So You Wanted to Have a Podcast
You gotta have a podcast, right? Well, we have some unique ideas for our BardCast. I hope you’ll find them worth your time and that you’ll become a frequent listener.
BoB started with the idea of interviewing veterans and using a podcast as a way to collect oral histories that would form the basis of graphic novel anthologies. This is still a goal of ours and it is going to take the form of a Band of Bards original series called In Your Service. The podcast will continue to be a critical piece of that plan. Just like BoB has expanded our purpose as a publisher, the BardCast will have an expanded scope as well.
We’ll work our way up to having a regular release, weekly or bi-weekly, and use the BardCast as a way to have some casual conversations between ourselves and with other comics creators. In that respect it fits in with the Guild of Bards. There’s overlap in purpose and utility, so it would be foolish to not get the most benefit possible.
Part comics talk show, part comics buddy hang out, part tool for transparency as a publisher. And importantly there will be the specific In Your Service episodes. This will give a healthy mix of topics keeping things fresh for listeners. It’ll also create some different cross pollination between the comics world and veteran community. Two very different groups from initial impression, but you never know what connections will sprout. Ol’ Stan was himself a WWII vet after all.
The In Your Service episodes and comic series is a lofty goal, one that we are hoping helps vets to be more open with their experiences and also play a part in bridging the Civil/Military Divide in US society. Democracies are fragile, when a citizenry and the military it funds grow apart you have a very real danger. Popular media plays a part in this and too often does it poorly. Giving authentic representation to what someone has done in their service and of the people who have acted in service to you is important. We have failed in this task as a society and are worse off for it. After 20 years at war we are finally, hopefully, seeing the end. Healthy societies don’t engage in 20 year long wars.
Sorry to get heavy on you, but this is something I’m passionate about. Comics have the power to do so much good. Narratives are drivers of culture and society. Publishers have a responsibility to put out narratives that reflect truth and reality no matter the medium. So that’s what we’re going to do, along with having lots of fun and telling all sorts of fantastic stories.
The BardCast will be wide-ranging to say the least. I really hope you’ll check it out and engage in all the various topics. Originally we had planned for a July launch, but that was when we didn’t expect to have anything to publish until 2022. That’s changed though and we’re going to be too busy running Kickstarters and publishing our first titles to take on the work of a podcast now. So our target has adjusted to the fall of 2021 for launching the podcast.
Did I just give away some secrets there? More to follow and some formal announcements coming soon. But the next three months are going to get wild.
#ComicsDoingGood