librarian Melanie Fitz gives a demonstration on ways of drawing female clothing during Getting Graphic: Drawing Comics and Manga, a drawing program at the Taneytown branch of the Carroll County Public Library

Dylan Slagle/Carroll County Times

Get Your Teens Anime-ted

Angela Hanshaw | July 19, 2011

Fortunate to have a librarian, Melanie Fitz, who is also a manga artist, the Carroll County (Md.) Public Library recently held Getting Graphic: Drawing Comics and Manga for teens aged 11 to 17 in two of the library’s branches. Through demonstrations and detailed explanations of the way she draws manga characters, Fitz helped the teens learn manga’s style rules (and that it was okay to break them). Supplies were provided, including old magazines that participants could use to trace images of people in order to learn how to simplify a character into shapes.

The library is also offering anime-themed programs for teens this summer. The Anime Club meets monthly to watch, draw, and discuss participants’ favorite anime and manga as well as explore cosplay, webcomics, video games, and other aspects of Japanese culture. At the Anime Movie Lock-in, teens stay at the library after-hours for an anime movie special, trivia, video games, and stories from Otakon, a convention that celebrates anime, manga, and other facets of Asian pop culture. The Teen Night Anime Screening previews new anime titles rated PG or TV-14.

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Angela Hanshaw is Program Officer/Web Editor for the ALA Public Programs Office.

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