Portola High School held its second annual Graphic Novel Festival on April 24, featuring an array of crafts, graphic novels and interactive tables from on-campus clubs. Unlike last year, the festival was held during lunch rather than throughout the entire day.
The festival’s inaugural year in 2025 brought the Portola community together through celebrating visual literature, including manga, graphic novels and comics, according to librarian Phoebe Kern. This year, the event was held at lunchtime, allowing students to experience the festival in company of fellow graphic novel enthusiasts.
“It’s so special to see all of the student volunteers get to know each other, and everyone who comes to [the] Graphic Novel Festival to enjoy it [and] be there at the same time and really see the physical volume of how many people are excited about it,” Kern said.
The festival featured booths of on-campus clubs, such as the artist and book club tables, and activities like scrunchie sewing, decorating superhero masks and a costume competition. The costume competition inspired students to dress up as their favorite characters, like sophomore Alice Qin’s cosplay of Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil.
“It’s an anime show that inspired me,” Qin said. “Because I really like Resident Evil and I think it’s really cool to dress out.”
A highlight of the festival was the invitation of the local comic book store Comic Quest, a tradition started last year that the festival plans to continue in upcoming years, according to Kern. Their table, located near the entrance of the Learning Commons, featured various board games and a wide array of comic books that students were able to interact with.
“It’s really fun to have [Comic Quest]; they’re part of the Portola family now, because it’s their second year,” Kern said. “So that’s really a highlight, it’s just to bring the community in and get [students] involved in that kind of literacy, so that [they] have it even when [they] leave high school.”
With the help of student, parent and staff volunteers, the festival brought the community together to get involved in and appreciate visual literacy. Students had a fun time exploring the various festival booths, interacting with volunteers and bonding over shared interests, according to student volunteer and junior Lindsay Hatter.
“I think it’s able to bring people together and show that you are not alone, and [that] many other people have the same interest as you,” Hattar said. “And I think it’s a great opportunity to make friends or just acquaintances and just see who else you can talk to and branch out.”
