blockworks.co
Marvel Studios founder David Maisel has announced the launch of a 1-of-1 digital art collection from his entertainment company, Mythos Studios.
The NFT collection includes artwork from Mythos Studios, Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald and Maisel. The collection includes “1/1 published colored art as well as new 1/1 pieces inspired by a variety of influences, including classic Marvel comics and films, the Pop Art movement, Marvel’s iconic black light posters of the 70’s, the neon lights of Broadway, and the art and energy of web3,” according to the press release.
Turner was an American comic book artist who worked on both Marvel and DC comics. He died in 2008 at the age of 37. Steigerwald worked closely with Turner and also worked as a colorist on DC and Marvel comics.
Mythos Studios is an intellectual property entertainment studio Maisel created with Scooter Braun. It has a 50% stake in Aspen Comics.
The pre-auction deposit period opened on April 24, and collectors can opt to pay 10 ETH to qualify for a bonus NFT from the Ekos Genesis Art Portraits, which is a separate collection of 100 art pieces. The team indicated that 995 Ekos Genesis Art pieces will be made available for an 88-minute Dutch-style auction, scheduled to take place on May 2.
“Web3 allows more direct interaction with the community, the fanbase, and also a sense of psychological and actual ownership,” Maisel told Blockworks.
A Dutch-style auction is where the project developers set a specific value — generally the ceiling price, or highest price — and then gradually drop the price periodically by a fixed amount.
“I knew I loved Michael Turner’s artwork, it’s legendary. I love comic books, which is really why the Marvel Cinematic Universe exists. He created some of the most beautiful art. He passed away in 2008, and I started collecting his pencil drawings,” Maisel told Blockworks.
He continued, “But James Cameron also loved Michael Turner, and he held the rights for Michael’s properties, including Fathom, which was the number one comic of the year in 1998. So I got a phone call in 2018 that the rights had expired, because Cameron was busy with Avatar, and I snapped them up.”
The collection announcement comes as NFT trading volumes bounce back, with Alchemy’s Web3 Development Report showing a year-over-year increase of 126% in NFT trading volume.
This isn’t the first NFT drop from Mythos — it previously sold two pieces of Michael Turner’s art in May 2021 to a collector for $100,000.