On 28 August, grade 10 Language and Literature students attended a presentation by Singapore-based comic book writer and video game designer Kelly Bender. His visit was a great opportunity for students to learn more about how to read and analyse comics to help build the necessary skills needed for our current unit focussed on the graphic novel Persepolis.

We learnt about the sequencing and sizing of panels, the importance of font choice, and how the placement of a character can subliminally convey messages to the reader. Mr Bender told us the most effective way to read a graphic novel: “If you read the words, then look at the images, you’re doing it wrong. That’s like watching a movie with your eyes closed and ears open, and then another time with your eyes open and ears closed”. He taught us how to decode images and text simultaneously to absorb the whole essence of a comic book. This requires paying attention to seemingly minute details to fully understand the depth of a story.

Finally, Mr Bender explained the various steps and intricate processes required to create comic books. The audience was amazed by the sheer amount of work it takes to produce just one panel of a comic as various artists are needed to work on different aspects of the design such as scripting, sketching, inking, colouring and adding text. Mr Bender was eager to answer our questions and even threw in some details about the upcoming release of a famous video game he has been working on.

Overall, Mr Bender’s talk was an intriguing experience as we all left with new insights about the graphic novel genre and some of us even walked away with our own copies of his comic books!