The purpose of this action research project was to examine how creating a collaborative digital comic book, based on local folktales, using traditional and contemporary image making techniques, can enhance students’ visual literacy skills. My graphic design background along with my personal interest in using digital art technologies for creative image making in the art classroom has greatly influenced the project’s concept. The study aimed to highlight ways in which students’ negotiation, interpretation and make meaning skills can develop using storyboarding, printmaking and digital art technologies. One finding from the study reveals the effectiveness with which guest speaker Joe McGowan (author of Sligo Folktales) could inform and motivate the students. It was evident that the students’ interpretation and negotiation skills improved resulting from the development of their sequential images using storyboarding techniques. Furthermore, this study finds that there are huge benefits of using digital media as an extension to printmaking. The addition of coloured imagery and text, to black and white etches, gave a new learning dimension. The free open source software used throughout this project allows any educator to access and experiment in combining traditional and contemporary image making techniques for enhancing the development of students’ visual literacy skills.