This week we're looking at online tools for creating comics strips.

Comic strips are useful artefacts because

1) They are very short forms (usually just three or four frames, but can be as short as one, or can fill an entire page).

2) If you're using a generator they don't require any ability to draw to get the story across (although the greatest comic strip ever created - xkcd* by Randall Munroe - consists only of stick figures, so drawing talent isn't really necessary anyway).

3) Creating a comic strip (in the form of a storyboard) is the first step in developing a video.

4) They can be a very expressive form, mixing together images and a small amount of text to produce a very short story with an impact. One of the UK's most influential writers, Alan Moore*, began his career with the comic strip Maxwell the Magic Cat, and lots of the most popular figures in culture began their lives in comic strips.

5) They're free.

This week we'd like you to add links to comic strip generators you may have seen, maybe try one or two out, and also tell us what your favourite comic strips are. Not losing sight of why we're here, we'd also like you to tell us how you think you could use them to teach literature.

*These opinions are those of me, Mark, who set up this topic, and don't represent the official AMORES position on the superbness of comic strips or authors.