When it comes to personal projects, this is by far the most ambitious one I have completed to this day. And it is something I would not hesitate to call a ''passion project''.
People who know me will know that I am a huge metal head, and one of my all time favorite bands is Blind Guardian — a power/symphonic/progressive metal band from Germany, who have an impressive over 30 year carrier and have released 10 albums with the newest, and long awaited — orchestral album coming out this year.
I always had a desire to create a longer comic with a proper story, so combining that desire with my passion for fantasy and of course my love for Blind Guardian, has resulted in a quite obvious to me conclusion — I had to make my first comic about Blind Guardian! Right?
In retrospect, it was a great choice all in all, because committing to finishing this project was no small task, all while studying intensively at university, it was not easy to find the time to work on this. Many times I would have to put it aside to focus on my education, but being passionate about it, was what made me always come back to it, and see it through to the end. If I did not enjoy working on it as much as I did, I would have probably never finished it, and boy, am i glad I did! Because this project was actually responsible for one of my dreams coming true (more about that later on).
Also, having a larger project that I managed to take from idea to completion, to hold in my hands the printed comic book that I have written, illustrated and designed, have given me a huge boost in confidence as a creative, that I can — indeed — see a project through to the end.
I have worked on this through 2016, and finished it in 2017. I feel like my illustration skills and style have really developed and improved since then, and I would do a lot of things differently if I would work on this again today. The writing is very basic, I am no Sanderson,however I am not ashamed of it, because I am no writer, and it was written with love, if not much skill.
You can find the full Story Here
So after I've finished and printed out ''Bard Guys'' I took one of my 3 printed copies and send it over to the band, hoping they will enjoy it. Well they did! And thanks to this comic book, I did not only got to meet the band in person (that's the dream part!) but they actually used my comic as their advents calendar for 2018, and released in on their social media platforms.
It was such an honor and a thrill to have that happen to me, to be acknowledged for my work in such a delightful way. It certainly gave me a huge boost of positivity to start of the next year full of other exciting projects!
Thanks ''Bard guys''. The fictional and the real ones.
