How does the former editor-in-chief of a financial newspaper (American Banker) end up creating an interactive website for language-learning with cartoons ? Serial entrepreneur Bill Zimmerman, who was twice nominated for a Pulitzer prize for his newsletter Student Briefing Page, had the idea for Make Beliefs Comix when he recalled the Sundays he used to spend devouring the comic strips in the newspapers brought home by his father. That was how he first got into reading. With drawings by Tom Bloom –Bill Zimmerman’s artist on his previous book Make Beliefs: A Gift for Your Imagination – MakeBeliefComix offers a chance to embark on a new language while stretching one’s creative muscle. The principle is simple : the user chooses one of 15 or so characters on the website. Then in either English, German, Spanish, French or Italian (with Chinese, Japanese and Korean to follow), he uses the text-bubbles to develop his own personal story-line. If he gets stuck, the programme comes up with ideas. Pages can be printed and then bound like a book. Since the site was launched at the end of 2006, a million visitors from 175 countries have signed up.