Heavy Metal Will Transport NFT Collectors to Fantastical New Worlds

The brand’s impact on popular culture is substantial. Besides spawning the cult 1981 namesake anthology film “Heavy Metal,” it is credited with providing the groundwork for iconic motion pictures including “The Fifth Element” and “Blade Runner”; the latter’s basis, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick, was first serialized in Heavy Metal Magazine. It also published the official critically-acclaimed “Alien” graphic novel in 1979, adapted from the classic film released the same year. The magazine continues to feature stories, artist galleries and interviews by groundbreaking new and established talent — and the brand is also home to a slate of standalone comic book series, prose novels, a podcast network as well as television and film projects.

“When I took over Heavy Metal, it was with the singular goal of bringing the proverbial ‘Ranger from the North back to his rightful throne at Minas Tirith’; collaborating with Crypto.com on a slate of digital collectables is like taking a giant step closer to Gondor,” Medney said of the partnership. “With the first collection inspired by my very own hard sci-fi book ‘Beyond Kuiper: The Galactic Star Alliance,’ which I co-wrote with John Connelly, we use the concept of discovering new worlds to literally offer owners of the NFTs entry to Heavy Metal’s worlds — which is epically awesome. Then we get to top that with NFTs from the ‘zombie lord’ himself, George C. Romero — and if that isn’t enough, Joe-freaking-Trohman of Fall Out Boy is realizing his story ‘The Axe’ as digital collectibles. The next four months with Crypto.com NFT are going to be insane — or as my partner, Heavy Metal President and Head of Studio Tommy Coriale, so eloquently puts it: ‘Buckle the f**k up.’”

Medney began his career in live events, operating as a tour and production manager — traveling across 45 countries and producing over 200 shows and concerts for Coachella, Ultra Music Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival and Lollapalooza — before co-founding Herø Projects, a creator-owned studio specializing in custom comics and animated content for music’s elite, where he continues to serve as CEO. He has helmed graphic novel projects with artists and festivals including Shaggy, Rolling Loud and Insomniac Events. Medney has also authored best-selling works including “Beyond Kuiper” and the comic series “Dark Wing” — as well as “The Red” and “The Adventures of Adrienne James,” which can be best described as female Indiana Jones in space.

Connelly is a mechanical engineer for Lockheed Martin Space, described by Medney as the “celestial ground support lead, deep space division” — and he’s not really wrong. Connelly was instrumental in his work on the Mars Helicopter, and has contributed to numerous NASA missions — from Mars 2020 to Lucy, Deep Space Gateway and Orion. Between his technical knowledge of aerospace engineering and Medney’s imaginative penmanship, in “Beyond Kuiper,” the duo concocted a fantastical galaxy filled with alien technology that is actually based in science.

Transcribed and translated from existential questions to tangible adventure, Connelly and Medney’s world building and galactic lore imagine a universe teaming with sentient life —all of which wants nothing to do with humankind — centered on disgraced astrophysicist Bernard William Hubert, who has made it his mission to unlock the secrets of interstellar travel and explore the cosmos.

“The ‘Beyond Kuiper: Galactic Edition’ pulls you back into its rich, interstellar society, shattering the Fermi paradox with over 600,000 worlds,” Connelly commented on the series. “Heavy Metal and Crypto.com [will] bring your understanding of the Karandu galaxy to greater realms, and treasures, with our expanded array of select planet NFTs — showcased from ‘Beyond Kuiper’ volumes both present and future.”

The “Beyond Kuiper” NFT collection will include collectibles that illustrate the co-creators’ scientifically-grounded fantastical universe: a map of the Karandu galaxy, animations of 15 planets from the star system, three scenes from the series and a piece by popular U.K. street artist Thumbs.

“Although the story of ‘Beyond Kuiper’ is a fantasy tale about deep space travel and alien life, the character of Bernard is someone very real and I wanted to create a design that people could identify with,” said Thumbs. “Bernard is shunned because of his beliefs, by his peers and the community he’s helped to build, and because of this he goes through a very isolated and lonely time. Going through isolation and lock downs is something every person on this planet has had to endure in the past year — trapped in your own personal space with only your thoughts — so I felt this connection with Bernard was something people could relate to.”

Preview select pieces from the collection below, and visit the “Beyond Kuiper” drop page for more information.

Source: https://medium.com/cryptocomnft/heavy-metal-will-transport-nft-collectors-to-fantastical-new-worlds-fe0ad62faf7c?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency