Love Watchmen? Love NFTs? Then you’ll be left wanting as legendary comic artist Dave Gibbons, the co-creator of Watchmen, states he’s not getting involved with NFTs. We've already pondered if NFTs are over and fallen in love with the best NFTs, so there's still no right or wrong position to take.
Gibbons is clear in his mind NFTs are for him. Speaking as he launches video game Beyond a Steel Sky on PlayStation 5 and PC, a game created by Charles Cecil’s Revolution Software, for which Gibbons has contributed new art, he says: “I'm not a stupid, man but I just don't get it. Why isn't it just right-click and save?”
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The artist says he’s had numerous meetings with people who say they could turn his back catalogue of comic art into NFTs and he could make millions of dollars. “Everybody says to me, ‘you could make huge sums of money, but you're gonna have to move really, really quickly’. And this sounds like, you know, a marketing scam.”
He continues: “I believe there are certain environmental consequences to it, which don't sound too good to me. I think the early people there are going to be the ones who make the most money. The ones at the end of the pyramid scheme are going to make nothing at all.” (See our piece on how to make an NFT if you want to find out for yourself.)
NFTs aren't originals?
Gibbons says in the world of comics, and more and more work is done digitally, he believes people will prize original art. A page of his original Watchmen art will sell for tens of thousands of dollars. “I wish I hadn’t sold those paintings,” he reflects.
“I can see why someone would want to own a physical piece of art that an artist has physically worked on and is truly unique in the world,” says Gibbons. “That I get that, but I don’t get owning an image that you don’t even own, and you can’t protect from being seen anyway. I just can’t make it work.”
He adds: “I could look back on this in years to come and say, ‘Oh my god what was I thinking, I could have made a million. But from where I’m sitting right now, I just don’t get it.”
“I wish everybody that can make money from their art, but despite the fact that I've been offered backup and stuff done free of charge, I've not pressed a button, and to be honest with you, I'm very unlikely to press the button.”
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