Cartoons & Comics

Cartoons present an opportunity for students to practice a number of key skills. The brevity of the medium requires concise, powerful text and/or images. These limitations also help students learn the benefit of revision, as they rarely achieve their desired message on the first try. The genre of the cartoon or comic allows for critical thinking in such areas as politics, marketing, and literature.

The first comic below was created in toondo. It is a political cartoon on the subject of instant run-off voting (IRV) (aka ranked-choice voting). The cartoon is critical of the practice. Students could be required to take a position or create compelling cartoons/comics representing both sides. Students could vote for the most convincing creations.

Click on the cartoon to enlage it

The comic below was created in the 30-day trial, PC version of Comic Life. The software comes standard with Macs. It provides a number of different panel organizations and allows for longer creations in the tradition of the graphic novel. The sample below is a travel brochure that could be created for a business writing or marketing class. Other obvious applications for Comic Life include creating comic versions of texts, movies, historical events, etc. Students exercise their interpretation skills and have options of using captions (as in the example below) or dialogue.

Click on the comic to enlarge it