Comic Strips

My household is unanimously book worms. Even the dog likes listening to books.

My kids literally cheer and sprint home from the bus stop when I report that I went to the library for them while they were in school. When I go to the library for my kids,  I walk through and grab a variety of books without spending too much time there – old favorites, books series or authors they enjoy, random non-fiction and picture books, new things to try, whatever I see until the bag is full. Some weeks I do better than others in picking entertaining or interesting books. A favorite of mine as a kid, Some Swell Pup, by Maurice Sendak, can always bring out laughs and claws.

This week, my kids were very inspired by some old favorites that were in the library bag, Library Mouse, by Dan Kirk (highly recommend), and the Lunch Lady series, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (thoroughly enjoyed by my 5th and 1st graders) (those are Amazon Affiliate links).

The inspiration led to a week of my kids making their own comic strips. Some are actually a little clever. Some don’t make much sense to anyone but the author. While this week they’ve enjoyed drawing their own comic strips, my oldest daughter reminded me of a comic strip website that we used to use a bunch. We checked and the website still exists and has also become a free app.

There are a bunch of great apps that you can buy and make comic strips using or converting your own photos. We have played around a little with a few of these apps, but completing a vision takes a bit too much time and work than my my kids at this age are willing to put into creating.

However, my kids do keep going back to the app from the website we’ve been using for years: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com. The app and website are free to use. You can create very simple strips selecting from simple layouts, characters and backgrounds. The focus is on creating dialogue instead action, so kids can concentrate on making up a story and creating dialogue. It’s pretty fun!