Creating Comics for the Library!

 Comics are a great way to grab a child's attention. Graphic novels have become very popular in the recent years, and kids are devouring them! Whether Kindergarten or teen, creating comics to use in your classroom and/or library can be very beneficial. Also, giving the students the opportunity to create their own comics about what they have learned, or using as a daily journal, can be quite satisfying as well for the students and the teachers. Below I have evaluated 3 comic creators, along with a creation of my own. I hope that this encourages you to bring comics to life within your classroom/library!

1. http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ 

Make Beliefs Comix is a very user friendly site. There is a video tutorial located in the tabs at the top of the page that explains the basics. The rest is trial and error. It was a lot of fun to play around and create a comic strip! I have never created a comic strip before, and this was a very easy cite to follow. The options are listed in categories such as backgrounds, characters, objects, etc. Once and object is selected, you can choose from about 3-4 different positions to choose from. Sizes can be changed, and you can add your own text to speech bubbles. I could not figure out how to adjust font and font size, however. This kinda frustrated me a bit. But sometimes fewer options are better than more! There are lesson plans for teachers under the Teacher tab at the top of the page, which I found quit extraordinary! I never realized there was so many ways that comics could be utilized in the classroom! Check out my comic Library Shenanigans! below that I created with Make Beliefs! This comic was created to enforce the Somebody, Wanted, But, So Summarizing strategy AND to alert students of overdue fines within the library! 

2.  https://edu.pixton.com/educators

The Pixton comic creator site was a bit more fun than the Make Beliefs Comix site! There were many more options to choose from when it came to adding characters and scenes to your comic. You can change everything from hair color to facial expression on your character, as well as position and clothes! It's almost like creating a Bitmoji character that we all know and love! I did not find a tutorial, but this was pretty simple to follow along with because the tabs are well labeled and identifiable. For this comic, I just did a one-boxer comic to be funny and to help warn the kids about copyright and plagiarism. Check out the comic Library Shenanigans! below that I created on Pixton!

3.  https://www.fotojet.com/features/misc/photo-comic.html

FotoJet was quite fun too. This site was a bit more sophisticated than the other two. This site allows you to use more lifelike photos and images. It has you choose how many photos you would like to use, and then works from there. The labels to the left of the screen make it easy to identify your options of what you can manipulate, such as photos, text, and background. Text can be different fonts and colors as well. Sizes can be changed also. There is quite a bit of options that are free, but if you purchase the app, you have more options just like any other site. I basically created a "poster" rather than a comic since the pictures were more life like and realistic. The poster is just encouragement to read and love what you read. See my Library Shenanigans! poster below that I created with FotoJet!

You need to check out these sites for yourself and explore your creativity! There is so much these sites can offer you along the lines of teaching and education within your classroom and/or library. Getting the students involved with the sites as well will help to create ownership of the classroom and/or the library, which is always a positive incentive. I really enjoyed tinkering with these sites and creating these comics. I definitely will be utilizing them within my current classroom and soon in my future library! And as a teacher colleague and librarian, my goal is to use comics to attract and hopefully encourage others to use the library, especially at the secondary level. My district has a small population and once they hit secondary, the library is very rarely used except for a study hall and dual credit classes. This must change. Comics may help me push forward with this goal.