Todd Mcfarlane to bring NFTs to Solana
Todd Mcfarlane left Marvel Comics back in 1992 to create Image Comics, a creator-focused comics publisher, where the artists owned their stories a move that changed the industry forever.
Now the creator of Spawn is trying to capture the same essence with the launch of his new Solana-based NFT platform OddKey. The Platform is a project made in collaboration between Mcfarlane and his long-time friend Steve Aoki.
OddKey will focus on solely creator-owned projects, Mcfarlane told Decrypt. No third-party licenses will be featured on the marketplace, as well as knock-offs, the duo plans to launch their own NFT’s coinciding with the launch.
“At Image Comics, we came up with this thing where we gave the best possible deal we could to the owners,” said McFarlane. “And then we said, ‘If anybody wants to join us, you basically get the owners’ deal.’ Not surprisingly, people came.”
Mcfarlane hopes Oddkey will be the best place for creators, a goal that can easily be reached with the number of scams and stolen art on other marketplaces. Giving up-and-coming artists the opportunity to work with long-time creators, helping them navigate the wild west of IP laws, without the caution that they will be ripped off.
“The space that you're coming into—if you have any interest in NFT's—is going to be headed by creative people,” he said. “You can hang out with people in suits that basically count money, and try to figure out how to skim off of you every day of their life, or you can hang out with us. We already pay our bills. We're not here to do any of what they're doing.”
Aoki and Mcfarlane met years ago, and have been discussing a collaborative project for a long time, but could not figure out the right one to execute on. Aoki is well versed in NFT’s owning a crypto punk, which he touts as his avatar on Twitter, as well as having released art on Nifty Gateway.
“I love the Image Comics dynamic and model. What Todd's done for 30 years is very much about that. He's never changed,” Aoki told Decrypt. “You make it about creators and artists first, and then you don't need to sell anything. You just bring your own community, and that community comes to you.”
OddKey will be powered by Solana’s Metaplex NFT Protocol, due to the cheaper fees and less energy consumption (a problem NFT’s have famously faced). Aoki wanted the low transactions fees because “Some artists are peeking in the door, but they don't know exactly how to do it or it's too expensive for them,”....“So it's important that the minting fees are as low as possible, and that it's easier to get into. You could sell art for $10, or you could sell art for $10,000. It’s a wide-open door.”.
This collaboration (like I say with any NFT project), is only the beginning and can only benefit as more people start to standardize and mold the industry into what they believe it has the potential to become. Mcfarlane and Aoki continue the interview, touching on where they see the industry moving, with a lot of excitement, read the rest of it from here.