The Fremont Argus, July 21, 2006
Author to teach art of graphic novels
Comic book workshop to encourage youths on written and visual expression
By Angela Woodall, Staff WriterInside Bay Area
NEWARK — Comic books haven't been the same since a Japanese style known as manga hit U.S. markets in the late 1990s.
While the old-fashioned Superman-style comic books are still around, the publications have branched out in recent years into vehicles for complex storytelling through images and text, called graphic novels.
Riding on the genre's popularity, the Newark branch of the Alameda County Public Library is hosting a free two-part comic book workshop from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and July 29. The only criterion is imagination.
Author and comic artist Oliver Chin will give children age 11 and older paper, ink and the freedom to put their imaginations into illustrated form.
Chin will bring the materials, but participants will come up with original story ideas, plots and engaging characters for what will be an eight-page combination of written and visual expression. The style is up to them.
The graphic novel — at the most basic level, a collection of comics bound in book form — has become a hot item among youth since the late 1990s.
Newark's public library has added an entire shelf devoted to contemporary comic books, particularly manga, that have inspired the craze.
It is an up-and-coming genre in libraries, said Kathleen Hannon, an assistant librarian in Newark and organizer of the event funded by the Alameda County Library Foundation.
She says she hopes 20 young people will show up at 1 p.m. Saturday in the teen section of the libraryat 6300 Civic Terrace Ave., behind the City Administration Building. No registration is necessary.
The library is a good place for the workshop — participants have a quiet space for sketching and brainstorming — said Chin, who has been teaching such workshops at Bay Area public libraries since 2003.
With a few tricks of the trade, they, too, can be creators, not just consumers, said Chin, author of "Year of the Dog" and "9 of 1: A Window on the World," which is set in Union City.
"Kids come up with the wildest ideas," Chin said.