Philippe Druillet is one of the greatest visual artists of his time. He is a living legend of comics and a mythical figure of the Science Fiction universe.
He is still today an inexhaustible source of inspiration and a major influence for entire generations in multiple domains including cinema and music.
"Some dreamers go further, and their fantasies lead them to the edge of the imagination. Philippe Druillet is one of them. His barbaric legends continue to fascinate me. I consider him a superb illustrator, blessed with a powerful creative vision"
George LUCAS
A TRIBUTE TO SALAMMBO
BY CONTEMPORARY
DIGITAL ARTISTS
This exhibition is a tribute of 5 established digital artists (Griff, Pascal Blanché, Polygon1993, Mauricio Pommella and Reza Afshar) to Philippe's sci-fi trilogy Salammbô, a timeless story about battles, treachery, feasts and obsessive passion.
The 5 unique digital artworks and Philippe newest version of Salammbo will be for sale on Monday 7 July at 6PM (CET) on Foundation.
THE FIRST SALE OF
DIGITAL ARTWORKS
TOOK PLACE ON
THURSDAY 28 MARCH 2024
THE YRAGAEL EDITION
(EDITION OF 12) - SOLD OUT IN ONE HOUR
GENESIS LONE SLOANE (UNIQUE EDITION)
George Lucas has always expressed his immense admiration for Philippe, from whom he drew inspiration for the creation of the tormented universes of Star Wars.
"Some dreamers go further, and their fantasies lead them to the edge of the imagination. Philippe Druillet is one of them. His barbaric legends continue to fascinate me. I consider him a superb illustrator, blessed with a powerful creative vision. The grim symbolism that transpires from the horror and violence of his infernal universes, sometimes reminds us of Blake, as obviously as does the Gothic inspiration of his emaciated architectures. I love his brutes who are consumed by the demonic desire to possess absolute power, and I love even more his heroes, the heirs of the Nordic sages. Some people say it's all pure madness, and in a way, they are right." George Lucas
William Friedkin collaborated with Druillet on Convoy of Fear, George Miller drew part of his inspired for Mad Max in La Nuit (1976), while Ridley Scott readily recalls that he borrowed many shots from the artist. Even the younger generation of movie directors consider Philippe as a master of sci-fi: Denis Villeneuve is a massive fan and will reveal some elements in Dune 2, borrowed to one of his early classic comic books, while Guillermo del Toro has been an avid reader of the Salammbo trilogy.
His drawings scream, his compositions are raging and flamboyant. It is psychedelic, it is an hallucination filled with myriads of spaceships and menacing legions of galactic monsters. To read Druillet is also to observe the madness of an author who knew how to break all the codes of the comic strip before the others. Excessive, demiurgic, hybristic, his drawings are monumental plates which have the breath of a Wagnerian opera. Most importantly, by exploding the traditional ‘boxed drawings’, he altered the classic conception of the comic-book page, which became a whole composition rather than just a row of images.
From his childhood marked by Gaudi, to his influences from Lovecraft to Moorcock, Philippe Druillet was able to impose his singular universe and open a new way to the 9th art. With Moebius, he is one of the four founding members of Métal Hurlant (Heavy Metal in the US), a crazy and innovative magazine that revolutionized anticipation comics in the 70s and 80s.
WHY LAUNCHING UNIQUE DIGITAL COLLECTIBLES ?
Druillet's activities are not limited to comics, he is a complete and prolific artist, whose creations have spilled to many different medium: paintings, illustrations, sculptures, fashion designs, video games, scenography for music festivals. He was always fascinated by new technologies, and was one of the first comic artists in France to work in 3D for TV cartoon but also games in the 1990s. He has always been driven by the discovery of everything that allows creativity, without setting limits. He was the first comics artist to organise a sale at auction of his comic boards in 1984 at Drouot Paris, which contributed to the creation of a mature market for original comic strip plates in Europe. It is a natural evolution for him to take an interest in the new possibilities brought by the most recent digital technologies.
