So, NFTs aren't dead after all! Great week for our non-fungible space and especially for our dear subscriber Sillytuna and his covid Alien Punk sale, headlining the ‘Natively Digital’ Sotheby’s NFT auction. No surprise this event was selected to commemorate our twisted cover art story this week.

After brief brainstorming and a few abstract sketches by Redlion (we may publish them someday for the history books), we explored several concepts. In the end, we fell in love with the “Japanese Tuna Auction” approach.

We even considered a pixel art cover, or use of mixed media, but classic Dudly's illustration style proved the most effective medium. You can watch the full Procreate drawing process in my traditional timelapse video.

Turn sound on 🔊

Now let's break down the cover in detail because, as you already know, there is always more than meets the eye.

The Covid Alien Punk head in the jar mounted on the tuna body. Is it “Silly” enough? Credit goes to Red for figuring out this glowing reference to Japanese tuna auctions.

The auctioneer in our story is a skilled sushi chef holding Maguro Kiri - a tuna cutting knife - instead of a gavel. The bid shown on the price board behind him is in Yen currency equivalent to keep the theme consistent.

You can probably recognize the first two bidders by their silhouettes - Super Yeti and Gutter Cat. But the final mic-drop bid of more than a billion Yen left the early bidders far behind and most astonished. A “Beware of Scams” label in response to the recent Twitter attacks on artists' credulity. You must always stay diligent guys, on every DM you get! The Japanese letter should mean “tuna,” but who knows. It looks cool tho.

And here comes the final knife swing, and the Covid Alien is sold! Hip hip hooray, and congratulations to Sillytuna. The new owner - DraftKings board member Shalom Meckenzie - is seen instantly claiming his new precious NFT and leaving our dear fish friend headless.

But Sillytuna is crowning this spectacular moment with a swift Punk head replacement, turning into a human, perhaps losing his face mask, but gaining some fancy VR headgear. What a final touch it is for this historic CP sale!

A tiny easter egg in the bottom right corner references the Miami Bitcoin conference full of rampaging Bitcoin maximalists. Besides the direction sign, you can also follow the strange white trail that Max Kaiser left behind...