Multi-talented author, editor and SCBWI Amsterdam’s Regional Advisor Mina Witteman asked me to run a workshop about graphic novels in Amsterdam. I had about 50 images of work by a wide range of comic strip artists/writers to show at the beginning of the session, but before the workshop visited Lambiek bookshop. The oldest comic strip bookshop in the world, I was told by friendly Klaus, who’s worked there for over 30 years. The bookshop was founded in 1968, and is a treasure trove of books and comics in over 20 languages. I added work by Barbara Stok, Lucy Knisley, Ruta Briede, Andrejs Ravinovics to take along to the workshop. And erm, a flying saucer comic …
Participants chose random characters out of a hat, developed them and took them on a journey which could lead to something bigger. The workshop of a dozen writers, illustrators and designers included Mina Witteman, Rachelle Meyer, Angie Spoto, Sienecke de Rooij and town poet and author Martijn Adelmund. Fascinating to see what happened when they took their characters on a commercial space flight … Great stuff!
