It was one of those warm evenings of early May when the temperature outside is warm enough for short-sleeved clothes and unexpected rain makes the air smell of the freshly bloomed flowers and trees. At this lovely spring time, our cultural manger Lia and me decided to organize a comic book workshop in order to initiate the blooming of visual ideas also in some minds of the people in Thessaloniki. It is no coincidence by any means that the word workshopping contains in itself also the reference to the process of shopping, because once it is done properly it becomes a truly valuable trade for both workshop organizers as well as the participants. And this was also the case for our last week`s comic book making event in Babylonia.
How to grasp the essentials of visual storytelling through creative activities?
The whole comic book workshop has been approximately three hours long and during this rewarding time all of the participants had a possibility to experience and produce several samples of comic book making craft. In total there were around two dozens of participants that were divided into different groups at separate tables, where they had a chance to develop their own short comic book stories. After the short initial hesitation, the imagination of the groups at each table stared first to sparkle and later on to fully explode with ideas like fireworks in the sky. In the end of this process, each group has presented the juicy fruit of their creative work to the other participants.
It was very hard to believe at this point how imaginative and lovely stories people were able to coin in such a relatively short time. As a result the final presentation of works contained a little taste of everything: investigative detective plots, romantic dramas, sci-fi stories with alternative realities or relationship explorations. All of these stories were wildly imaginative with either surprising or entertaining nature for both the storytellers as well as listeners. Seeing all of this rewarding and genuine enjoyment on both sides of the creative process, it was the greatest satisfaction also for me as for the main organizer of this workshop.
In the end I would like to thank all of the people that helped this comic book workshop to come to life, especially I am very proud that my precious friend Esra has been part of this event (both as the participant and the photographer) during the very last day of her stay here in Thessaloniki. Sharing my passion for comic books with this wildly active woman around was an extraordinarily enjoyable experience. 🙂
