On July 23, 2020, Jose Delbo released his soon-to-be iconic NFT comic book “Death …. No Escape”. One year later, in collaboration with his grandson’s Apollo NFT Studios, they are celebrating the first anniversary of his now-legendary drop with a new collection of unique offerings entitled “Death …. Reanimated.” Spread out over two separate dates, the first drop comes on July 23, 2021, via Makersplace. The collection consists of six limited edition pieces with hand-signed limited edition prints that incorporate augmented reality. They will release a seventh piece, “Death …Reanimated,” an edition of 250 NFTs reimagining his groundbreaking “Death …No Escape” book as animated comic short films. The final edition will be released as a one-of-one consisting of the inked art used to create the original “Death … No Escape” cover. Also included in the drop will be various perks and rewards for past Jose Delbo collectors.
This drop, and its historical predecessor, result from the recent discovery by Delbo of blockchain technology and all that it can do for artists like himself. He was already an accomplished professional artist who started his illustrious career at the age of 16 and has worked on projects that span generations. From an illustrated tale of Dwight Eisenhower, the famed Yellow Submarine comic for the Beatles, and the Disney classic 101 Dalmations in the late 1960s. His later work for Marvel and DC included the Justice League’s holy trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and comic book adaptations of 80’s Cartoons like the Transformers and Thundercats. Still, after all his time in comics, Delbo had never been one to self publish and found the prospect of pushing his unique story that is image-driven with very little text to be daunting. So, in true comic book fashion, Satoshi the Creator and his new technology came to the rescue.
After his grandson sat him down and explained the intricacies of blockchain technology, and NFTs in particular, Delbo rapidly progressed from novice to expert. Then, releasing what may very well be the first completely original comic book available only as an NFT on the blockchain, they sold in small batches with the final allotment of 20 selling out in one day and fetching the attractive price of 1ETH each.
The success of his NFT comic led to a surge of interest in comic book art, just as the NFT market was exploding, and found Delbo occupying space as one of the most well-known artists in the crypto-art market. With a string of releases and collaborations with some of the top artists in the space, such as Pr1mal Cypher, Mark McKenna, Vuho Studios, and Anna Zhilyaeva. Delbo has crafted a compelling vision with his Death character, enabling him to become the staple in the NFT Community that he is today. Recently Delbo working in conjunction with his grandson’s company, Apollo NFT Studios, has gathered a team of the top 3D modelers and animators to reimagine the Death comic in a new way that he believes may well be the future of comic art on the blockchain.
The drop goes live on July 23, 2021, on Makersplace.com. Marking the first anniversary of the Argentinian-born comic artist transformation of not only himself but digital comics, NFT’s and the blockchain itself.
“At first, he didn’t fully understand the concept of selling art digitally as he had always been a physical artist. But then I explained the basic features of the technology to him, namely, that the blockchain would allow people to know that the digital art was actually coming from him and that it would allow him to create limited numbers of the art; he was pretty happy to just dive in and was excited at the potential of a whole new group of fans. No one had any idea what would happen next.”
- Nick Frontera. Founder of Apollo NFT. Grandson to Jose Delbo.
