The QR code leads to further information: An advertising clip for the "Royal Monsters" by Mike Maurus (right) and Thomas Gronert could be seen on the information steles of the municipality of Planegg in May. © Mike Maurus
Sissi, King Ludwig II and Frankenstein's monster on the hunt for criminals: Planegg illustrator Mike Maurus and Prof. Thomas Gronert have created the "Royal Monsters". The digital, animated graphic novel breaks new ground – also in its marketing as an NFT project.
Planegg – One is an illustrator, the other dean of the Department of Digital Film Design at the Media Design University of Munich: Mike Maurus (64) from Planegg and Prof. Thomas Gronert (52) from Munich have known each other since the turn of the millennium. Now they have worked together to develop the digital, animated graphic novel series "Royal Monsters", an NFT project initially scheduled for 13 episodes.
A graphic novel is a comic strip in book form, but Maurus and Gronert are not planning a printed book. The adventures of their "Royal Monsters" are produced exclusively digitally. If you want to track them, you have to be an NFT holder. The three letters stand for "Non Fungible Token", i.e. a non-exchangeable asset. "An NFT can thus be considered a digital certificate of ownership," according to Gronert's webinar titled "NFT Revolution 2023."
Monster Frankie as the third Bavarian in the league
"When Thomas came around the corner with NFT, I initially thought he wanted me to counterfeit currencies. He told me something about cryptocurrencies and about pictures. I didn't know what it was all about," says Maurus. The difference to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin lies in the uniqueness of the NFT. What they have in common is that they are based on a blockchain, a continuously expandable list of records in individual blocks.
The "Royal Monsters" were preceded by other NFT projects. Gronert and Maurus, along with Moses Wolff, are among the originators of the Bayern Fire community, which cultivates Bavarian culture. From there, the way to Sissi, King Ludwig II and Frankenstein's monster was not far away.
Sissi, King Ludwig II (left) and Frankie try to protect the formula of eternal life from villains. © Mike Maurus
"Historically, Elisabeth is the older cousin of Louis of Bavaria. She is eight years older. The two had a pen pal relationship all their lives. They rarely saw each other, but they wrote to each other regularly," says Maurus. While researching a book about the death of King Ludwig, Wolff found "that the two were really fans of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'." Published in 1818, the horror novel tells the story of the scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates an artificial human being at the University of Ingolstadt in the 18th century. "That flashed us. We said they were three Bavarians who somehow had a connection. We'll make something out of it," says Maurus.
During the day, Sissi, Ludwig and Frankenstein's monster Frankie lead a completely normal life, at night they hunt criminals. The criminal cases are embedded in a framework plot: The trio tries to protect the formula for eternal life, discovered by Victor Frankenstein, who has long since died and hidden in the catacombs of the University of Ingolstadt, from the grasp of the sinister Prussian military doctor Professor Piefkewitz. "As icing on the cake, we put technologies or social developments that exist today into our history of 1860. The remote control, for example. It's invented, but it has 129 parts and fills a small room," says Maurus.
13 episodes in German and English
The adventures of Sissi, Ludwig and Frankie are initially designed for 13 episodes, which will be published in German and English. It doesn't have to be over yet. "This whole NFT environment is very much community-driven. There is always a kind of fan base that gathers around projects, that wants to inform itself and sometimes wants to get involved itself," says Gronert. He expects creative input. "A lot of people who have money don't just want to buy something, they want to participate." It is possible, for example, to auction off a supporting role as an NFT.
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The graphic novels deviate from the usual comics. Maurus and Gronert have decided to tell the adventures in the form of a storyboard, a workshop book. A storyboard is an intermediate stage on the way from script to film. The two are familiar with animated films, Gronert produced them, Maurus directed or was creative director of films such as "Ritter Rost" or "Die Wilden Kerle". "A storyboard is a very comprehensive but very fleetingly drawn comic, where every camera angle, light, time of day, the location of the actors, the turns, the gestures are captured in the image," says Maurus. The hope is that the "Royal Monsters" will eventually be made into a film. Gronert: "Whether it's just a web series or a channel or Netflix or something like that, we'll just let ourselves be surprised."
The best prerequisite would be success as an NFT project. In April, Creatokia, the platform Maurus and Gronert collaborate with, unveiled the "Royal Monsters" at the world's largest NFT trade show in New York. In the first NFT stage, a "mystery box" for 4.99 euros, around 90 NFT holders are already participating. The countdown is on https://www.creatokia.com/de/page/bayernfire/royal-monsters: On June 30, the "Mystery Box" will open, which will contain one of nine different images. It serves as a digital password, as a community token, and allows access to a protected area on the website. Collages will be added later, and finally individual storyboard pages or packages of several pages.
