Comics in the Classroom

About a week ago, a Social Studies teacher asked if I would help his students make a comic about an important event or person in history.  On the day of the assignment, a handful of students came tumbling into my room.  In hand, they each had blank sheets of paper, color pencils, markers, rulers, and various other arts-n-crafty supplies.

First, we sat around and discussed what historical event or person they wanted to focus on (this was an end of the year review project – thus the reason for such a wide open assignment).  After we had brainstormed some events and people from the year, we set out to make our comics.  It was then that we hit a road block.  Only one of the students in the class enjoyed drawing and the rest were not enthusiastic about making a comic.  One declared that she was going to draw stick figures and hoped she would not lose any points because of it.  I assured her that stick figures could be an artistic choice and that she could create a compelling comic using simple art.  I reminded her, and all the students, the ultimate goal of the assignment was to review the content, not learn how to make the best comics in the world.

However, this comment got the wheels turning in my head, “why not use the computer to make the creation of the comic easier and, maybe, more enjoyable?”  After a few minutes of research (while the students were storyboarding and outlining their stories) I found a number of free websites for comic creation. 

By including computers to help with the creation of our comics, I was able to enhance this assignment.   Students could still choose to draw the comics, but those that were more interesting in computers and digital art had a new option.  Additionally, because of the computer element students were exposed to many images and photographs relating to their topics.  Even though using the computer meant spending some time learning the program, many more students were engaged and interested in the project.  More importantly, students were also shown how to use the internet in a constrictive and creative way.  That night, every student finished their assignment for homework and a handful of kids continued to make comics of their own.

Here are some of the free, online comic generators I have found and/or used in my classroom: 

Comics Lab Extreme – Despite the association with Professor Garfield, this is the website we ended up using.  It is very kid friendly (and safe), has a great save feature, and so many options.  I recommend this site for free comic creation (but then again it is the one I've really messed around with).

Chogger – Very simple interface for creating a panel comic strip.  You can start making your comic without registering and can even upload your own images. 

Witty Comics! – This one does most of the work for you.  Pick your characters and backgrounds, just bring the conversation.

Make Beliefs Comix – Another simple comic generated that does a lot of the image creation for you and lets you focus on the dialogue.

And a few more to check out. 

• Pixton
• Strip Generator
• ToonDoo

Basically, I’d suggest checking out all of these sites and finding what works best for you and your students.   There are other options out there too, some are software based but those tend to cost money.  I like the free, online options because it guarantees your students can work on them wherever there is an internet connected computer.

It's time to start making some comics, digitally!