I arrived in Bennet, Iowa, the day before the Fourth of July. The town is less than an hour northwest of Davenport–the library is a charming one-room building, with a wooden ramp built in front, replacing century-old stairs.
This year has been a year chock-full of Iowa workshops! We’ve been inspired by the amazing creativity out of the kids and adults there, and touched by the hospitality we’ve received from libraries large and small. Both the creativity and hospitality were very much on display in Bennett, where the one-room library was quickly filled with kids eager to draw and learn about cartoons and comics.
The kids enjoyed pose drawing, and really enjoyed making a comic! In our comic, a group of Endermen from minecraft faced off against an army of “Smiley People,” (I was trying to run down just what fandom, if any, these “smiley people” come from, but I have not yet been successful–maybe they were original to the workshop!) while a gaggle of flies bedeviled them both.
At the end of the workshop, I told everyone who wanted to to get up and pose as an evil, smiley army! The resulting faces had me laughing uproariously, as the kids did their best to make “evil” or even just deranged faces.
I drove home, for a weekend of Fourth of July fun (including a fireworks excursion to the Lake Zurich Park District, where we have yet more workshops in August and September). Leaving Iowa behind, I kept thinking about the amazing ways that comics and drawing can overlap with acting, as kids not only draw but let their imaginations come to life, transforming them and the artwork in the process.
