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One of the first NFT comics in the market (Matt Kindt made the first one, and that was an actual 1:1 NFT comic) — but PUNKS by Pixel Vault is definitely the most famous one, and is not just purely a comic book but a whole 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 53 ETH) 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 copes 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 (available in December 2021).
- 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 actual comic publishing project.
I didn’t get the Punks comic NFT, too slow on the mint and too expensive now, but I found the comic via a friendly NFT holder and read it to get an idea of what they were 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 Lock Stock and Barrel 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 it. What is the value on the paper version as opposed to the NFT 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 a bunch of 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.
OR
- 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 note is that Pixel Vault will create and sell PUNKS Merchandise, with the profits (100%) of which will be distributed to $PUNKS Token holders. The second issue of Punks is out now.
You can track all of it here.
UPDATE: January 2, 2022
I got a hold of PUNKS #2 and so here are a few pages from it featuring the Bored Apes that will lead into my next post on the Adidas crossover with Punks.
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