How to make your own free online comics

Comics can be universally fun. They are visual (and we all know that almost everyone likes visual stuff), with few words, and the combination of visual and text elements make for easy comprehension. Better yet, since they incorporate visual elements into their storytelling process, they tend to be more memorable than just text alone (or even just visuals alone!).

But aside from reading the Sunday comics, what relevance can comics have for adults? Lots, if you’re willing to be a little bit creative! Teachers can use custom comics in their classrooms. They can be a fun way to share classroom rules, explanations of projects, and students can create their own to demonstrate their understanding of just about any type of material. Small businesses can use them to showcase their product or service, and just about anyone can use them on their website to tell a story (of any kind!).

All that said, copying some Snoopy comics isn’t going to get your story across, sell your product, or help your students learn. You need to make your own comics. And if you aren’t an artist, hand drawing them isn’t really an option. Luckily, our good friend Ye Olde Internet is here to help,with a smattering of online options to help you make your own awesome comic strips to put to use however you choose. Along with some great options for traditional comic strip style, we’ve included a handy tool to make yourself into a superhero, just in case you *need* a superhero in your comics.

Have fun, and happy comic making!

How to make your own free online comics

The Hero Factory

Every good comic needs a hero, so start with this tool to make yourself a superhero. You’ll need to take a screenshot of your finished product to upload into your comic, but for a free tool, that doesn’t seem to be much of a downside. To demonstrate some of what you can do, I’ve thoughtfully turned my co-founders (@jimmytleach and @jdunns4, respectively) into superheroes.

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Jimmy the Flamer[/caption]

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Super Jeff and his paper bag of….stuff?[/caption]

Bitstrips

Bitstrips may look like it was designed by Geocities, but it actually packs quite a punch for a free tool. You can create a comic strip, character, or avatar, and it offers some pre-set templates for the comics (like the “New Yorker” single block). There are backgrounds, props, characters, text bubbles, filters, and more to choose from, and you can do a fair amount of personalization — right down to how the characters are holding their hands. In under five minutes, I created the stellar comic below.

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Not bad for an amateur.[/caption]

Make Beliefs Comix

Make Beliefs Comix is a fun and simple to use interface, with what I think are particularly awesome characters (like a piggy in an old-style bathing suit). It offers different types of prompts for each panel and each dialogue along with an explanation, which would especially be great for elementary and middle school students making comics as part of their studies. You can print or email your comics as you wish, and view them on the screen if you want to take a screenshot for web use.

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Personified animals are my jam.[/caption]

Chogger

At first, I toyed around with Chogger and thought that compared to the tools I’ve already mentioned, it didn’t offer much. The only stock ‘stuff’ it offers are the different layouts and a handful of thought and speech bubbles. What it does offer, which earns it a spot on this list, is the ability to upload your own images as well as images from Google Image Search results, take a photo with your computer’s camera, and draw items by “hand” with Illustrator type tools. For me personally, the draw function really highlights what a horrid artist I am, but this will be a huge bonus feature for those of you more talented than me. The photo upload feature would be great for small businesses who would like to include their logo in their comic. When you ‘publish’ your work — which is the only option to finish — it gives you a shortlink to the comic, but it will not come up in search results unless you sign up with an account and tag the work. It does show ‘made with chogger.com’ on the bottom of the strip.

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Man, I am so not good at this.[/caption]

ReadWriteThink Interactive Comic Maker

ReadWriteThink offers an interactive comic maker that allows users to create simple comics with some graphics, captions, bubbles, and props. It offers far less personalization than the Bitstrips and Make Beliefs option listed above, but especially for simple comics or younger users (who you might not want to offer ten thousand options to), it is a great solution. That said, it isn’t a great solution if your comic will be web-based, because you must print it to see the whole thing. You edit each panel on its own, and you don’t see them all lined up together unless you print.

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Screenshot, since you can only print the whole finished product.[/caption]