The steady rise in the popularity of conventions like Comic Con and MegaCon spells an optimistic outlook on the future of graphic novels and comics. Likewise, the Learning Commons introduced its own inaugural Graphic Novel Festival on May 2, featuring booths from several student clubs. From costume contests to folding origami cranes, student helpers and staff highlighted the special ways that graphic novels can spark interest in literacy.
The event was first conceptualized after the Learning Commons received a $20,000 grant from the Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF), an organization funded by Irvine parents. The funding went towards buying brand new shelves and sponsoring the giveaway of 300 graphic novels, books and posters, according to librarian and “My Neighbor Totoro” fan Phoebe Kern.
“More traditional books like novels are really well utilized on campus,” Kern said. “We teach them in our ELA and social studies classes, but we don’t have a lot of exposure to graphic novels. Any kind of visual literature, which are comics, graphic novels and manga, uses a little bit more of our brain than traditional reading. When you are pairing visuals and words together, you’re using both sides of your brain because you’re processing the visual art while you’re processing the language.”
Many student organizations were involved in the event, including clubs such as the PHS Book Club, Vietnamese Club and Dungeons & Dragons Club. Students ran tables for origami folding, DIY face masks, photo booths, caricature drawing and even held a costume contest at the end. Sophomore and “Fullmetal Alchemist” fan Anny Ji helped run the event ‘Help us Reach 1000 Paper Cranes,’ modeled after the novel “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.”
“For me personally, I love manga, and when I saw there was a graphic novel festival, I knew I had to help out in some sort of way,” Ji said. “I like to go on Comics Plus, a free app that the school actually gives us access to. I love [graphic novels] because I struggle with reading books, as sometimes it’s hard to read line by line, so having the images alongside the text really does help.”
The Learning Commons also invited comics and games store Comic Quest in Lake Forest, hosting a table with samples of novels and card games from their store. Among their spread were popular graphic novels such as “Uzumaki,” “Jujutsu Kaisen,” “My Hero Academia,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Stranger Things.”
“I personally married into the comic world,” co-owner of Comic Quest and “Locke & Key” fan Kelly Allen said. “My husband has worked in the comic store since he was in high school. I guess for people who’ve never read a graphic novel, they may not realize the importance of comics in our culture or to teach reading, but it’s a format that might spark more interest, just like when “Harry Potter” came out and people started reading books again. Our goal is to just support the event and we’re really happy that the school picked graphic novels.”
In the long term, the Learning Commons hopes to use future festivals as a platform to bring more attention to the library, both on social media and in person.
“The really big goal of this year is to get people in the library,” Kern said. “Let them know who we are, what we do and how much fun we are.”
