Comic Strips... To Use or Not to Use?

     Have you ever flipped through the Sunday newspaper searching for the weekly comic section? Have you noticed the enthusiasm spilling out of sections where comic-style novels are located in bookstores and libraries? Comic strips are becoming more and more popular in today's society, especially among younger students, struggling readers, and students diagnosed with learning disabilities in the area of reading. However, comic strips don't have to stop there! They can benefit all students in a fun and engaging way that may not be as possible using traditional texts. Throw in new technology developments with comic strip creating programs and you have just opened the door for a world of new creativity just waiting to be tapped into. 

    According to dictionary.com, comic strips are a "sequence of drawings, either in color or black and white, relating to a comic incident, an adventure, or mystery story, etc., often serialized, typically having dialogue printed in balloons, and usually printed as a horizontal strip in daily newspapers and in an uninterrupted block or longer sequence of such strips in Sunday newspapers and in comic books." In the last decade or so, comic style writing has become increasingly popular among students as graphic novels have hit the library shelves. With comic strips being used to tell a story using three parts - setting, characters, and plot - they are an interesting addition to literacy curriculum for reading skill development and can even be used in writing as students learn to create their own comic strips using the programs I have evaluated below! 

    

    FotoJet is a graphic design platform that can be used to create photo collages, edit pictures, and create a variety of designs including: posters, invitations, social media posts, business cards, and comic strips. While it may be tricky to find the comic strips creator by going to the FotoJet homepage on your own, you can access it quickly by creating a free account here. 

    Check out my comic strip below featuring a Golden Retriever who is ready to play fetch!

    

    Once you've created a free account (I always choose to link mine to my Google account), there are about 10 free comic strip templates to choose from. Honestly, one of the hardest parts was deciding on the topic for my comic strip, and I spent a good ten minutes just thinking about that! Eventually, I chose to create a comic about dogs, and I selected a template that was on the simpler side because I am definitely an amateur, having never created a comic strip before. 

    Some aspects of this program I really liked included:

• Browsing for photos was fun because there were tons of free options for every topic I searched 
• Uploading my own photo using the "library" was simple and allowed me to add my own spin on things
• Adding in shapes (like the heart) only required a few clicks, including making the gradient color fill
• Text boxes that were included with the template could be flipped horizontally and vertically to fit the pictures I was using
• Modifying the layout was easy, and I created two picture boxes in the middle instead of the one originally on the template 
• Downloading and saving to my computer did not require anything extra even with a free account, and the quality of the download produced a clean looking product
• Even with a free account, there were lots of ways to personalize layouts including font styles, font colors, text box colors, and back grounds

    

    A few components that I found tricky included:

• When moving things around, I had to be careful because sometimes I clicked on the wrong item to move and messed up my layout
• It took me a minute to find the undo button because the advertisements at the bottom were hiding it
• When you added new features, they were automatically the top layer, so everything that needed to go on top of that item had to be readjusted individually every time 

    

    When considering the pros and cons, I swing to the positive side with this site. While I would recommend teachers and staff that plan to use this with students practice on their own ahead of time, I think students would quickly grasp the hang of using the program with a few tutorials and would enjoy the creative freedom allowed with such a plethora of resources available in one site. 

    

    Pixton is a program that allows teachers to create a dashboard where students can become comic creators. In addition to comic strips, users can create avatars and class photos within their free account. As a teacher, when you log in there are three options for "play": comic builder, avatar maker, and classrooms. There are also three options for "plan": lesson ideas, comic school, and content packs. 

    Check out my comic strip about a special superpower (screenshots are shared due to my free account being limited *see below*):

    The pros for this site included:

• The lesson ideas, filtered by grade level/objective/subject, provide specific tasks for students to complete using the program 
• Comic builder allowed me to create a blank comic from scratch or browse story starters to get an idea (I chose to use a story starter because my creative juices seem to be on summer break still!)
• So many options exist for adding personal touches including creating a character that looks similar to me
• Adding in character dialogue was simple, and the text boxes were placed in great locations with relation to where my character was located in the panel
• Customizing my comic strip was fun and easy! I could change colors, background, dialogue, captions, facial expressions, character actions, and more! 
• All content was unlocked for the first seven days (This means I may have a skewed view of the features available if many are taken away after the trial period)

