My kids and I had the opportunity to test one of the latest PTPA winners, Garfield’s Comic Boom. The name sounds a little loud and scary, right? It’s not! Garfield’s Comic Boom is a kid-friendly software package that the whole family can enjoy to make their own comic strips. Including sound.

My kids both really enjoyed testing and creating with the software to express themselves. The software was pretty easy to navigate for me and I watched my kids while they explored. Based on my kids experience, your child will need a little patience to watch the tutorial and practice drawing with a computer mouse. Drawing with the mouse was the most frustrating part for both of my kids but they love adding sounds and creating their own stories with the software. Plus, Garfield and Odie are on the interface to help kids along. There is a video from Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, offering comic strip tips and secrets.

We liked that you could create a comic strip, add sound, and then email it to Grandma and Grandpa so they could get a more personalized greeting from the kids. We didn’t get this far yet but you can import your own photos, of a recent vacation maybe, and then draw cartoons over them. Or draw a cheesy mustache on a picture of Daddy. Giggles!

This software is very reasonably priced and very user-friendly. If your child loves cartoons, comic strips, art, drawing or just playing around on the computer, grab this software package for some fun.