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Review by Erin Brereton, Common Sense Education | Updated September 2013

Comic Master

Limited options hinder learning potential in amusing comic creator

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Arts
  • English Language Arts
Skills
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Creativity
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
4–6
Great for:
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (1 Review)
Platforms:  Website

Pros: The site encourages kids to be creative and use verbal, written, and visual presentation skills to create a narrative.

Cons: Kids may get bored quickly with repetitive options; students can't personalize many elements or easily share their work with teachers or friends.

Bottom Line: While it can help reinforce storytelling, language, and other skills, the site's limited options weaken its appeal and learning potential.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

A link to a site created by the London-based National Schools Partnership educational resource organization contains more educator tools. You can access a graphic novel guide, plus blogging, music, sports, film, and other resources.

There's a PDF with background on using graphic novels in the classroom to employ words, images, and sounds to transform existing text into a more dynamic, expressive presentation format. You can also access detailed lesson plans that encourage discussion, planning, and creating a graphic novel script, and accurately conveying information. Teachers are also referred to www.teachingcomics.org, sponsored by the two-year Center for Cartoon Studies program, for an archive of original cartoon art, industry news, and additional graphic novel use ideas.

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Standards:

Comic Master is a website that provides kids the tools to design a graphic novel. Kids can't customize their comics with uploaded photos or other personalized elements, but they can drag and drop pre-determined options onto a page, then select backgrounds for each panel. Choose from several superhero characters in a variety of poses, insert about a dozen props, and add dialogue bubbles and captions. When finished, kids can either save their work and edit it later, or print it out to share. 

You can use Comic Master to emphasize several key skills, including language use, writing, storytelling, self-expression and reading. Kids'll get experience using techniques to engage an audience, present information, and tailor language to reflect meaning. However, the site has a few drawbacks. Comic Master and its accompanying educator resources were made for U.K. students, so U.S.-based teachers may initially be unsure whether the lesson plans could relate to their curriculum.

Also, the tool unfortunately doesn't offer endless design options; kids may not find enough elements to want to use it more than once or twice. They can alter image size and placement, but they can't upload their own photos. In addition, some of the special effects -- action words that make a sound when added to a panel -- lose much of their luster when the page is printed out. Additionally, printing individual pages seems to be the best way to share a graphic novel with family or friends; there's no way to share online; which is surprising. Plus, users can't really flip through the entire graphic novel they've created to get the full narrative.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Kids can create a cool narrative comic, and the intuitive drag-and-drop tool is easy to use. Energetic explanations pop up as your cursor rolls over design options; sounds play as you add elements.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Storytelling, creativity, and other skills are fun to practice. Kids also can design layouts and manipulate images. The tool itself doesn't provide direct lessons, so feedback is up to teachers.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Additional educator resources include lesson plans that can help teachers structure tool use to emphasize key concepts. The site also provides links to supplementary graphic-novel-use websites.

Common Sense Reviewer
Erin Brereton
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Language

  • L.4.3a

    Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.*

  • L.4.3b

    Choose punctuation for effect.*

  • L.5.3a

    Expand, combine, and reduce sentences for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.

  • L.6.3

    Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

  • L.6.5

    Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Speaking & Listening

  • SL.6.5

    Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.

Writing

  • W.4.9a

    Apply grade 4 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions].”).

  • W.4.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

  • W.4.3a

    Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

  • W.4.3b

    Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

  • W.4.3c

    Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

  • W.4.3d

    Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

  • W.4.3e

    Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

  • W.5.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

  • W.5.3a

    Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

  • W.5.3b

    Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

  • W.5.3c

    Use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to manage the sequence of events.

  • W.5.3d

    Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

  • W.5.3e

    Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

  • W.6.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

  • W.6.3a

    Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.

  • W.6.3b

    Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

  • W.6.3c

    Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another.

  • W.6.3d

    Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.

  • W.6.3e

    Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

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Teacher Reviews

Featured review by
Susan M. , Other
Other
A rather clunky comic platform for drafting graphic novels and other literacy projects that did not engage my students for long.
Overall, I was not impressed with this platform. I felt it was rather clunky in design and was more drag-n-drop than creative. I would not use this for big projects, but rather if I wanted to teach dialogue or have students explore a character or even a scene for a play, this might be a choice for a teaching tool.
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