NFTs have had an impact on many industries, including sports, gaming, advertising, shopping, investing, and even the comics and creative industries, even though they have only been in the spotlight for a little less than a year. NFTs have specifically affected the network of retailers, gatherings, and fans who purchase, collect, and exchange hand-drawn original comic books. This is due to the fact that they provide authors, artists, storytellers, and others of a similar caliber with a fresh source of authority, connectivity, and ownership to market their work.
However, these NFT disruptions have also sparked a dispute over intellectual property rights and marketability between the big corporations and the creators, and this is just the beginning. As with any industry, as the market ages, certain problems are ironed out over time. However, it appears that NFTs will greatly benefit the comics, graphic novel, and book industries as it enables interaction between creators, fans, and consumers in fresh and inventive ways.
More and more artists are currently being asked to draw digitally in the comic book and creative artist industries, or they are already doing so to keep up with demand. This is also due to the fact that they have access to digital tools that are not available to them on paper.
What Are NFT Comic Books?
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a unique digital object stored on a blockchain for ownership and authenticity verification that cannot be replaced, duplicated, or divided. The world of digital collectibles is being established by NFTs quickly.
Massive sales are transforming the lives of people to a new crypto-audience.
Celebrities are joining in as well, seeing it as a novel way to interact with their fans. NFTs are changing the game for the creative and comics industries, as well as having an impact on a wide range of industries, including sports, advertising, gaming, investments, and shopping.
As their name suggests, comic book NFTs are NFTs of the original comic books. By purchasing an NFT that represents a particular issue, fans or casual readers can own a digital comic book issue. In essence, digital NFT comics enable the creation of “first editions” that are collectible in the same way that physical first editions are.
Currently, people can buy online subscriptions that give them access to all the comic book series they want, but that is merely a subscription renting model and not an actual ownership agreement. As a result, investors or collectors may not find it to be ideal.
How Do Digital Comic Book NFTs Work?
NFTs are a concept that comic book collectors are familiar with. When buying a signed comic book, you have two options: buying it with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) or buying it without one.
Without the Certificate, there is no way to determine whether the inventor signed the document or not. Respectable teams from Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) and Comic Book Certification Services (CBCS) are required to be present for the signing.
With the Certificate, it is possible to verify that the comic book’s author, writer, artist, or any other contributor is who they claim to be.
The emotional value of a comic book can also be increased by having the author’s signature on it. The same result is obtained by utilizing blockchain technology (converting it to an NFT).
A comic book must first be minted before it can be sold as an NFT. The author must choose how many copies to print and what price to charge for each. A “0” price indicates that the book is not for sale and may instead be listed as a “preview only.”
Only the number of pages designated by the author in the preview section may be previewed by readers. The main difference between buying and selling comic books physically and digitally is that buying comic books digitally doesn’t require obtaining a physical COA.
Where to Get NFTs Comic Book
RiseAngle
RiseAngle is the first gaming company that focuses on morally upstanding entertainment, gaming, and virtual reality.
Utilizing disruptive technologies like blockchain, NFTs, and virtual reality to create a universe of possibilities, they create and publish games with immersive storytelling.
With over 300,000 installs, RiseAngle has released five games across six platforms. The business is working on innovative new products like RiseAngle Membership NFT Games and World of Mazes NFT Games Metaverse (RAM NFT).
RAM NFT is a membership-based NFT that provides its members with, among other things, access to a community, special NFT collections, and early access to partner NFT initiatives. The RAM NFT has several generations.
There is currently only a very limited supply of 400 RAM NFT-Gen 1s available due to its introduction last year. A RAM Gen 1 NFT can only be acquired from someone else on a secondary market like OpenSea now that the mint has ended.
RAM Gen 2 was introduced this year in June, and since the mint is closed, it is currently only available on secondary markets and has a very limited supply of only 300 units.
12 amazing NFT Collections are accessible to RAM NFT members.
They include metaverse/AR/VR NFTs, digital comic books, 2D and 3D art, and a combination of the three.
The RAM NFT membership also grants you access to 12 magnificent NFTs from 12 distinct collections over the course of 12 months, giving you one NFT per month from the best trends and products available.
RiseAngle’s collection of digital comic books, one of the 12 NFTs, exhibits a wide range of creativity.
Along with its own NFT products, RiseAngle has created an NFT Calendar where it showcases and lists noteworthy projects in the NFT sector. The NFT Calendar, which currently lists more than 3,000 NFT projects, is a good resource for discovering NFT projects for digital comic books besides RiseAngle’s.
OpenSea
The world’s first and biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, takes great pride in this distinction.
In 2017, OpenSea was founded in New York City. In just the third quarter of 2021, NFT trading on OpenSea exceeded $10 billion in volume.
Given that the total volume for 2020 was only $21 million, this clearly demonstrates success.
The Punks Comic NFT is a well-liked comic book NFT that can be found on OpenSea. One of the most awaited NFT products is PUNKS Comics, which debuted on May 10, 2021.
It was created with the intention of making CryptoPunks NFTs—the very first NFT—a reality. The collection was made by Pixel Vault and features a superbly designed episodic comic book by Josh Blaylock, Marvel & DC Comics Artist Christ Wahl, and Odious.
Over 8,000 people currently own the equivalent comic tokens of the 23,200 Punks Comic NFT assets that are currently in circulation. The total trading volume for the PUNKS Comic NFT collection is approximately 52,000 ETH, or about US$162 million.
The mobile app VeVe, which sells digital goods and comics from companies like Marvel, is another place to find comic book NFTs. Another option is CryptoComics, a digital marketplace and community for those who create and publish manga, comics, graphic novels, art, and books.
It’s interesting to note that each digital comic book NFT has five tiers of rarity: common, uncommon, rare, ultra-rare, and secret rare. Additionally, each tier has a different set of comic book features, such as a vintage cover, a hero variant, a vibranium variant, and a true believer variant.
Comic Store Publishers vs. Emerging Digital Comic NFT Markets
The COVID-19 pandemic created a brand-new audience for online comics. This is because Diamond Classic Comic Distributors and comic book stores were essentially shut down by the virus.
Let’s now examine some sales channel data. In the second quarter of 2021, Marvel Comics held a dollar sales share of 32% of the market for all comic store sales in the United States. DC Comics came in second with a market share of 24%. With 15% of the market, Image Comics came in third. As a result, Marvel and DC consistently compete for first place and hold significantly larger market shares than their smaller competitors.
Additionally, sales of comic books and graphic novels brought in $1.2 billion in North America in 2019. This means that it is a sizable industry that has expanded since 2013 (when it had $870 million in sales). It has maintained consistent growth over the years, though it is not exponential growth.
These annual sales figures will probably rise with the introduction of NFTs. This is particularly true given that North American digital comic book sales in 2018 totaled $100 million, and industry sources estimate that the sector is expanding by 3% to 5% annually.
What Are Crypto Comics?
CryptoComics, a community and marketplace for comic book, manga, art, graphic novel, and book creators and publishers, is another product of this shift to digital comics and collectibles.
In essence, more and more investors will pour in and start taking part in this type of NFT collection as more and more comic books published on the blockchain and made accessible on NFT marketplaces. These types of collectibles will remain popular as long as Marvel and DC-produced films and other media remain popular. The demand for that crypto comic will then soar even higher once comics made available through NFT methods and that specific comic becomes a critically acclaimed film.
Conclusion
NFTs have altered the nature of the comic book industry, but they have also increased the market for digital comics. That is advantageous to both authors and big businesses. To meet demand, more artists are adopting digital drawing techniques. This is also possible because they have much greater access to digital tools than they did to paper ones. It is safe to say that the creative and comics industries have a bright future.