Meet the artist behind Goo Goons

"Hey WAXFAM! I’m grateful to crackers for interviewing me about my new collectible card project, GOO GOONS. I’m hoping it will come across as a beginner-friendly and fun set like the Garbage Pail Kids sticker cards. I’ve been in crypto for a while (and NFTs since about November.) In that time, I’ve learned a lot thanks to everybody in this beautiful community.
I’m looking forward to more fun stuff to come!"

Hey nick

Hey! How's it going?

Good and you?

Doing well, lots of projects and work. I like being busy though.

All ways the way so what you working on today?

I've been trying to get a login-free WAX Wallet viewer set up for WAXWORKS, the artist tool site I'm making making use of some UI tricks like locally storing collection thumbnails so IPFS isn't such a bottleneck you?

Just relaxing watching a bit of TV. So how long you been into crypto?

Since 2012 with Bitcoin.

And when did you get involved in NFTs?

When I was doing research for my contemporary novel about a rug pull scam, I was in that "NFTs are dumb hurr durr" mindset and I decided to actually try to understand it so the novel was done for NaNoWriMo in November I think it's safe to say those experiments I did on OpenSea that month were the start of it I still thought the ETH ones were pretty dumb though until HumbleDrawing got me into WAX

Ah so you were just doing research into NFTs and you were dragged into it lol.

The gas was driving me away (still is) but yeah I let my mind be changed once I saw the community around it . After paying outrageous fees to learn stuff on Shibaswap, then OpenSea, it was a relief to follow Niftybc's tutorials with like under $10 in WAX

And what made you start creating?

I've been playing Magic The Gathering since the 90s, I always had the idea of making my own collectible cards. The longer answer is, I wanted a way to introduce other new people to NFTs to convince them they aren't scary or an ecological disaster. I designed an approachable art set around onboarding. So the NFT cards are meant to help people who read the book and want an easy/safe place to start. The book, in this case, being my Crypto Primer . The "Jellyfolk" art started as a PFP set I made in about 2004 as AIM (Aol instant messenger) avatars that I drew in Fireworks. I always thought I could do something cool with the concept, but it took me this long. GOO GOONS seemed like a better name though, my wife and I call each other goons all the time.

So the project name is from you and your wife pet names lol.

Yeah, it started with her dad. He has a habit of accidentally breaking stuff, so we called that "Gooning around." It's one of those things that just became a family saying.

And how does your project tie in with your book?

A purchase of the book includes a free NFT so people can get started. I don't think I could afford to do that with ETH, but WAX is perfect. It's called FIVE DOLLAR CRYPTO PRIMER and it's a normal eBook on kindle/apple/etc. as well as having been released as an NFT on WAX and VOICE. I'm trying to see how web3 marketing could work for authors trying to self publish. So the free NFT is a GOO GOONS one. I thought people would be able to wrap their heads around NFTs if they were presented more like the Garbage Pail Kids sticker cards. Instead of "fine art" these are little fun collectibles.

Have you sold many copies?

Not as many as I'd like but I'm realizing I'm not that good at promotion. I am working on a reseller program letting WAX people get the same cut selling the NFT that amazon gets on the book but the issue with trying to get my novel published and trying to sell this eBook are the same, my platform is really small. A bestselling author I follow named Mark Jeffrey (Max Quick, and some bitcoin books) read and tweeted about the primer, which was amazing. I won't know until the end of the month if it resulted in many sales. I'm mainly in it to teach people about crypto so that it stops being so feared. Hopefully this will result in more common-sense regulation rather than some of the uninformed stuff we see getting proposed. Since the NFT book is part of the GOO GOONS collection I'm hoping people who find the cards might then discover the book, or vice versa. Seems like a web3 approach to me.

And what about on the NFT side have you sold many?

I had some pretty successful giveaways, the full set hasn't launched. I'm tentatively shooting for 3/25 but maybe telling you this on the Ides of March is bad luck.

And how many NFTs will there be at launch?

It's going to be sold as $2.99 USD packs with random distribution. I'm doing a model where unlimited generation 1 packs are available for a limited time. For generation 1 though, I want to make sure all the cards get minted with enough supply. It's meant to be more of a fun onboarding collection where you wouldn't mind giving some away to new people to get them into WAX. I didn't want them ever getting to be enormously expensive, but there are certainly rare ones. Each generation of 50 individually named cards uses a breeding mechanic (each goon gets traits from 2 parents.) Body styles also combine to produce new ones, meaning the commons are crazier and the rarest are more cohesive. At the top of the pile are 4 unique progenitors with a fixed design. I have a website at googoons.net with more info. For me, the most fun part is opening packs. I wanted to keep that affordable.

$2.99 is that a bad price for a pack how many NFTs in the pack?

5 slots, 2 of which are common. The other 3 have a chance to be uncommon or rare, with a slimmer chance to be one of the mythic progenitors.

