As I always I like to hunt new artists down or even find artists that I like there projects and I seen his NFT's and his project so I thought I would hit him up so let meet the artist ...........
Hey
Heya
How's things ?
Good brotha just cleaning the house up a bit . My office was cluttered . So is this something we do on your channel? Or is it something you write up later and go to “print” with?
So I normal do it on here then clean it up and put it on read.cash IL also now by putting up on a new NFT website that is in the works .
Easy question what's your name ?
Jake
What's your many NFT project at the moment ?
Little Monsters
Ok sounds good
Where can we find you on Twitter ?
https://twitter.com/LittleMonst_1?s=09
Oh do you have telegram channel ?
https://t.me/joinchat/aOaUjEKdwolmYjEx
Did you get up to much today ?
Not much today, wife tries to keep me busy on my “days off”. I’m going to prepare tomorrow’s drop this evening. Standard day.
What you dropping 2muro ?
I am waiting for a whitelist on our new collection, once that’s approved I’ll have a lot to test. Tomorrow we drop our Vintage Classics week 2. I believe we will drop “The Bride” tomorrow.
Oh you are still waiting on whitelisting ?
Yea for the new collections. Should be approved shortly. I hear Atomic gets hundreds of whitelist applications a day.
Yea so I suppose we should give the readers the back story of how you got involved in NFT's
We have only been in the space for about three weeks. We have been on the comic industry for around 12 years and we have had a lot of projects we put aside due to funding or just new projects come up. Little monsters has been done for around 2 years now. This platform at Atomichub just gave us a perfect way to bring our our content to consumers. We had previously done some promotional prints and taken little monsters to a few conventions prior to Covid. But it essentially sat there on the shelf for a couple years until I heard about the surge in interest in NFTs.
I’m not a Crypto guy and I didn’t own any cryptocurrency prior to this. It’s a lot to learn! But the community has been really great and we continue to grow as we learn new things about what the space offers.
So the community has welcomed you with open arms ?
I think so, there has been a lot of positivity and great comments on our project that really make doing the work worth while. I didn’t expect such a success right off the bat, we can only credit everyone who helped us spread the word.
What made you choose wax to launch your NFT's ?
Well, so far we have minted nearly 11,000 NFTs for our project. The price point of regular trading cards and what we wanted to do with our project made the other platforms impossible . Our packs retail under a few dollars for the most part. We structured our project to sell every NFT at the same average price so that the value is given to the consumer. It was very important for us to create a secondary trading market.
So no matter how rare a pull you get we aren’t price gouging you based upon rarity.
And how did you come across NFT's ?
I have worked in the industry and on several trading cards in collectible trading card projects for major publishers. This gave us a good insight into how to build a product and return some value to the customer.
NBA Top Shot, I’m a big fan. That was my introduction to NFTs. I had had some experience with other collector card apps which do not give you any ownership over the items you purchase. The idea of being able to own something forever and trade or sell it however you like appeals to me as a producer and a collector.
So your collecting NFT's ?
Yes but I really don't understand all the games yet, or what are the sets that are all available. I collect NBA Top Shot a bit. I also have collected on the Topps Trader apps for years. But have moved away from them in recent years.
Don’t tell my wife.
Ha ha ha have you spent much on NFT's?
I like to collect stuff... that’s what launched my career in comics. It’s part of the experience for me. I don’t have that much though honestly, other than NBA I’ve only been here two weeks and I miss out on the good stuff most of the time. I am learning though.
And have you found it hard to adapt from comic to NFT ?
Not really. That’s our next project though. Adapting comics to NFT. The future of comics is going to be in this space.
Your not the first person to say that
Hopefully it goes well, our content is by professional comic artists. Our next drop will have a lot of interesting new things!
https://wax.atomichub.io/creator/collection/dustandblood/schema/dustandblood
Sneak peek if I haven’t show you this
Wow cowboy and Indians
That makes me feel so young
It’s our first attempt to reward collectors with physical content
Oh wow its a big step going form digital to physical are you sure it wont be to expensive on your side
Oh the comics been published for a few years. We are adapting it to digital.
Oh really so its just postage you have to cover ?
Yep, we will offer the reward free of charge with the redemption. We feel like if someone want to go the length of constructing our blends then we want to give you a good reward.
So there will be blends in this new set ?
Yep, both. Dust and Blood will launch with blends available and we will have a new “Burn Pack” fusion system available for Little Monsters very soon!
How many NFT have you launched so far?
So far only one live is Little Monsters. We have two new ones coming soon.
How many little monsters is there to collect ?
There is so far 48 variations on the base cards, the die cut weekly set, the sketch art weekly set which comes in two variants and the vintage classics weekly set.
We will be introducing a lot of the new sets and will eventually discontinue the first series base cards and introduce a whole new series of bass cards.
First we plan to allow fusing of base cards up to a new surely a very exclusive motion base set
And the team you are working doing this how long have yous been working together ?
Our studio was founded in 2010. Most of our artists have been part of the studio for more than 10 years.
How did they find the change from physical to virtual ?
