ENCODE Graphics’ founder and comic art creator, Pr1mal Cypher talks about the inspiration behind building a crypto comic art publishing company, artist collaborations, crypto world challenges, comic book series The Nexu5 & 2084, and future plans.
NFTStudio24 sat down with ENCODE Graphics’ founder and comic artist, Pr1mal Cypher to discuss comic art in the crypto scene.
ENCODE Graphics is an emerging NFT-based comic art publishing company led by PR1MAL CYPHER and PROTEU5 that incorporates the world of storytelling, comic art, and new technologies to generate NFTs only available for founders. The comics mainly center on futuristic themes, superheroes, action, and adventure. As a leading cryptoborn comic publisher in the NFT space, ENCODE Graphics hopes to empower new and veteran comic artists through its platform.
2084 is their main project for the company that centers around a futuristic dystopian theme featuring attractive characters and interactive scenes.
ENCODE Graphics just recently launched its comic series for The Nexu5. It is a collection of 8,888 unique avatars that compete against other avatars in the metaverse game. It is a new concept that has never been introduced before. Other projects by ENCODE Graphics are WIZ and MetaTales, which are also part of the futuristic universe.
NFTStudio24 interviewed the founder of ENCODE Graphics, Pr1mal Cypher who is also a comic artist mainly known for his unique interdisciplinary approach to crypto art and the NFT scene.
Here’s an interview with Pr1mal Cypher:
ENCODE a crypto-born publishing company
ENCODE Graphics prides itself as the first crypto-born publishing company focused on bringing comic art to the NFT scene. As a fan of comics himself, Pr1mal shared he always wanted to create space for comic artists by introducing something new and innovative through the NFT technology.
The most significant factor for launching a crypto-born publishing company was when Pr1mal noticed that comic artists rarely got recognition for their work in the traditional comic world.
He quoted an example of José Delbo, a 90-year-old comic artist Pr1mal worked with, who created crypto art of Wonder Woman worth almost 1.4M dollars but DC didn’t give him the right to use their characters. For Pr1mal, this was a prominent reason why he wanted to create a space where artists can own their work.
“It started as an art project. I wanted to bundle some comics artists,” Pr1mal added.
Pr1mal had worked with Micheal Mckenna, Will Conrad, and many other famous artists who are now part of the NFT world until he eventually launched ENCODE Graphics in 2020.
Futuristic Dystopian world of 2084
Before the launch of his company, Pr1mal had been working on various projects. His initial art was based on a Reddit post called Bitcoin Time Traveler posted by a person from the future who narrates about a futuristic Dystopian version of the earth.
Pr1mal was fascinated by this concept and decided to create a comic series about a far-future of 2084 where Satoshi Nakamoto is still alive and he’s the central figure of global politics and everything surrounding it.
The idea started out with 2084 which according to the website is inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huyley’s Brave New World. The art project was launched on Nifty Gateway featuring works of illustrators Mark McKenna, Will Conrad, Tyler Kirkham, and Ari Pratama.
In the interview, Pr1mal shared that the art project 2084 was an inclusive project that also featured his own solo works that connected dots to the overall storyline.
After the 2084 drop, Pr1mal decided to launch ENCODE Graphics as a proper company in the NFT industry.
The Nexu5: Metaverse of avatars
The Nexu5 is the latest project by ENCODE Graphics that features some of the best works of various artists. Like the previous work, The Nexu5 also has a Dystopian touch to it and it reimagines the future.
With The Nexu5, Pr1mal wanted to expand the idea of profile picture avatar NFTs. He worked with his partner and designer, Ari Pratama, to create 8,888 unique hand-drawn avatars. After that, he came up with three comic book scripts for the first arc.
As of now, two of the first series are already drawn, and the first one is in the coloring stage. Pr1mal shared that the series will be available for free to read on the official website, nexu5.io.
The Nexu5 features comic book series featuring works of artists, and also a metaverse one-vs-one game where NFT holders can use the comic book avatars as players. So, instead of just keeping PFP avatars in wallets, ENCODE Graphics added the utility of using them in a game.
