ToonDoo launched this morning, a new site that lets users easily create comic strips with pre-built or uploaded images and text. This is an Indian company, and has the same parent company, AdventNet, as Zoho (one of our current sponsors), a fairly serious online office application startup (see our coverage here).
The creation tool is a Flash applicaton that includes a number of options for characters, props, backgrounds and text bubbles. Users can also upload their own images and include them in the comic strip.
Once the strip is created it can also be published to the ToonDoo platform, along with a title, tags and a description. User comments and rankings help bring the good stuff to the front. The service just launched moments ago, so there isn’t much content there yet, but the most favorited strips are here. This is my personal favorite. ToonDoo is free.
Check Comeeko and Stripgenerator, two existing services, as well.
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Hmmm an odd thing for an office ’style’ company to go into - cartoons -
Its ok…..!
Brilliant strategic move or jumping the shark? I can’t decide.
maybe I’m missing something, but why does it say “powered by Jambav” all over the site? Are AdventNet and http://www.jambav.com/ related somehow? If so it might de-confusify the article a little.
Also, my initial comment was based on me thinking this was an addition to the Zoho suite, which it isn’t - the title just made it seem like that.
(my fault for not reading)
Just blogged my reaction about this neat tool over at my Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages blog. I think the ramifications for the educational field are pretty high. I know in my class I use digital storytelling as a tool to assess my students and what they have learned from our discussions and activities. ToonDoo gives them a viable alternative to create something. That’s just my take on it.
Tom.
http://tnturner.edublogs.org
So some action for the Kids Too.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
- Expand and see what sticks -
- Atleast all their eggs arent in online software; office / -
@yongfook:
Jambav http://jambav.com is a kids interactive site that has been around for more than 2 years now. It is supported by AdventNet. It was born out of a desire to provide online interactives appropriate for all kids, including special needs kids (my son has autism, which provided one inspiration). Interestingly, Zoho was born after Jambav, in AdventNet chronology.
The Jambav guys did a comic strip creator as a fun project, and that became so popular within AdventNet, they decided to launch a separate site. That is explained by: http://toondoo.com/View.on?param=2184
Sridhar
@youngfood,
checkout jambhav’s about us page: http://www.jambav.com/jambav/a.....jambav.php
Looks like they are funded by Adventnet.
Interesting place for cartoonists !! Good place to start for a novice like me
Strip Creator ( http://www.stripcreator.com/ ) also allows users to create comic strips.
Hey i checked that stripcreator….
it is really yucky, i couldn’t see any colouful innovative cartoons there.
it is all black and white, so you can’t compare that with this cool tool.
Thanks,
Was there not just a post talking about not covering frivolous startups/sites?
I understand doing these things web based because you get people creating content that you can then monetize… but I’ve yet to see a good dedicated freeware app for this.
You need to create a company of Indians to get this started?
hey is that got embedding in blog too….then it will interesting to include in blogs…or making jpg out of it..
No, wow factor yet.
Maybe the (not-so) funny strips got to me. Better get real funny ones in here. Or at least the “most favorited” are really cool!
Calling Chris Pirillo (Blaugh) or at least just someone with wit.
It’s good to note that Zoho is a long time TC-sponsor. Right, Mike?
“Hmmm an odd thing for an office ’style’ company to go into - cartoons -”
Not really, it fits with the quality of their other work!
I was thinking about building a blog where the users could submit story lines from blog strips and vote on them and the best strip would be created weekly and become a series created by the community…I still think it would be a great idea…anyone interested in getting it started email me dobizo@dobizo.com
This site looks like King’s Quest on my mom’s old IBM.
Once again, I wish Zoho just focused on cleaning up and doing quality control on the many products they have already released.
It is annoying after a while to see a company you want to use for your project management stuff to keep releasing new tools when they should be fixing major issues with their existing products. Of course they can do the fixing and the new products at the same time…but a) they haven’t been able to so far and b) I question the good in any company releasing new stuff every two weeks(name dilution, anyone?)
zoho + toondoo ==> future Dilbert cartoons!
@Zaid,
The only reason Zoho’s name got involved today at all was for full disclosure about the AdventNet backing of ToonDoo. Nobody here ever heard of Jambav, and we could have just released it as a Jambav project, but it would only be proper to disclose the AdventNet background, which also backs Zoho. No team from Zoho was involved in this.
I am sorry we aren’t meeting your expectations on Zoho Projects. We are working hard to get it moved to the new infrastructure, but that is the only one that has not moved. We are updating every Zoho service every month, including Zoho Projects. We will move it within the next 2 weeks. I will have the lead developer contact you to discuss your specific issues.
Thanks,
Sridhar
neat idea…..but the comic strips were awful though…..reminds me of Sanjaya great talent in a wrong package but has the potential to get better with age:-)
Great
Heh I like. It’s a good concept for those who do not know how to use illustrator/photoshop, etc…
It sucks! Is Jambav into SEX education?
Read the last point mentioned in http://vadivel.blogspot.com/20.....bav-2.html
While Sex Education, as those of you clued on to Teaching Trends at school will know, is an important and unavoidable subject to learn, no, Jambav is not interested in it right now.
Our focus has been to build and provide easy-to-use but powerful platforms for creating customized games for children of all ages and abilities.
But, please note that quite unlike Jambav (which is a fully moderated website), ToonDoo is as socially networked as they come, trusting in the wisdom of the crowds and the overall goodness of the community. We do have an inappropriateness-alert mechanism, that well-meaning sentinels can use, very soon after which the editors will remove such content from public view.
We are also experimenting with other mechanisms for maintaining child-safety without jeopardizing what some may call freedom of expression.
Hang on, we are hard at work! Keep watching ToonDoo for interesting developments!
Rajendran.
ToonDude from http://www.jambav.com
I was looking for an Indian site that can combine news, movies, cricket and also social networking aspects such as forums, user points, blogs, private messages etc. I stumbled upon http://www.hangoutwith.com and found to be great! Hangoutwith.com is a good social networking site especially for Indians and it is much cleaner than other sites such as orkut, tagged etc.
Give it a Spin!