    The cons for this site included:

• While characters could be edited in a lot of fantastic ways, I couldn't make mine have brown eyes with blonde hair which was a tad disappointing 
• When adding new panels, the facial expression on the character had to be readjusted from the default every time 
• It was very difficult to move my character around on each panel
• Caption boxes and text were not able to change color or font style 
• Downloading, printing, or sharing my comic was not an option without paying for one of their four plans (which are on the pricier side)

    

    When comparing Pixton with FotoJet, I think students would have a lot more fun creating on Pixton because it follows a more "traditional" comic strip style of creation and has a ton of room for creative explosions. I probably could spend hours making different comic strips using this program and end up with high quality finished products each time! Unfortunately, without paying for a classroom plan ($24.99 per month or $99 per year), it would be hard to utilize the comic strips created in class instruction or on assignments. However, if you have the ability to pay for a plan, I highly recommend putting this at the top of your list!

    Make Beliefs Comix is a platform where users can create their own world through comic strips. In addition to comic strips, this website offers a large selection of printables that target a variety of topics include several geared towards Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Speak another language? This website is able to be translated into 13 languages other than English with just a click of a button! There are also tabs specifically for families, teachers, writing, special needs, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and journaling. 

    Check out this comic strip I created about a conversation between a dog and a duck:

    Unfortunately, this program proved to be rather difficult and heavily limited my creative side. The only part of this program I truly liked was that users have the ability to create a comic from scratch or use a variety of comic starters as guides (I chose to try this after not having a lot of inspiration from what was available). It was a small added bonus that there were so many free ways to save, share, print, and email my comic strip when it was finished; however, I didn't have a quality product that I was pleased to share. 

    

    Things that made this program challenging and, at times, frustrating:

• It was not possible to change the font size within text bubbles 
• Continuing a comic strip using the comic starters proved to be very challenging because I couldn't find the same images among the available characters or backgrounds
• Personalization features were very limited. At times they seemed almost nonexistent with the only possibilities being to change an items location, make it bigger or smaller, or flip it
• There was a cool feature where you could add your own, recorded audio to panels. However, any time I recorded mine and hit "play", it said "audio not found"
• Some aspects seemed to be delayed or required the computer to reboot such as when I clicked on "background" or when I tried to delete a panel I added by accident
• Scrolling for features to add to my comic strip required the use of the mouse and was a horizontal scroll. When you got to the end of a category, the whole page then scrolled down because you have to use the mouse
• Due to the limited availability of features, I had a hard time finding items that fit my personality

    

    Overall, this program would not be one that I would recommend teachers use in the classroom when wanting students to create comic strips. In my opinion, students would find it frustrating to operate and may not like how limiting it is when it comes to creating, especially for students who already have ideas in mind. While I do think this website has a lot to offer in terms of other resources such as the SEL printables, lessons for teachers on using comics in other subjects such as math, and the writing prompts, it would not be my g0-to tool for comic strip creation, as I believe FotoJet and Pixton are much better options. 

So... Now what???

    Comic strips have so many uses in today's classrooms, but many teachers out there don't know how to go about integrating them into the provided curriculum. That's where librarians can come in and save the day! Here are just a few ways I plan to share comics with my teacher-colleagues during this next school year:

1. Create an autobiographical comic introducing myself as their new librarian
2. Video English Language Learners creating comic strips that feature new vocabulary words they have learned and demonstrate them practicing their English speaking with the audio tool
3. Promote team collaboration during our professional development days by having grade levels work together to create a comic strip teaching the staff about the members of their team
4. Use comic strips in my digital citizenship lessons in the library to teach the dos and don'ts of using the Internet (teachers are in attendance during these lessons)
5. Feature student-created comic strips on bulletin boards in the hallway for all staff, students, and community members to see

    For more ways to use comics in the classroom, check out these suggestions on Make Beliefs Comix and read this fascinating article from Edutopia about how comics can be used to teach the 4 Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity)!

    By sharing comics in these ways and demonstrating through co-teaching opportunities how comic strips can enhance the learning already taking place in classrooms, librarians will pave the way for teachers to step out of their comfort zone and try something new that students will find engaging and fun!