Orcs, elves and magic come to Cardiff in Sarah Millman’s comic NPC Tea, which blends the everyday with high fantasy
NPC Tea issue one cover (courtesy of Sarah Millman)
Local comic creator, illustrator and writer Sarah Millman has launched a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter for the latest issues of her new comic series, NPC Tea.
NPC Tea follows the story of an elf, a human and an ex-fire summon as they try to save a failing tea shop in modern day Cardiff.
Three issues of the eight-issue series have been released so far, and the Kickstarter campaign will help fund issues four and five.
Digital copies of issue four will be sent out in December and print issues will be ready in February 2018.
NPC Tea blends the comedy of everyday life with elements of fantasy.
“I love the juxtaposition of high fantasy and mundane, everyday lives,” Sarah said.
The multi-talented comic creator is from Pernath but spends most of her time in Cardiff.
Her attachment to the city is one of the reasons she decided to make it the setting for NPC Tea.
“I travel a lot to conventions around the country, and I studied at Bristol, but Cardiff has always been my favourite place to be. It’s a very friendly city – but maybe I’m biased,” Sarah said, before jokingly adding, “also, if there really were orcs in the world, there’d probably be quite a few in Cardiff.”
Many recognisable Cardiff landmarks and places can be seen in the comic and the tea shop itself is located on Womanby Street where a car park is in real life.
“I try to get in the castle quite a bit. The old post office building in the Bay (near the Wales Millennium Centre) was abandoned for a very long time, and it’s where the antagonists for the comic are based,” Sarah explained.
Sarah has been illustrating for as long as she can remember and her eye-catching art style is certainly a testament to that fact.
Sarah’s character design brings the comic to life (courtesy of Sarah Millman)
Cardiff’s independent comic book scene has been growing in recent years which has given rise to events such as the Cardiff Independent Comic Expo (CICE). Sarah cites CICE as one of the many ways people can support indie creators.
Prior to the recent CICE event held in the summer, event organiser Iz McAuliffe said (via geeksinwales) that they hope CICE will play a small role in helping create the next generation of comic book stars.
As an avid fantasy fan, Sarah’s passion for the genre really shows in her work.
“With things as they are politically right now,” Sarah said, “having a good fantasy book as an escape is more important than ever.”