights holders as well as marketplaces for the collection. DC Comics’ Fandome NFT launch was linked to its fandom and was aimed at getting more users to sign up on its DCfandome.com annual event website. Users registered on the website received a single DC Comics NFT for free. They would also get a second free NFT by sharing the news on social media.
DC Comics NFT collections feature the usual superheroes including Batman, Superman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. Based on the rarity level, it is also possible for users to collect comic book covers as NFTs. The NFTs vary depending on the various issues of the comic book covers. Common NFTs in DC Comic’s collections include George Perez’s Wonder Woman. For Rare, check out #1 Nubia and Alitha Martinez’s Amazons. There is also the legendary NFTs in DC Comics collections like Jenny Frison’s Wonder Woman.
The most recent DC Comics’ NFT drop has been the Bat Cowl Collection. Like in the publisher’s earlier NFTs, it was a product of a partnership with Palm NFT Studio and consists of a whopping 200,000 NFTs of the Batman’s cowl. It is rendered in 3D and draws from DC Comics’ eight decades of DC Comic’s Batman. The Bat Cowl collection was priced at $300 each and the haul is eventually expected to net DC Comics $60 million.
For its Bat Cowl Collection drop, DC Comics provided existing owners of the FanDome NFTs exclusive presale access to the new collectibles. The Bat Cowl Collection drop is available on DC Comics’ own NFT marketplace at nft.dcuniverse.com
Every NFT in DC’s Bat Cowl collection exhibits distinct traits and identity which, according to the publisher, reflects the “diversity of Batman stories” as well as of their passionate fans. DC also wants to integrate the Bat Cowl collection into future DC Comics stories.
Holders of the Bat Cowl NFTs get to own a rare one-of-a-kind collectible of which only 200,000 will be minted. Given the massive DC Comics fanbase, these NFTs will, undoubtedly, command a higher resale value in the future. Like in the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT Collections, the Bat Cowl Collection also gives holders access to certain perks such as access to a private DC Universe fan forum with some of the behind-the-scenes content. A Bat Cowl NFT also gives you access to physical collectibles, select fan events, merch, and many other perks.
Additionally, like Yuga Labs’s BAYC, DC Comics is planning to expand the scope of utility of its Bat Cowl collection within the next two years. Future value additions might include expanded wallet capabilities, augmented reality, and metaverse integrations.
BOOMI Studios
Super BOOMi is a highly popular CG-generated animation franchise in China that is backed by Tencent. By late 2021, it had garnered more than 5 billion views and consistently topped the national television ratings. It features both virtual reality and coding and has been a top-3 rated cartoon in China more than 100 times. Super BOOMi was created by illustrator and entrepreneur Trevor Lai who has worked on more than 25 books and has been creating stories and characters for the past 20 years.
In November 2021, Super BOOMi partnered with Spores Network for the launch of its non-fungible token (NFT), the Super BOOMi NFT Collection. The Super BOOMI animated NFTs have proven quite popular with fans and the industry at large. Even traditional IPs have expressed an interest in partnering with the IP for artwork collaborations.
Dark Horse Comics
Founded in 1986, Dark Horse Comics is currently ranked as the fourth biggest comics publisher in the US. The company prides itself on working with indie artists and writers and churning out content that may not fit into the mainstream. Some of its more famous works include Sin City, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, 300, and Star Wars.
In mid-2021, Dark Horse Comics forayed into the NFT space with the launch of a digital content division. In December 2021, Dark Horse collaborated with Mattel on an NFT based on Skeletor and He-Man, derived from the Masters of the Universe franchise.
Unlike other NFTs that are dispensed as digital products tied to the blockchain, this NFT is actually dispensed as a physical paper product and it is not linked to the blockchain. Instead, it is distributed as a “limited edition” lithograph print. Users must buy them with retro fiat currency that adds to their nostalgic aura.
