Who is Jose Delbo? NFT artist with a legion of popular superheroes

In the 1960s, when the Beatles saved Pepperland from the Blue Scoundrels in The Yellow Submarine, Jose Delbo was already a seasoned cartoonist responsible for illustrating the Fab Four. In July 2020, his career took a new turn when he released his first piece of digital art on the blockchain in the form of a 43-page original comic titled “Death…No Escape”. Since then, Delbo has become one of the main players in the NFT market, bringing its classic style to the table.

Who is Jose Delbo?

Jose Delbo is an Argentine comics artist who immigrated to the United States in 1965 in pursuit of a dream. Fascinated by American Westerns, the artist has always dreamed that one day he would be able to illustrate the cowboys he knew and loved. With a little bit of luck and a lot of dedication, the artist was able to draw a very special cowboy, Billy the Kid, and the rest is history.

After that, Delbo drew almost all the main superheroes of DC and Marvel comics. At the age of 86, he became one of the most popular artists in the NFT market.

Jose Delbo Official Links

• Official site: http://delbocomics.com
• Twitter @Jose_Delbo – more than 12K readers,
• Discord @Jose_Delbo – more than 900 members,
• Instagram @josedelboofficial – more than 2K subscribers.

The creative path of Jose Delbo to NFT

• The future artist was born in 1933 under the name Jose Maria Del Bo in Buenos Aires. As a teenager, Delbo learned basic cartooning skills from veteran cartoonist Carlos Clemen, and at age 16 published his first work, Clemen’s Suspenso.

• After school, he studied for several years as a lawyer, spent one year in the military, but the craving for drawing won. Early in his career, he worked for Poncho Negro, illustrating covers for Western publications, but the artist’s main Argentine client was Editorial Yago.
• In 1965, the Delbo family moved to the US, where he spent the next eight years drawing Billy the Kid for Charlton Comics. Jose also began to collaborate with Dell Comics, where he took part in various series, before settling for a long time in the new comic book series “The Monkees” (1967 – 1968). The artist himself noted that he “particularly enjoyed working on The Monkeys, as it became possible to add funny elements that more serious works did not allow.”

• In 1969, Jose Delbo collaborated with DC Comics. In 1976, Delbo began work on Wonder Woman (issues #222-286). In addition, the artist has worked on other popular DC superheroes of the world.
• In the mid-1980s, Jose Delbo moved from DC to Marvel Comics, where he later worked on Transformers (1988-1990). From 1991 to 1992, Delbo drew “NFL Superpro”, a co-production between Marvel Comics and the NFL.

• By the mid-1990s, he was fired from Marvel Comics. This prompted him to move from New Jersey to Florida, where the artist began to create for Valiant Comics, Tekno Comix and managed to collaborate with the Disney Action Club. In addition to working on comics, Jose was a teacher and founded a cartoonist camp for schoolchildren.

Jose Delbo in the NFT world

Artist entered the NFT world at the age of 86 and released the first digital comic.

As part of the early NFT artist movement, he helped make the space what it is today. Following the sensational sale of Wonder Woman, DC and Marvel issued statements against the illegal use of their trademarked characters.

NFT corporate identity by Jose Delbo

The creative heritage of the NFT artist has not exhausted itself at all. And today he is pushing his style into the future.

I also think it’s an opportunity to bring my work to a whole new group of fans who I hope will really enjoy it. Opinion NFT artist

The digital refinement of his classic approach to illustration has resulted in timeless creations that meet contemporary consumer demands. At the same time, the beloved Delbo style is preserved with the use of three-dimensionality, a clear drawing of details and shadows. All Jose characters are very bright and emotionally developed. And the narrative, no matter how bizarre at times, often touches on the actual problems of society.

The most famous NFT works of Jose Delbo

Jose’s work is now valued at over $8 million. And as long as he continues to draw for the NFT, his fans will continue to multiply that amount.

Death…No Escape

On July 23, 2020, Jose debuted on the NFT market through the Death…No Escape comic. The NFT collection was launched on Makersplace.

After collaborating with Vuho, a Colombian 3D studio, “Death…No Escape” has taken on a new style. Delbo has released 250 editions. The NFTs sold out in the blink of an eye, earning the author over $100K in no time.

The series also includes:

• NFT-work “A Wh1sper Of Death (Black & White Still Edition)” in the amount of 10 pieces, which brought the artist more than 28K dollars.
• NFT-work “A Wh1sper Of Death” in the amount of 5 pieces, which brought the artist more than 12K dollars.

Satoshiverse

In October 2020, Jose Delbo, along with his grandson Nick, founder of Apollo NFT, created Satoshiverse, an epic classic comic book published on the blockchain. In this project, the authors give a big role to the opinion of the community.

For now, the community has determined that Satoshi the Creator’s sworn enemies will be two armies:

• armies of people called the Defenders of Fiat, who are the financial elite and the mega rich,
• armies of machines called Metamachines.

In addition, the collection includes various 5555 characters. Total sales to date have exceeded 286 ETH.

Heroes Playing Pocker

On February 6, 2021, Jose Delbo released an artwork featuring beloved DC superheroes playing poker, a reference to Cassius Marcelus Coolidge’s Dogs Playing Poker. The collection was released on Nifty Gateway and included a color version and 10 black and white editions. It became his iconic work, bringing the artist over $183K.

Heroines

In March 2021, Jose Delbo collaborated with renowned NFT artist duo Hackatao to release the Heroines NFT collection inspired by Wonder Woman. The goal was to make visible the titanic struggle of women and spread the message “all women are strong”.

A total of 914 individual NFTs were sold at the auction. On this series, two legendary personalities managed to raise 1.85 million US dollars.

Where can you buy NFTs by Jose Delbo?

To date, the artist’s work can be purchased on Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, MakersPlace and SuperRare.

Opinion of NFTMetria

Artists like Jose Delbo bring tremendous prestige to the digital art market. The artist has managed to bring together communities that are unique collectors: comic book fans and NFT investors. Thanks to blockchain technology, comic book collectors and creators can do much more by writing their name in the history of the NFT market.