Comics! Comics! Draw All About It in the Making Comics Class with Derf Backderf

MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio- The Muskingum County Library System (MCLS) will be holding an author talk, “Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio” with Derf Backderf on Thursday, October 7th at 6:00 p.m. and a Making Comics class on Friday, October 8th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Ohio University Zanesville Campus.

Backderf is an international award-winning graphic novelist and cartoonist, who will be leading a class on how to turn a short story into a comic, according to Suzanne Robinson, the Adult Services Manager at MCLS.

“It’s going to be a great two hour workshop where he goes through a prompt that he’s going to provide to the students. They can come prepared with a short story that they’ve written or even their own personal tale that they want to tell and then they can draw that out in a one page comic in that hour,” Robinson said. “We’ll provide pens that Derf actually suggested himself and we’ll provide the paper as well that they can keep.”

Robinson talked about the purpose of the event and how MCLS is trying to share different styles of reading.

“We’re just trying to get people excited about literacy and all different sorts of ways including graphic novels. Some people have a hard time considering them books, but we’re trying to spread the word that it’s just a different format and a different way of reading,” Robinson said.

The author talk event is for ages 18 and up and the Making Comics is a registered class with 20 spots available for ages 14 and up. To learn more or to register, please visit the website at muskingumlibrary.org.