Visual Publishing

Use tools to create high-quality graphic communications.

New graphic novels such as The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derk Kirk Kim combine the best of comics and novels to create great graphic novels.

Old Way - Read and create text.

New Way - Read and create comics.

Explore Tools

Hot Choice - Comic Life (commercial software)
Hot Choice - Pixton Education
Hot Choice - Glogster

1. Comic Software
   • Comic Life. Available for both Mac and Windows
2. Comic Creator for Kids
   • For Kids
     • Build Your Own Comic
     • Disney's Comic Creator
     • Garfield's Comic Creator
     • Kabam! Comic Creator
     • Kiddonet
     • Make BeliefsComix
     • Make Your Own Graphix
     • Scholastic's Captain Underpant
     • Pixton - Make simple comics (great education edition available)
     • ReadWriteThink Cartoon Creator. Make a comic strip using a set of visuals
   • Comic Creators with Social or Collaborative Aspects
     • Bubblir!
     • Comiqs
     • Strip Generator
     • ToonDoo
     • Toonlet
3. Poster Creator
   • kkc creations - wikispace
   • Glogster - Itzak Stern
   • Letterpop
4. Cartoon and Caption Creators
   • PicBite - choose a picture and add a caption
   • Picture History - choose image, write about it and email
   • Picture Poetry - choose picture and write a caption
   • Captioner - choose picture and add a caption
5. Avatar Generators
   • Be Funky
   • Be a Superhero
   • Dark Ages Characters - create dark ages characters
   • Dream Avatar
   • Meez
   • Mr. Picasso Head
   • Portrait Illustration Maker
   • Shrink Pictures (shrinks a picture so you can use it as an avatar)
   • Viva Voodoo!
   • Voki (avatars that speak)
   • Zwinky (download for Windows)

Learn more at High Tech Tools: Illustrations.

Design Projects

1. Language Learning. Create comics to practice writing conversations. Focus on specific vocabulary. Provide image sets to kickstart projects.
2. Re-enactments. Write historical fiction stories or re-enact historical events. Incorporate factual information and famous quotes.
3. Avatar Action. Create an avatar and write stories based on the avatar.
4. Virtual Adventures. Use original photos or photos from specific locations to create virtual adventures set in specific cities, landmark locations, or countries.
5. Inquiries and Experiements. Use comics to tell a digital story, describe the inquiry process, or document an experiment.

Explore examples of webcomics:

• WoWio
• Topic WebComics
• Kidjutsu
• The Graphic Classroom (Reviews)
• The Sky Kayak
• The Dreamland Chronicles
• The Phoenix Requiem

Avoid Wrecks

1. Images. Encourage a variety of images including graphs, clipart, hand-drawn illustrations, maps, diagrams, photographs, and symbols.
2. Focus on Facts. Ask young people to share their insignts and understandings while telling a story.
3. Cite Sources. Be sure students cite the image sources they use.
4. Graphic Literacy. Discuss the role and use of images. For instance, ask students to use a single historical image cropped and resized many ways in a document.
5. Best Tool for the Job. Focus on selecting the most powerful, least time-consuming tool for the job.

Pit Stop
Let's try Make BeliefsComix or Glogster. Then compare it to another option for comic creation.

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