Studio habit · 2026-01-28
Reading a 22-page NFT issue aloud in a small room
Guardians of the Galaxy cosmic issues were written to be turned. We still read minted pages at the Nith Street table, panel by panel, before we call an issue finished.
We keep a cheap folding table under the front window on Nith Street. When colour files come back, Maeve reads the NFT comic aloud, panel by panel, while Ilya follows on the proof copy. Guardians of the Galaxy cosmic issues live or die on banter timing. If Rocket’s balloon lands after Drax’s punchline on the same tier, the page is redrawn.
Reading aloud also catches the silent beats. A 22-page one-shot set on Contraxia needed a whole page with no dialogue after Star-Lord puts a cassette on the galley shelf. On the NFT files that page looked empty. In the room, with the radiator ticking, it held. We left it.
Collectors who visit for a sitting sometimes ask to hear a page. We will read one issue, not a stack. Bring the edition you care about most. If the lettering is too small to speak comfortably, that is a note for the next commission, not a virtue of ‘digital’ comics.
The habit is older than our first mint. It comes from the same place as any small-press table: if you cannot hear the crew, the cosmos on the cover is decoration.