Integrating Technology, Art, and Writing: Creating Comic Books as an Interdisciplinary Learning Experience

Although commonly considered something that is for “after school ” and best left out of the K-12 curriculum, the creation of comic books incorporate several skills from multiple academic curricula. This paper outlines two summer programs, one offered to ages nine through 15 year olds and another offered to 15 through 18 year olds. The programs teach students how to create their own digital comic book and emphasize proper writing skills, storyline development, fine arts skills, and the use of scanning, graphic design software, and page-layout design. Overview Although originating in the very late 1800s, comic books hit their stride as a media in the 1920s and 1930s. Thus, reading comic books has long been something that school-aged kids spend their free time doing, but the actual creation of comics for these same children hasn’t been possible until the availability of multimedia software and hardware to the public and to schools. Often thought of as a pastime, comic book development incorporates several skills from multiple academic curricula. Creative writing, storyline development, various fine arts skills, graphic design, document layout, and computer literacy are all involved with comic book creation. Students are also motivated to learn when it comes to comic books