Portal de Turismo de Castilla y León

Dates

November 21, 2025

When?

Soon

Link

To know more

The Secret Language of Comics: How to Energize Your Book Club

Do you run a book club? With a prose novel, the conversation flows. You talk about the narrator, the descriptions, the character development...

But what happens when the book of the month is Persepolis, Watchmen, or Wrinkles?

The conversation often gets stuck on: "I liked the story" or "The drawing is nice."

As librarians, we know there's much more to it. Comics aren't just illustrated literature; they're a complex visual and narrative language. To guide a rich discussion, we need the tools to decode it.

If you want to go from "I like drawing" to a deep and fascinating analysis, this workshop is for you.

What will you learn in this workshop?

I've designed this intensive session specifically for reading facilitators. We're not going to learn to draw, we're going to learn to really read.

We'll deconstruct the grammar of comics so you can:

• See the Magic on the "Street": You'll discover why the white space between panels is the most important thing on the page.
• Controlling Time: You will understand how a cartoonist forces you to read quickly or slowly using only the size and shape of the panels.
• Analyzing like a Film Director: We will talk about angles (high angles, low angles) and shots, and how these manipulate the reader's emotions.
• Decoding the Symbol: We will see what the shape of a speech bubble tells us (even if we don't read the text!) and how color builds the atmosphere.

Location: Auditorium of the Library of Castilla y León. It can be followed via Zoom. Link to the meeting: The Secret Language of Comics

Time: from 11:30 to 13:30h.