The game requires users to own avatars. The NFT holders will log in to the network, and pick an avatar from their wallet. The Nexu5 avatars are distributed in 5 different factions, 3 different rarity levels, and 4 different classes, Soldier, Cyberpriest, Hacker, and Assassin.
Players can use special abilities and regular attacks in a player-to-player fight. The abilities increase based on what level a player is on. There are a total of 20 levels and with each ascending level, the avatar’s ability will increase.
NFT holders can then sell the avatars with existing stats. The more you play, the more value the avatar would hold.
“I was always a fan of Dungeons and Dragons games, Dice Rolling mechanics, games in general, where you can be strategic and have a fortune component in it.” says, Pr1mal. He added this idea of dice roll mechanics with a fortune component by adding different skills and classes to create a game that requires strategic planning. Thus, The Nexu5 game came into existence.
Pr1mal CypherOverall, the concept of The Nexu5 comes from the idea to create a comic art-based metaverse of avatars.
Crypto market and NFTs
The current declining crypto market has affected NFT projects very badly. According to Pr1mal, the low crypto prices and down-trending charts are directly influencing ENCODE Graphics as a whole.
He believes that most buyers in the industry as of now are only interested in making money out of NFTs; they see digital collectibles as an investment instead of genuine interest.
ENCODE Graphics is built to unite NFT and comic art enthusiasts together to read, buy, and trade based on their interests. Pr1mal hopes to promote his company as an authentic comic book publishing company just like conventional comic publishers.
Despite the crypto crash, the founder seems optimistic that better days are to come soon for ENCODE Graphics and the NFT industry as a whole.
ENCODE Collaborations with comic artists
ENCODE Graphics has collaborated with various comic artists for its NFT projects. Marcos Ramos, a 22-year-old young artist, is completely involved with The Nexu5 comic series.
When asked about the future collaborations, Pr1mal told NFTStudio24 that he’s been in contact with various artists, for example, he is currently in talks to work with Darick Robertson, the co-creator of Transmetropolitan and The Boys.
Pr1mal hopes to work with various other artists who can capture the true essence of his main project, 2084. So, all the future collaborations will be based on 2084.
Future plans: short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals
As a crypto comic book publishing startup, Pr1mal shared his future aspirations for ENCODE Graphics.
For short-term goals, Pr1mal shared that the company plans on restructuring The Nexu5. Furthermore, ENCODE is also working on 2084 and just finished drawing issue no. 3 of the comic series and is in the coloring stage, which will be launched soon.
The publishing company’s main priority for the short-term is to build an ENCODE Network overhaul as an NFT base where people can log in through founder keys and claim different digital items, read comic books, participate in raffles, and other benefits. The network is set to be in the works from July this year.
For mid-term goals, Pr1mal shared that ENCODE will work with various authors and artists for its another comic book series called MetaTales, a black and white anthology. It is basically a comic book series of short stories, and the project will add up more stories with time.
For long-term goals, Pr1mal shared his enthusiasm for uniting different NFT projects and their avatars to create one project. ENCODE has contacted various individuals with commercial rights to their avatars and different brands across the NFT crypto scene. The working title for this project is called ‘Nifty Verse’. The project currently is in its initial stage with some scenes and structure complete.
“The main goal is to memorialize the best crypto projects that wrote NFT history and had an impact on me personally,” Pr1mal said.
Pr1mal’s message for the NFT community
Pr1mal shared an inspiring message to the new or emerging NFT artists, creators, Web3 developers, entrepreneurs, and other figures contributing to blockchain technology.
As an inspiring entrepreneur, Pr1mal understands the struggle of an artist or a company that is looking for ways to make a breakthrough in the industry.
“Never Give up, especially if you have many hurdles to overcome,” He said, “Sometimes things will not work out as you have planned it but don’t give up.”
The interview came to end with Pr1mal teasing a new upcoming project in partnership with a big company that did something innovative in the NFT scene, to be released in the next three or four weeks.
Stay updated on ENCODE’s upcoming project by following them on various platforms:
Website: encode.graphics
Twitter: @ENCODE_graphics
