Friday 29 March 2024

Free Comic Book Day 2016

Graphic Novels Library Malta (GNLM) together with Wicked Comics in collaboration with the National Book Council and the Central Public Library are for the second consecutive year, organizing Free Comic Book Day on Saturday 7th May. This event is a global celebration of the comic book medium where free comics are distributed to children of all ages.
This year thanks to a generous donation from the National Book Council and funds from Wicked Comics, a number of comics will be given away to anyone who will visit us from 9:30am – 12:00pm at the Central Public Library in Floriana and from 1:00pm – 4:00pm at the Baystreet shopping complex. It is important to note that there will be a limited amount of comic books available; therefore, the distribution will occur on a first come first served basis.

image008

The aim of Free Comic Book Day is to promote literacy and inspire children of all ages to read. Reading comics has a number of benefits as it provides both written and visual stimulation while delivering a narrative for a child to interpret. In his Masters in Communication Studies, Gorg Mallia the local expert on the comic book medium and lecturer at the University of Malta, decided to see the effectiveness of comics as an educational tool. He argued that comics’ language can be an effective cognitive tool for educational purposes, just as good as other text-based methods of instruction. Part of his research was a survey that compared a text about the history of prehistoric Malta with the same gist of the text but in illustration format and comic format. His results showed that comics had the same effects when it came to conveying information for a reader to understand. However, it was noticed that comics offer an advantage as “attention grabber”. Comics solicited the interest of students that usually are reluctant to participate in school exercises. Mallia’s exploratory study showed that the comics’ medium can be very useful in an educational system and also that it can work within the cognitive domain of the brain as an instructional tool.
Free Comic Book Day is an important occasion where national literacy is given priority. Comics offer a very effective tool for getting children to read, make friends and discuss stories. Comics are a medium just like television and movies that tackle a multitude of subjects. For example, superhero comics are the most popular, but they are not the only graphic novels on the market. One can find original comics that tell complex narratives just like novels do. Other popular types of graphic novels are autobiographical, which tell the story of particular individuals such as historical figures, celebrities or even politicians.
Graphic Novels Library Malta is an NGO aiming to promote children’s literacy using comics. The registered NGO and youth organisation believe that comics are especially effective as they bring together the world of pictures and the world of storytelling. During this year’s Free Comic Book Day, GNLM will also launch a crowd-funding campaign on the local crowd-funding website www.zaar.com.mt in order to collect donations to buy graphic novels for the Public Library. This will strengthen the ever-popular comics’ collection at the Junior’s Library in Floriana. The campaign is aimed at the general public and donations start from only 3 Euro.
Wicked Comics is another NGO that organizes the annual Malta Comic Con and other comic book related events. They share the same ideas and enthusiasm as GNLM when it comes to using the comic book medium for education purposes.

Powered by