Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: September 5th
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:
Yuvashri Harish summons monsters in her YA horror debut Kill Your Darlings
In my newest interview, I’m joined by debut author Yuvashri Harish to talk about her YA horror thriller Kill Your Darlings, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers and available September 22, 2026.
The novel follows Thulasi, a responsible teen girl who never breaks the rules and is always willing to help her family. Even on Halloween night, she is stuck babysitting her seven-year-old cousin. But the night turns terrifying when a simple playdate leads to the accidental summoning of a horde of monsters from a book of horror stories.
The situation gets worse when Thulasi also summons Addison Greer, her small town’s most famous author and her own literary hero. Addison’s return is not the miracle Thulasi imagined. She has a revenge plan against the family that wronged her, and Thulasi is pulled into a bloodthirsty bargain.
With help from Sam, the cute quarterback also stuck babysitting, Thulasi has until midnight to protect the children, stop the monsters, and save everyone she loves.
In our conversation, we talk about YA horror, Tamil protagonists, eldest-daughter pressure, obsessive readers, racism, misogyny, romance, Halloween, and what happens when meeting your hero becomes the scariest part of the night.
Jason Smiley on the Eddy Brothers and Vermont’s spiritualist past
In my newest interview, I’m joined by Jason Smiley, an Eddy Family historian who has spent more than a decade researching one of Vermont’s strangest and most fascinating historical stories: The Eddy Brothers of Chittenden, Vermont.
Jason’s website describes itself as “The Definitive Resource on the Eddy Brothers,” and he writes that his goal is to correct misconceptions and bring the facts of the Eddy Family story to light.
The story most often centers on William H. Eddy and Horatio G. Eddy, though Jason emphasizes that the larger family story is important too. In the mid-1800s, William, Horatio, and their sister Mary C. Eddy Huntoon became known as spiritual mediums who performed exhibitions throughout the United States. Later, in the 1870s, the Eddy Family held materialization circles, or séances, at their home in Chittenden, Vermont.
Their story drew national attention, including an investigation by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who wrote about the family in newspaper articles and in his 1875 book People from the Other World.
In our conversation, we talk about spiritualism, skepticism, folklore, performance, research, and why this eerie chapter of Vermont history still captures the imagination.
Regina Linke shares a modern fable in Little Helper
In my newest interview, I’m joined by Regina Linke, author-illustrator of Little Helper, a new picture book from Alvina Ling Books / Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, on sale May 5, 2026.
The book follows Ah-Fu, the main character from Regina’s debut picture book Big Enough. Ah-Fu wants nothing more than to enjoy a beautiful day in his village: fly his kite, ride in his grandfather’s oxcart, and have a picnic. But a tangled string, a busy aunt, a fallen tree, and other problems keep getting in the way. Rather than give up, Ah-Fu uses imagination and creative problem-solving to help his friends and family.
Regina is a Taiwanese American artist who specializes in contemporary Chinese gongbi painting, combining traditional ink and wash techniques with digital painting. Her work also includes The Oxherd Boy: Parables of Love, Compassion, and Community and Big Enough.
In our conversation, we talk about folktales, Chinese philosophy, art, kindness, community, and how picture books can show young readers that even small helpers can solve big problems.
Project Update: Back Into Fate Core
This week, I have been getting back into playing around with the Fate Core system again.
The more time I spend with it, the more I remember what I enjoy about the mechanics and how flexible the system can be. It has been a good way to get my head back into that style of game design and start thinking more clearly about Appliance again.
For now, I am mostly experimenting, playing, and getting comfortable with the system again before I dive deeper into the next round of editing.
Manga Review: Sakamoto Days, Vol. 1 by Yuto Suzuki
This week I read Sakamoto Days, Vol. 1 by Yuto Suzuki, and I had a lot more fun with it than I expected.
The basic setup is already pretty great: Taro Sakamoto used to be one of the most feared assassins around, but then he fell in love, got married, had a daughter, gained some weight, and retired to run a small convenience store.
Of course, retirement does not exactly go according to plan.
What makes this first volume work so well is the balance between ridiculous action and very grounded family comedy. Sakamoto may look like a quiet, middle-aged shopkeeper, but the moment trouble shows up, it becomes very clear that he is still incredibly dangerous.
A lot of the humor comes from that contrast. One minute he is worried about the store or his family, and the next he is casually handling assassins with the kind of skill that makes everyone else look completely unprepared.
Shin is another highlight. His telepathic abilities add a lot of personality to the story, and his interactions with Sakamoto help give the book some of its funniest moments. Their dynamic starts to feel less like assassin and former assassin and more like a very strange workplace relationship that somehow makes perfect sense.
The action is also really well done. It moves quickly, the fights are easy to follow, and there is a lot of creativity in how ordinary objects and everyday locations get turned into part of the action.
What surprised me most was how much heart the story has. Underneath all the fighting and comedy, Sakamoto is really just a guy who loves his family and wants to protect the life he has built. That makes him easy to root for.
Volume 1 is a fast, funny, and very easy read. It introduces the characters, establishes the tone, and gives you enough action and humor to make you want to keep going.
I read it this week, and I can already see why Sakamoto Days has become so popular.
If you like action manga that does not take itself too seriously but still has a lot of heart, this is a very strong start.
Personal Update: Radio Planning and a Lot of Organizing
This week, I have been spending some time working on getting a programming clock set up for WYKR Classic. It is one of those projects with a lot of moving parts, but I am slowly getting everything organized in a way that should make the station run more smoothly.
I have also been doing some heavy organizing around the house as I get ready for a yard sale in the next couple of weeks. That has meant sorting through a lot of things, deciding what stays, what goes, and wondering why I kept some of it in the first place.
It has been a busy stretch of behind-the-scenes work, but I am making progress both with WYKR Classic and with getting things cleaned up at home.
Sometimes productivity looks exciting, and sometimes it looks like programming clocks and piles of yard-sale boxes. This week was definitely more of the second kind.
Washing the area rugs while the warm weather is stlll here
Tree on the powerline means no power at the tower