Out of This World Comic Book

OOTW Presented at ISCA 2005

The Iowa School Counselor’s Association (ISCA) was held in Ames, Iowa this year from October 10^th to October 11^th.  Youthlight invited Sandy Ragona and myself to present and represent Youthlight and our books for the attendees.  The response for Eliminating Bullying and the OOTW books was amazing. 

Many counselors were pleased with OOTW, and saw it as truly unique.  They have worked with workbooks and storybooks for many years and are excited to have a therapeutic tool that is created in a comic book format.  Many individuals made sure to express this thought.  Not only did it encourage me to continue developing OOTW products but it also encouraged me to continue focusing on new interactive multimedia tools for our work with children.

I am anxiously waiting to hear from many of the ISCA attendees who will use the OOTW books with their students and obtain feedback regarding the response from the children.  I will be happy to summarize the feedback in the blog.

So I’m back, less busy now that prep for the conference is over, and I will back on track regarding updates.

Recent Psychjourney Interview

Not much to post.  More exciting stuff coming your way, but too early to announce.  In the mean time, feel free to learn more about OOTW by listening to an interview I did with Psychjourney.com's Deborah Harper. 

Listen to Interview

Fan Art Contest

Eric and I have been interested in doing a fan art contest since the moment we opened up the site.  It's a great joy of ours to see our characters drawn with in a new style or with a new twist.  The plan is to put up all the contestants art in the Fan Art section of the site, regardless if the artist is a finalist or not.

The contest is open to minors and should focus on the characters of the OOTW comic series.  All voting will occur in the OOTW forum, where a poll will be used so everyone can see how they are doing.  The deadline will be announced soon. 

There is also a prize for this contest.  The artist that wins will have a mug created for them with the OOTW logo and their own art!  Plus he/she will get their art on the front page of ootwcomic.com with their names in lights.

So if you are a kid, or have a kid in the family, or heck, know the kid across the street, please let them know about the contest!

You can learn more information about this contest at the Fan Art Submission page.

Please contact me at jon@ootwcomic.com if you have any questions.

OOTW and Psychjourney united!

Deborah Harper is an outright blessing for the mental health field.  Both to consumers and professionals.  After only a short conversation you will realize her ideas are truly innovative.  But more, she is looking toward the future.  She understands what counseling and imagination can achieve.

A message from Deborah on Psychjourney.com reads as follows:

We are a unique online community of health seekers, authors, artists, musicians, and mental and allied health professionals We provide free educational materials by top experts, articles, personal stories and other resources to provide support and guidance to you and your loved ones in dealing with an emotional, mental, or life challenge.

We seek to empower health seekers to educate themselves about their own emotional, mental, spiritual and physical health, to learn how to navigate the labyrinth of the mental health system, to understand how to select a qualified, consumer-centric therapist, and to stand up for their rights as mental health consumers.

We strongly believe that mental health professionals have much to learn from clients. Our mission is to build a cyber-bridge between health seekers and mental health professionals so that consumers can find the help they need and qualified, consumer-centric mental health professionals can best serve their clients and build a thriving and fulfilling private practice.

We are developing a new domain that Jon will lead on his specialty, Bibliotherapy, defined as: a form of supportive psychotherapy in which carefully selected reading materials are used to assist a subject in solving personal problems or for other therapeutic purposes. In addition to books and comics, the new domain will explore the use of multimedia, gaming, and video as a tool for teachers, parents and therapists working with children, tweens and teens.

To say we are excited about the prospect of this new partnership is an understatement.  We will continue to strive to be the leader of innovative multimedia counseling tools.  We will continue to use the established OOTW characters and themes to create new and exciting counseling products.  And we will grow in our relationship with Psychjourney.com challenging each other to be more creative, more innovative, and more helpful to those in need.

We encourage anyone interested in this subject to join the Psychjourney Ryze network.  It will be the creative outlet for our ideas and networking in the months to come. Membership is free.