Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: October 17
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:
Jessica Hische gives kids permission to have hard days in Tomorrow I’ll Be Happy
In my newest interview, I’m joined by bestselling author, illustrator, and lettering artist Jessica Hische to talk about her new picture book Tomorrow I’ll Be Happy.
The book follows Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave and Tomorrow I’ll Be Kind, but this time Jessica focuses on something especially important for young readers: not every day feels good. Tomorrow I’ll Be Happy explores emotional opposites and gives children space to experience sadness, worry, frustration, and other difficult emotions without feeling like they have to immediately push them away. PenguinRandomhouse.com
At the same time, the book offers hope. Tomorrow is another day, and a new day can bring a different perspective.
Jessica’s hand-lettering is part of the storytelling itself. The words shift in size, shape, rhythm, and personality, helping young readers feel the emotional movement of the story visually as well as verbally.
Jessica is also a sought-after lettering artist and type designer whose clients have included Wes Anderson, The New York Times, Tiffany & Co., Nike, Target, Samsung, and others. Penguin Random House Retail
In our conversation, we talk about feelings, picture books, lettering, creativity, parenting, and why hope does not require pretending everything is fine.
Von Allan reaches 20 issues with WOLF’S HEAD Volume 10
In my newest interview, returning guest Von Allan joins me to talk about WOLF’S HEAD Volume 10, the latest installment in his long-running creator-owned comic series.
The new trade paperback collects issues #19 and #20, bringing WOLF’S HEAD to an impressive 20 digital issues spread across 10 trade paperback volumes. Each paperback collects two issues in a roughly 60-page full-color edition, while readers can also access every digital issue for free through the Internet Archive. Wolf's Head
The series follows former Detroit police officer Lauren Greene, who becomes responsible for protecting a young artificial intelligence created as a military weapon. Instead, the AI develops empathy, curiosity, and its own identity.
By Volume 10, the AI has been recaptured by the corporation that created it. Lauren is back in Detroit, broke and short on options, watching ARPC headquarters and waiting for an opportunity to rescue her friend before its identity is destroyed. Wolf's Head
Our conversation also gets into the realities behind the book. Von’s earlier hardcover collection struggled commercially, so he shifted to trade paperbacks. We talk about format changes, publishing economics, giving digital comics away, staying committed through disappointing sales, and what it means for an independent creator to keep a story alive for twenty issues.
Project Update: Another Very Slow Week
It was another very slow week on the project side of things.
I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished with the Old-Time Radio Fate Core game this time around. Most of the progress was simply keeping the project in the back of my mind and thinking about where I want to take it next.
That’s sometimes just how creative projects go. Some weeks there’s a lot of writing and editing, and other weeks life gets busy and the project moves forward only a little bit.
The good news is that I’m still interested in where the project is heading, especially with the broader Golden Age of Radio sitcom setting direction. I’m hoping to get back into it a little more soon, but for this week, it was mostly a matter of keeping the idea alive and letting things simmer.
Book of the Week: Trouble on Moollimoth Island
This week’s book was Trouble on Moollimoth Island by Ruth Fisher, and there was a particular reason I picked this one up.
I recently wrote an article about Ruth Fisher Putnam, and after spending all that time learning more about her life and work, I wanted to actually sit down and read one of her books for myself. Trouble on Moollimoth Island seemed like a good place to start.
There’s something different about reading a book after you’ve learned a little about the person behind it. Instead of just being an old book sitting on a shelf, it suddenly has a little more context and personality. You start thinking about the person who wrote it, where they were in their life, and what inspired them to put the story together in the first place.
That made this one especially interesting for me. Ruth was a Vermont writer, teacher, and someone who was very connected to her community, so reading her work felt a little like continuing the research from my article—but in a much more personal way.
I’ve always enjoyed finding these lesser-known books and discovering the stories behind the people who created them. Writing about Ruth made me curious about her work, and reading Trouble on Moollimoth Island was a nice way to follow that curiosity a little further.
Ruth Fisher’s ‘Trouble on Moollimoth Island’
Personal Update: Politics, Broadcast Upgrades, Comics, and Leaves
It was another pretty full week, with a lot going on both at work and at home.
We’re still deep into the political season, and this week I had the chance to moderate a political forum. That was a little different from the usual routine, and it was interesting being in the middle of a conversation that matters to the community.
On the radio side, we also spent a lot of time preparing to go live for the entire weekend using our new broadcast software. There’s always a little nervousness when switching over to something new, especially when it has to work continuously, but so far everything seems to be running well. That’s been a big relief, and hopefully it makes things a little smoother moving forward.
I also hosted my Vermont Comic Creator Cookout, which turned out pretty well. We had around 10 people show up, and it was nice to get a group of local creators together in one place to talk, hang out, and enjoy the day.
And, because fall is definitely here, there was also plenty of raking in the backyard this week. The leaves are coming down fast now, so I have a feeling that’s going to remain part of the routine for a while.
Overall, it was a busy week, but a pretty productive one.
We had our 4th Annual Vermont Comic Creators Cookout this past Saturday!
I wrote an article about Ruth Putnam’s books for my paper this past week.