11.17.09 Comic creation
I looked at Ann's example as well as her students of poetry comics. Because I am teaching that unit now, I thought I’d see what I could create. I chose ToonDoon for no particular reason and got to work. I decided to use “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost for my poem to comictize because I thought the cartoon characters could be fun with the poem’s text. One of the characters available was George W. Bush. Now, I’m not a big fan, so it got my mind going on how I could use him with the poem. I then thought about political situations connected to Bush and problems we encounter today due to his course of action or not. I wanted to choose Iraq and Afghanistan but couldn’t find their flags, so I chose another continual, generational conflict: Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I think the text of “fire” and “ice” suits their conflict because of peace talks off and on again, missile launching and suicide bombing. Bus no longer fit, but then when I tried to comictize Netanyahu and Abbas, it didn’t look anything like them, so I plunked Bush in the final frame.
I’m quite happy with my result, but there were some frustrations along the way I encountered. I wanted more frames than the templates offered. I wanted 8 frames, but was limited to the 3. I couldn’t find ways to add others. I also wanted to be able to make Abbas and Netanyahu more realistic looking than the ToonDoon options provided. I don’t like that the hair options don’t’ mold to the head shape. Weird. Lastly, I wanted the bubbles to be more flexible so that they hugged the text more than they did.
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/1132036
Some thoughts about student use: I think it’s fun to choose a character and facial expression for them, but I think that each frame should show some change as the text is added. Having the same character(s) and expressions each frame doesn’t really show what comic strips do.
Another concern, if using them as political cartoons, is offending others. I know this genre often does and will, but as I was creating my cartoon, and elected not to use the revised images of Abbas and Netanyahu, I was wondering if my Jewish or Arab students would find it insulting and disrespectful. Some guidelines on the subject would need to be created, but in a way not to limit the political voice. I think about what happened to Van Gogh, a Danish man, who created a cartoon of Mahamoud, which many Islamists found insulting and disrespectful, to the point of death threats.
As for teaching ideas, it is a great way to teach irony, sarcasm and visual choices to make a point. Once again, audience analysis is key. Creating realistic scenarios so that students could even use research they find and combine them with visuals that support their message which could then be sent to various groups or even our media outlets.
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I thought your ToonDoo was great. As far as your frustrations with not having enough frames, there is a way around it. You just have to create another strip and continue the story line or poem. Then, when you are finished, you are able to put them together in a book form. You should check that out. I think it would definitely help.
ReplyDeleteAfter checking out ToonDoo, ComicLife, and stripgenerator, I would recommend playing around with stripgenerator. I feel like the graphics are much cooler and that the students may respond better to them. I mean, just look at Ann's examples. Much cooler.