Garfield Comic Strip Creation site

Here is a site for creating Garfield comic strips.
OK, I am not a great fan of Garfield, but it might work for some of you.

URL: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/starslp/missionz/comic.swf
(Click here)

Comic Creation websites (i)

Here are a couple of sites which can be used for creating cartoons/comic strips. I find these resources useful because most of the time we use other people's cartoons and hope they communicate in our contexts.

How you can create very context specific strips.

The first site i wish to highlight is the Strip Generator. It is really easy to use. Just choose from over a hundred characters and objects, drag the items into the panels, add your captions and dialogue/thought bubbles and voila! Done!

I dare say if you already have the idea, you can do most comics in under 3 minutes.

Here's one I did for my Visual Communications Special Interest Group website (if you click on the image, you will see a bigger image).
URL: http://stripgenerator.com/

Oh, one more thing, the question of how to download the comic strip after you have created it needs to be answered.

For Apple users, you have a built in software called Grab. Using Grab, you can take a "snapshot" or a "screengrab" of any webpage (or any part of a webpage, an image, etc). Note however that Grab only allows you to save the image as a .tiff file. .tiff files can be inserted into Powerpoint/Word, but cannot be upload in Blogger. How did I manage to get around the problem for this picture? Yes, its true, I did use Grab to cut the image as a .tiff file, but I also used a free program called Toy Viewer to convert the .tiff file to a .jpg file. Toy Viewer is one of the Internet's best gifts (read F-R-E-E!!!) for Mac Users.

For PC users, you need to download a free software called ScreenGrabPro. For that you need to visit http://www.traction-software.co.uk/screengrabpro/

Web Generators

I want to move on to online sites which allow you to generate images which you can use for visual communication purposes. Some of these generators include comic strip generators, digital characters (or avatars) generator, cross word puzzle generator, book cover generator, etc.

Here is my first installment: A "Dummies" book cover generator.


(OK, for those who haven't got it, the real book doesn't exist!)

You could try "Genesis for Newbies" "Church History for Dummies" etc.
URL: http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/

BibleMap.Org - an interactive map site

Here is a really interesting site which uses the interactive features of the Internet to promote learning.

When you first access the site, you are greeted by a satellite map plus a text box on the Left Hand of the screen. Type in the Bible passage, and when text comes up, you want to click on the highlighted place name. Clicking on the place name calls up a map.

I typed in Ruth chap 2 and got the satellite image of Bethelehem which I have posted below:

Screenshot of the Satellite image of Bethlehem

If you notice up on the right hand side, instead of a satellite image, you can click on the "Map" option. The screenshot below is what I got when I clicked on "Map" as well as "Hide This Window" for the text book:

Screenshot of the Map of Bethlehem without the text in the way

URL: http://www.biblemap.org/

Bible.ca Maps

Here is a website where you can find free high and ultra hight resolution maps in black and white.
Map of Abraham's Journey in the Ancient Near East
Map of Jerusalem

URL: http://www.bible.ca/maps/

Jonathan HipKiss's Scanned Old Maps site

Here is an interesting site which features scanned old maps. This is a project by Jonathan Hipkiss.
Journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan
Palestine in the Time of Jesus
URL: http://www.hipkiss.org/cgi-bin/maps.pl?cat=bible

The Net Bible

The Net Bible site has a small collection of beautiful satellite maps of the Bible lands. The maps are there to support the great work of the NET Bible, a project of www.bible.org.
Galilee and the North

In addition to the satellite maps, there is also a very good collection of black and white maps which you can use for classroom map work.
Paul's First Missionary Journey
URL: http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=2055