Always late to the party and a dollar short....I finally bit the bullet a little while back and started a blog. It's mainly comic-book oriented, but can go off onto other tangents (such as this week's "Spotlight on Ghosts" post. But, I've decided to make it a repository for things I think might be interesting, my reviews, interviews, rantings, etc.

I don't "chat" so much nowadays on the messageboards, but I do check in on my Imwan friends now and then to get a feel on the current comic book opiniati.

Please check it out, follow it, comment, whatever...

and if you come on over from Imwan, let me know.

It's funny. I've been threatening to start this thing up for years and years. Then when I did...I couldn't think of anything for the first post...just to get myself started...so I came over to Imwan and basically just lifted my first post on my "Unfinished Masterworks" thread. lol

Thanks all.

And especially...thanx to Linda, who means a lot to me and a lot of people.

Blog link: http://keithhowell.blogspot.com/

Website link: http://profchallenger.com

Deviant Art link: http://profchallenger.deviantart.com/

Twitter link: http://twitter.com/profchallenger

I think that's it for now.

That's a good looking website, Prof! I'd like to try something like that. Any suggestions?

great site, and great resume! i loved the footnote.
cheers.
todd

The comic that reviews itself is brilliant beyond words. (Click through to Keith's blog to see it. Wow.)

Following on Twitter.

Lovely resume.

Thanks. And yeah. I can fill you in on some tips for cheap cheap cheap self-promotion.

I'll try to do that tonight.

Har! I can't believe anyone actually read the footnote.

I did that for the anal-retents who wonder about things like breaks between graphics jobs and that sort of thing.

Oh Linda...

I just saw the preview pages of the latest issue that comes out this week...I could just run those pages by themselves with no snark.

Adams may actually be the worst writer of comics I've ever seen.

I noticed that. Welcome Jay!

Thanks, Man. It was fun playing with that idea.

First off, are you an artist, writer, musician? Just curious. If you're hesitant about sharing too much info publicly, you can send me an email. That's fine.



I'm all about the cheap and, especially, the free. So, that's what I look for. Maybe someday, when the kids are grown, I'll have a few extra bucks to invest in stuff, but for now.... lol

I just now buckled down to start a blog and set up a deviant art profile. They don't cost anything and I should've done it much earlier, but life is busy and it just always got pushed to the side. They are both free and easy ways to get yourself out there on the search engines and, hopefully at some point, the viral market.

If you're good with working for little to no pay...puh-lenty of small-press publishers out there who will give you work. I've done that. In fact, for a couple of years, I did only that because I was using it as an opportunity to learn and hone some skills in digital coloring and book design. I would take on projects that would afford me an opportunity to try something new. I chose that method because, for whatever reason, I often need an "assignment" to actually kick myself into gear and create something. After a couple of years, tho, I had done enough work for "free" and rarely do anything without at least a modicum of pay. If I'm gonna work for free, I'm going to work on my own projects now. So, after a few months of decompression after giving up my night teaching gig, I finally have some energy available for self-promotion again. lol. Which is why I'm increasing my reviews and interviews output and set up the deviant profile and blog. I also, synched up my social networking with Twitter so that I could increase my visibility on Twitter as well.

The webpage that I set up is also free. I simply use the template-based OfficeLive Small Business site from Microsoft and work within that for my webpage. However, I'm kind of pushing the limits on that by including modules that link to my blog and my twitter. Took a little bit of trial-and-error hacking to figure out how to do it. The benefit of the template system, for me, is that even a dunce like me with limited html abilities can work it out. Plus, their templates do allow for incorporation of logos and headers to really customize it fairly easily.

Added benefit of the OfficeLive setup is that they also take care of my domain registration and email. I pay $15 a year for my domain http://profchallenger.com and OfficeLive takes care of it all for me and I never have to think about it.

Self-promotion on a budget. I also actively use my Facebook account and have my blog networked with it.

I have a MySpace page....but I really don't utilize it very much anymore. And I'm sure that when the next big social networking thing takes off, I'll jump on that too and my FB page will slowly start decaying.

What else?

Aw man, this is great! When I get off work I'm going to ponder this. I do all those things you mentioned, Prof! And that's just my secret identity. I crochet, too! LOL

The older I get, the more value I find in just pure creative expression in whatever way brings satisfaction. I encourage everyone to write, sketch, paint, whatever. Just find a creative outlet. The human spirit withers away without some outlet of creativity. It also allows a mental and spiritual break from the depressing mundanity of the carnal world and all the bumps and bruises that accompany it.

I just added you to my deviantart site.

+1!! Amen

My blog on the announcement today about the all-new, all-different, bi-coastal DC

http://keithhowell.blogspot.com/2010/09 ... lease.html

Heh. My thesis show was called "Intelligent Design"!

Finally, my life's settled just enough to explore Ken's advice!

Where ya been---drawing, I hope, man!

I checked on J.M.DeMatteis and his blog states he's no longer editor-in-chief on the line
reviving the Atlas characters Keith mentioned. I love that writer, he's pretty rock and roll.

I've been doing FB, I used to do MySpace, I have a Deviant Art site but I'm not sure how to increase traffic, other than mentioning
on FB, which is still pretty limited for reaching new folks. I feel bad about trolling message boards just to get my links up, but I guess that's some of what I have to do. Bleh. The Microsoft page option's the missing step for me; I just had to read carefully.

I'm also looking at the other IndyPlanet-sort of options for publishing; I still haven't put down the change to publish, as I have a couple of rough elements in the work, and it would be kinda awful to publish and get nowhere with it. I wanted to at least add the website to the contact info in the book.

I see how interviewing people that work on comics might fit with promoting your own work.

Ive enjoyed the opportunities that have come my way to interview people that interest me. i have even developed some good friendships from them. coming up is a quick interview with peter straub, which i was intimidated by.

I gave your template advice to a friend in France teaching journalism students, today! I've never done any hacking---I'm still figuring out where to put Network Blogs in the gadgets!---but I would love to figure out how to make my blogspot as killer as yours. Once I have my demos and comics available through Myebook.com or something, I'll have a lot of stuff for MS office site; got it downloaded, anyway!