MoneroCat: The Animated Series 😺⚡ Episode 1: The Car @xmrMoneroCat

I admire the chutzpah but I don't think a workflow is a moat either. Any software worth selling is now easy to reverse engineer, so unless your app is already deeply entrenched or has some kind of regulatory advantage, all you're really doing is giving builders ideas for how to make a free version of whatever you're selling. Case in point: I've committed to making a weekly @xmrMoneroCat episode, so I'm currently building my own custom script-to-storyboard-to-video pipeline using Astra, Fable, ElevenLabs, and Seedance. Anyone with a bit of engineering experience can cobble together their own version of this that fits their exact work preference. There's not much point charging money for workflow apps. Or any apps, for that matter. Unless your software is already heavily entrenched, new software should just be free.

How does a MoneroCat comic page actually get made? The most fun thing about being both the writer and illustrator on a comic project is that you can be as loose as you want when you plan a page. The formal way to do this stuff is of course to have a finished script from the author, which then gets passed to the penciller and inker. Then there's rough layouts and feedback cycles, as the penciller and the writer talk through possible improvements. But since I did all of that myself, I "wrote" the story right there on the comic page, quickly handwriting the dialogue and roughing out the panel layout as I went along. I only sketched enough details to remind myself where everything is supposed to be. Only during the inking stage does it start to come together in a visually appealing way, so until that moment the entire thing just lives in my head. Then of course the colors really bring it all together. In case there are digital artists reading this, my main tool back then was a super obscure art program called Leonardo for the sketches and inks, and good ol' Photoshop for the colors. These original pages were from 30 Sept 2017 ⌚ @xmrMoneroCat solana:Ez7eEs53hQiXgCGmcbhdX5i1jgg2gC3F6MoeosuVpump

And here we are -- Vicki's reveal-within-a-reveal. I'm not a fan of ultraviolence, but I drew multiple dismemberments in this kid-friendly comic book, and this is only the second 😅

need some of that luxury car aura

Ok so I didn't mean to claim those creator rewards but because I've been told that there's no one to return them to, I'll just use it to buy the real $LUKE 🤷 sorry for the confusion! Again, the real CA is Ez7eEs53hQiXgCGmcbhdX5i1jgg2gC3F6MoeosuVpump (And I'm sharing that to remind MYSELF as well as all of you lol)

ok wow this pump stuff is ... more complicated than i thought. it was my first time using the app today and was literally just hitting whatever green button looked cool. i think i accidentally claimed creator rewards (???) on a totally different $LUKE token. NOT THE ONE that i'm actually working with. to be clear, i'm happy to return the creator rewards I accidentally claimed -- it was like ~$150? -- but i don't know WHO to return it to. 😭 PS. The $LUKE i'm actually involved in is Ez7eEs53hQiXgCGmcbhdX5i1jgg2gC3F6MoeosuVpump

I've promised that I wouldn't comment on $LUKE's price because I want to focus on the storytelling, but I do see your posts about the market and get excited whenever you all get excited! 🩷🩷🩷

I wanted the MoneroCat/Vicki relationship to be visually incongruous and kinda nonsensical (I was watching a ton of Bojack Horseman at the time, an awesome show!) so not only is she two or three times his size, but they're not even the same species! These panels set the stage for the next big twist ...

Because I've got a lot of new readers on my feed this week, @myCurioCards was the project that changed the direction of my life as an artist. Imagine drawing a bunch of Bitcoin dog art on a cramped airplane tray table in 2017, and then seeing those drawings hit $100M+ marketcap on @OpenSea four years later. Only in crypto!

My city needs me

Here we go ... the second big twist!

In case anyone was wondering, yes, I was referencing Vicki Vale when I came up with a name for MoneroCat's one-time paramour. But of course, as with everything in the MoneroCat universe, there's more to Vicki than meets the eye ... 👀