We are a little new so we are all adjusting. The big thing I see is there is no-one who knows it all or is really an expert in the space yet since it’s so new. It’s an even playing field for new and old projects.
So is all your NFT hand drawn first ?
Yes, most work traditionally but many are transitioning to digital work. Which works very well for the space and allows us to do things like our sketch art series where the artist can record his sketch and put it into an NFT.
So what programs are your team using for creating the NFT's ?
Most of series 1 was done traditionally pencil and ink and digitally colored but we are using digital drawing pads more now because it allows us to capture content in all new ways. Val is a traditional painter, so the short answer is almost very medium.
Have they changed there programs to suit NFT ?
For now traditional work still dominates our production schedules. Soon I think that may shift. If this space continues on the trajectory it’s on now.
What you think of Funko pop joining wax ?
😳 I had not heard that? Got a link? That will be a huge boost to this space. Brands like MLB and POP are gonna bring a huge influx of users
Final opened up the packs you gave me love them ?
Hey brotha awesome! Glad you like them
Not a problem its a great concept by the way making young monster in NFTs cutie but deadly
How do yous come up with ideas for your NFT's and is it a lot harder with covid ?
I have been art directing for years. I think it is easier for some people who don't draw to come up with the concepts. Our artist all have a special way of turning our ideas into special piece of art that are unique and identifiable to each artist. Each one has a special gift.
Covid has put a real damper on our convention touring. But in general most of my artist are working from a distance, many overseas. So besides the same struggles that everyone else has faced we have been lucky to be able to work from home remotely.
What is harder to create a comic or a NFT ?
Man, that is a hard one. Comics are much harder overall, but the challenges are familiar ones. The NFT space is so new that I think everyone is learning along with each other. Also the blockchain is not forgiving, and your mistakes are always there for everyone to see. I must have a dozen templates that have a simple spelling error.
Don't worry everyone makes mistakes but NFT's is a new space where there is so much new concepts are being born how long before Disney or nickelodeon are knocking at someone's door asking to buy the rights to make a cartoon
I think that would be rad for Disney to pick up Little Monsters lol
We are actually working with animators on making some animated short films featuring our characters. Which we will debut as NFTs
Cool and were would you put the short films up ?
depending on technical limitations like file size etc. we may put them in packs in the future. Maybe a new weekly set. Right now we are working on a test run and assessing feasibility. It takes a lot of time to do hand drawn animations, but the quality and feel cant be beat.
Sounds fun so how long is a NFT taking to create from thought to finished product?
That is another complicated question. Some take only 5 hours production time and some can be much more difficult. Some of Vals paintings can take weeks as he lets paint dry in between applications. If I was to envision a new smaller project and start today I would think it would take a few months to launch. There is a lot of hoops to jump through and setting up a collection and templates takes a lot of time as well.
If all the artwork is complete one could easily launch a new product in two weeks.
This space offers a lot of mobility that traditional publishing doesn't.
Total agree is there an artist you would love to Collab with ?
We would love to work with any of the guys in the space. We are working on something with Atomikings and doing a Collab with Cryptohorros. I think the one that would be coolest would be to Collab with Maus... we could make him some cool Little Monsters version of his Logo.
So you are open to Collab's ?
oh yea one of the best ways to reach a large audience
Do you have a favourite NFT artist ?
That is a really difficult one, I dig Grafittikings and crypto horrors. There is so much good stuff though and I am just learning about all the hidden gems.
Some gems out there alright
The space is expanding really fast. I think there will be an explosion of new content in the coming months
What's the proudest NFT your team has made ?
Of the ones I have shown the public? Probably the base sets, those were done a few years ago and I really knew if we could get the set out to the public that we would have a positive response.
Can we have a pic of your favourite ?
By far my favourite character and NFT
This Vintage Classics came in a close second though
I have white bride its quite cool
Do you have kids and do they like your NFT's ?
No kids, just a wife and 2 dogs. They would probably chew them up like my comics though.
Got love dogs so tell us something random about yourself ?
I live in Idaho, love the beach and went to college to be a veterinarian? that seems all pretty random lol
Veterinarian to comic designer where you go right !!!!!
What you do for fun to unwind ?
I spend a lot of time outdoors with the dogs, we live in a great part of the united states with access to a lot of great parks. I still try to read some comics, not as much as I would like, and I play a few app games.
Any chance of a small drop or competition for the readers ?
I can send as many packs as you need 😆
I love giving away free packs
Brings people into the hobby I think opening packs
Any advice for new artist coming into NFT area ?
The biggest thing to do is to know what you want to do with a business plan. Make a lifetime value matrix for each artwork and try to price your work within that. That sounds complicated but it will help you decide how many mints and how much to charge for each NFT you produce. Learn how to add value for the consumer, many great creators and companies are already out there. No need to reinvent the wheel, have a look at what others are doing and use that as a jumping off point.
Check out some of the collection here
https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/collection/littlemonst1
A big thank you to jake for chatting to me till after 3am his time and folks support his collection and check out his twiyltter and telegram and don't to drop your wax account
OMG these are so nice. I hope i have the talent and skills.
xrtb.wam