Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: July 18th
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.
Alexis Fajardo returns with The Kid Beowulf Odyssey Annual
In my newest interview, I’m joined by returning guest Alexis “Lex” Fajardo, the Eisner Award-winning cartoonist and creator of Kid Beowulf.
Lex is back with a new Kickstarter for The Kid Beowulf Odyssey Annual, a 44-page, full-color comic book collecting three new stories from the next Kid Beowulf adventure. The campaign promises a new journey where twin brothers Beowulf and Grendel must survive a land of myths and monsters.
For readers new to the series, Kid Beowulf reimagines Beowulf and Grendel as 12-year-old twin brothers traveling through the world of epic stories. The series draws on mythology, ancient literature, and classic adventure comics, making big old stories feel lively and approachable for young readers. Lex has described Kid Beowulf as a way to point readers back toward source material like Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and The Ramayana.
In our conversation, we talk about mythology, monsters, annual-style comics, Kickstarter, and what it takes to keep a long-running middle-grade adventure series moving forward.
For fans of kids’ graphic novels and mythic adventures, this is a fun one.
N. West Moss explores grief, resilience, and found family in Birdy
In my newest interview, I’m joined by award-winning author N. West Moss to talk about her middle-grade debut, Birdy, on sale February 17, 2026.
Birdy follows eleven-year-old Birdy and her younger brother, Mouse, after the death of their mother. The two siblings have always looked out for each other. Birdy is practical, guarded, and realistic. Mouse is trusting, open-hearted, and ready to love. When they are sent from the city to the country to live with relatives they’ve never met, everything changes.
Their new home with Aunt Mitzie and Uncle Shadow is chaotic, unfamiliar, and unexpectedly warm. There is food in the kitchen, room to play outside, and adults who might actually care. Mouse begins to settle in. But Birdy cannot let herself believe it will last. Their social worker has promised to find them a permanent home by the next school year, and Birdy knows better than to trust temporary things.
In our conversation, West talks about writing grief for young readers, the unbreakable bond between siblings, and how family can sometimes be found in surprising places.
This is a moving, thoughtful conversation about resilience, belonging, and the frightening work of learning to hope again.
William Bernhardt uncovers the real battle behind Superman
In my newest interview, I’m joined by bestselling author and former attorney William Bernhardt to talk about his book The Superman Wars: A Battle for Truth, Justice, and an American Icon.
Most people know Superman as the world’s first superhero: the cape, the shield, the secret identity, the promise of truth and justice. But behind that icon is a much more complicated human story.
At the center is Jerry Siegel, the writer who co-created Superman and spent decades fighting to reclaim credit, dignity, and justice after corporations made enormous profits from his creation. Bernhardt’s book explores how Superman became what some have called the “original sin” of the comic book industry — a case that set the tone for generations of creator-rights struggles.
This is not just a comic book story. It is a story about creativity versus commerce, artists versus institutions, and what happens when the people who imagine something extraordinary lose control of it.
In our conversation, William talks about Jerry Siegel, Joanne Siegel, Clark Kent, the legal battles, the newly uncovered documents, and why this history still matters to writers, artists, and fans today.
With Superman and Supergirl returning to the big screen, this is the perfect moment to revisit the story behind the symbol.
Mark Bell returns with S.P.I.R.I.T. #1–4: Mothman Needs Us!
Mark Bell is back on the show, and this time he’s bringing Mothman with him.
His newest Kickstarter, S.P.I.R.I.T. #1–4: Mothman Needs Us!, continues the all-ages supernatural comic from Plague Doctor Press. The series follows a group of teen girl paranormal investigators who approach ghosts, monsters, and legends with curiosity, skepticism, and a little scientific confidence — until the strange things they’re investigating turn out to be very real.
Issue 4 brings in one of the great American cryptids: Mothman. The campaign has a wonderfully wild premise: an LGBTQ+ all-ages supernatural adventure where teen girls help Mothman and a drag queen save a bus full of kids. That combination of spooky, funny, heartfelt, and unexpected is exactly why Mark’s comics are so much fun.
In our conversation, we talk about cryptid folklore, all-ages horror, queer representation, teen investigators, crowdfunding, and what it takes to keep an indie comic series moving forward one issue at a time.