The Masters of the Universe: Revelation comic was even used as a prequel for Mattel TV’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation animated series on Netflix.
This unique physical NFT was printed on an archival paper measuring 11” x 17”. The artwork for the print was provided by Bill Sienkiewicz. There were only 300 prints so this Dark Comic was a real rarity and a comic collector’s dream. Each print retailed at $39.99 and was shipped to customers early in the year.
Doonesbury NFT
Creator Garry Trudeau is partnering with Polygon for his Doonesbury NFTs. Trudeau will be dishing NFT comic strips as well as character art via the Heritage Auctions house. Proceeds from the NFT auction will be channeled to charity causes. Live bidding is scheduled to begin today on 14th July 2022. Trudeau’s comic strips will be turned into tokens and sold as NFTs. The veteran comics creator will offer 10 strips he previously created in the past to be minted as tokens along with various other collectible items. Each of the Doonesbury NFTs will feature a sign and numbered physical print that users can keep alongside the digital tokens they own.
Kodansha Comics NFT
At the recently concluded NFT.NYC, it was revealed that MADWorld is partnering with Kodansha, UCOLLEX and Animoca Brands KK to create anime and manga NFTs that will engage their massive fanbase across the world. Two comics NFT projects dubbed “FAIRY TAIL” and “GHOST IN THE SHELL” were presented at the NFT.NYC 2022.
Kodansha publishes some of the best-known manga in the world. Some of its popular IPs include Akira, Parasyte, Attack on Titan, and Sailor Moon. There are also the two comic works that it featured at the NFT.NYC. Kodansha comics employ unique storytelling that has captivated millions of fans from across the world. Both FAIRY TAIL and GHOST IN THE SHELL, which now find their way into the NFT medium, are manga series with a devoted fanbase from across the world.
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment has been launching a series of NFT collections over the past year. The first drop came in September 2021 when Dynamite partnered with Terra Virtua and Polygon for its The Boys NFT collection which consisted of a collection of graphic novels and comics.
The superheroes featured in The Boys consist of self-absorbed celebrities that have the backing of Vought Industries. The Boys plan to trim down the main superteam at Vought down to size. A limited edition of The Boys collection was offered for $6.99 a piece.
Dynamite Entertainment has gone on to subsequently release other comic book NFTs including the Red Sonja and Vampirella NFT collections. Red Sonja is based on the comic Samurai Sonja. Red Sonja is the quintessential female barbarian, stunningly beautiful and wearing chain mail armor that resembles a bikini to protect herself in battle. Red Sonja has her own series, mini-series, and one-shots all of which are published by Dynamite. The Red Sonja NFT collection also featured an exclusive limited-edition Chase Variant issue with a captivating 2D animated cover done by Lesley Li.
Vampirella is another famous Dynamite IP that is now available as an NFT. Vampirella was first launched in 1969. Vampirella issue #1 featured stunning artwork on the cover by the artist Frank Frazetta. Most of Vampirella’s vampire heroine stories were illustrated by legendary illustrator Jose Gonzalez. Vampirella’s undoubtedly one of the best-known female comic characters. The Vampirella NFT was launched in late June 2022 and covers various issues of the comic books with different rarity levels to pick from. Every volume of the Vampirella collection combines a series of issues into a single digital comic book NFT with just 1,000 copies being minted as NFTs.
Archieverse: Eclipse NFT Collection
Archie Comics partnered with Palm NFT to develop its Archieverse: Eclipse NFT collection drop this year. Archie Comics says it has launched the NFT collection to empower its fans and also spawn new artwork and stories around its IP. The Archieverse NFTs are priced at $66.66 apiece. The Archie artists Vincezo Federici and Laura Braga were also involved in the creation of the NFT. The Archie NFT project was inspired by its The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic.
The NFT comics industry is still in flux and we are going to see more comic IPs coming to the metaverse and inventing creative new ways to present their intellectual property for the Web3 age.