Philippe has fought throughout his life for comics to be recognised as an art form, a vision that endures and must transcend the passage of time. A transposition of his work into digital is in direct relation with this vision of longevity and 'passeur' (just as Lovecraft was also a 'passeur').
For his first sale of digital collectibles, Philippe has assembled four of his most iconic warriors. Each one has been extracted from his most emblematic comics.
The first drop will take place on March 28 2024 on Foundation at 8 PM (CET Time). For a constant update on the coming sale, please follow our social networks on Twitter and Instagram. For more information on the technical aspects, please see below or reach us on our Discord.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If I buy an NFT, do I own the copyright?
Collectors only have a property interest in lawfully purchased NFTs but do not have a copyright interest in the underlying artworks. The artist reserves all exclusive copyrights to the underlying copyrights.
IP rights are encoded in each NFT through an on-chain solution provided by Mintangible .
The owner may copy and display for use anywhere online such as on websites, blogs, social media profiles and similar platforms. The owner may copy and display no more than 10 copies for use offline in any place in the real world where the visual can be displayed on a physical, tangible medium including a physical museum or at a gallery (no use for any commercial or business purpose).
Can Philippe make commercial use of an artwork after it sold on Foundation?
As the copyright owners of their creations, Foundation artists possess the sole authority to utilize their artworks commercially and all other exclusive rights granted by copyright law, even after selling their pieces on the Foundation platform. As a result, artists are granted the freedom to promote, produce, and license the artwork underlying minted NFTs.
Ethereum, ether, and NFTs
Foundation platform is built on Ethereum, a blockchain-based computing platform that allows artwork creation and ownership to be authenticated & verified. The digital currency, or cryptocurrency, native to Ethereum is called ether, or ETH. All transactions on Foundation use ETH, so you will not be able to acquire an NFT with a credit card or other crypto currencies. Each user needs to have an Ethereum account, also known as a wallet. Your wallet is where your ETH and your NFTs are stored. When art is added to Foundation, it is tokenized, meaning a new, unique token (the NFT) is generated by the artists that collectors can purchase. The token is linked to the artwork, and represents a permanent record of provenance and collectible ownership of the artwork. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are a digital collectible – a digital object secured by cryptography and tracked on the blockchain. That’s just a fancy way of saying they’re provably scarce items that can be collected, and that hold value just like cryptocurrencies like ether and bitcoin.
How to acquire Philippe's NFT?
If you are interested in acquire an NFT, please check the following link on how to create an account on Foundation: https://help.foundation.app/hc/en-us/articles/4561241975451-How-to-collect-NFTs-on-Foundation. Once you have an ETH wallet, and an account on the platform, you will be able to take part in the auction. If you miss the window, there is always the possibility to make an offer directly to the owner of the NFT after the sale (on the secondary market). There will also be other opportunities in the near-term with three other warriors being offered again as unique editions.
Where is the digital file stored?
As the NFT realm expands, safeguarding the digital file becomes imperative. This is where the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) steps in. Through its decentralized nature, it distributes content across a myriad of nodes, boosting its security and resistance to tampering and outages.. Each artwork by Philippe and the relevant metadata will be stored on IPFS and associated with a provably unique token on the Ethereum blockchain.
Why are you using Manifold for the smart contracts?
Manifold.xyz allows an artist to maintain the highest level of provenance of his/her work. It ensures that artists are directly associated with their work rather than the marketplace's third-party minting contract. The Manifold Creator Contract maintains the chain of provenance for each NFT, ensuring that creations are attributed to the artist.
Do collectors earn a royalty?
If an NFT you created is listed on another marketplace and sells, that is what is referred to as a "secondary sale". Foundation pays creators 10% royalties for all secondary sales, when possible.
It is important to note that royalties are not managed on-chain (on the blockchain), and for this reason can not be guaranteed, depending on where a secondary sale is made. Some marketplaces are explicitly choosing not to honor royalty payments, and in these cases, we are unable to pay out royalties.
For any other question, please contact us on our Discord channel or DM on Twitter.