Collectible maker Veve is teaming up with DC to produce a series of digital-only Batman Black and White statues tied to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
If the concept of a "digital" statue seems odd, considering statues (especially Batman Black and White statues) are common decorations in many folks' collections, the premise of Veve's statues is to create digital pieces that are individually owned by collectors through the use of NFTs.
A recent controversial topic in the art world, including among creators and collectors of comic book art, NFTs are essentially unreproducible digital certificates of ownership that denote the holder of the NFT as the 'owner' of a piece of digital art.
NFTs are tied to Bitcoin-style blockchains which provide verifiable encryption for the digital art tied to the NFT. While an NFT does not prevent the reproduction of digital work, it does denote one version of the digital art as the 'original,' owned by the holder of the NFT.
NFTs have drawn criticism for the environmental cost of producing them. Like mining bitcoin, producing NFTs requires significant electricity consumption in order to power the computers which create the NFT. This has led to widespread criticism of the idea of creating NFT art, which drastically increases the environmental impact of individual digital artists.
In terms of the NFT statues on order, Veve has drawn on three classic Batman artists for the designs, as with previous physical versions of the statues. The new digital line includes three Batman statues, based on the art of Jae Lee, Gary Frank, and Darwyn Cooke, as well as a statue of Nightwing based on the art of Jim Lee.
Here's a gallery of the four digital statues:
While you await the new Batman Black & White digital statues, catch up on the Best Batman stories of all time, some of which lend their art styles to the line.
