Andrea grows is an interactive web comic. The main character, Andrea, is a young farmer from generations of farmers who likes her life but dreams to become more independent. Andrea will face a number of challenges derived from intensive agricultural practices, land neglect, disconnection from the economic cycle, climate change. Some helpers will guide her to a clearer vision of her future as a farmer and human being.

(please see Annex 1 in 'Any other information or remarks you want to add?')

The comic adventure will feature 5 sections, each composed by 3 comic strips that will be published as an NFTs. The drawings will be published first as black and white pencil sketches. When someone buys one NFT, the inked and colored version of that panel will be created and airdropped to the same wallet. In this way, buying the panels makes the story get written.

This Createbase grant will fund the first page of the comic, and all the other pages will then get funded as the previous pages get bought. We are calling this funding method for comics “peek & buy” because you can peek at the b&w sketch, and when it gets bought the finished colored panel comes to life. As the panels get bought, they will be also published on a website as an easy place for everybody to read and interact with the story.

(please see Annex 2 in 'Any other information or remarks you want to add?')

The goal of the project is to be a source of information about sustainable agriculture for a wide range of people, presented in a fun way and with an interactive element. This interaction will be present as a multiple choice feature, one per each comic strip.

(please see Annex 3 in 'Any other information or remarks you want to add?')

For example, in the first chapter the reader can choose what the character Marlon uses to move from the city to the suburb-countryside:

Metro - Links to: agriculture ancient practices, agroforestry; inside the metro station with Marlon we observe an archaeological site, found during the new metro expansion. ( sample link: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/651982/EPRS_BRI(2020)651982_EN.pdf ) Train - Links to: water management; Marlon in the wagon, looking outside at seemingly infinite fields covered in water. ( sample link: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/flood_risk_from_modern_agricultural_practices_can_be_mitigated_with_interventions_52si2_en.pdf ) Taxi - Links to: cover crops for CO2 capture; from the roof of the taxi in a long line of cars ‘to come visit every weekend, Marlon generates 0.34 tons of CO2 each year’. ( sample link: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC116730/ccc_report.pdf )

Together with the digital comic, we also want to make available physical products connected to sustainable agriculture and education. Those will be sold through NFTs as well. When the NFT is bought, the owner can then provide a physical address for the product to be shipped.

The products we will have at first will be:

  1. seed pack / seed bombs - organic seeds with beneficial properties: anti-erosion, melliferous, carbon farming (can be shipped only inside EU)
  2. farmer helper creatures - glass figurines: frog, worm, pollinator insects, beneficial microbes and fungi (can be shipped worldwide)

How does your project benefit the NEAR and Mintbase NFT ecosystem? *

We will be exploring a new use case for NFTs (digital comics), as well as exploring a new funding model (peek & buy) that can serve as a model for other projects in the ecosystem. We will add our experience to other initiatives already experimenting with NFTs used to sell physical products.

We also see as very important the fact that NEAR is a proof of stake chain, and therefore does not have the high levels of energy waste that proof of work chains like Ethereum do. It would be questionable to use a wasteful technology for a project whose purpose is connected to sustainable agriculture and carbon sequestration.

Please provide a timeline and milestones for your project (funds will be granted after completion) *

We would like to divide the project into 4 phases, each corresponding to 25% of the funding requested.

  1. Set up the project website, featuring the first page of the comic with b&w sketch panels, plus information about the project
  2. Create the packaging design for the physical products, plus product photos and descriptions, and publish on the website as well
  3. Mint the first page of comic NFTs and produce the color versions of the comic panels
  4. Mint physical products NFTs and produce the physical products for selling.

Annexes

  1. NARRATIVE OVERVIEW - PLOT, CHARACTERS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RMvoVeBkz5SHtnxFWR_hIeiuBqrgqgaWAD0aXgfJxwk/edit?usp=sharing

  2. CHAPTER 1, CS 1/3, PHASES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ccPLn2zyEXTHEuQx2nhSO0ksaE5wVc5S-xOHKbEMt0/edit?usp=sharing

  3. SKETCHES (native format on dada.art): https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ccPLn2zyEXTHEuQx2nhSO0ksaE5wVc5S-xOHKbEMt0/edit?usp=sharing

Proposed by: Serste