Ah and all the cards ready?

Are they all designed? Yes, the packs are ready to go, I just wanted to plan a launch.

What was the first NFT you created?

I made a set of "Food Heat" Ethereum NFTs on OpenSea. I got an infrared camera for Christmas and I put the results through some photo editing. You can see them on my nametag page: https://nametag.org/u/Tantilloon/

What was the first one on wax?

I got the idea for them from MORBS so GOO GOONS are the first collection. The first "real" card was the "Meet the Progenitors" one.

https://neftyblocks.com/c/googoonsgen1/templates/417460

but this silly one is what I made right after doing the tutorial. I gave out exactly one of them, so a random twitter person has something that might be super rare. I also have a random PFP generator using the same "parts" system. They aren't NFTs yet but here's an example of a WAXGOON that was generated in real time on a website. some def work better than others lol

Is there a favorite in the collection for you?

Dead Bob lol, he was the one I imagined first, did the art for first he's the actual "gelatinous goo" like from Dungeons and Dragons, but those are copyrighted. I was originally going to do jelly cubes but I wanted to be more original. Sea Sam came next since I wanted to have different elemental types (Norma, Sea, Desert) that breed and add more types (Largo, Ghost)

So these are all generated is there dodge ones in there?

lol no, I tried to stay away from anything that had possible negative feelings. But making meme ones might be funny for another generation! The main themes I did were Undead/Treasure/Cartoon/Evil and any of the ones that breed can get accessories from a generic pool, plus some rare powerups (laser eyes, power up aura) so I hand picked ones I thought looked cool that followed the breeding rules, then gave them a name based on how they look.

How did you create them?

I drew everything as vector art using the Bezier pen in Affinity Designer. It's all layers. So there's certain position markers I use for accessories to know where they end up.

How long did that take?

This was the base template:

It took longer for the body shapes since they have shading. I'd say about a week of late nights to get it all together. I had to throw out a lot when it just didn't look good.

What is the long term plan for your project?

They are meant to be NFTs for First Timers, I want to use them as an onboarding tool alongside entertaining-yet-educational books that explain crypto and NFTs. My goal would be for other trainers/speakers/wax ambassadors to add them to their toolbox as a safe and approachable collection. Hopefully it will let people experiment with the tech so they can support other artists in the space

That sounds brilliant and how about collabs with artists?

I did a ham and also a collab with Kuma

And here is the Kuma one

Is there anyone you would like to collab with?

There's no single person, I'm open to working with any of the WAXFAM regulars . Although I would love to do something with Bret Blackberg . Since Wax Wednesday is amazing

Who is your favorite artist?

If we're not talking NFT only, it's Kerby Rosanes . He's the only artist I ever bought prints from to hang on my wall .

Oh cool what has been the best part of doing your project?

Engaging with the community, I'm somebody who does a little bit of a lot of things. I'm getting more feedback with my projects here than at any other point in my life. I think my core skills are actually in creating software tools, so I hope to share more of that soon.

What has been the hardest part?

The hardest part is engaging with people when I'm in a solitary mood. I'm an introvert but platform building requires sort of an "always on positivity" that I'm not always feeling. Sometimes it cheers me up, but Twitter can also be really exhausting.

I get you but happens to a lot of us . What you like to do to unwind?

Watch YouTube cooking videos, play PC games, or listen to audiobooks passive stuff since I'm usually fully engaged with creating things.

Tell us something random about you?

Pickles are my favorite food, especially pickled green tomatoes.

Ha ha where can we keep up to date with your project?

The project page is at https://nicktantillo.com/goo-goons/ and it will have a link to my discord (which is a work in progress) and the tie in book NFT is at https://nicktantillo.com/five-dollar-crypto-primer/

https://twitter.com/Tantilloon?s=20&t=qMV6v7x1dGpLmOIXIzUshg

Where will be able to buy them?

The packs will be available on the neftyblocks collection page once it launches: https://neftyblocks.com/c/googoonsgen1

currently I have lots of GOOHAMs left!

So are you up for a live launch this Friday on are show?

3/25 sounds great 16:20 pst.

Any chance of a competition for the readers?

Sure, I wanted to get the "Meet the Progenitors" cards out there since it sorta explains the concept.

Love it ha ha ha . Before we finish up is there anything you would like to say or add before we finish?

We only touched on WAXWORKS, the tools for artists. The first tool that WAX NFT creators can use is the https://iwa-directory.glitch.me/ directory. They can even make a copy of it on their own site if they want! I'm hoping more people sign up so we can use it to showcase the #WAXFAM community! Thanks so much crackers, I hope people understand me a bit better now.

Its been a pleasure and I think will understand more plus we can cover the directory in more on the show .

So we are giving 8 of his NFTs away on Twitter and 1 Mytic on the show and dont forget to check out his drop 2muro

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1507142139146350592?t=ZjTbco0zKRin9bq4sChszg&s=19