CryptoPunk Comics and the Adidas Metaverse

Jan 04, 2022

Gm and Welcome to 2022 Thndr Frens - the newsletter at the nexus of NFTs, entertainment, comics and animation put together by @casey_lau.

Welcome to all you new readers: My NFT 101 Notion is available here for you.

The ABCs of NFTs

This is a fun comic strip explaining in 11 panels what an NFT is.

Created by Macroverse it was given out as a free NFT on their site, but as anyone can tell you you can easily “right click and save” BUT if yours is on the blockchain you have the non-fungible token version so you can choose to continue holding it or sell it. Just like a real comic.

This IS coming for your digital comics soon. DC and Marvel are already making digital-only comics and soon those you will be able to collect and trade those like physical ones.

Next crazy step: DC can program the NFT comic to age over time. If you don’t read it say once a year, it will degrade in quality, lowering the eternally “mint” condition to a “Very Fine.” Yes, your comics will become like a Tamagotchi.

Has that blown your mind yet?

PUNKS Comic Review

Which leads us to this; one of the first NFT comics in the market (Matt Kindt made the first one, and that was an actual 1:1 NFT comic) is called PUNKS by Pixel Vault and is definitely the most famous one in the NFT industry, and even though it looks like a comic it’s an entire ecosystem.

ICYMI: a great recap of the Punks NFT history is here by NFT NOW.

TL:DR version:

Pixel Vault, a company that owns 16 CryptoPunks (the floor as of this writing is 67 ETH approximately US$254,711.37) decided instead of leaving them in a wallet doing nothing, gave these NFTs personalities and characters and thus the PUNKS comic was born.
Went live in May 2021 for .2ETH and with 10,000 copies of the first issue of Punks.
If you held, and you were one of the first 5000 holders - you would get Punks #2 for free. Current floor price of this writing .27ETH
It gets complicated from here - but owners could HOLD, BURN or STAKE their comic for rewards - so it’s become more of a rewards game than comic publishing project.

I read the comic for you, so you get an idea of what they are doing. And you might be surprised to learn that the comic is the least interesting thing about the Punks comic.

What’s it about?

a comic that chronicles Beanie's journey - from humble auction house busboy to digital art kingpin - to capitalize on the digital revolution in the Metaverse (enduring kidnappings, clowns, anons, and the mysterious Elvis Punksley, all as part of his quest). The story pays homage to NFT influencer Beanie’s obsession with Robbie Barrat’s work, while bringing CryptoPunks to life in a whimsical and creative way.

After reading it, it feels like the Adult Swim show The Venture Brothers crossed with a Guy Ritchie movie, but about crypto. It’s a very slick indie comic and I’m sure there are a lot of inside jokes here from Beanie’s life and his friends.

It’s written by Richard Galbraith with art by Australian Chris Wahl who has drawn Tank Girl and done commercial work for Marvel, DC and Hasbro.

Apparently the comic will see print and made available to those that still own the NFT and did not burn them. What is the value of the paper version as opposed to the NFT entry into their DAO remains to be seen but you can see the allure for people that didn’t get the NFT to at least get the comic itself.

I feel the comic is just the starting point and the Tokenomics is the real mission on fractional ownership of 16 CryptoPunks. It makes my head hurt to understand all this, but wow what a long way to go to basically create a new DAO.

To try and sum it up, this first issue is tied to ownership of EITHER:

50% of the 16 CryptoPunks represented by $PUNKS token holders.

Partnership in the Founder's DAO, composed of 25% of the 16 CryptoPunks represented by $PUNKS token holders PLUS collective ownership of the other works in the Founder's DAO.

The interesting aspect to this is that Pixel Vault will create and sell PUNKS Merchandise, with 100% of the profits will be distributed to $PUNKS Token holders. The second issue of Punks is out now.

You can track all of it here.

More comic pages and the newly released second issue can be seen here.

How Adidas is helping explain NFTs to hypebeasts

I’ll say with Kanye West and Beyonce involved with Adidas that fashion is arguably entertainment but 100% pop culture, so discussing what brands like Nike and Adidas are doing in this space are in the purvue of this newsletter.

With Adidas’ first foray into NFTs, its a good way to explain how entertainment brands might extend into NFTs.

If you don’t understand why someone would pay $800 for a pair of sneakers they will never wear - maybe the rest of this will make no sense. As someone who just spent $450 on a CGC 9.6 copy of Usagi Yojimbo #1 (a copy I can never actually read as it’s slabbed in acrylic) even though I don’t collect sneakers this fits in with my mindset.

If you were one of the 30,000 people lucky enough to get an Adidas NFT you are now part of a new club that crosses over with some of the superstars of NFTs!

I’m a huge Adidas fan so I was lucky to get one and seeing what else besides some exclusive real world merch they will be offering NFT holders - like attending exclusive in-person experiences.

So if you could get one of the NFT’s (Even Adidas had trouble keeping the servers up) it costs .2 ETH each (around $800USD) and you can only mint 2 per wallet. For holding this NFT in 2022, you will get the 4 pieces of clothing in the NFT for no additional cost:

the beanie
the hoodie
and the tracksuit top and bottom.
(no shoes though)

These items alone will will fetch a bunch on the secondary market if you don’t wear it.

NFT holders will also get invites to other exclusive events both in the Real World and in the Metaverse AND The NFT itself as of this writing has already gone to .75 ETH (around $2.8K) so as a fan and an investor of Adidas this is a win all around and seeing as they made $23 million off this collab you can bet when they do it again with actual atheletes and celebs and throwing in courtside seats, backstage passes and movie/concert seats etc. this becomes a very very exciting proposition.

The biggest problem here for global brands: since this is decentralized if you get your NFT stolen or anything goes wrong there is no one at Adidas customer service to help you. The Discord is not even run by Adidas. This is the biggest caveat for medium sized brands getting into NFTs right now.

Stuff to read

Time Studios, the film and TV production division of the nearly 100-year-old magazine, is developing an animated children’s show based on the “Robotos,” a NFT project from artist Pablo Stanley.

Via The Hollywood Reporter

An Indian Superhero Co-Created by Stan Lee - yes, that Stan Lee - Is Becoming an NFT Collection. ‘Nuff said.

Via Hypebeast

Creature Chronicles: Exiled Aliens is a generative NFT collection. Designed by former Marvel Studios’ artist, Anthony Francisco, the 10,000 unique avatars will be minted on the Solana Blockchain. I was lucky to get in on this primarily because DC Comics’ CCO and comic book legend Jim Lee hyped it on his social media.

Via Grit Daily

nft now 💭 @nftnow

NFTs in South Park. Probably nothing.

NFT Now put this great list together of the Top 11 NFT Pop Culture Moments of 2021 that you may have missed, although most likely you didn’t since most of this stuff happened just in the last quarter 😂 but more proof that we are only in the Fax Machine Era of Web3: