The following editorial is a guest post from legendary comic artist and digital creator José Delbo.
Almost one year ago, I made a decision that would change the rest of my career and ultimately my life. After a conversation with my grandson where I learned all about the blockchain and how NFTs might be the future of art, I set off to create my first NFTs. At the time, artists were not making big money with NFTs, but my grandson and I saw it as an opportunity to evolve my art and reach a whole new audience. So we dove in!
Prior to joining the NFT space, I always had a dream of creating my own comic book after illustrating comic books for the major publishers for over 50 years. And over the course of a few years, I slowly created what would become my first original comic book, “Death … No Escape.”
The comic was a ton of work with over 42 pages of original art and was unique in that there was very little text and the story was told almost entirely through the art. When it was completed, however, I had a bit of a problem in that I was not sure where or how to publish it so that people would see it.
Luckily, the stars soon aligned with my discovery of NFTs. After much thought, I decided that NFTs were the perfect way of publishing my new comic. And so I teamed up with MakersPlace to do just that, and on July 23, 2020, I released the first editions of my comic which I have been told was the first time an original comic book was released on the blockchain. Unlike most comics which have hundreds of thousands of editions, we decided to release the “Death … No Escape” comic as an edition of 250 to keep it very scarce.
I was astonished by the support the community gave me. After just a couple months of releasing the comics in small batches, they all sold out with the final 20 comics selling out in a day for 1 ETH each!
While I love all the NFTs I have created, this one allowed me to accomplish my dream and may always be the most significant to me.
After the comic books sold out, I continued to develop the character, this time telling the story of Death through various pieces. I partnered with some of the top artists in the space like Pr1mal Cypher, Mark McKenna, Vúho Studios, and Anna Zhilyaeva to depict the Death character in all new ways. If you would like to learn more about the history of Death … No Escape click here.
Now, for the one-year anniversary of “Death … No Escape,” I have partnered with my grandson’s company Apollo NFT Studios to create something very special and bring Death to life in a whole new way.
While each of my drops has been significant for me, this one may be one of the most significant as I got to work directly with my grandson to take my dream of creating my own comic book into the digital age in a whole new way.
“Death … Reanimated” will be a collection of eight pieces that will be released on MakersPlace on two separate dates starting with the launch on July 23, 2021 – the one-year anniversary of “Death … No Escape.” While all the details are a bit of a secret for now, I can tell you I have never done anything like this before. There will be limited edition NFTs, signed physical pieces, augmented reality, collector rewards, and an edition of 250 pieces that will bring the “Death … No Escape” comic to life.
I really hope I will see you all there on drop day! Thank you all for the support! And if you want the latest information on this drop and others, please follow @Jose_Delbo, @ApolloNft, and @makersplaceco on Twitter.
-José Delbo
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