Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: August 8th
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.
Founders Club patrons include amazing creators like:
Higgins802, Von Allan, Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos, Marek Bennett, Donna Carr Roberts, Andrew Gronosky, Simki Kuznick, Simki Kuznick, John Holland, Maureen Devline, Benjamin Hunting, Samantha Kolber, Frank Walk, Mark Bell, Alexis E. Fajardo, and Matt & Therese.
Explore their work:
John Schu and Holly Hatam help children find everyday joy in Lily-May’s Joyful Day
In my newest interview, I’m joined by John Schu to talk about his upcoming picture book Lily-May’s Joyful Day, illustrated by Holly Hatam and published by Candlewick.
The book is a companion to Ruthie Rose’s Big Idea: A Poetry Story, and it brings readers back into a warm classroom world where children are encouraged to share who they are. This time, Lily-May and her best friend Ruthie Rose are presenting items from their Bag of Y-O-U. Ruthie Rose’s bag is full of treasures, but Lily-May has only one piece of paper. As her heart starts racing, she remembers her grandmother’s advice: breathe, hold it, and count to three.
That small moment opens into the heart of the book: joywalking, a way to listen, think, wander, roam, explore ideas, and notice the world. Soon Lily-May leads her whole class outside to try a joywalk together.
In our conversation, John talks about mindfulness, classroom connection, everyday wonder, and why picture books can help children slow down, name their feelings, and find joy right where they are.
Project Update: Revisiting an Old Story
Over the past several months, interviewing authors has inspired me to brush off one of my own older books and see whether I can take another crack at it.
The book is called Stag Gem, and I wrote it many years ago. Now, while I continue reflecting on Appliance, I have started revisiting this earlier project with fresh eyes.
Sometimes stepping away from one story and looking back at another can help the creative process. I am curious to see what still works, what needs to change, and where this old idea might lead me now.
Book Review: Teed Stories by Jeff Danziger
Some books stay with us because of the stories they contain. Others stay with us because of where we remember seeing them.
For me, Teed Stories by Jeff Danziger brings back memories of growing up and seeing Jeff’s books sitting on the side table next to my dad’s chair in the living room. They were simply part of the room and part of home. Long before I fully appreciated the humor, characters, and observations inside them, I recognized those books as something familiar.
Reading Teed Stories now feels a little like stepping back into that living room.
The book has a wonderfully Vermont quality to it. The humor is dry, observant, and rooted in the personalities and small details of rural life. These are the kinds of stories that find comedy in ordinary conversations, stubborn characters, local habits, and the quiet absurdities that people living in small communities understand especially well.
The segments are easy to settle into, but there is more to them than simple humor. Jeff Danziger has a sharp eye for people. His characters may be exaggerated at times, but they still feel recognizable. You may not know these exact people, but if you grew up in Vermont—or spent much time in a rural New England town—you have probably met someone very much like them.
That familiarity is a big part of the charm. The book captures a kind of Vermont that feels timeless, even as the world around it changes. It reminded me of old conversations, familiar rooms, and the particular rhythm of growing up in a place where everyone seemed to know everyone else’s business.
Of course, my connection to Teed Stories is more personal than that. Seeing Jeff’s books on my dad’s side table is one of those small childhood memories that has never completely left me. Returning to the book brought back not only the stories, but also the feeling of home and the comfort of knowing my dad was nearby.
That is what made reading it such a nostalgic experience. Teed Stories is funny, distinctly Vermont, and filled with memorable characters, but for me it is also connected to family and growing up. Sometimes a book becomes more than a book. It becomes part of the furniture of your memory.
This one certainly has.
Personal Update: Turning 50 and Looking Ahead
This week, it finally feels like I am getting ahead of the eight ball with both the paper and the radio.
We have been making very good forward momentum with the new broadcast software, and some of the strategic planning for both businesses is slowly starting to come to fruition. There is still plenty of work ahead, but it is encouraging to see ideas move from the planning stage into something real. After spending so much time thinking, adjusting, and trying to get everyone moving in the same direction, those small signs of progress mean a great deal.
The other major event this week was turning 50.
Milestone birthdays naturally make you stop and reflect a little. I remember thinking years ago about where I was in life and wondering what the decade between 40 and 50 might bring. Looking back now, I can say that I have learned a great deal through both the successes and the difficult moments.
I am grateful for all of those experiences and for what I have been able to accomplish so far. I have grown as a business owner, a husband, and a father. None of those roles is ever completely figured out, of course, but I feel more grounded in each of them than I did ten years ago.
Turning 50 does not feel like an ending. It feels more like reaching a good place to pause, appreciate the road behind me, and then keep moving forward. I am proud of what has been built, thankful for the people who have shared the journey, and excited to see what the next decade brings.
birthday lunch!
Early birthday present for Iggy.