The 12th edition of Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF) is gearing up to showcase both creative and technical elements that make up the exciting world of comic arts at its dedicated Comics Corner through 132 sessions comprising 8 different workshops and two live shows.

Organised by Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) from May 19 – 29 at Sharjah Expo Centre, SCRF’s Comics Corner will feature unique activities for fans of comic books, anime enthusiasts, as well as budding artists and illustrators. All Comics Corner activities will be delivered in an in-person format at the Sharjah Expo.

Unravel the comic world through specialised workshops

Comic Book Plot
In this workshop, participants will learn what makes comics a unique independent art form while exploring the many rules and secrets in creating an interesting comic strip in this workshop.

How to Create a Comic
Enthusiasts will learn the five key steps to creating hand-drawn comic strips. They will also learn how to write evergreen scripts for comics.

Building Villain Characters
The workshop will coach participants to create memorable villains for their comic strips, from scratch. They will learn through accounts of how famous villains of the comic world were created.

Superheroes
In this exciting workshop, the public will learn the secret of how to build a superhero character. Participants will be presented with a collection of coloured comic covers that include their superheroes and their nicknames.

How to Write a Script
In this stimulating workshop, participants will use their imagination to fill up a blank comic book with a scenario and dialogues they will create looking only at pictures.

Art Direction
The mix of visual components in a comic book or graphic novel are equally important and this includes improving the positioning of lettering elements to flow seamlessly and refining page layout to catch readers’ attention. Children will learn ways of planning and illustrating pages and special art direction in this workshop.

Expressions
Young artists will learn to illustrate different feelings from different perspectives in this workshop. They will be taught how to create expressive characters and depict different emotions.

Background Design
Participants will be introduced to the basics of background design, and taught how to match every background with a particular scene using different colours and varied patterns. They will also learn the different methods of designing background scenes for comic books at this workshop.

Exciting shows
The Comics Corner will stage two electrifying shows. Sailors of the Space will be a visually rich dance extravaganza inspired by the manga and anime world, jazzed up with intriguing Asian Pop vibes.

Ultimate Fight will be a professional-stunt show replete with exciting parkour and acrobatic sequences.