If you like ghost stories, Mothman, young heroes, found family, and creator-owned comics that have a lot of heart behind the weirdness, this Kickstarter is worth checking out.
Kurt Sasso and Jeff Haas return for our quarterly podcasting roundtable
In this episode, I’m joined once again by my recurring podcast friends Kurt Sasso and Jeff Haas for our quarterly podcasting roundtable.
Every few months, we get together to talk about the practical, creative, and sometimes ridiculous reality of making podcasts. Podcasting can look simple from the outside: record a conversation, upload the episode, and move on. But anyone who has tried to keep a show going knows there is a lot more behind the curtain.
There is guest booking, preparation, interview flow, audio quality, editing, show notes, thumbnails, promotion, social media, scheduling, audience growth, and the ongoing challenge of staying excited about the work. In this conversation, we talk about what’s working for us right now, what we’re rethinking, and what has changed since our last check-in.
We also dig into bigger questions around podcasting today: how important is video, how useful are clips, how do we avoid burnout, and what does it really mean to build a loyal audience?
If you host a podcast, want to start one, or just enjoy hearing creators talk shop, this roundtable is a fun and useful listen.
Project Update: Back to Editing
I've been back to working on the draft edits for Appliance this week. It's still slow going, but it's definitely still moving forward.
Editing is never as flashy as writing a first draft, but it's where the story really starts to take shape. I've been making my way through the manuscript, tightening scenes, smoothing out the pacing, and making sure everything fits together the way I envisioned.
It's one of those projects where steady progress is the key. Even if I only get a little done each week, those small improvements add up over time. I'm enjoying getting back into the manuscript and seeing it become a stronger story with each pass.
Book Review: Bunns Rabbit – Following the Truth of Your Heartsong
One of the pleasures of hosting my podcast is getting to speak with creators about the care and imagination behind their work. Alan Barillaro recently joined me to promote the second Bunns Rabbit book, and he was kind enough to send me a copy of the first. After reading it, I can see why this beautifully illustrated story has found such an enthusiastic audience.
Bunns is born with unusually short—but perfectly functional—ears. The superstitious rabbits in her warren believe her appearance is a bad omen that could bring misfortune to their community. Although Bunns is surrounded by the love of her family, fear and prejudice threaten their home and place within the warren.
Hoping to protect those she loves, Bunns ventures beyond the safety of her burrow. Her journey carries her into the wider world, where the mysterious Spirit Fox and a trail of Monarch butterflies lead her through a series of challenges. At the heart of it all is the idea of a “heartsong”—an inner truth that, unlike spoken words or thumping feet, cannot lie.
That idea gives the story much of its emotional power. Bunns may be small and treated as an outsider, but her courage grows from compassion rather than a desire to prove everyone wrong. Her quest is not simply about finding acceptance; it is about learning to trust herself and recognizing that being different does not make her dangerous or less worthy.
Barillaro’s warm illustrations and graphic-novel-style passages make the world feel expansive and alive. Some pages invite you to pause and absorb the artwork, while the more dramatic sequences give the adventure a cinematic quality.
Bunns Rabbit is imaginative, tender, and genuinely moving. Younger readers will find magic, danger, and adventure, while adults will appreciate its reflections on prejudice, belonging, sacrifice, and family. Having spoken with Alan about his work made reading it especially meaningful, and I’m excited to see where Bunns’s heartsong leads her next.
Personal Update: Good Momentum and Getting Things in Order
It was a pretty active week, and I’m happy to say we had some good successes with both the paper and the radio. It’s always encouraging when the work starts to show results, especially after all the steady effort that goes into keeping both sides moving.
I also spent a little more time working on WYKR Classic, continuing to make progress on the internet radio station. It’s been one of those projects that moves forward in pieces, but every bit helps bring it closer to where I want it to be.
Earlier in the week, we went out and had our family photos taken, which was a nice change of pace. It’s one of those things that can feel like a production in the moment, but I’m always glad we did it once the pictures are done.
Around the house, I tackled some backyard chores and got some cleaning done as well. I’m also starting to prepare for another yard sale in the next couple of weeks, which means sorting, organizing, and figuring out what can finally leave the house.
All in all, it was a productive week with good momentum at work, progress on a few personal projects, and some much-needed organizing at home.
backyard work!
photo shoot!