I’ve written before about the important role comics have in literacy, and I wanted to showcase comics for the students in a big way. I was very excited to see it become a huge success. While yes I was exhausted, as I ran it entirely on my own, but the students had a lot of fun and I was very pleased with how smoothly it all came together. When I was in high school we had nothing like this, so my goal was to create something that 13-year-old me would have wanted to attend. Running an event like this is a gamble, but in my opinion, if you do some solid planning, promote the event, and have fun with it, your library ComiCon will be a big success. First, the summarised version:
I held it on a Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (long day, but worth it!)
I had a limit of 50 students (nearly that number attended for the entire day)
I had a guest manga artist
I gave out free comics
I rented a button (or badge if you’re in the UK) maker
I brought in board games from home
Working in a public library? This is probably not an issue at all. Being in a school library meant there were some potentially more challenges timing wise. Having the ComiCon on a Saturday meant I could run the event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with no interruptions. I was pleased that I had nearly 50 students attend the event on a beautiful sunny Saturday. If your library can afford it, having a special guest is really worth it. I can’t stress enough how fun and easy these are. My suggestion is to call your local comic book shop and just ask for free comics. They might say no, but they might surprise you and give you a boat load of comics. My response would be to buy a bunch of comics and manga from them to say thank you. Usually, when comic book shops find out you’re running a ComiCon, they get as excited as you! 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.: Button Making / Board Games / Crafts / Pictionary / Quizzes: I had stations all around the library where they could take part in all kinds of different activities. 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.: Guest Speaker. I did not expect ours to go 2 hours, but it was awesome and students loved it. 1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Students went back to badge making and board games while I cleared up from the guest speaker. 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.: Dungeons & Dragons. We had D&D card games set up and I ran a one-shot D&D adventure for a large group while the others drew comics, snacked, and did quizzes. A lot of our comic book / manga fans are D&D fanatics so this worked out very well. Was it exhausting? Yes, but it was very much worth it. I feel it has introduced students to a wide range of new books and activities, and brought the library into a whole new light for many. The event created a safe space where students could relax and be with their friends on the weekend.
