The Library recently hosted a workshop on writing graphic stories in collaboration with Dr Inés Gregori Labarta, author and lecturer in the English Literature and Creative Writing department. Seventeen students from across the faculties showed up on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, eager to flex their storytelling muscles and get to grips with drawing a one-page comic.

Inés started out by providing some context for the tradition of graphic storytelling: humans have told stories through pictures for a long, long time (the Book of the Dead, Trajan’s column, Codice Maya de Mexico and many more examples), before moving on to discuss serialised comics of the 1930s and 40s, and the more recent rise of zines and ‘graphic novels’, a term coined in the mid-1960s. Attendees were then shown several examples of one-page comics of varying styles and intricacy, from the stick figures of Randall Munroe’s web-comic xkcd to a dream-inspired narrative of Wendy Xu, through to Alison Bechdel’s dialogic strips, to offer inspiration for their own creative pursuits. (Readers may have heard of the Bechdel test in the context of representation of women in film and other media).

Inés was also keen to point out that you don’t have to be a brilliant artist to tell a story in pictures! Our students then spent an hour working on the beginnings of their comic - we were delighted to hear how it had resonated with individuals and to see some of their artwork at the end.

Faculty Librarians Ciara Murray (FASS) and Gemma Sosnowsky (FHM) have both experienced first-hand the power of a library’s graphic novel collection to draw in a new, engaged, loyal community of library users in the school libraries in which they worked prior to their current roles. Gem sits on the board of the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival and has many years of experience as a comics advocate. The festival runs annually in Bowness-on-Windermere with a huge range of exhibitors and international guests.

“We are really excited to support the development of a ‘comics community’ at Lancaster and we are so grateful to Inés for sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm. We left the event feeling really uplifted and inspired to build on what’s been started” - Ciara and Gem

“Your display of what art can look like, from stickmen to fully fleshed out characters, was very impactful for me. I got fully immersed, and I began to ACTUALLY create something and I left so proud of myself. I'm still buzzing with so much excitement and enthusiasm about it.” - Tina Hovhannessian (Psychology UG)

Faculty Librarians are working with Inés to look at offering further workshops in the Library in the upcoming months and will also be assessing the existing graphic novels collection to promote and share this great medium with our communities.

You can hear more from Inés in conversation with Gem and Ciara in our recent podcast episode: Graphic Novels - Talking around the library tree | Podcast on Spotify