Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: June 6th
ALWAYS POSTED A WEEK EARLIER ON PATREON
🚨 Storycomic Patreon Update for Creators 🚨
If you're an author, indie comic creator, game designer, or storyteller looking for more visibility, the Storycomic Patreon is one of the easiest ways to get your work in front of a growing audience.
For just $5 a month (about the price of a cup of coffee), you get some real promotional benefits:
🎙 Front-of-the-Line Recording Access
I’m often booking podcast interviews three months in advance, but Patreon members jump to the front of the line. This is especially helpful if you have a time-sensitive launch, Kickstarter, or new release coming up.
🔗 Permanent Show Notes Promotion
Your website or project link will be included in the show notes of all interviews as long as you’re a member.
📣 Social Media Promotion
We’ll regularly help promote your projects across Storycomic’s social media channels.
And remember, the Storycomic podcast has over 30,000 downloads, so it’s a great way to get your work discovered by readers and fellow creators.
For the cost of a coffee each month, you get promotion, visibility, and priority booking.
If you’re a creative looking to grow your audience, it’s a pretty great deal.
👉 Join us on Patreon and let’s share your story with the world.
Justin Coke returns with SWAT: Eldritch Blue, a magic-meets-procedural Kickstarter
Justin Coke is back on the show to talk about his newest Kickstarter project, SWAT: Eldritch Blue — short for Secret Wizard Assault Team.
The setup is immediately fun: it’s an urban fantasy story told with the momentum of a procedural. A squad of wizard detectives operates inside the machinery of “the system,” led by Larry Slaughter, and the story digs into what happens when the supernatural threat is real — but the institutional pressure is real too.
In our conversation, Justin talks about blending magic with law-and-order structure without sanding off the weirdness. We get into tone — how to keep the humor sharp while still letting the danger land — and how character choices get more complicated when jobs, budgets, and reputations are part of the battlefield.
If you like comics that move fast, make you laugh, and still carry consequences under the action, SWAT: Eldritch Blue is worth a look. And if you’ve enjoyed Justin’s work before, this is a great “jump back in” moment while the Kickstarter is live.
Jennifer Dickinson’s Maggie’s Big Break brings theater, friendship, and stuttering representation to center stage
In my newest interview, I’m joined by debut middle-grade author Jennifer Dickinson to talk about Maggie’s Big Break (on-sale April 30, 2026), a funny, tender sixth-grade story that also delivers something kid lit needs more of: a main character with a speech difference who is fully, vividly herself.
Maggie Pierson is 11 and loves performing. She’s starting sixth grade at a new school with her best friend, Francesca, and they’re dreaming about auditioning for the fall play, Dahlia Rockets to Space. Then Valentine shows up—experienced, confident, and eager to claim the lead role and Francesca’s attention. When Valentine teases Maggie about her stutter and Francesca starts drifting away, Maggie’s confidence takes a hit, and quitting begins to feel like the safest choice.
Jennifer grew up with a stutter, and we talk about what it means to write representation that doesn’t frame speech difference as something to fix. We also discuss how theater and performance spaces can help kids build communication confidence and community, and what parents and educators can do to support kids in becoming confident communicators—not flawless speakers.
Project Update: Keeping the Creative Muscles Moving
Editing on Appliance continues to move forward, though it remains a slow and methodical process. To help keep my creative brain nimble while trudging through revisions, I've also been dabbling again with my branching novel graphic novel project.
It's been a nice change of pace. Editing requires a different mindset than creating something new, and bouncing between the two has helped keep things fresh. While Appliance remains the primary focus, spending a little time exploring story paths, choices, and new ideas in the graphic novel has been a good creative outlet.
For now, it's all part of the same journey—steadily refining one project while letting another stretch a different set of storytelling muscles.
Book Review: Best Loved Selections from Children's Classics – A Wonderful Trip Back in Time
Every now and then, you stumble across a book that instantly transports you back to childhood. That was exactly the case when I found a copy of Best Loved Selections from Children's Classics from Parents' Magazine at a thrift store recently.
The moment I saw it on the shelf, I was flooded with memories. This was one of those books I remember fondly from growing up—a collection that always seemed to have something interesting waiting inside. Finding it again all these years later felt a little like reconnecting with an old friend.
What makes this anthology so enjoyable is its variety. Rather than telling a single story, it serves as a treasure chest of classic tales, poems, and selections from beloved children's literature. You can open it to almost any page and find something worth reading. It captures a time when children's books were designed to be revisited over and over again, with stories that could be enjoyed by different ages for different reasons.
Reading through it now has been a wonderful exercise in reminiscing. Some stories were exactly as I remembered them, while others felt completely new through adult eyes. That's one of the joys of revisiting childhood favorites—you aren't just rereading the book, you're revisiting a different version of yourself.
The illustrations, the selections, and the overall feel of the book all carry a warmth that's hard to describe. It's the kind of volume that belongs on a family bookshelf, ready to be picked up whenever someone has a few spare minutes and a little curiosity.
Finding this thrift-store treasure has been a genuine delight, and I've thoroughly enjoyed spending time with it again. Sometimes the best reads are the ones that remind us where our love of books began.
Personal Update: Back at the Track and Staying Busy
A big part of this week was spent getting ready for our return to broadcasting dirt track racing on the radio station. This is now our third year doing it, which is hard to believe. It's become one of those seasonal traditions that I genuinely look forward to, and it was a lot of fun getting everything prepared and ready to go again.
On the business side, the sales team continues to do a great job picking up the pace. We're seeing good momentum across both the paper and the radio, and it's encouraging to watch all the effort everyone has been putting in start to bear fruit.
Personally, it felt like one of those weeks where the inbox never quite stayed empty. A lot of my time was spent trying to stay on top of emails, follow-ups, and the various moving pieces that come with running multiple businesses. Even with the busy schedule, I've found myself feeling very optimistic and grateful. There are certainly challenges, but there are also a lot of good things happening right now.
One of the highlights of the week was getting to spend Friday with Iggy. He came along while I tested equipment for Saturday's race broadcast, and he had a great time being part of the process. Those moments are always special. It's fun to share a little bit of what I do with the kids, and even routine tasks become more enjoyable when you've got a curious helper along for the ride.
All in all, it was a busy week filled with preparation, progress, and plenty to be thankful for.
out in the woods with Grampa
Iggy helping me test the broadcast equipment before Race Day.