Non-Fiction Comic Festival - Programs in Local History

There is a lot of fun happening in the Local History Room...

Live Cartooning
12pm - 1pm // Local History Room
Instructor: Marek Bennett

Join us for an engaging and fun workshop on live cartooning! This session will kick off with an introduction to the art of live cartooning, exploring how to capture moments in a quick, visual way.

Following the introduction, participants will dive into a collaborative drawing project centered around a prompt. Attendees will work together to create a large-scale piece that will be displayed at the library, showcasing the diverse perspectives and creativity of our community. No prior drawing experience is necessary — just bring your imagination and a willingness to express yourself!

Jokes With A Twist!
1:15pm - 2:15pm // Local History Room
Instructors: Coco Fox, Annabel Driussi

Calling all silly cartoonists who want to learn about story structure! In this one hour workshop, you will leave with a funny (and/or punny) four panel comic that ends in a TWIST! We will guide you on how to make a character, give that character a goal, then create a great twist ending! All in a 4-panel joke. Can’t wait to see what stories you come up with!

Let’s Go On An Adventure… with comics!
2:30pm - 3:30pm // Local History Room
Instructor: Alexandra Gallant-Lee

Are you ready to turn your adventures into comics? Come discover the world of travel and diary comics, where you'll learn how to capture memories and special moments from your life through comics. This workshop will offer inspiration, tips and tricks for things like how to stay in the moment while sketching and traveling, plus special tools for making comics on the go and fun ways to weave mementos like photos, ticket stubs, event programs, etc. into your comics. You'll get some hands-on experience creating one page of your own travel or diary comic in this workshop. 

Necessary Whimsy: Comics-Based Ethnography and How To Do It
3:45pm - 4:45pm // Local History Room
Presenter: Sally Campbell Pirie

“Whimsy,” writes Joanna Mann, “provides a glimmer of hope that other ways and worlds are possible if we allow ourselves to be nourished by the energy their surprise affords.” This lecture seeks to provide nourishment in the context of our contemporary ontological emergency by offering comics as method. Specifically, we will explore the unique possibilities—and areas for care and concern—associated with the use of comics-based research (CBR) methods in ethnographic contexts, which have their own unique methodological concerns as well as histories around the use of comics as texts. Beginning with a thorough overview of CBR methods, the lecture will specifically describe how CBR may be used for data analysis as well as dissemination of study findings, while also teasing apart how CBR differs from and overlaps with other visual arts-based research methods. Practical recommendations and detailed how-to’s for using CBR—and whimsy-- in anthropology conclude the talk.