In North America, graphic novel sales have increased by more than 100 percent since 2019: more than 35 million copies are sold every year. For many students, graphic novels begin their love of reading: if it’s the bright, eye-catching drawings that captivate their attention, it’s the dialogue and plot that keep it. Alison McCreesh (Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60), Molly Knox Ostertag (The Deep Dark), and Adam de Souza (The Gulf) talk about the craft of graphic novels: why they’ve become so popular as a genre; how text and graphics interact; and the “invisible art” infused in deciding what to include in every panel on the page. Grades 8–12. Moderated by Emily Chou.
Themes: Graphic novels, art, storytelling, creative writing
Curriculum Connections: Arts Education 8-9, Graphic Arts 11-12, English Language Arts 8-9, Creative Writing 10-12
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Event Participants:
EMILY CHOU is a writer/cartoonist from unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ territory who ran away to the UK, Japan, and Italy, and now finds herself right back where she started but with the addition of a rescue American (pitbull) and rescue Italian (human). She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her poems and comics have appeared in various magazines and anthologies such as Room, Chinatown Today, and Geist.
ADAM DE SOUZA is a Canadian cartoonist and illustrator. He has been drawing comics for as long as he can remember and self-publishing his work for the better part of a decade. His ongoing comic strip "Blind Alley" was 2022's recipient of the Cartoonist Studio Prize for web comics. Outside of comics, he has illustrated children's books and worked for publications such as the Globe and Mail.
Over the past fifteen years, ALISON MCCREESH has extensively travelled around the Arctic and sub-Arctic and contemporary day-to-day life in the North is a theme that carries through her creative work. Alison currently lives in Yellowknife where she creates comics and illustrations surrounded by her two dogs and three small children. Alison’s past books include the award-winning graphic novel Ramshackle: A Yellowknife Story, as well as the travelogue Norths, Two Suitcases and a Stroller around the Circumpolar World.
MOLLY KNOX OSTERTAG is the acclaimed ABA Indie and New York Times bestselling graphic novel author-illustrator of The Girl from the Sea and the Witch Boy trilogy: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch, as well as a writer for animation. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Molly was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30: Media list in 2020. She’s married to fellow writer and artist ND Stevenson, and they live in Los Angeles with two cats and a very cuddly dog.
