Self-Created Cartoons and Comics for the Classroom

What'll they think of next?  It seems technology is always coming up with somthing new and innovative on a daily basis.  The newest thing to come out are cartoons and comics that you can whip up yourself.

There are three:  ToonDoo, Pixton and MakeBeliefsComix.  Some of them are easier to use to than others, and while they are all comics, they all pretty different.

ToonDoo

When I first used ToonDoo I found it was pretty easy to use.  I went with the free version and found my choices were rather limited.  I could go into the TraitR tool at the bottom of the page and create a profile and some characters.  The characters could be given a name and saved into the gallery, however when I tried to use the characters the site stalled out on me and I was not able to go on.  I also found that I was limited to how I could lay out my cartoon.  I could only use a 3-panel cartoon or variations of it (vertically, horizontally and stacked different ways etc).  For the story I wanted to tell, I found that I needed about 7-8 panels. 

Since I could only use three, I tried the best I could, but the story felt stunted.  In addition to that, I couldn't seem to find or create the characters I wanted.  The TraitR characters that I tried creating looked so much alike (male and female) that I couldn't really get all that excited about it.  I would say Toondoo is easy to use, but difficult to create a good story with.
 
Pixton

This one I really liked.  I went with the free version and created a cartoon fairly easily and rather quickly.  I chose to do one on how we found our dog Sandy.  Two weeks ago in Writer's Workshop I told my class the story of how I found my dog.  I sketched everything out as I told them about it.  I demonstrated how the main points of the story were emphasized on paper.  So I basically demonstrated a plan before we even got to writing.  Afterwards I had them tell me some stories they had about animals and helped them develop a plan.  When I created this cartoon I thought wow what a neat way to tell a story.  I could use it to show as a final product or I could use it to get my plan going for a more detailed story.  Depending on what you want, a teacher could do either with his or her class.

In the future I would have them plan out a story, take a day to experiment with the site, save their work and go back in on a second day, perhaps a third day and finalize it.  The site saves your work for you.  You just have to remember your username and password.  Because it's on the internet, students could finish it at home and bring it back to class when they are done.  Once students are familiar with it, you could use for many other projects as well. 

 

 

What I liked most about the site is I could put in as many characters as I wanted, props, change up the scenery, change facial expressions, positions of characters and whatnot.  It was a lot of fun to do.  Although it was fairly easy, it took me a little while to learn how to use it properly.  I learned that if you want to change facial expressions you have to click on the character's face, if you click on their body it will change their body position.  The text boxes gave me some trouble.  I had a hard time figuring out how to point the line down to the right person.  However, all in all, I think the cartoon came out pretty cute.  

 



 

 



MakeBeliefsComix

 

 

This comic site was the most limited of all.  There were a few characters that you could use, but they were already posed for you, so you had to match your words to their body language.  I found it pretty difficult to use.  I had to make up a situational story to go along with the characters I chose.   I found myself kind of stuck because I could not think of a way to end it because I could not change the character's body position or facial features. I had to end the story panel with the character in a different set of clothes than when she started and it was also out of color. 

 

 

The one plus to this site is that it is completely free.  You don't have to sign up or register.  There were also story prompts and quick lesson ideas to go along with the site.  I would not recommend this site because there is not enough variety here to make a quality comic.  It is also very easy to lose your work so that would be problematic for students. 

 

Tellagami  (Downloadable cartoon app for phones and tablets)

 

 

 

This site was a lot of fun to use.  I actually downloaded this to my android phone for free and got to work on it instantly.  I had only a few choices for hair, clothing and background.  Some of the more interesting choices were "locked," and you had to pay to unlock it.  Even though some of the choices were locked, I found I had plenty to use.  I actually uploaded a picture of the children's book, "Enemy Pie," and had my "tellagami," stand in front of it.  I was only given 30 seconds to talk about the book, so I had to be very succinct.  I didn't try to get my "tellagami," to talk longer, but again I am thinking that  if you want a longer amount of time you have to pay for it.  

 

Despite this small downside to the program, I had a lot of fun with it.  It was super easy to use and I liked how professional it looked when I was done with it.  I could envision my class having a great time creating a "tellagami," and coming up with a great sentence or two about a book or some sort of research for science.  We have tablets at our school and this could be a great app that we could use for one of our science projects

 

The winners of the cartoon sites were:  Pixton and Tellagami.  Easy and fun to use.  I enjoyed how they were reminiscent of graphic novels.  I felt like I was making one of my very own.  I would have to say this is a great way to inspire kids to write and spark their creativity.