ToonDoo

Registration: Registration is needed to create comics in ToonDoo, but not needed to read the comics put out by the users.

Background: There is an unimaginable amount of backgrounds provided in this comic creator. Everything from fantasy, outer space, everyday life environment (home, school, stores, etc) are a few of the themes mentioned. However, none of the objects such as trees, landscape elements, weather elements, man-made objects can be moved.

Body Language: Two methods of obtaining character(s) is provide. Template characters that have no moving body parts but with several copies that have different gestures and facial emotions, or making a character from scratch but still limited to only 4 or 5 gestures and a few more facial expressions.

Clothing: Clothing is limited for both styles of characters. Ready-made characters come with the clothes they are in, and the built character has a limited amount of tops/bottoms and several complete outfits. Accessories are available in such forms as glasses, jewelry and umbrellas.

Lettering: Text can be increased and decreased. There are four fonts provided. Font size has a decent scale.

Speech Balloons: So far in this review, this comic creator has the most flexible speech balloons. The shape can be changed at three points: the balloon part, the tail and the tip of the tail. The outline of the speech balloon can be in black or white. Look to the strip above to see speech balloons.

Gutters: The gutters in this comic creator are the typical marginal thin lined gutters.

Panels: Only a selected number of panels is offered in a typical square shape. There is no variety in their width or heights.

Focus: Focus is achieved when the characters are placed near or far in the panel. This is achieved not with the actually moving of the character or the box that surrounds them but there are buttons below the screen that shrink and expand the characters as well as the backgrounds.

Stereotypes: Much of the ready-made characters are stereotypical, especially with the use of dragons and wizards. There are science-fiction, fantasy, sports and action characters.

Accessibility: Sending out the comic strip to friends, twitter, facebook, emailing it to a friend, printing it or just downloading it onto the user's computer is feasible.

Intended User: This comic creator is intended for all ages, however it is the decision of the teacher to make the call for using it in the classroom. Librarians can introduce this comic creator to a wide range of users. With children, they could create a ToonDoo comic book. Teens that lack the artistic ability could use the Toondoodler. Adults can upload personal photos and make goofy changes to the content.

Summary: ToonDoo is a very substantial comic creator. Not only can a user create a comic but he/she can post the comic, enter it into a contest, find it in the ToonDoo gallery or use it as a starter for a personal ToonDoo book. Photos can be uploaded and be used in the comic creation. Toondoo is creative with its appearance and offering variety, easy to navigate, and accessible through email and social networking sites. ToonDoo can be overwhelming. With so many options, students may find it either confusing or spend too much time trying to understand the many layers. At times the palettes that contain color, character creation, etc were slow in appearing. To use in a pinch, ToonDoo may not do, however for extended use, ToonDoo would work just well.