Unlocking the Secrets of Creating Comic Books - Production - Weeks 14 + 15

Last week I had my first virtual version of my workshop, Writing Comic Books for Beginners, at Richvale Public Library. There were many participants that were made up of local kids and apparently a few from England!  I usually do these in person, but due to the new normal we are in with COVID-19 this was the way to do it. 

Before I dove into my first virtual workshop for kids I looked at what changes I had to look into from my live version, to see what new and exciting challenges needed to be addressed that come with doing workshops online. One of the focal points of this workshop is applying what is learned through a hands-on approach. I used many of the techniques I found that worked from trials I picked up from the development work on Unlocking the Secrets of Creating Comic Books. 

I'm glad that everything worked out as planned, but there is the aspect of participants having various levels of technology available to them at home; internet speeds, older laptops or mobile phones, and so forth. This is something I need to explore and see if there are viable workarounds. We did have a small issue with a participant experiencing everything with a slight delay, which was solved by muting everyone when I spoke and unmuted everyone for questions. Not ideal, but it worked for us and perhaps might work for you if you find yourself in a similar situation. 

Overall, it was a great success! The kids were super creative and shared ideas and suggestions with each other during the hands-on portion. They picked up on details from the Q and A, and applied them immediately. It felt like a writer's room with everyone working away and supporting each other. There were so many great ideas being presented and so many cool comic book scripted pages! It's amazing how fast they picked up on things and apply them. The future of comic books is something that isn't clear to those who are working in this industry, but as I do these workshops and meet more and more enthusiastic future comic book creators with so many diverse stories that want to tell, I'm reassured that the future of comic books is going to be amazing!