Cartoons and Comics

Comics has been around since the end of the 19th century. Newspaper cartoons became popular after the depression because they are cheap, portable and inspirational. Superhero comics were in high demand during World War II especially the ones with pro-American characters like Captain America because they reflected the events and values of the time.

However, in 1942 National Organization for Decent Literature banned comic books because the books were a disgrace mentally and morally. Comics became acceptable when psychia­trists, Bender and Lourie conducted a study and concluded, "The comics may be said to offer the same type of mental catharsis to its readers that Aristotle claimed was an attribute of the drama." (Dalencyplace.com, 2017, para.8)

In this generation of visual learners, comics and graphic novels has become popular again. Teachers started incorporating comics in the classroom. Comics can be used to bridge literacy, teach punctuation, outlining, and paragraphs, and to learn literary terms.

Online comics generators make it easy to create your own comic strips. Below are 3 different websites that I tried.

Make Beliefs Comix

Easy to use. The icons are easy to follow and has tutorials if you need help.

Has to be downloaded or emailed to save a copy. Users have to be ready to complete the comic strip once they start because they will have to redo all the panels if they want to get back online.

Enough variety of customization to make a comic strip.It allows you to create up to 9 panels. The editing options such as resizing and placement may be limited but enough and easy for students to figure out. Each character comes with 4 preset positions.

Students can use it. No registration is needed.

ToonDoo

Easy to use. A new screen will pop up and guides the user where to begin. The icons are easy to understand.

Can be saved. It allows users to save their work online and continue editing without having to start over.

More than enough variety of customization to make a comic strip. There are more choices of characters, backgrounds, and objects than Makebeliefcomix.com.

Students can use it, but they have to register. Registration is easy and does not ask a lot of questions, but an email account is needed.

Pixton

It requires more guidance than Makebeliefscomix.com and ToonDoo. It allows users to create more than just comic strips. Starting from scratch could be challenging for student in elementary.

Can be saved. It allows any work to be saved and edited later.

Has so much variety of customization to make comic strips and more. Out of the three, Pixton has the most editing features. Even the tilt of the head and the position of the hand and fingers can be adjusted to the preset positions.

Students could either sign-up or have an activation link from their teacher to use it. Students have to be 19 years old to sign-up or would require their parent's email.

Verdict:

Pixton would have been a great resource for the classroom because it already comes with lesson plans and can be used to create other graphic organizers aside from just comic strips. I'm not sure if teachers and administrators would be willing to spend for this type of resource. A license for a year would cost about $96/year for a class of 20 students. Cost per student decrease if there are more students registered, but would still increase the total cost.

I would recommend makebeliefscomix.com for the beginner cartoonists so that the students are more focused on creating their story than "fluffing" it. Students have to be ready with their story plot and dialogue before getting on the computer so that they would be able to finish and save their work. ToonDoo could be used by older students or the ones who already had some experience in creating comic strips.

Creating comics and cartoons is fun! I can use it to promote events in the library by posting the comic strips on Twitter or Facebook. I can have my library helpers create their own comics to produce some samples that I will present to teachers and ask them if they want me to show their students how to create one. It is easier to promote to teachers about the benefits and uses of comics and cartoons when they see student products and how it was utilized.

Tellagami is an IOS app that you can use to make a short video using an avatar. It is good for people like me who don't feel comfortable being recorded.

Here's a Tellagami I created for Sleep Well, Siba and Saba:

Sources:

Delanceyplace.org. ( 2017, May 31) .).Comic books are dangerous.

Retrieved from: https://delanceyplace.com/view-archives.php?p=3345.

PBS.org. (n.d.).The golden age of comics. Retrieved from:

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/the-golden-age-of-comics/