Blog Archives
It’s Time to Introduce Cover Bard
Posted by Sean Ian Mills
The time has finally come to do a proper introduction to my original comic, Cover Bard. This is a project I’ve been working on for a few years now, and it’s taken this long largely due to both money and finding a good time to bring it to Kickstarter — which is why I’m bringing it up now, because we’re going to Kickstarter next week! You can sign up now to get notified when it launches.
Cover Bard is my original fantasy comic about a guy who has spent his whole life dreaming of being a famous rockstar bard, but never doing anything to make that dream happen. He still lives in his hometown, works a boring day job, and busies himself by playing cover songs of his favorite bard down at the local pub.
The story is semi-autobiographical. I’ve wanted to be a professional creative writer since I was a kid. I think you can still find some of my teenage writing on FanFiction.net. And while I have been making some comics over the past few years — including Gamer Girl & Vixen and a few short stories — I still haven’t really made any big push to do this professionally. Cover Bard will be about exploring this idea.
This is the first issue of a planned mini-series. If it does well, I’ll hopefully have the second and third issues out before long, and someday I’ll have the whole story printed and out in the world.
As for the plot, Cover Bard is about Langley Stoll, a villager with a penchant for music who operates as a tribute bard to a more famous musician, Phoenix Fire. He plays cover songs at the local tavern, still lives with his mom and works at the lumber yard like everyone else in town. Then one day, Kenzie Fleet, an elf rogue passing through town hears him play and gets an idea: I can use this naive fool as a fall guy for a heist in the big city. She convinces Langley to come with her, and then she recruits a gnoll fighter she knows named Bartlesby, and together the trio set off on an adventure.
The artwork is all done by Luke Beatrice, with lettering by Marina Leon. All of the interior artwork and pages are done, this Kickstarter will be about raising money to print some physical copies.
I hope you like what you see and will consider backing my Kickstarter when it launches. Also in the Kickstarter is The Yearbook Club, a comic by my writing partner, Kristi McDowell. We do Gamer Girl & Vixen together, and this time we’ve each branched out to do our own solo comics. We’re all very excited to make more comics!
And, of course, I will be posting about this a lot more in the month ahead as we raise money. So get on board now and join the party!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
My Next Comic Book Project is Cover Bard
Posted by Sean Ian Mills
Great news, everybody! At long last I am finally working on a new comic book writing project! All my life I’ve wanted to be a professional fiction writer, but I’ve never really done it all that much. I’ve got this blog, and my first comic book project, Gamer Girl & Vixen, is still in production. But finally, at long last, I’ve started up a whole new, solo project!
Introducing Cover Bard, my new fantasy comic book series!
For the past year, I’ve been taking a comics writing class from Scott Snyder, the guy behind New 52 Batman and a ton of other great comic books and stories. The class has really taught me a lot and helped me to focus on my storytelling. I highly recommend the class on Substack. It’s about to start its second year, still going strong.
That class has finally pushed me to write again. I’ve always had a ton of ideas, but there’s just be some mental block that stopped me from buckling down and just writing. I just wouldn’t get out of my own way. But the time is now, and the story is Cover Bard!
This is going to be a fantasy comic about that very idea, of a creator unable to get out of their own way. Cover Bard will star Langley Stoll, a rather unimpressive young man who’s always dreamed of being a famous bard. But instead of writing and performing his own music, he spends all his time doing cover songs of the far more famous and popular bard, Phoenix Fire.
This isn’t a comic about the greatest bard in the world. This is just a tribute.
Langley — stage name “Phoenix Lyre” — meets up with the elf rogue, Kenzie Fleet, and the gnoll fighter, Bartlesby of the Sharptooth Cackle, to go on an adventure to the upcoming Phoenix Fire concert in the big city. Langley is convinced that if gets a chance to play his tribute songs for his musical idol, then Phoenix Fire will take him along on tour and he’ll finally be famous. Little does he know, Kenzie, the rogue, is playing him for a sucker. She plans to use Langley as both a Trojan Horse and a fall guy in her scheme to rob Phoenix Fire blind. She just has to get Langley to the big concert in one piece.
And that is the basic story, set up in the first issue…which is written, but is far from done. I plan to use this upcoming month to hire an artist and get to work making a new comic! I’m planning for 5 to 6 total issues, with some Kickstarters along the way to help fund it. So expect to see more about Cover Bard on this blog in the future.
I’m finally making my own comics again and I couldn’t be more excited!
—————-








