McFarlane Jumps Into The NFT Arena

Legendary Comic book artist Todd McFarlane and Steve Aoki's NFT Agency, Aoki Industries, announced the launch of OddKey.com today—an NFT marketplace powered by Metaplex. Founded out of a desire to help provide creators (from comics, sci-fi, fantasy, music, and more) with a safe platform to showcase and sell their authentic digital art. OddKey empowers artists with the ability to control the destinies of their own digital properties. The site will be a permissionless on-chain protocol for buying, selling, and auctioning collectibles natively on the Solana blockchain.

McFarlane is the creator of the record-setting superhero series Spawn. During his award-winning time at Marvel Comics, he co-created the Venom character from his stint on The Amazing Spider-Man franchise. A page of his original Spider-Man artwork sold for a record $657,250 in 2017, but McFarlane has not sold any hand-drawn art in 30 years since the creation of Spawn in 1992. OddKey.com will mark the first time this century McFarlane has offered original digital art for sale.

With over 2.8 billion music streams, Steve Aoki, and his agency Aoki Industries, will provide guidance and strategic assistance, while Aoki himself plans to use his musical skills and visual collaborations to deliver new NFT offerings in the near future.

"Steve and I wanted to help build a place where creators are in complete control of their work while retaining the vast majority of the finances. This same model made Image Comics, which I helped co-found in 1992, the third-largest publisher in North America (behind Marvel and DC Comics). Steve and I want to give that same freedom to creators in the NFT space… and let them know it's a place formed by two leading artists instead of people in suits," said McFarlane about OddKey.com.

The launch of OddKey will provide NFT comic and music aficionados with the opportunity to own original and authenticated digital works including original digital Spawn art for the first time ever.

"Music has always been what my life is rooted in, but I've been a passionate collector of collectibles and various forms of art for as long as I can remember," Aoki states. "NFTs gave me an opportunity to finally merge art, collectible culture, and music in a way I've never been able to realize before. Working with a visionary like Todd to build OddKey.com can help raise independent artists to a whole other level."

In advance of the full site launch, a raffle will be held for a lucky 6,666 registrants that register their crypto wallets on OddKey.com. They will receive the inaugural OddKey NFT, an authentic Todd McFarlane x Steve Aoki digital collectible with an array of "easter egg" surprise utilities.

Understanding the need to reduce the hefty environmental impacts of earlier cryptocurrency blockchains, OddKey's storefront will live on the Solana blockchain utilizing Metaplex's decentralized protocol marketplace. Any NFTs minted through Metaplex will be stored on Arweave, which backs data with perpetual payments, enabling creators to receive automatic payouts.

"We're beyond thrilled to be working with OddKey.com as they develop an online marketplace for some of the most prolific creators in the comic book world," said Jonathan Choi, CIO & Head of Partnerships of Metaplex Studios. "We believe that Metaplex will provide the tools for creators to have more ownership over how they monetize and distribute their art, and this is an excellent example of that.

"Building on the foundation of Solana and Arweave, Metaplex is able to dramatically reduce minting and trading fees," said Raj Gokal, COO of Solana Labs and strategic advisor to Metaplex. "The launch of a Solana-based NFT platform will help accelerate the pace of innovation we see in the space by providing an easy to use and more economically viable platform that can better serve both the creators and their communities."

OddKey.com will also feature a robust NFT secondary marketplace that allows creators and buyers to participate in the long-term life of each NFT. Artwork created utilizing intellectual property owned by a third party will not be considered or featured on the platform.

To learn more about OddKey, please visit their Metaplex storefront, which can be found at https://oddkey.com