About Comics and Creatures Create-along: Make Your Own Magical Worlds
Join this imaginative, art‑packed session to explore comics and bring fantastical creatures to life. Thiago de Moraes – author, illustrator and creator of extraordinary non‑fiction about mythical beings – will join author Viviane Schwarz to explore the wonders of comics and guide students through the joys of inventing fantasy worlds.
Supporting reading for pleasure, writing for pleasure and creative confidence, this session celebrates the power of comics to tell stories. Through explorations of mythical creatures and a series of draw-alongs and creative prompts, students will be inspired to design their own creatures and make their own comics.
What to expect:
- Thiago will introduce children to the world of fantastical creatures, drawing on global mythologies and brilliant beasts from the British Library's collections
- children will build ideas for their own beasty characters, exploring personalities, diets and environments
- Thiago and Viviane will demonstrate how illustrators use panels, expressions and visual detail to tell stories
- children will follow step‑by‑step draw‑a-longs to help them invent their own creatures and place it inside a simple comic strips
- teachers will get the opportunity to upload their students' work on to a digital platform entitled 'The British Library Handmade Zoo'.
What to bring:
- each child should have five sheets of A4 paper and a pencil (coloured pencils optional but welcome)
- please ensure a teacher or school staff member is present in the classroom for the duration of the session
- we’d be grateful if you could complete the short questionnaire when signing up to this event. The data you provide helps us understand where our audience is and how many children will be watching.
Thiago de Moraes
Thiago de Moraes spends most of his time in a his garden shed, writing and illustrating books, comics and bits of old cardboard boxes.
More
He enjoys telling all sorts of stories, from non-fiction books such as Myth Atlas and its sequels to picture books and fiction, including the A Mummy Ate My Homework series and Old Gods New Tricks. He also creates comics for The Phoenix magazine.
Thiago has won the Sheffield Children’s Book Award, was longlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize and twice nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. His books have been translated into 24 languages, with surprisingly few complaints so far.
He is 90% beard, dangerously fond of bacon and lives in England with his wife, kids and a pet tortoise called Nibbles.
Viviane Schwarz
Viviane Schwarz is an award winning, internationally published author and artist creating children’s books, books about games, museum installations and other interactive things.
Credit: Viviane Schwarz More
Viviane also lectures, makes card games and performs on stage.
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