We’ve been learning through visual storytelling since the dawn of time.
From cave walls to classroom whiteboards, stories, especially visual ones, stick with us. They engage, explain, and invite us to think in ways plain text often can’t.
For us in education, visual storytelling is a powerful method for simplifying complex ideas, capturing attention, and making learning memorable.
That’s where comic strips come in.
And no, comic strips aren’t just for language arts or art class.
You can actually use them across disciplines, from exploring scientific processes to unpacking historical events, building vocabulary, teaching social-emotional skills, or sparking creative writing.
Ways to Use Comic Strips in Class
You can use comic strips in your teaching in a wide variety of ways. These include:
- Character Analysis and Development: Encourage students to create comic strips focusing on a character’s development over time. This can be a character from a book they’re reading in class, allowing students to explore and express the character’s motivations, conflicts, and growth visually and textually. This activity taps into students’ analytical and creative skills, making them delve deeper into the text.
- Historical Comic Strips: Task students with creating comic strips that depict historical events or figures. This can make history more engaging and relatable, as students have to research facts and then present them in a narrative that’s both accurate and compelling. It’s a fantastic way to promote understanding of timelines, historical contexts, and the human element within historical studies.
- Science Concepts through Comics: Use comic strips to explain complex science concepts, such as the water cycle, photosynthesis, or the theory of relativity. Students can work in groups to create their comics, which helps in reinforcing their understanding by translating abstract concepts into visual narratives that are easier to grasp and remember.
- Math Story Problems: Create or have students create comic strips that present math problems in real-life contexts. This approach can make math more tangible and less intimidating, encouraging students to solve problems in a narrative format that might include superheroes, time travel, or everyday scenarios.
- Language Learning with Dialogues: For language learning, comic strips can be a playful medium to practice dialogue writing, using new vocabulary, and understanding grammatical structures within the context of conversations. Students can create comics in the target language, focusing on scenarios like ordering food in a restaurant, asking for directions, or expressing opinions.
- Exploring Social Issues: Encourage students to create comics that highlight social issues they’re passionate about, such as environmental conservation, equality, or mental health awareness. This can foster empathy, critical thinking, and awareness, as students research their chosen topic and communicate their message through a compelling story.
- Creative Book Reports: Instead of traditional book reports, students can create comic strips summarizing a book they’ve read, highlighting key plot points, character arcs, and themes. This can be a more engaging way for students to share what they’ve learned and can spark interesting discussions among classmates.
- Understanding Emotions and Empathy: Use comic strips as a tool for social-emotional learning by having students create stories that explore different emotions, conflict resolution, or perspectives. This can help students develop empathy and emotional intelligence, important skills in both personal development and academic success.
- Introducing New Topics: Kick off a new unit or topic with a comic strip that introduces the main concepts in an engaging and simplified manner. This can pique students’ interest and provide a visual and narrative context that frames the upcoming lessons, making the material more accessible and intriguing.
- Peer Teaching: Assign students the task of creating educational comic strips to teach a concept to their peers. This not only reinforces the creator’s understanding but also provides varied perspectives on the topic for the class. Peer-reviewed comic strips can then be shared and discussed, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
Comic Strip Makers
When it comes to comic strip creation, there are tools that have been around for years (like MakeBeliefsComix, Pixton, and StoryboardThat) and I’ve been recommending these to teachers for as long as I can remember. They’re reliable, classroom-friendly, and easy to use.
But now we also have a wave of AI-powered tools entering the scene. The new image generator in ChatGPT, for example, does an incredible job creating comic-style visuals from short prompts.
Or, you can use the magic combo Canva+ ChatGPT. For instance, generate your comic script with ChatGPT, then jump into Canva, choose a comic strip template, drop in your scenes and dialogue, and you’re done.
The possibilities now are more flexible and more accessible than ever.
1- Make Beliefs Comix
A user-friendly platform for crafting comic strips, featuring a wide selection of characters, speech bubbles, props, and backgrounds. It supports creativity with options to print, save, or email the finished comics, making it versatile for classroom and personal use.
2- Pixton
Offers a selection of pre-designed characters and scenes, simplifying the comic creation process. It’s geared towards quick storytelling, requiring users to log in to save their work, making it suitable for short, impromptu classroom assignments.
3- StoryboardThat
Goes beyond traditional comic strips by allowing the creation of detailed storyboards. It boasts a broader range of features, including a variety of scenes, characters, and the ability to upload personal images, catering to more complex storytelling and planning needs.
4. ChatGPT
The new image generator in ChatGPT makes it incredibly easy to create full comic strips from simple text prompts. You can describe a scene, set a tone, and even specify dialogue—and in seconds, you get clean, detailed visuals. It’s a great option for fast, high-quality storytelling without needing design skills.
5. Canva
Canva remains one of the most teacher-friendly tools out there. With its library of comic strip templates and easy drag-and-drop editor, you can create polished comics or posters from scratch. It’s especially useful if you want to customize layouts or add your own visuals and text.
6. Midjourney
Midjourney is perfect for teachers or students looking to explore more artistic, stylized comic visuals. Its AI-generated images lean toward the imaginative and surreal, making it ideal for fantasy scenes, abstract ideas, or mood-heavy storytelling that goes beyond the basics.
7. Leonardo AI
Leonardo gives you more precision and control over the visual output. It’s a powerful text-to-image tool that’s great for creating stylized comic characters, scenes, or concept art with specific detail. If you want polished visuals with a distinct artistic touch, this one is worth exploring.
Final thoughts
In this post, I shared practical ideas and tools to help you bring comic strips into your teaching, whether you’re aiming to boost engagement, simplify complex topics, or support student creativity. From longtime favorites like MakeBeliefsComix and Pixton to newer AI-powered tools like ChatGPT’s image generator and Midjourney, the options are more accessible than ever. The key is to focus on how these tools can support meaningful learning. Try one, experiment a little, and let your students’ stories come to life on the page.
- Sources:
- Snyder, E. (1997). Teaching the sociology of sport: Using a comic strip in the classroom. Teaching Sociology, 25(3), 239-243.
- Comic Strips Creation Tools (Google Sites)
- Using Comics in the English Language Classroom (James Whiting, Plymouth State University)
- Using Cartoons and Comic Strips (British Council)
- Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure (ReadWriteThink)
